@ucbalumnus Thank you for putting these numbers together for us. It makes it very clear what our possibilities are for schools. I feel like we got off track somehow when we were looking at average costs for the UC schools and didn’t take into account how much more it was for OOS until now. But I think S22 will still be happy at a lot of the private schools suggested here. We will just have to do more investigating.
@NCalRent Thank you for those suggestions. I’ve been seeing some repeats on recommendations so that seems like a good sign. We will have to look more into the WUE program too. He’s 3.8 UW GPA and 29 ACT. 5 total AP’s by the end of senior year. So not stellar but pretty good. We actually weren’t sure he even stood a chance at any UC’s in the first place since they all seem to have very high stats. They were just on his Dream Schools list.
Oregon and Washington State will have a lot of Asian kids, too.
Run the NPC on Lewis&Clark, University of Puget Sound, Whitman, Western Washington University (WUE).
Perhaps even UBC Vancouver and Simon Fraser if he wants a huge city and knows what he wants to major in!
With an EFC 1,400, you need to prioritize meet-need universities whenever possible, as institutional aid (scholarships given to admitted students because their families can’t afford the college) is the #1 source of financial aid.
Being Pell-eligible also boosts his application to these colleges since they try to have more middle class and working class students.
Whitman is a “meet need” college for instance.
However… there are Asians and Asian American students at many universities beside California’s, where he would likely get a boost for “geographical diversity” just for being from WY (because few students from WY apply Out of State, they’re rare and thus precious 
)
Out of the box suggestion:
Case Western Reserve
It’s got over 1,250 Asian American students + hundreds of Internationals (many Chinese), it’s in a big city, and it offers Asian Studies, Chinese, and Japanese Studies.
https://asianstudies.case.edu/
https://mll.case.edu/undergraduate/japanese/
https://mll.case.edu/undergraduate/chinese/
Another out-of-the-box possibility:
Macalester
Small college in a metropolis (the Twin Cities - roughly 3 million people). GREAT neighborhood: just walk to whatever you want, independent bookstore, cinema, stores, park, etc. or hop on a bike or public transportation for entertainment or internships.
Meets 100% need and tries to expand diversity, especially wrt students of color (currently 42% total student population) and Pell Grant eligible students.
Depends on the definition of “a lot”; NCES College Navigator says that all of the above named universities are 4-7% Asian (not including multiracial or unknown or non-resident alien) for undergraduates. Of course, in absolute numbers, University of Oregon and Washington State University will have more because they are larger overall.
Have you considered Arizona State U or University of Arizona? Unlike when i was growing up there in the late 70’s, there is a good size Asian American population at those universities.
UofA has merit awards for OOS students, but it may not be applicable to WUE students. I don’t know all the details but here are the links:
https://financialaid.arizona.edu/types-of-aid/scholarships/incoming-transfer
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For University of Arizona, WUE is available for only a small number of majors listed on the linked web page. For Arizona State University, WUE is available at many majors and programs on campuses other than the main Tempe campus (which appear to be more focused on non-traditional and commuter students), but not on the main Tempe campus.
Both UA and ASU in Arizona offer significant merit scholarships; check their scholarship web sites. “National Scholar” as defined by them (National Merit Finalist or College Board Recognition based on PSAT score) can increase the scholarship amounts.
Asian (not including multiracial, unknown, or non-resident alien) students make up only 5% of undergraduates at UA and 8% at ASU, though absolute numbers will be large due to the schools being large overall.
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UC’s are test blind through the 2025 admission cycle so GPA and HS course rigor will be heavily weighted. UC’s use 13 areas of criteria when reviewing applicants. Here is the list:
UC’s and Cal States also have their own GPA calculation using only 10-11th grades (summer before 10th - summer before 12th) for the a-g course requirements.
UC GPA calculator: GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub
UC’s look at all three UC GPA’s in the calculator. Cal states only consider the Capped weighted UC GPA = CSU GPA.
Only AP/IB courses taken 10-11th grades for OOS applicants count for the extra honors points.
The 2021 GPA data for admitted UC students should be available in August. Here is last year’s GPA data:
2020 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.40-3.79 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 2%
UCLA: 1%
UCSD: 8%
UCSB: 9%
UCI: 9%
UCD: 17%
UCSC: 59%
UCR: 65%
UCM: 95%
2020 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 14%
UCLA: 8%
UCSD: 39%
UCSB: 40%
UCD: 55%
UCI: 38%
UCSC: 82%
UCR: 90%
UCM: 97%
2020 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 37%
UCLA: 38%
UCSD: 78%
UCSB: 81%
UCD: 86%
UCI: 60%
UCSC: 92%
UCR: 97%
UCM: 98%
2020 UC capped weighted GPA averages along with 25th-75th percentile range:
UCB: 4.22 (4.13-4.30)
UCLA: 4.25 (4.18-4.31)
UCSD: 4.16 (4.04-4.28)
UCSB: 4.15 (4.03-4.27)
UCI: 4.11 (3.96-4.26)
UCD: 4.11 (3.97-4.25)
UCSC: 3.94 (3.71-4.16)
UCR: 3.88 (3.65-4.11)
UCM: 3.68 (3.40-3.96)
Wow, thank you all for the many suggestions. I think S22 does have Macalister on his list already. I’m not sure about the other schools but will do some more research. I do know he’s looking for a higher percentage of Asians to the general student population. I think it’s been hard for him to be such an outlier all these years.
And those UC stats are rather scary! 
How do those students do it? Where we come from, kids don’t take school that seriously. Many of my S22’s friends don’t even plan to go to college but he always knew he wanted to get out of town and saw college as his ticket so that helped him stay focused.
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keep in mind that the UC GPA requirements for application for OOS students are 3.4. here’s the calculator, since they have a unique GPA calculation method.
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UCs are not financially possible OOS for someone whose EFC is $1,400 and who is Pell-eligible.
Are you looking into Questbridge?
However there are lots of other colleges either with thousands of Asian and Asian American students even if the percentage is low because the school is huge, or where the percentage is high both among the students and the local population.
Let’s help this family find the meet-need colleges with the highest % Asian American students. 
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I just looked at the Questbridge website. What an amazing program. But I’m not sure we would qualify. While my husband did not go to college, I did so S22 isn’t considered first generation. But I’ll look into it some more!
Although a large proportion of QB finalists are first gen, it is not a requirement. If family income is less than $65K and EFC is low (Pell grant eligible), I encourage your student to apply.
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Most of these will be the usual reachy colleges (e.g. Caltech).
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i didn’t think about QB for you sorry LOL. i’m also planning to apply for questbridge. my parents both got their bachelor’s in china. the only requirement is being low income which most of the time comes hand in hand with first gen.
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Colleges that meet need and offer Asian Studies and/or Japanese Studies major:
Tufts - 14% Asian
Middlebury -7% Asian
Wesleyan - 7%
Bates - 5%
Vassar - 12%
Grinnell - 5%
Colby- 8%
Lehigh -8%
St Olaf - 7%
Trinity- 4%
Gettysburg - 2%
Cornell - 20%
Pomona - 16%
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How about looking at this scholarship from the University of Wisconsin? You mentioned you are a low-middle income family, and that may qualify as being socioeconomically disadvantaged?
Wisconsin is a great school, with plenty of people from many backgrounds. The fact that you are from Wyoming should work to his advantage.
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A post was split to a new thread: AB 104 and the CSU/UC GPA