<p>If you’re talking about a very small campus, the racial/ethnic/religious mix might be important to you for reasons pertaining to dating. A significant number of people do not date outside of their own racial/ethnic/religious group. So if most of the students on a campus are members of groups you don’t belong to, and the campus is small, it limits the number of people whom you can date.</p>
<p>This is especially true if YOU are a person who does not wish to date outside your own racial/ethnic/religious group.</p>
<p>But I can’t see why this would be an issue at a large place like Berkeley. Even if you are a member of one of the smaller racial/ethnic/religious groups there, the absolute number of potential dates available is still quite high.</p>
<p>And by the way, I don’t think it is racist for individuals to decide to date only within their own group. For some people, their heritage is such a key component of their identity that they would not be willing to marry someone who didn’t share that heritage. Some people avoid dating anyone whom they could not marry.</p>
<p>There are quite a few reasons, culturally speaking, why the girls in the college age generation do not want to date asian males, and it has nothing to do with looks or skin color and everything to do with sexism. </p>
<p>My d’s both have very diverse friendship groups, and, in fact, it is the asian young women who want the least to do with dating asian boys. There is an inequality in these households, especially first generation, which these girls cannot wait to escape. Is that racist? A racist response to a sexist culture? What an interestingly American dilema.</p>
<p>Asiana 222 New York-Seoul, Korea block time is about 14 hours (~6900 miles)
Asiana 235 Chicago-Seoul, Korea block time about 13 hours (~6200 miles)
Asiana 214 San Francisco-Seoul, Korea block time is about 12-13 hours (~5600 miles)
Asiana 202/204 Los Angeles-Seoul, Korea block time is about 13 hours (~6000 miles)</p>
<p>In other words, the difference in distance is negligent (polar route-east coast/Asia flights fly due north, across northern Canada, then fly due south over Japan then on to wherever they’re going-well so do west coast/Asia flights but they skip the Canada part). I don’t think distance can justify why Asians prefer the west coast-the distance in terms of flight time is negligent. Now it may have explained migration patterns before nonstop air travel to Asia however, since the polar route across the pacific was only around as long as air travel has been around (most planes stopped over at Anchorage back in the stone age when they couldn’t fly nonstop).</p>
<p>Historically back in prehistoric times before the age of air travel, people had to take boats across the pacific and that would perhaps explain why there are more established Asian communities in California. Because the first port of entry for them was SF usually. You know, the same way the Irish settled int Boston, since their first port of entry was nearby NY.</p>
<p>Anyways, Asian students I think fall into two categories-the ones that want to stay close to their families and near large Asian communities, and the ones that want nothing to do with their Asian side and want to get as far away from them as possible. Neither side is wrong or bigoted or racist or ignorant or anything else, it’s just a matter of preference.</p>
<p>Btw, someone born and raised in Asia is different from an Asian American that immigrated here when they were older (1st gen) and they’re different from an Asian American that immigrated here at a younger age (1.5 gen), and they’re different from the ones born and raised here (2nd+ gen). The way they think, the way they act, the way they speak, will all be different. I don’t think you can lump them all into one category.</p>
<p>Actually, from the people i know, distance is HUGE factor in deciding to go to the west coast. Nearly all of my parent’s friends who are asian choose to send their kid to schools on the west coast because of that very reason, followed by weather.</p>
<p>too northern
too southern
too small
too large
too remote
too urban
too Greek/frat
too sporty/athletic
too gay
too white
too preppy
too christian
too catholic
too conservative
too liberal
too geeky
too much partying
don’t like the town, city, region, state…
don’t like the architecture, buildings are too old, buildings are too new</p>
<p>You are entitled to choose your match based on what fits you.</p>
<p>Sure. But if one of the criteria you use to define “fit” is to avoid or minimize having to go to school with members of a certain race then you are still a racist. You may not like the label but you will have earned it.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is racist. If diversity is important to you and you want many kinds of people to surround you, then a school of any one color would not be a good environment for you.</p>
<p>Funny, we moved to our area because there were a lot of asians here, and we are not asian. We felt that the asian culture is generally very strong on educational quality. Thus, we wanted a school with lots of asians.</p>
