I'm asian applying to college

Applying to College
1

I’m just starting my application process so please forgive me if I get any information wrong (just correct me). I’ve read discussions all across this forum and countless others about this very topic - affirmative action and asians in college. I get it, to some extent. We’re “overrepresented.”

IT SUCKS. Not necessarily because my chances are “lower” of getting into top colleges, but because of the mere fact ALL Asians are grouped together, as if we have similar cultures or values or upbringings or stories.

I’m Vietnamese. My parents and their families grew up working fields, and the only reason I am in America now is because they had no other choice but to leave all their possessions behind during the war, hop on a boat, and pray that they made it ashore ANYWHERE before running out of food. Education has never been a high priority there, like in many SE asian countries, or here, in America.

It’s a very different narrative than some East Asian families who moved to America purely so that their son/daughter could get a good education and offered them the support and resources to do just that. (A broad generalization I know)

The Vietnamese-American population (and others like Laos and Cambodia) have more than double the US average for people with less than a high school degree, and we lag behind the US average for high school degrees or bachelors and higher. That’s just the US average!! Compare us to other Asian-Americans like the Chinese, Korean, or Japanese and the difference is even more pronounced.
https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/AAPI-Vietnamese-factsheet.pdf
Korean: https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/AAPI-Korean-factsheet.pdf

Someone please tell me that colleges take all of this into consideration when evaluating my “asian” demographic. I hate to sound like I’m complaining but it’s just sooooo hard when people say that asians do well naturally because of their values since It was never that easy for me and other Vietnamese kids I know.

I thought affirmative action was meant to help underrepresented people in college and I feel like some asians fit that card despite being “asian.”

Do colleges treat all asians the same or am I just misinformed? Maybe they don’t do it purposefully - but when the CDS only has “Asian” to define an entire continent of cultures, they might have to treat us all the same because every asian kid, despite their backgrounds, will count as just an “asian” kid. I know the Common App asks you about where specifically you’re from but is that something they even take note of?

Does anyone have any insight on this? I’m worried that despite achieving in my own community, it won’t be enough :frowning: pleaseeeeee put my mind at ease

2

When you put down Asian on the Common App, there is a spot to put your specific ethnicity I think. I believe they do note the difference between East Asian/South Asian and Southeast Asian but I’m not entirely positively. If there is any difference, it’s very marginal. Unless you are Hmong, being Vietnamese is not really an advantage.

3

Leverage your situation and look at LACs, where you would be more of a URM.

4

No. Admission committees to not treat all Asian students the same, any more than they treat all other students the same. Your application will be evaluated in comparison to students who have had similar educational opportunities to yours.

5

I’m pretty sure that being asian is a disadvantage when applying to colleges and if anything they have a quota for Asians to limit the number of them

6

You present this as if grouping races together, despite ethnicity/background, is something specifically put in place to group Asians together. You say that “the CDS only has “Asian” to define an entire continent of cultures, they might have to treat us all the same because every asian kid, despite their backgrounds, will count as just an “asian” kid” when this is true for any race. For the sake of an example, let’s use black people.

The lives of all black people are different (obviously, as with any other race). Let’s say that someone’s parent grew up in West Africa. Their experience will be different than someone whose parents grew up in Jamaica or someone whose ancestors have lived in America for generations. Yet all of these students would check the black box because this is their race, and simply stating your race does not make, or attempt to make, any assumptions on your ethnicity or past.

If you find your parents’ story to be an important part of who you are, write an essay on it. But writing a College Confidential post isn’t the way to put your mind at ease.

7

@stressinsteph I focused on the grouping of asians together because I’m asian, and my experience is unique to other races (I can’t talk on that behalf of whites, hispanics, or blacks) but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen for other races. From my perspective very rarely does a black kid has ever complained about affirmative action because it is beneficial to them (and it is) because it DOES make assumptions about your past. It makes the assumption that because of your skin and culture, you’ve had a very unique experience with obtaining education and in the case of black people it is assumed that it’s been harder. That you don’t have the same opportunities because of prejudice. That asians are the “model minority” and because of their value on education and the support they have, they should be expected to excel more vs blacks. It make an assumption and that is why affirmative action exists.

I believe affirmative action is a good thing, but its troubling that very rarely does it benefit asians from underrepresented groups because it compares Indian students to Cambodian students.

And that’s another thing. I wanted to write my essay about my family and being asian because of how it has affected me - EVERY person I’ve spoken to (teachers, students, adcoms, parents) have told me not to and that no asian applicant should. I get the impression that as an asian applicant I can’t be proud of my skin and talk about how it has defined me like other students of other races.

