<p>Is tennis a typical asian sport? And what about piano but in a rock band? Is running atypical for asians?</p>
<p>What’s atypical of Asians is doing what you really love, instead of just doing what other people approve of. And that’s including the people on CC.</p>
<p>Don’t do things just for college or not do things just for college. Do what you want and be honest about who you are.</p>
<p>Idk about others, but I am going to continue doing the things I love. I’m just wondering how they will be viewed. Besides, I’m a rising senior. It’s too late to change/start activities even if I wanted to.</p>
<p>@ivybound1: I think tennis is probably the most “Asian” sport there is (even more so than swimming I’m afraid). 90% of my school’s tennis team is Asian, and many other nearby schools have similar percentages. “Non-Asian” sports would most likely be either football or hockey. However, playing atypical sports won’t do much I think, because my Asian friend, who has a 4.0, 2380, and has been a varsity hockey player (captain since sophomore year), got waitlisted at every Ivy he applied to. </p>
<p>@others: I love dance because I enjoy it, not because it might get me into college. I was just wondering if you guys think an Asian who breakdances is atypical.</p>
<p>Can anyone please explain to me how swimming is an Asian sport? I’m asian and there are really not that many asians on the swim team! It’s seriously a white sport… but tennis is an asian sport. That i agree :)</p>
<p>Anyway, I myself am Asian and I play acoustic guitar. My parents wanted me to play piano, but I failed my lessons on purpose because I really wasn’t interested in it. Granted, I’m no guitar prodigy either. I started playing in 2009, and I’d say that I have definitely improved since then. Oh, and I’m not aiming for Ivy League schools either.</p>
<p>But just so you know, adcoms can only accept so many violin/piano prodigies before they start looking for a shreddin’ guitar hero.</p>
<p>I wholeheartedly agree that you should be yourself, whoever that may be. in the end, that’s worked out for me (I’ve had a passion for acting and performing since middle school). the activities my parents encouraged, namely piano, are probably more typical for my culture. and I still take piano because I actually enjoy it. basically, I’ve spent the past few years doing activities that make me–not a prospective college–happy, and I’m glad. 
in the meantime, I won’t think too much into whether being asian will hurt me.</p>
<p>"I was just wondering if you guys think an Asian who breakdances is atypical. "</p>
<p>Not if you are Korean. My son was the only black kid on “his team” in high school. Ok, he was the only black guy in his class, so…</p>
<p>[So</a> you think they can break-dance? - Music News: Artists. Songs. Videos - Salon.com](<a href=“http://www.salon.com/entertainment/feature/2008/06/26/korean_hiphop]So”>http://www.salon.com/entertainment/feature/2008/06/26/korean_hiphop)</p>
<p>“But if MTV really wants the best dance crew, it should be looking in South Korea.”</p>
<p>“Of the top six or seven crews in the world, I’d say half of them are from Korea,” says Christopher “Cros One” Wright, 33, an American dance promoter and b-boy who was recently in Suwon, South Korea, to judge the second annual global invitational hip-hop dance competition, called R16, that was held at the end of May.</p>
<p>The development of South Koreans’ hip-hop dancing could be seen a cultural parallel to their sharp global ascendance in electronics and automaking. A decade ago, Koreans were struggling to imitate the Bronx-style b-boy and West Coast funk styles that are the backbone of the genre. Now, a handful of these crews are the safest bets to win any competition anywhere.</p>
<p>Certainly no country takes its hip-hop dance more seriously."</p>
<p>Ahh i am Asian and I swim since I was Grade 2 o.O and I think football is not atypical since 90% of guys from my school plays it! And yes,Korean dancers are super awesome! Well, I think Asians can breakdance,too 
Oh and I am in Burma and we have many hiphop dancers!</p>
<p>“a typical asian.” the whole point of EC’s is to pursue your passion and stuff you’re interested in. not to find the most unique ones and pretend to like them for college. frankly, the only thing that’s “typical asian” that colleges don’t like is just doing EC’s for college.
