<p>Also I have to imagine that there are major demographic differences between Asians at Bowdoin and Asians at schools in California. At least half of Bowdoin’s students will be coming from private schools (and the public schools the others come from will be the kind of public schools that send kids to Bowdoin – old money public schools). Very few of them will be first generation immigrants or college attenders. A fair number will probably be adoptees.</p>
<p>I still contend that the population at Bowdoin hasn’t changed that much; the drop reflects the new federal reporting requirements that went into effect in 2010 that changed the categories for race and ethnicity.</p>
<p>I took a look at some sample data sets for a couple of other schools. From 2009-2010 to 2010-2011 the Asian population changed from:
Oberlin: 7.4% to 4.1%
Carleton: 9.7% to 5.9%</p>
<p>And JHS, my S will be attending Bowdoin next year. He attends a large urban public HS that has 70% free and reduced lunch and is approximately 50% non-white.</p>
<p>I guess LACs were never that great of a place to look for other Asian students. Oh well.</p>
<p>My D’s school, also a LAC in the northeast, has a 23% Asian population. So it just depends on which school it is.</p>
<p>Which school would that be? I know Wellesley has an incredibly large Asian population, and I applied there, although I am not completely sure if I want to go to an all girl’s school or not.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s Wellesley. For some reason my S did not apply there!</p>
<p>A lot of the international students are also Asian, and intl students are in a different category.</p>
<p>I think one reason why Wellesley has so many Asian students is that it’s well regarded by the Chinese community because Chiang Kai-S’s wife went there. However, the vast majority of other LACs have little to no recognition by the Chinese (such as my parents).</p>
<p>Pomona College has over 19% Asian students, according to their website. This isn’t too surprising, as 30% of their student body comes from California, which is a state with a relatively high percentage of Asians. I don’t assume that all of the Asian students are from California, but I’ll bet most of them are. The UCs and Stanford also have high numbers for the same reason.
If you’re looking to connect with more Chinese students, California is the place to be. :)</p>
<p>I did apply to CMC in California, but not to Pomona though. I guess I thought I could’ve gotten a Dartmouth-esque experience (with the Asians there included) without actually going to Dartmoth. Oh well.</p>