as a vietnamese male, i would like to know if checking the “asian or pacific islander” box will hurt, help or not affect my admission chances. But unlike other “Asians” i am not chinese korean or indian. Does it make a difference?
<p>Well, I think people in this day and age tend to romanticize the aspect of race; that is, a lot of people tend to think it will give them THE edge to get into college. While some races may have advantages, I doubt that it's so much of an advantage that colleges would flat out pick person X over Y without an in-depth evaluation. As far as your problem is concerned, I doubt it will hurt your chances, may help it, but in most cases, it will probably not have an affect since asians are not an underrepresented minority. I went through that same exact process at one point in time since I am also asian, so I think you should just check the box and move on to the more important aspects of your app (e.g. essay). I hope this helps.</p>
<p>yea thanks but i am not solely putting empahsis on race......just another question i had while filling my apps</p>
<p>usually they ask u to check AZN and then specify what ethnicity u are (Chinese, Vietnamese, etc...) But as RamJag said, its not really a factor - wont help u unless that school is extremely homogenous and AZNs are an URM there, and it certainly wont help, but wont hurt, u at many schools</p>
<p>Worry about things you can control. If you do well enough you can get into the college of your choice regardless of race.
And also, don't be bitter and blame your rejection at MIT (supposing it happens) on affirmative action or something else; blame yourself. Or, if you like this better: blame no one, admissions are tough, after all.</p>
<p>Colleges want to build freshman classes that mirror society as a whole. As such, they consider applicants in several unofficial categories such as URM's (under represented minorities), legacies, athletes, international students, development cases, and VIP's. URM's, legacies, and athletics are handled in separate rounds at some colleges. For socioeconomic reasons, URM's have statistically lower SAT scores than the general population and are more likely to come from lesser high schools. (This is not, of course, to say all URM's fit this pattern, but it is true statistically.) Nobody disputes this and political groups representing URM groups make sure that URM's are given special consideration even if the college was going to do it on their own. Since applicants compete within their own unofficial category, it is easier to be accepted in some of the categories than others. </p>
<p>In theory, asian and whites should not be hurt or helped by marking the race box. Of course, the fact that the URM's are being helped does work against them in a way, but marking the box asian/white shouldn't hurt you. It just doesn't help you. However, asians are an over-represented minority at some colleges. There is not a lot of talk or evidence, but common sense and the way the system works would seem to indicate that applying as an asian at a school where asians are over-represented is going to hurt you.</p>
<p>While asians are over-represented at some schools such as the UC system, they are under-represented at other colleges. If applying to a school where asians are a URM, it will help you.</p>
<p>If you are asian and your last name does not give it away, I would not mark the race box at all. You would then fall into the white category instead of the asian category.</p>
<p>Most public high school systems in areas have diversity are constantly talking about closing the SAT gap between whites/asians and blacks/hispanics. In the 2005 SAT tests, nearly a quarter of the test takers did not give their race. This is making it hard for people to track whether or not the gap is closing. The College Board was going to redesign its website to make it harder to skip the race question, but you are never required to give it.</p>
<p>According to the UC admissions committees, being Vietnamese is no different from being Chinese, Japanese or Korean. Even if you're not as overrepresented, you're still just as much an Asian/Pacific Islander.</p>
<p>Being Asian as in Chinese and possibly Korean does not help your application because these 2 groups are overrepresented in top colleges.</p>
<p>Being Asian but not Chinese or Korean does not hurt your chances and may even help a little. You might be given more latitude in your verbal score and especially if you do well in math (aren't All AZNs suppose to), and show hardship like recent immigrants.</p>
<p>The standard of excellence needed to get into selective schools is very high. But there is another invisible bar set even higher for Chinese and Korean.</p>
<p>so in the end it comes down to this. Who has it better: browns or yellows?</p>
<p>Im a brown here, and say browns.</p>
<p>^^I concur with Desi. :-P.</p>
<p>If your name gives it away, then don't even bother trying to hide your ethnicity. </p>
<p>Being Asian might hurt your chances at schools with a lot of other Asians, like MIT, but there are schools where Asians are URM's and somewhat proportionally represented.</p>
<p>The schools in which Asians are underrepresented are the schools that are typically unappealing to Asians. If you're expecting being Asian to help you get into Stanford, MIT, or the Ivies, you can forget about it. If for some reason you want to go to a school in the South or something, then it might help you.</p>
<p>Duke, Emory, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, and maybe WUSTL.</p>
<p>I think it only really hurts you if you fit into the typical overachieving asian stereotype--you scored really high the the SATs, especially the math section, you play the piano or violin, you've won lots of math or science awards, you play tennis...etc. When asian-americans all have similar application stats, it's hard to be admitted unless you have something that makes you stand out.</p>
<p>When I was growing up, (like many asian parents) my Chinese parents would always tell me about so-and-so's son scoring a 1600 on the SATs or another person's daughter winning some math-science competition..etc, etc. But when college acceptences came around, not many of these kids got into the "prestigious" schools that they wanted to attend (i.e. the ivies, stanford, MIT). Although my SAT scores weren't anywhere near a 1600, I was probably more successful because I defied the asian mold--I was heavily involved in gay activism and theater. Moral of the story, pursue an EC that will make you stand out as an asian. If you are refreshingly different from the typical asian applicant, being asian may help. Take it or leave it..just my two cents :)</p>
<p>This is beginning to feel like Asians with perfect SAT is bad, but an Asian who gets a 2.8 gpa is good.</p>
<p>Yeah, that's ridiculous.</p>
<p>There is diversity among Asians just like there is diversity among all the other races.</p>
<p>I am well aware of the fact that there are a wide variety of asians that fit different stereotypes and a diverse spectrum of test scores. However, from my own experience and from reading books on college admissions, a lot of the asians that apply to top schools have similar profiles (top SATs, top gpa, etc). Thus, in order to make yourself more competitive, you need something special that is somewhat atypical ON TOP of great stats.</p>
<p>For example, in "Admission Confidential," Rachel Toor, a former admissions officer at Duke, wrote that many of the asian applicants looked very much alike..so much so, that at one point the dean of admssions said something like "let's look at those high scoring asian applicants" and went on to only take the asians with both high scores and very unique and interesting extracurriculars. There as also an article where a private admissions counselor that advised his student to participate in beauty pagents since that was an EC that most asians don't do. If you are an asian applying to a top school that attracts a lot of asian applicants, you need to show something that most of the asian applicants don't IN ADDITION to having great scores and a great gpa. Like I said, this is just my observation and I'm just trying to help...you can take it as inane rambling if you choose.</p>
<p>sweetsangria did not say that asians with perfect SAT is bad and asians with 2.8 gpa is good. He/she just said that asians have to make themselves appear to be unique in some way in order to stand out. This is consistent with everything I have ever read about any kind of applicant. In 2003, there were about 760 people in the US with a SAT of 1600/1600. Of these, about 500 applied to Harvard and less than 300 were accepted. Actually 300 out of 500 is very good odds, but the point is that they don't care about having perfect SAT and gpa. After a certain point (albeit a very high point), they care more about the whole person and a successful candidate has to have a hook.</p>
<p>Still, it is about who you are competing with. The URM's compete among URM's and the stats are lower. The non-URM's compete against non-URM's and the stats have to be higher.</p>
<p>Of course, there is diversity among asians such as Korean, Vietnamese, and so forth. There is diversity among hispanics such as Central and South America. Unfortunately, politics and not logic is driving the process. All that the politicians care about is a head count for blacks and hispanics.</p>