if most asians win math competitions for their resume, that’ll be looked down upon. if in the sea of asians their are a few who actually do love math, adcoms will see that.</p>
<p>In the end, I don’t think colleges will accept/deny a student because they are ‘too asian’ or ‘not asian enough’.</p>
<p>lmao some people think they know everything. Look up glut, better yet here you dumb ape:
glut- (n)- an oversupply. You’re talking to someone who pretty much rocked the cr and writing section of the SAT ( and the math)</p>
<p>^Who do you mean ? Am I the dumb ape? I don"t know everything. Heard of Sri Lanka though. And roti, sambala, blachan, curry. Hope to get there one day, butbI have to work.</p>
<p>When I took the SAT, there WAS no writing. Teach me sensai!</p>
<p>You are saying there is a glut, an oversupply, of the under-represented? Do you have any numbers? Since you rocked the math…</p>
<p>Sri Lanka…ha!</p>
<p>[Sri</a> Lanka - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka]Sri”>Sri Lanka - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Nevis! Now THAT’S under represented</p>
<p>[Nevis</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevis]Nevis”>Nevis - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>I find it extremely disturbing that seemingly all of you believe that all Asians engage in “typical Asian” ECs solely for the purpose of college. Has it never occurred to any of you that perhaps these Asian students genuinely enjoy these “typical Asian” ECs? Is it that hard to believe that an Asian student might truly have a passion for “typical Asian” ECs? If so, why is it so hard to believe that Asians enjoy math, debate, science, etc. Is it only possible for a student to have a passion for theater/acting, etc., not math/science? Also, an Asian student who has “typical Asian” ECs is still at a disadvantage to a student of another race with “typical Asian” ECs. I personally know examples of of such scenarios. One such example is when three of my friends (all in the same class) applied to top universities in the same year. All of the them were academically high achieving with “typical Asian” ECs i.e. math/science competitions, speech and debate, piano/violin, etc. Note that they were all of different races (Asian, white and Hispanic). Out of the three, the Asian friend did the worst in terms of college acceptances. Note further that the Asian friend was literally dominant in all of those credentials i.e. he was the valedictorian, scored the highest on standardized tests, competed and performed better at higher level academic and music competitions, etc. Now I am going to predict that many of you are going to claim that this was due to weaker essays. I doubt this was the case. I did not read any of their essays, but the Asian friend, the editor-in-chief of our school newspaper, was known for his good writing. This clearly shows an example of Asians being disadvantaged, possibly discriminated against.</p>
<p>^you could also say it was about how he’ she presented themselves. and even if someone has good writing, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they had unique essays, or showed their personality very well.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m an Asian who lives in one of the most diverse and multicultural cities on the continent. Since I’ve had a ton of friends of different races and ethnic origins, I fully believe that admission to college should be based strictly on merit. This being said, I also support the idea that colleges must strive not so much for racial diversity as for diversity in personality—they should seek to have student bodies that represent people inclined towards arts, sciences, music, debate, drama, etc. Because I’ve grown up in the company of people of so many ethnic origins, I’ve come to see race as largely superficial; what’s far more important that the color of one’s skin is, of course, one’s unique individual identity.</p>
<p>However, what does striving for a student body diverse in personality entail? Statistically, Asians do have a tendency to outperform other racial groups academically, and from my experience at least they have a disproportionate inclination toward mathematics and sciences. When a university then wants to represent people who are interested in these subjects, and who involve themselves in what have been described in this thread as “typical Asian ECs,” then they—rightly so—will accept Asian students, as well as people of other races interested in these things. When, however, a school needs to represent students whose passions are in the performing arts, for example, then they invariably will need to choose from a group in which Asians are not so well represented. In high school, my principal ECs were acting, musical theatre, show choir and choir. Of the approximately 30 seniors in show choir this past year, I was one of two Asians (bear in mind that my city is 50% visible minority). As such, it is easy for me to see why a college, to maintain representation of students involved in performing arts and other activities that attract fewer minority students, will need to sometimes turn down Asians who may be very well academically qualified, but whose interests are already overrepresented.</p>
<p>I invite you to read an article in Macleans that ignited a massive firestorm among academics in my country: [The</a> enrollment controversy* - Canada - Macleans.ca](<a href=“http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/11/10/too-asian/]The”>http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/11/10/too-asian/). I know a few people who were personally offended by this article, but I for one think that, while the authors were too hasty in reaching conclusions, they made a number of accurate observations.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That is definitely a valid possibility. However, why have you and many others assumed that he and other high achieving Asian students were denied acceptance due to such a circumstance? If this type of scenario was rare and isolated, I would agree that it would be most convenient to simply assume that the Asian student was denied acceptance on the basis of how he “carried” himself/herself. Nonetheless, I know of other similar examples, and this type of situation is rather prevalent. At this point, explaining the rejections of incredibly high achieving Asian students as being due to having ECs specialized in science/math and other “typical Asian” subjects is no longer valid. The simple fact of the matter is that Asian students with equal or greater accomplishments than their peers who specialized in similar ECs are still being rejected overly often. Again, this seemingly biased rejection of higher achieving Asian students occurs even when their counterparts of different races have ECs of the SAME category. This definitely constitutes a disadvantage for Asian students, though some would argue it to be more of a negative discrimination against them. Asian students ARE at a disadvantage in comparison with students of other races. Or would you have me believe that Asian students across the country are all naturally worse at presenting themselves, thus universally explaining this prevalent rejection?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I find your post to be somewhat intriguing. First, you claim that college acceptance should be based purely on merit but “diversity in personality,” rather than racial diversity, should be striven for. I agree with this statement. Although I may be misinterpreting your statement, but I find your statement that “it is easy for me [you] to see why a college, to maintain representation of students involved in performing arts and other activities that attract fewer minority students, will need to sometimes turn down Asians who may be very well academically qualified” to be completely contradictory to your initial statement. If you believe that college acceptance should be base purely on merit, why should the fact that these Asian students are Asian play any role in their acceptance/rejection? You claim that colleges, to maintain representation of Asian students in, for example, the performing arts, should/can be reasonably be expected to reject Asian students who have “overrepresented” interests because of the performing arts Asian students. Maybe the Asian student interested in performing arts should be given some sort of preferential treatment; however, this should be given because he is a performing Arts student, NOT because he is an ASIAN performing arts student. The Asian students with “overrepresented” interests should be in NO way impacted by the performing arts students; otherwise, this would constitute racial diversity, which you yourself claimed to be opposed to. I just do not agree that the Asian performing arts student deserves to be given preference in the “Asian slot” over the Asian student with “typical Asian” ECs, thus causing him to be rejected. “Asian slots,” which you are suggesting to exist by claiming to easily be able to see why performing arts Asian students’ being accepted allows for other qualified Asian students with “typical Asian” ECs to be rejected, should not even exist at all. Both types of Asian students should be admitted because of their own individual merits. Notably, as previously mentioned in a previous post, within the pool of students with “typical Asian” ECs, Asian students are still at a disadvantage.</p>