<p>Choose a school where you fit in, where you feel comfortable. Many people are turned off by schools that “lack diversity”–i.e.–“too white.” I wouldn’t worry about “racism” in choosing a college. . . it is a personal choice for ANY reason. Don’t like school colors? Can’t stand southern accents? Not enough trees on campus? Tour guide had weird shoes? Whatever.</p>
<p>Here is the breakdown from the most recent University of California brochure. </p>
<p>These are Asian kids by ethnicity. They are not international students as UC doesn’t take a large number of international UG students.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley:</p>
<p>41.6% Asian
30.8% White</p>
<p>UC Davis</p>
<p>40.0% Asian
35.1% White</p>
<p>UC Irvine</p>
<p>52.2% Asian
23.4% White</p>
<p>UCLA</p>
<p>38.2% Asian
33.3% White</p>
<p>UC Riverside</p>
<p>40.1% Asian
17.7% White</p>
<p>UC San Diego</p>
<p>48.6% Asian
26.7% White</p>
<p>Only UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz have more whites than Asians. </p>
<p>Santa Barbara</p>
<p>16.7% Asian
51.0% White</p>
<p>UC Santa Cruz</p>
<p>21.5% Asian
49.9% White</p>
<p>To limit yourself to a school with few Asians means limiting yourself to two of the UC campuses. </p>
<p>As I said before Asians are at the top of the class in high school and score highest on the SAT tests. These are American kids of Asian descent, not international students. To be racist and not go to a school where there are ‘too many’ Asians is just shooting yourself in the foot and excluding yourself from the top UC campuses.</p>
<p>I think dating can have a lot to do with it. For example, if you are only wanting to date people from the same religious groups as you, I doubt that a Jewish person would want to go to Notre Dame or that a Catholic would want to go to Brandeis. The same thing goes with ethnicity. I have known people who don’t want to date non-Koreans or non-Chinese. I assume that at least some students want to date people who they find acceptable marriage partners eventually.</p>
<p>That’s the question. Is it racist to look at those schools and decide for that reason alone you don’t want to go to that school? By the way, I’m not talking about myself or my kids. This was a decision another poster made when reviewing schools. I thought it was racist. </p>
<p>But maybe it’s just fear of not fitting in culturally? I know I would not feel comfortable at overwhelmingly white schools in the south. As an African American, the south and I just don’t go together culturally, etc. Looking at Tatin’s list of schools in California (#53), I don’t know if I could be happy and feel accepted at a school so heavily Asian. Would I be accepted and have friends? Dates? So maybe it’s not racist.</p>
<p>Maybe this is a California situation and not applicable elsewhere but…if you are a top student at a California urban school you hang around with a lot of Asians because they are also in the AP classes, the honors classes, the honors clubs, etc. etc. They are involved in the same activities. There is little race segregation. At a recent birthday party my daughter attended with her group of friends there were whites, Asians, and Middle Easterners. There were Jews and Christians. Probably a Muslim or two, I don’t ask. California students are used to this and this is their normal.</p>
<p>I agree and I admit that I have thought more about the religious composition of schools than the racial/ethnic mix. I was raised in a very conservative religious denomination and I don’t want my kids to apply to any very conservative religous schools…</p>
<p>I think there is a significant differenct between too many Asians (for a non-Asian) and not enough Asians (for an Asian). I think it’s very reasonable to want to have a certain critical mass of people in your own group, whether it is ethnic, religious, or anything else. Too many is a different story. It seems to me that it might be reasonable if too many means overwhelmingly many–I don’t think it’s intolerant for a non-Mormon to be hesitant about attending BYU. But is it reasonable to simply prefer to be in the majority? I don’t know about that.</p>
<p>“too” this or that…kids cross off schools for various reasons…</p>
<p>why dont we see posters getting riled about
too white
too regional
too christian
too catholic</p>
<p>…frankly we don’t see those…</p>
<p>However, we do see people all PC and upset when a kid posts about
too asian
too gay</p>
<p>And as far as wanting to be in the “majority”
Consider there are historically black schools…one student might want that as it opens up options etc and for another student it may be a poor fit…
so wanting to be in the majority may be a criteria…</p>
<p>…Considering dating options etc too…fit means alot…
so the OP may find that being in a school that is heavily leaning to one demographic, its the wrong fit and “too asian” doesn’t make it a racist thing…</p>
<p>I would caution people to not throw stones and judge the OP on that</p>