<p>My sophomore dd and I are developing a preliminary list of colleges - a combination of universities, LACs and engineering schools - for her to consider. Largely Midwestern, some Northeast and Southern. </p>
<p>She's adopted from China, which makes the whole 'checking the box' issue even more complicated than it already is. We know that being Asian would hurt at the Ivies and other most-selective schools (except for Rice, maybe?) but those would probably be extreme reaches anyway. But for many schools that are nearer a match, or safeties, the percentage of Asian students is surprisingly low (figures below are from the 2013 Princeton Review guide).</p>
<p>My question is, for the schools with low Asian percentages, is it reasonable to assume that the school would like that percentage to increase, so being Asian will help her chances?</p>
<p>Centre 2
Beloit 2
Miami Ohio 2
Denison 3
Lawrence 3
Davidson 4
St Olaf 5
Illinois Wesleyan 5
Knox 5
RIT 5
Macalester 6
Carleton 7
Oberlin 7
Vanderbilt 8</p>
<p>The Asian percentage in general population is 5% but their numbers are much higher (15% or more) at top schools. </p>
<p>My view is that the URM status is valid for any college with less than 10% Asians since they need to actively recruit them to keep the levels reasonable. Once they cross 15%, then Asians become ORMs and colleges have no reason to go looking for them.</p>
<p>I am also adopted (although from South Korea, not China), but I am graduating from high school this year. Honestly, my opinion is that if your daughter is right for a school, the school would accept her regardless of what box she checked. If she gets rejected, it will not be because of her ethnicity, but because there are many qualified students for only a limited amount spaces.</p>
<p>While being Asian may not help increase the odds at the most selective colleges, I don’t think it will help her at schools that have lower percentages of Asians either. When your daughter is accepted, believe she’s accepted because of what an outstanding young lady she is rather than her ethnicity.</p>
<p>I think it would be smart to look at percentages. At the very least, I would be confident that these schools wouldn’t discriminate against Asians in the admissions process and in some cases they may get a diversity advantage.</p>
<p>There is a faction of Asians that only apply to school with other large percentages of Asians – however the ones that branch out would likely get admission boosts at some schools. The following elite schools are less than 10% Asian: Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, UNC, W&M, Grinnell, Hamilton, Lehigh, Wisconsin, Colgate, Bates, Wake Forest, Tulane, W&L, and Davidson.</p>
<p>There are a couple of reasons Vanderbilt and NotreDame have fewer Asians. Both are considered conservative. My D absolutely refused to apply to Vanderbilt because she felt her political leanings may not work well there although I mentioned low percentage being a positive.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is split 50/50 politically (anyone could fit in regardless of political leanings). Also, some Asian students are conservative – this thread was about race not political leanings.</p>
<p>Anyways, you can’t really have it both ways – if you are looking for a school that will look at Asian diversity favorably, it is likely the school will have a lower percentage of Asians.</p>
<p>I can say that WFU is actively recruiting Asian-Americans; they gave me my only diversity scholarship (and it makes sense, too). But yes, most LACs are not ‘hubs’ for Asian-American students, and thus, it would make sense that your D would be sought out there.</p>
<p>" this thread was about race not political leanings."</p>
<p>College choice is about fit.</p>
<p>College choice encompasses a multitude of factors. Some students want to attend the college with the strongest academics/most prestige/best recruiting opportunities. Other students attend schools that are the most financially affordable. Ideally, you can also find a school that is also a good social fit among these other factors.</p>
<p>Quite a few of the colleges on this list are Midwestern LACs. In general, I think being Asian would be a plus factor at these schools, which do have diversity goals and are located in a part of the country where (with the exception of Chicago) there is not as large an Asian population as in the Northeast and on the West Coast, and where it’s somewhat more difficult to recruit Asian and Asian-American students to attend. They are also disadvantaged by being LACs; for whatever reason, many Asian students seem to prefer larger universities. Even the top Northeastern LACs generally have lower percentages of Asians than larger universities in the same region. Bowdoin, for example, is only 7% Asian; Middlebury is 6%, while Dartmouth in neighboring New Hampshire is 14% and Cornell, in a similarly remote location and similar climate, is 16%.</p>
<p>Given all that, I think the Midwestern LACs will see being Asian as a plus factor, but it’s only going to help if the applicant has solid academic credentials, ECs, essays, and the whole package.</p>
<p>OP, my daughter was adopted from China too. We have a pretty active Families with Children from China group here in NYC and know a lot of seniors in high school this year and freshmen in college. From what I’ve seen, there is definitely an advantage to those who wrote about adoption in their college essays. My daughter has always attended school with a lot of Chinese-American kids, many of whom come from poor immigrant families–she is a junior at a selective high school with a 60-percent-Asian student body (most of whom are Chinese) and a majority of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. My daughter will likely have an admission advantage over these kids since she intends to write about adoption in her common-ap essays next year. From what I’ve seen, it’s a fish-out-of-water story that admissions committees enjoy reading.</p>
<p>Check the Common Data Set of each school, section C7, to see if it is even considered. For instance, at Miami it is not. [OIR:</a> Common Data Set](<a href=“Page Not Found on the Users, Units, or Orgs Server | Miami University”>Page Not Found on the Users, Units, or Orgs Server | Miami University)</p>
<p>Thanks! That’s what I was wondering about; maybe it’s not even a goal at some institutions. I’ve just glanced at the Common Data Set previously and didn’t realized that this was addressed. I started checking the schools on my list above and saw that at Davidson and Beloit it’s not considered either.</p>
<p>The CDS looks like an amazing resource. I’m a data geek by both profession and avocation, so this is going to be a lot of fun :)</p>
<p>If engineering is of strong interest to her, then it would be best to go to a school that has the desired kind of engineering major (some LACs and similar small schools do have engineering, as do some small engineering focused schools like SD Mines, NM Mines, CO Mines, RPI, WPI, etc.).</p>
<p>Perhaps also important is to determine your price limit and check some net price calculators on various schools’ web sites to see how realistic they are financially. Fortunately, you have plenty of time since the student is currently a sophomore in high school.</p>
<p>
Somebody above wrote that the general US population has 5% Asian. So the question is, what is <em>low</em>. Would low be anything below 5% Asian representation in a college?</p>
<p>There are indeed cultural factors at play her, not just race. Immigrants of any race tend to settle in more dense, populated areas like LA, Vancouver, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, New York, etc. For the first two or three generations, the spread throughout the more rural or sparsely populated states is pretty slow. Therefore, one would expect that the general Asian population would be lower in the “fly over states” than in the metropolises. Schools located in the “fly over states” or other rural areas would have less exposure to immigrants than those in their immediate driving radius. The exception to this is of course very large, or very presigious schools, where geography, and therefore exposure, is less of an issue.</p>
<p>So, to answer your question… I don’t think any school with 5% or more Asian population would consider Asian an “under-represented minority”. I think in such cases an Asian applicant would not be on the target list of URMs, generally. However, every school sets its own diversity goals. Whereas one school with 7% Asian might still have Asian on their URM list, another with 7% Asian may not.</p>
<p>However, of much greater importance in your story is the issue of adoption and cultural dislocation which is a great subject for the essay. Good essay = tie break if the other admissions criteria are similar to other “bubble” applicants.</p>