Does being Asian American help or hurt your chances at getting in at top schools?

<p>I've heard that affirmative action can help out minorities, but with so many Asian Americans vying for a limited percent of the incoming classes at the top colleges, will being Asian American actually hurt or help your chances?</p>

<p>affirmative action helps out underrepresented minorities such as African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans</p>

<p>being Asian greatly hurts your chances</p>

<p>Not greatly, but yes, it does hurt a little.</p>

<p>Hurts at most... but helps at SOME top universities with <~8% Asian Americans.</p>

<p>helps at small LAC, hurts at all ivies.</p>

<p>I think it would only hurt at the very top schools, like Ivies, Stanford, and MIT. Keep in mind that it's not considered good practice to turn down the most qualified applicants simply because of their race. It's most likely illegal, but I couldn't say that for sure. At the overwhelming majority (read: virtually all) of schools, it doesn't do any harm, and usually helps.</p>

<p>Note to all non-top colleges to whom it may concern: When I was starting my college search, I looked at schools with higher percentages of Asians, since that usually means they're better universities.</p>

<p>what if you aren't east asian but from the indian subcontinent, pakistan specifically</p>

<p>Pakistan and India is included. I wouldn't say that Asians have a really bad disadvantages in college applications. A few good number get in to top schools with average or sub-par stats. The trouble is that people tend to blame admissions biases, quotas, racism, for any of their troubles.</p>

<p>Thanks for the replies everyone. Why do you think Asian Americans generally have a disadvantage at the most elite schools?</p>

<p>probably because asian parents tend to live out their dreams through their children and LOCK THEM UP ALL WEEKEND so all they can do is study their heads off....and they don't think anything other than the "best" is enough....</p>

<p>....i guess i may have some inner aggression towards my parents. (I'm asian)</p>

<p>So basically you have a whole lot of great academic asian students who have pressure to always be "the best." (regardless of if an ivy league school is actually right for their particular child)</p>

<p>On an individual basis, being a URM helps A LOT. But because there are so few URM's with high scores, it really doesn't hurt Asians or Whites as a group. The argument that a minority stole your spot will never hold water. So the conclusion is that being black or hispanic helps a lot but being Asian/White doesn't help or hurt.</p>

<p>^I like that answer.</p>

<p>it's all about timing...a few years back asians had a huge advantage, especially since they tend to be the highest peforming group out of high school (Indians as well). but since all the top schools, including ivies have filled their demographic needs for asians, the trend is strongly toward hispanics and then african americans. remember a school always needs to look good in terms of diversity...male/female, ethnicity, states and countries represented, etc.</p>

<p>rence---i like that answer too
i hope he's right :)</p>

<p>peachiepizzazz---that was a very uplifting response :P...I understand where you're coming from though...I'm glad my parents aren't overly intense about "locking me up all weekend"...But I mean, it's tough not to feel for the parents, who typically have stuggled for years to make the best life for their children. And that does include getting them into really good colleges. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. One thing is for sure though---Asians have high rates of college graduation and are generally more well-qualified candidates for colleges BECAUSE of their parents' efforts.</p>

<p>
[quote]
especially since they tend to be the highest peforming group out of high school

[/quote]

?????????????</p>

<p><a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/research/pdf/06-1868%20RDCBR06-5_070105.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/research/pdf/06-1868%20RDCBR06-5_070105.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/about/news_info/cbsenior/yr2007/reports.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/about/news_info/cbsenior/yr2007/reports.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
with so many Asian Americans vying for a limited percent of the incoming classes

[/quote]

The</a> Admissions Committee does not use quotas of any kind.</p>

<p>YES THEY DO!
They just word it that they want an "interesting and diverse" freshman class.</p>

<p>It may hurt, I think, because so many, if not 90% of Asians graduating from highschool all apply to the same handful of colleges (Ivies, MIT, Stanford..etc), which is not really the case with other groups. Though please correct me if I am wrong.</p>

<p>I would not say 90%, just that the percent of Asians applying to top schools from a high school tend to be higher than the percentage of other ethnic groups applying to top schools.</p>

<p>warblersrule -- It's a fact that Asian Americans have the highest average SAT scores. They also have a traditional hard work ethic. So we could probably infer that Asians do well in HS compared to other ethnic groups. In fact, I really don't think there is enough substance for a debate here -- it's just common sense.</p>

<p>

I wouldn't even go that far, except perhaps my view is skewed because I went to such a lowly high school that barely ever sent kids to Ivies. I know of only one Asian at my high school who applied to high caliber schools (Cornell and Hopkins). He was rejected primarily, I think, because he was still considered an international even though he'd been here for several years. On the other hand, we only had three people apply to Ivies (one white, one black, and one Asian), so I guess you can say the percentage was still high. :p</p>