Title might be slightly misleading and I really didn’t know which thread to put this in but…
I am currently a Chinese-american junior with a 3.5 unweighted g.p.a and 2070 SAT(800 math). My extra-curriculars aren’t fantastic but the highlights are varsity tennis and president of my school’s model UN club next year(one day I’ll win best delegate…hopefully).
If you look at rigor of my schedule from any of my 3 years you would assume that I would be one of those 4.0, 2400 overachievers, which is clearly not the case given my academic profile. At the same time my parents aren’t your typical first generation Asian parents either.
They come from humble beginnings themselves but worked their way to American universities through hard work and being #1 in their class. My mom could very well have been accepted to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, you name it. But she choose some low tier university in Florida to save money. Fast forward all these years and today she is working in Wall street earning around $600,000 an year. My dad was in the same situation and went to a prestigious university in France, I don’t know how much he earns but its somewhere around the low six figures range.
Right now i attend a Northeastern prep school. A lot of my friends have parents who went to prestigious American universities and earn anywhere around low six figures to low seven figures. So they have legacy and come from a rich family.
I know colleges look for applicants who come from more affluent families, but to what extent? I also know that colleges treat Asian-american applicants more harshly than say minorities or Caucasians. So what situation am I in?
Looking through other posts, I should probably post this too
Schedule for this year(Junior): AP physics, AP chem, APUSH, English III honors, Calc AB, Orchestra
Don’t count on high income helping you unless there is a building on the school’s campus you’re applying to named after your family. Frankly, students from higher income families are expected to perform well academically. You did not list any universities which you are applying to, so I can’t give you a full evaluation with regards to your scores and your target schools.
You are correct in that Asian Americans are judged more harshly, especially in STEM majors, than other ethnic groups. Studies have shown that when it comes to applying to top-tier schools, being Asian American is equivalent to approximately a 100 point decrease on your SAT score. Take that statistic with a grain of salt though, there are many factors that come into play.
Really, the only part of the background which you have given that might catch attention from the admission committee is your income. They don’t care about how hard your parents worked, because they’re not the ones applying to college, you are.
Yeah I don’t plan on relying on my parent’s income to help me too much but if it does help me then it is good to know.
Schools I really want to go to are Cornell, NYU(stern), UCLA, Berkeley, and Northwestern. I consider Northeastern and BU more of my safety schools but I’m not sure.
Also, I didn’t mention it before and it might help a little but in addition to my current extra curriculars I passed level 7 of the ABRSM piano examinations, am a member of the school’s Investment club and Indian club, and have been a student teacher at the local Chinese school.
With your stats Northeastern is a high match and BU a match. they are definitely not safeties.