<p>I know at elite universities Asians are at a disadvantage, but what about LACs?</p>
<p>At some schools some Asians are considered URMs. The Asian backgrounds that are usually considered URMs are recent immigrants from SE Asia (eg. Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia).</p>
<p>My thought is that it is not a disadvantage at most LACs to be Asian, even if you are not from a group considered a URM. I think the Asian applicant pool at LACs is closer to the actual % in the general population (not heavily skewed like it is at elite universities). So I think you don’t get the “knock” for being Asian at most LACs because there is not an over-representation of Asian candidates in the pool. Now… the tippy top LACs (top 3) might be a different story. Maybe someone has some stats on that?</p>
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<p>You can look at the racial breakdown of the student body in the common data set. If the school doesn’t have a disproportionate (in comparison to the population) number of Asian students, the chances are that it won’t be a disadvantage to be Asian.</p>
<p>It is easy to figure out whether you are an URM or ORM for a school. If the Asian percentage is 5-10% then you are an URM and 15% or more you are an ORM.</p>
<p>I think a lot of LACs would love to have more Asian students.</p>
<p>This question has been going around in my head for awhile and I would agree the poster above me… unfortunately a lot of Asians like to apply to top universities that are not pure LACs… They tend to go for like either that or state flagship schools that offer a lot of other things like not just Liberal Arts. I guess not a lot of Asians are into liberal arts?</p>
<p>^That may be. Maybe my son’s roommate at a small southern LAC, who is from China, is an exception. Contrary to stereotypes, he is a CLASSIC liberal-arts kid. He visited for a few days over winter break and he talked a lot about how he is exploring his interests and finding things he is “suited for.” Really, he sounded no different from my son.</p>
<p>What are LACs?</p>
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<p>Actually, Asian Americans are only 5.6% of the US population, so a college that wants to emulate the US ethnic population would likely see Asian Americans as ORM if there are more than that percentage. However, there is significant regional variation, and colleges inevitably have some level of regional appeal.</p>
<p>LAC = “liberal arts college”, which is typically a smaller school that is undergraduate only (or has very few graduate students) and offers only or primarily liberal arts majors (humanities, social studies, natural science), as opposed to preprofessional majors. The usual advantage is smaller faculty led courses at the freshman and sophomore level, but the usual disadvantage is smaller selection and less frequent offering of courses at the junior and senior level (and no graduate level courses for the most advanced undergraduates). A LAC with a convenient cross-registration agreement with a nearby research university may avoid the latter disadvantage.</p>
<p>"Actually, Asian Americans are only 5.6% of the US population, so a college that wants to emulate the US ethnic population would likely see Asian Americans as ORM if there are more than that percentage. "</p>
<p>yes and no. Good LACs want good students and more Asians are better students as a percentage of high school graduates which means they should always be overrepresented at a college. Otherwise, they won’t be reaching 20% or more at top colleges. So if an LAC is ranked high and the Asians are 5.6%, then Asians don’t want to go there as a norm which makes them URMs.</p>
<p>There are many liberal arts colleges that are more than 90 percent white. If they want to increase their diversity statistics and PR, they may be interested in Asian student, both Asian Americans and international students from Asia.</p>
<p>Do they count Asian-Americans and foreign Asian students as the same?</p>
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<p>I think there is a lot of pressure from many Asian parents to attend an Ivy or top research university. Hence the students are not as focused on LAC options.</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>10 char</p>
<p>Agreed with above. When I attended a Williams College info session, someone asked that exact question and their answer was no.</p>
<p>Well Williams College is 10% Asian- what about school which are, let’s say, 2% Asian?</p>
<p>Sorry for any confusion, I just realized that I cross posted w/intparent. My ‘No’ in post #16 was NOT in response to the OP, but to:</p>
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<p>I’m not sure which question Castielyse was answering, hopefully they will come back and clarify.</p>
<p>In regards to local vs foreign Asian students, I’m not really sure. The student at the info session asked about Asian students in general. Sorry! :I</p>