Effects of Different Asian Ethnicities in Admissions

Hi,

I was wondering whether different asian ethnicities (non-international) have different effects to one’s admission rates at any college.

I understand that being Southeast Asian (Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, etc.) works favorably for applicants, clearly being an URM.

However, there seems to be less information about East Asia and India. I believe that currently, applicants that are Chinese or Indian are significantly more abundant than other ethnicities, but other than that, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore seems to be less abundant than those listed above.

What are your thoughts on the possible effect this may have for admissions?

Thanks! : )

It depends on the college whether it matters at all – and if it does matter, colleges generally will not be very transparent about how and how much it matters.

Hi @ucbalumnus !

I would like to clarify that I was talking about private schools with long histories (e.g. Ivy League and anything similar to that), where admissions have quite factors such as donations, legacy admissions, director’s list, athletic recruitment, etc. and may be more sensitive to different ethnicities.

@yammie8335 Unfortunately, ORM v URM makes a huge difference. If you are lumped into the former group, it lessens your chances getting into elite schools, everything else being equal. After HYPMS, it may actually help. YMMV.