No. Asian is an adjective describing a continent.
It’s also a race.
@epiphany Asian is indeed a race.
As defined by the government of the U.S., the racial groups are: White, Black or African-American, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.
You may qualms against it as it groups most of the people from an entire continent (Many peoples of the Middle East are counted in the White category) but that is because race is inherently irrational as an idea. Alternatively, you may be confusing race with ethnicity, of which I believe only Native Hawaiian crosses over as both.
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I’m not confusing anything with anything else, but you are confusing the U.S. government as the source of all biological facts.
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Quick thing.
If I choose “prefer not to answer” for the race section, but my name and the activities that I participate in “reveal” that I belong to that race, would the admissions office change my “race” to whatever I am?
Thanks so much @XCjunior2016 and @Nedcone . I think ultimately I identify as American, which could mean any mix of things, and that checking off a box for me doesn’t necessarily mean being entirely connected to or having the appearance of that race, since ultimately I’m identified as a combination of multiple races, despite the color of my skin. This makes sense, and as interracial marriages are increasingly common, there are increasingly more people like me and my siblings.
And culturally, I would probably be white (we ate lasagna for Christmas dinner although we usually eat turkey haha), but I also share connections with my mom’s black side of the family that could culturally identify me as black, and some more distant connections with her Filipino side.
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My son is 50% Hispanic from my side of the family. I was born in Calif and my children in Florida. We are 100% American. I have always considered myself white-hispanic, and now my children do as well(husband is Italian). I speak Spanish, as my parents were born in a different country, but my children do not. My children have been raised with less “hispanic” culture than I. They have no problem self identifying as hispanic americans, although they do not necessarily look like they are. I agree that as people begin to marry different races and nationalities, checking boxes will become more difficult to do.
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“Asian” is just a word. How it is defined by U.S. government, dictionary publishers, or college admissions in terms how its meaning as a ethnicity, race, culture or DNA make up is used is not about biological facts.
I’ve heard Asians are being discriminated against by the adcoms 
@AmberLee2016 For 85% of the colleges in the U.S., Asians are in no way at a disadvantage for applying. They will gladly accept high achieving test/GPA/Rank scorers with few qualms.
I assume now you speak of the top 10-15% then. Once again, Asians are not discriminated against, considering they typically may make up anywhere from 15-25% of the class population despite making up +5% (Including some Asians who are considered mixed race) of the U.S. population.
Now, what may bring this sentiment up is the natural competition for these slots. As Asians are disproportionately applying for a few thousand slots, they either must differentiate themselves or face being cast into the “average high acheiver” pile. Recall adcoms have to debate how you rank not just for others in your school, but against the entire nation. And many do differentiate themselves, as shown by the 20% that get in. But others become bitter and lament about how they were discriminated against in favour of minorities when applying to a school with a 7% acceptance rate because they got a slightly higher score on a 3 hour test than someone else.
In summary, there isn’t discrimination as there is a much larger and more competitive pool that Asians must breach. Be unique to give yourself the best sub 20% chance you can
Actually a form of discrimination against Asians is well documented in a Princeton study and others.
The net is, the average African American accepted into a selective college has an SAT score 230 points lower than his white counterpart. Hispanics are 185 points lower. But Asian Americans, on average, are 50 points higher than the average accepted white kid.
In other words, the spread between an accepted African American and Asian American is 280 points – that’s significant. The “problem” is Asians are just too good of students. Schools that don’t discriminate (like CalTech) find themselves with an inordinately huge Asian population. (FTR, I don’t see that as a problem. In my mind, the smartest, most-motivated and best-rounded students should prevail, period.)
Here’s a LAT article on the subject: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-adv-asian-race-tutoring-20150222-story.html
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^ that might be discrimination if US colleges accepted students based on only SAT scores.
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@ShouldBeWorking As I said, the difference in score on a 3 hour test when most colleges accept holistically is nearly irrelevant. Especially when that difference can consist of getting a range of 10 questions correct or incorrect (This is not even including the subjective Writing section) when considering someone who is committing themselves to 4 years at a university. SAT and the oft ignored ACT rarely represent intelligence as they do access to preparation resources and time. I say this as someone who scored well on the tests.
It’s the reason I detest the argument that an Asian who has a 4.0 and 2400 who doesn’t get into X College had their spot stolen by the 1980 3.8 African American, despite having no information on Essay quality, Interview quality, Disciplinary/Criminal Record, Recommendation(s) quality in addition to EC participation level.
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Post #30
The numbers given in this post are not remotely close to these numbers from Harvard:
http://features.thecrimson.com/2015/freshman-survey/makeup/
Scroll down to “The Application” and click on “SAT by ethnicity”
The vaguely referenced Princeton University study uses statistics from 1993 and 1997. Hard to see its relevance to today’s students. I’m glad Harvard has published some current statistics to counter this “evidence.”
https://www.princeton.edu/~tje/files/webOpportunity%20Cost%20of%20Admission%20Preferences%20Espenshade%20Chung%20June%202005.pdf
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Of course a direct line cannot be drawn between intellect and performance on standardized tests. But to dismiss the gaping void between the subjective components (tests and GPA) is to presume Asian students must be markedly incompetent in their subjective sections of essays and ECs.
The sad reality is, “holistic admissions” is little more than a pass for admissions committees to select students with little scrutiny, nor the burden of defending those selections.
And Classicalmama, I am very interested in your Harvard link, but that webpage is unavailable.
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The Harvard link is in Post #33 and it works fine.
Here’s the data:
Hispanic/Latino: 2174
Black/A-A: 2218
White: 2270
Asian: 2300
South Asian: 2258
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That sure is a 230 point gap.
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@Nedcone 2300-2174 is a 126 point gap.
My D got a 770 rather than an 800 on her last SAT-M by missing one question. When you do the math (pun intended), 126 is statistically insignificant. It 's 1-2 questions on each section, max - for most curves.
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@OHMomof2 Oh I know. I was joking based off of what another poster said.
“The net is, the average African American accepted into a selective college has an SAT score 230 points lower than his white counterpart.”