Hi!
Disclaimer: My question is coming from a very innocent place, and I just want to know how this plays into the “fit” of the school. Not to be racist, just more informed about this decision
I really want to ED 2 to a small liberal arts school in the northeast. However, I come from a predominantly Asian community (Bay Area CA) and have always had a very Asian school demographic. (This doesn’t really make me feel more comfortable per se, it’s just the reality.) I was just wondering if anyone (or their kids) was in my position and went to a school where Asians are a very small minority.
How did that change fell and did it impede on your experience?
Thanks!
Some liberal arts colleges enroll a slightly greater percentage of students of Asian heritage than the percentage of Asians nationally. Entering one of these colleges, then, would be similar to entering greater America, and might represent a desirable experience for this reason.
I think there are many facets of demographics that might or might not affect your college experience. My older daughter went to a university where many of her friends came from families that are wealthier than ours. Sometimes that bugged her, but overall, she loved her college expereince. My younger daughter is now in graduate school, and as a female American citizen, she is in the “minority.” Sometimes she feels as though she doesn’t have much in common with the other students in her cohort. However, I don’t think that has been a decisive factor in her overall feelings about the school.
You’ll be fine. You may bond with Asians easily as you can find common things like food, culture, quirky parents jokes etc to connect . With less Asians, you’ll connect with other people over common things like political ideology, sports, fashion sense, taste in movies, passion to help animals, love of travel, addiction to coffee, admiration of game theory etc. Humans are humans, ethnicity is just one part of who we are, there are many more.
IMHO I think you should visit before you commit (not necessarily before you apply).
My biracial kid’s school is 65% white and 3% Asian. One of the colleges she visited was 70% white and 5% Asian, and she was really surprised by how overwhelmingly white and nondiverse it felt to her, because her high school classes have a higher concentration Asian kids than the high school as a whole does. The colleges that were ~50% white and ~10% Asian felt more comfortable to her. That wasn’t something she’d have known without visiting.
@happymomof1@merc81@rosered55@Riversider@allyphoe I am so so so sorry for the late response! I read the messages earlier but forgot to reply. Thanks for all the input! It made me feel more informed and I ended up ED2ing
@rosered55 I really appreciate that. I’m glad it didn’t impede on her view of the school. I guess there are many factors that could have similar effects, so it’s nice to know that it probably won’t be too impactful. Thank you!!
@Riversider I really like that, thanks! Yeah I feel the same in theory but I wasn’t sure if that’s how it plays out in real life becasue of my homogenous community, but that definitely makes it sound more likely. Thank you!!
@allyphoe oh I hadn’t thought about it in terms of proportions yet, that’s quite interesting. Yeah, during the tours, I for some reason didn’t pick too much on race, but it was also hard to see the true environment for all types of students. For some schools, I heard it might also be overwhelmingly nondiverse, so I didn’t bother touring. Thank you so much for the insight!
