<p>So I was just reading some posts and some people said that being Aisian could hurt your chances of getting into college? I'm not Aisian, but I haven't ever heard that before, and was pretty suprised. The answer to this question might seem obvious, but why would being Asian hurt your chances?</p>
<p>because they are over represented in most colleges' student bodies</p>
<p>Some colleges, especially in California, have disproportionate amounts of students of East Asian descent, and therefore are more reluctant to admit more of them.</p>
<p>It can go the other way, though. Being Asian would hurt your chances at Berkeley or Stanford but might help your chances at a Midwest college.</p>
<p>What about being a pacific islander? **** I want to go to Berkeley lol</p>
<p>Thanks for your explinations. I guess I never realized that being a certain race might hurt your chances. I know that sometimes it can help, because colleges and Universities want diversity.</p>
<p>Yeah it hurts your chances. If you don't have an Asian last name, I would not specify your race on your application.</p>
<p>"I would not specify your race on your application"</p>
<p>Yeah, even though I'm not Asian but if you don't have to specify your race then don't because then they can't take it into consideration. Is it just Asians who's chances are hurt, or is it ultimately any race?</p>
<p>It's not necessarily hurt, more not helped, so inversely hurt.... ok, I suppose a short explanation of that jumbled mess is in order...</p>
<p>Every college wants diversity. Why? Because teens, more importantly, future students are attracted to vibrant and diverse campuses where they can explore a variety of lifestyles and thus learn more about themselves as people. How do colleges acheive this diversity? Affirmative action and racial consideration. This basically means that the colleges will take race into account when considering admission in order to acheive a more balanced (at least racially) student body. This, in turn, will attract a larger amount of applicants (since after all, who doesn't want to be a part of a vibrant campus?) and help the student moral.</p>
<p>This is all fine in practice, but basically it means that some applicants are unjustly hurt when it comes to admissions. Race can only go so far. Some that benefit from affirmative action (a program that seeks to fairly represent all races in the workplace, college setting, etc.) bring no more diversity than that of their skin color, which is an unethical advantage. However, there are some where their skin is only a small indicator of the different types of obstacles they have had to overcome. For these individuals, affirmative action considers the opportunities they have been presented with and how they handled them. This is the goal of affirmative action, though skin color is an unjust way to carry out this plan. Instead, many (and the majority of CCers) believe that a person is not revealed by their skin color-- that their situation and challenges and hardships and their potential is taken into account. For example-- a poor white male lives in an unstable environment and struggles to maintain a consistent 3.6 GPA and is unable to attend after school activities. Then a black male has grown up in a privledged family enjoying all the benefits of upper class suburbia and has a steady 3.7. Who should be considered to have more potential? That's the issue that affirmative action seeks to solve, though they have wrongly gone about their goal.</p>
<p>Anyway, enough with the rant, here's the summation.</p>
<p>Asians applying to schools with an already large number of Asians may be hurt by affirmative action because the school seeks diversity. This school will not consider Asians to be minorities, and thus, Asians will neither benefit nor gain from specifying or not specifying race. Honestly, if they don't specify an underrepresented race they are hurt anyway, though indirectly.</p>
<p>Overall, you can skip the race field on the app, though it will likely not help your chance of admission in the slightest.</p>
<p>However, if you forget to specify your race in a school where Asians are rare, you will be doing yourself a disservice in terms of admissions.</p>
<p>Hope this all helped-- tell me if I should edit for length, content, etc.</p>
<p>yes, edit it for length. :)</p>