(I am sorry if what I said/am saying comes across wrong) I mostly posted on college confidential because I had questions about how being asian was viewed in admissions, and I was hoping to find people who knew more than I about it all

8

Simple, don’t list your ethnicity or race on the Common Application… If you think your name is “too ethnic”, change it.

You say: " IT SUCKS. Not necessarily because my chances are “lower” of getting into top colleges, but because of the mere fact ALL Asians are grouped together, as if we have similar cultures or values or upbringings or stories."

All Europeans are grouped together, yet they range from white like a piece of paper to dark like a brown paper bag. All Africans are grouped together yet really the only economically disadvantaged Africans in the US are refugees or descendants of slaves. So yes, a southern Indian is grouped with a Thai or Laotian. And grouped with an Israeli and Iraqi.

Who isn’t grouped together? Heck, even multiracial people like myself are grouped together, and we can be ANYTHING at all. I was just looking up Eartha Kitt - 1/4 Cherokee, 1/4 black, and 1/2 white and she is “black” because she looked black. I’m Asian and white, but I would fit into the multiracial category as much as she did - are we really that much the same? (yes, we are, we are human)

I am brown, sometimes I am confused with Hispanic but I am not. My Hispanic nephews know not one word of Spanish not taught in K - 6 and they are pale with light brown hair, but they can get their URM boost. But they wouldn’t be mistaken for a laborer while I was mistaken for my own children’s nanny because they look white and I don’t. White Spaniards and Cubans get the URM boost. Poor white people get no URM boost. Herman Cain’s kids get the URM boost.

Life is not fair. You will see CC posters who think that discrimination against Asians is rampant and purposeful, but it is no more rampant or purposeful than discrimination against blacks in the NBA or NFL, or discrimination against white men in corporate America.

Please do write an essay about your family. Do you think a white person can write about their race in an essay? Write about your culture, write about specific episodes of discrimination, fine. I don’t suggest writing about how the world has a conspiracy against Asians, or how some people are ignorant to think you’re Korean when you’re Vietnamese etc.

(and don’t get me started about how within “communities” - “communities” that the mass media considers - whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics - is much worse than most of it outside those communities - that could be an entire other thread)

The only way to get rid of this “problem” is to use socioeconomic class only in college admissions. A school that has 100% of the same race can be more diverse than a school with equal proportions of each race, IF the distribution of socioeconomic status is diverse in the first case and not in the second.

9

Where are you applying? What are your stats? It may not matter at all. If you are low income, consider programs like Questbridge.

10

I don’t know what rhandco is talking about because I’ve never heard of discrimination in the NBA/NFL, and white males dominate corporate America…

But there are definitely programs like Coca-Cola, Gates or Questrbidge that if you apply for may be beneficial to you during the college process because it is income based.

11

The best advice for you, in my opinion, is not to worry about it. If Asians are ORM, it actually means you are being treated like whites, meaning fairly. Just be who you are. If your ECs and interests are very “nonAsian”, great. If not, then that is fine too.

You are who you are. A school will not look at you as “less” bc you check Asian, no matter how many posts you read about that.

If you are a first gen to attend college, it may actually help you. But forget all the “be less Asian” stuff. It’s just silly. If your parent story can be told in a way that tells who YOU, (nit them) are, then tell it. If not, then tell a story of who YOU are…

Chin up. You will do well, just be who you are.

12

I believe if you are Chinese(all the Han people), aKorean, and Indian/Pakistani/Bangladesh then you will be expect to have high stats, because that is a very large group of people, almost 2.8 billion. For some smaller group of Asians, you may not get preferential treatment, but will not be discriminated either.
Plus If you are first generation in college, as in your parents didn’t go to college, you get a small boost. So do your best and you’ll be ok.

13

It depends. If your parents belong to the low income group and you are the first generation college student then you are treated favorably by colleges. I knew two Vietnamese kids in this group admitted to Stanford in the last 5 years. Their parents were hair cutters and nail polishers. I also knew a poor Chinese kid from mainland China admitted to MIT.

14

Thank you so much for the information and help everyone! I’m going to relax and just focus on telling my story and hoping it’ll work out (like all applicants from all races) we’ll see what happens!

15

According to a study at UMich last decade comparing African American, hispanic, white, and Asian in admission stat, there is a clear disadvantage for Asian applicants. So, no. It is not just like white students. But yes, the main reason is because of the competitiveness within the Asian applicants.

16

If you’re afraid of it working against you, the common app does not require you to list any ethnicity.