I think my daughter will face some of this… She is half-Indian and half-white. Her name is difficult for non-Indians to identify as Indian. However, we have lived in India for a decade so she will be applying as a US citizen from abroad. She definitely identifies as an American. She has taken Hindi as a second language but it was a struggle. I don’t know how she will choose to self-identify when it comes time for applications. I would hate to think that one part of her identity would have to be hidden in order for her to have the best opportunities.
What clueless college is this? Placement in ESL or other English reading/writing courses is typically done by placement testing, so a college that does it by the student’s name will be misplacing lots of students.
According to the Princeton link posted here, being Asian American would be an advantage over being anything but white.
GROUP % OF CLASS
Asian American 22
International 14
Hispanic/Latino 11
African American 7
Multiracial non-Hispanic) 4
American Indian <1
Re: #22
That by itself does not indicate whether there is any advantage or disadvantage in Princeton admissions.
% of class means nothing. What matters is whether there is a difference in student quality according to race after adjusting for student grades, test scores, extracurriculars, SES, and course of study. I think the jury is still out on that.
FWIW – my son refers to any American-born person of Asian descent as Asian-American. This covers my late-husband whose parents were both born to Japanese immigrants and my son, who is half-Caucasian through me. Our last name is fairly unusual, even in Japan, and is seldom recognized as such, but he is not tempted to hide his heritage. Most forms (including the ACT and SAT forms,which go to colleges) use the “check all that apply” system rather than just a “mixed race” box, so he checks both White and Asian. The IPEDS system used to report data to the government and the Common Data Set forms are structured differently and only report a single category, so he will be lumped in the “mixed race” category even though the school will know he is Asian American.
It’s interesting that you ask this about Princeton because they have been in litigation on this very issue and what they (the experts who analyzed the admissions data) found was that, once you adjusted for athletes and legacies (who both got slight benefits), there was no difference in how white and Asian applicants were treated – so no disadvantage with respect to white applicants, and absolutely no indication that distinctions were made based on mixed heritage. Asians do not get the affirmative action (slight) benefits provided to underrepresented minorities, because they’re not underrepresented, but that doesn’t make them disadvantaged. I know there is a lot of debate on the topic, but I firmly believe that there is no Asian-disadvantage at the vast majority of institutions (I won’t say all because there might be a couple of heavily-Asian schools where whites might be underrepresented and thus get a little help).
I do think that any applicant who presents a resume that appears to have been scripted by their parents (white parents do this too), including essays that have obviously been edited or “coached” by a consultant, may have problems at holistic schools. So I guess you could say that kids who play violin and tennis and do other activities out of the “tiger mom handbook” risk not standing out enough. There, I think having an essay that shows who you are as a person may make the difference. But I really wish we could get away from any implication that this is about people sitting in a room saying “we have too many Asians.”
By the way, to whoever used the term, I have never heard the term “hapas” before today, but I immediately found it offensive. It reminded me a little too much of Asian classmates being called “bananas” (for doing something “un-Asian” or dating outside their ethnic group). Any time a term excludes others as not being authentic or a real whatever, you’re being insulting, whatever your actual intention (and whether or not kids refer to themselves that way). I’d be very careful about using those kind of terms around others.
Just challenging the assumption being made in this thread that being Asian is somehow worse than being half-Asian or white.
Indeed.
Good news: just “identify” as whatever suits you. Who would challenge it?
If you’re half Asian it’s better if your mom is Asian.
Having an Asian last name hurts you for admissions at most top tier colleges. IMO.
Hapa is not an offensive term, BTW.
Here is a reference to the Princeton study about average SATs
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-adv-asian-race-tutoring-20150222-story.html
“Asian-American” doesn’t mean multi-racial. It means someone of asiatic race with American citizenship.
^ Absolutely correcct. You can be anything American and still be considered an ethnicity or different race. American is just your citizenship.
The derivation of hapa is certainly derogatory. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapa, as well as Urban dictionary. I understand that it may not be offensive in your peer group and that some Asian Americans with a white parent may chose to refer to themselves by that term (just as some African-American kids may chose to use a term that shouldn’t be used by anyone else or someone from the LBGQT community may use the Q word), but the term is not commonly used outside of Hawaii and possibly the west coast (even then, my mixed-race coworker from Southern California had never heard the term). I have lived in several southern states and the northeast and currently live in an area where “half” kids are more likely to be African-American than Asian and in any of those regions calling someone any sort of slang for “half” is very likely to be interpreted as derogatory, particularly when used by someone in the same ethnic category who is not “half.” I certainly won’t tell you how to interact with your peers, just cautioning you about using the term if you end up somewhere east of the Rockies.
This is not about the Princeton lawsuit discussed earlier, but a paper from 2004.
I thought the lawsuit was against Harvard, not Princeton. I am not familiar with the details of either lawsuit. I was aware there is a study that looks at average SATs scores in the early 2000s for admitted students at Princeton and there was a difference based on race or ethnicity.
@seekingpam The Princeton one has ended with the conclusion that there was no discrimination against Asian applicants: http://dailyprincetonian.com/news/2015/09/u-found-not-guilty-of-discriminating-against-asian-americans-in-admissions/
Harvard’s is still out there: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/9/30/princeton-admissions-discrimination-verdict/
^ From the article
Bottom line, no one really knows!
You know you don’t have to check ANY box. It is voluntary. The law requires them to ask you. Not for you to tell them.
So if a applicant has a completely asian name, they disregard it if no race box is checked?? Doubt it.