<p>I am an Asian female, so whenever I talk to my White American friends they think I have a hook for being a "minority" and whenever I talk to my any of my male friends they think I have an advantage for being "female."</p>
<p>Now. I really hate when people assume these things that just because of my gender or ethnicity that I had the upper hand during admissions. Even after we've all been admitted. I don't think being Asian is helpful in college admissions because it's an "overrepresented minority" but I think this has been discussed enough. </p>
<p>Just to ease my soul a bit, I guess, is being female really that big of an advantage? I understand in Engineering and Computer Science, where it's largely saturated with males, that being female is helpful in admissions. But for just general admission, is it more helpful being female than male? My inner feminist gets a tinge offended whenever a male friend says, "But you're female," and I just need some other opinions. </p>
<p>For general admission, being female is more likely to hurt. Most schools have a larger percentage of female applicants and students.</p>
<p>Not a hook. Most colleges have a higher percentage of females as compared to males.</p>
<p>It helps at those schools that have a lot more males applying than females and they are trying to keep the student body from being so lopsided gender wise Such as in STEM programs. Or the Coast Guard. But a lot of the schools are lopsided the other way and the guys have the preference. Wouldn’t call it a hook either. It’s an edge. </p>
<p>Your friends are all wrong. Asian females are not at all underrepresented. Duh.</p>
<p>Yeah, no. I can pretty much guarantee that being an Asian female isn’t going to open any college doors unless you’re looking at a 70/30 school…RIT, RPI, WPI etc…in which case the female might help a bit. </p>
<p>If you’re applying to an EECS type program -as you mentioned, being female can help a bit. However it’s not such a huge boost as your white and/or male friends might think.
As above posters have mentioned, schools with a lopsided male:female ratio might favor qualified female applicants -off the top of my head, CalTech. </p>
<p>Being female is only a hook at women’s colleges. Apply to some (excellent) women’s colleges if you feel like you’re being discriminated against. And while it’s true there are more female than male applicants to colleges, most schools are also admit more female than male applicants these days.</p>
<p>You’re female. You’re Asian. Can’t change it, Deal with it. Find a nice selection of reaches, matches and safeties and quit worrying about what “might happen” if you weren’t “Asian female.” Because really, would you rather be someone else?. </p>
<p>Asians are not over-represented at most LACs. So it certainly won’t hurt you at those, and could even help a bit. In general being MALE gives an advantage in college admissions these days except at STEM schools which skew more heavily toward males in the applicant pool.</p>
<p>You may dismiss any Caucasian who thinks you have an advantage as an ignoramus. Feel free to call him or her that. Female applicants may get a slight break in admissions to selective STEM programs, but I’m not sure that Asian women are as underrepresented as others. Asian men are probably at a disadvantage, and - if you scan some threads here on CC - you’ll see that they accept that when deciding where to apply. Very few colleges offer an advantage to male applicants. If you study acceptance rates on other sites, like College Prowler, they break them down by gender. Every school I looked at had near-identical acceptance rates for men and women, and simply operated with a built-in gender imbalance. Perhaps Harvard accepts a slightly higher percentage of women than men, but the difference is pretty insignificant, and there is probably no meaningful disparity in academic qualifications. Apart from STEM subjects, girls just tend to be better students. This has always been true - they mature earlier, and are likelier to sit still and do as they’re instructed as teenagers. If you look at high school honor rolls, girls predominate. You have better things to do than listen to people make dismissive comments. Good luck. </p>
<p>Being Asian has disadvantage at most top schools. Being a female may have a small advantage at some engineering schools. Being an Asian female may balance out the advantage.</p>
<p>One of the interesting things about affirmative action is that many of the men who are so staunchly opposed to it have no idea that they themselves are beneficiaries. I’ve seen plenty of references to this, here is one:
<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/03/27/admit#ixzz30mA6Rzgg”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/03/27/admit#ixzz30mA6Rzgg</a></p>
<p>“Britz, the admissions dean at Kenyon College, wrote that her institution gets far more applications from women than from men and that, as a result, men are “more valued applicants.” Britz discussed a female candidate who was considered borderline by the Kenyon team but who – had she been a he – would have been admitted without hesitation.
…
In 1999, the University of Georgia was sued by a white woman for its use of an admissions formula that gave extra points for being male and/or a minority applicant.” </p>
<p>At a tech college, I’m sure the opposite is true, but in general, it’s better to be male.</p>
<p>Being Female is not a hook.</p>
<p>At Georgia Tech, CMU, some other engineering programs and such other places/ programs where there is a shortage of women, yes, it is a hook.</p>
<p>My GC told me that Asian females have it the worst with this admissions process (on the whole). However, like previous posters have said, it’ll be helpful at some places, like technology schools/programs and LACs.</p>
<p>There was a thread a while ago where the transcripts from an accepted female and rejected male for a top tier school were compared, and there were opinions about it not being fair. The assumption that someone got accepted because of gender or race is insulting to all of the hard work they put into their academics. </p>