Hi,
What are some colleges that consider Asians a minority and need more for diversity in their student population? I think Smith and for a while, Skidmore used this logic. Thanks!
@calitoeast, thanks for starting this thread…it’s something I have been wondering and will need to know in a couple of years, too.
I’d think most LAC’s since they aren’t hot targets and much overlooked among Asians both domestic and foreign? My son was 3 out of 3 LAC admitted.
(Just for clarification: I’m a Indian (asia) girl from Silicon Valley and I’m not the best of the bunch, so I know the odds are quite against me)
@inthegarden Haha I’m glad you agree!
Yeah I’m a rising senior and it’s definitely going to impede my chances 
Caltech and UC schools don’t look at race, which should be a plus. Also heard about LACs but it might be still true for international Asians, not true for Asian Americans anymore.
@TiggerDad Makes sense! Thank you!! I feel like the LACs I’m excited about don’t really care for Asian diversity but fingers crossed 
Thanks for the reply!
Thanks @makemesmart !! Haha Caltech is definitely a far reach, and unfortunately UCs do look at race haha (they can tell from the name) but their preference for out of state will probably be a bigger problem for my year.
Hmm yeah I think I head similar things about international Asians vs Asian Americans
Thanks for the reply!!
They don’t.
What kind of academic and other credentials do you have?
Many highly-ranked LACs would like to enroll more Asian-Americans. Some examples below, but there would be others.
Percent Asian-American freshman enrollment (not including internationals), from College Navigator:
6% Bowdoin (#3 USNWR LAC)
4% Carleton (#8 USNWR LAC)
5% Davidson (#10 USNWR LAC)
3% Washington & Lee (#10 USNWR LAC)
6% Colby (#12 USNWR LAC)
4% Colgate (#12 USNWR LAC)
These schools aren’t well-known in the Asian-American community, but in terms of selectivity compare favorably to large universities like UCs. For example, Colgate freshmen have 31-33 Composite ACT, which is comparable to 30-34 at Berkeley. And the LACs are pulling in those high scores without engineering schools, which typically inflate the test scores at universities.
It’s likely that some small universities would like more Asian-Americans too. For example, Lehigh recently opened a center in San Mateo to improve their recruitment in northern California and the West Coast generally. College Navigator currently shows 8% Asian-American enrollment at Lehigh. Freshmen ACTs are 29-32, comparable to UCSD at 27-33.
I love LAC’s with their more intimate educational attention and social networking, and that’s why we took them very seriously. It’s just too bad that they’re not as “coveted” by Asians in general (we’re). I’m sure that’s changing, too, (@makemesmart), particularly among the second-generation, as the intensity and scarcity necessitate a broader college searches outside of the well known brand names.
Another way to look at it: what LACs already have relatively high percentages (above 10%) of Asian-American enrollment? Looks to me like they generally fall into the following three categories:
(1) Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore. Historically the top-ranked LACs.
(2) Top women’s colleges (including Vassar, a former women’s college)
(3) SoCal LACs (Claremonts, Oxy).
My guess is that most LACs outside of these three categories would have less than 10% Asian-American enrollment, and would like to get more. And even in the categories listed above, the Asian-American enrollment is commonly in the 10-15% range, which is still low compared to many research universities.
Highly ranked national universities (USNWR Top 50) with relatively low Asian-American enrollment:
Catholic schools:
9% Boston College
9% Georgetown
7% Villanova
5% Notre Dame
Southern schools:
10% North Carolina - Chapel Hill
8% William & Mary
5% U of Miami (in FL; not Miami U in OH)
4% Wake Forest
4% Tulane
Northeastern schools outside big cities:
11% U of Rochester
11% RPI
8% Lehigh
Lehigh is the only school I know of (not to say that there might not be others) that treats Asians as URM to the extent of including them in their funded fly-in program: https://www1.lehigh.edu/admissions/undergrad/visit/dap I didn’t know about their new recruitment center, but it makes sense!
While other schools may not formally treat Asians as URM, I agree with the above that it’s quite possible to see where the Asian demographic is, in fact, under-represented on a given campus… and all things being equal, this probably confers at least a small advantage. (Or at least absence of disadvantage!) For example, Lafayette is less than 15 miles from Lehigh. Lafayette has 4% Asian students, whereas Lehigh has 8%. It’s pure speculation to guess at whether an Asian applicant is more advantaged at the school that’s making a recruitment effort, or at the one that isn’t and has poorer representation. But either way, pockets of poorer representation such as these Lehigh Valley area schools are going to be statistically a bit friendlier to Asian applicants than the schools that attract a disproportionately Asian applicant pool.
A confounding factor in @Corbett 's stats is the international enrollment at some of these schools. Rochester and RPI, for example, appear to have weak Asian representation in their domestic statistics, but they enroll lots of international students (20% and 18% respectively), many of whom are Asian. So, their real-world optics, diversity-wise, are better than the stats appear. Are they really advantaging domestic Asian applicants? It’s probably safe to say they’re not disadvantaging Asians, which is still something, but that may be the extent of it.
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@ucbalumnus yeah I guess I can’t really say they do for sure, but it’s at least fairly known that Asians are compared against each other.
I think I have a pretty solid resume but my GPA should have been a bit better (especially my UC gpa) and so I would lose compared to Asians w better numbers and bc UCs are primarily a numbers game I don’t feel too hopeful. But I also really wanted to try to go to the east coast so I’m not too crushed.
I would say my credientals but I’m quite sad right now and I’ve seen how mean some ppl are on some threads haha
I really hope you are right though thank you!!
@Corbett ahh that’s nice hear!! Thank so you so much for the specifics, I really appreciate it! Do you know if the schools themselves have somehow said that they want more diversity? Like similar to what you said Lehigh is doing
Ya it’s a shame that parts of the Asian community haven’t seen the value of LACs bc now I’m a little worried that ppl will judge me if I go to one but I’ll deal haha
That’s really interesting to see how the numbers still line up to those w engineering schools
That’s an interesting way to look at it! And that list is really really helpful
Thanks again for your analysis!!
Friendlier in the college admissions offices. But some areas where these colleges are, like many places in Pennsylvania, may not be that friendly to non-white people generally:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/race-rising-anxiety-white-america/
http://www.dailyitem.com/news/the-most-racist-places-in-america/article_a331b56e-eea5-11e4-9048-1fb521fce39a.html
Universities with strong engineering, business, accounting majors generally will have strong applications from Asian countries, at least that is the case for Chinese students.
@TiggerDad Yeah I completely agree!
@aquapt that’s really nice to hear! Thank you for all the details!! Yeah I think I’m just used to hearing how it’s harder and harder for Asians to get into “good” schools and I was wondering where they are ending up and if schools that are very white are probably wanted to increase their Asian diversity as well.
I’ll definitely look into those points you made!
Thanks so much for such a thoughtful reply!