The Asians in Admissions Hoax...

Applying to College
1

<p>It seems that here on CC there is a general craze of assuming that being asian is a huge disadvantage in college admissions. But if people would just take a second to think, they'd realize it wasn't being Asian at all.</p>

<p>Universities don't want an overwhelming proportion of One-sided math STUDENTS. and asians are disproportionately sheer math-oriented, they disproportionately take the hit for that. </p>

<p>Now if only people on CC would notice that, its kind of a duh moment.</p>

<p>---Feel free to comment.</p>

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<p>hail to captain obvious</p>

<p>---posted by firefox, a male junior member who joined in jun 2007 with 12 threads and 290 posts</p>

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<p>haha that was productive...</p>

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<p>firefox is funny, and right at the same time.</p>

<p>OP,what a noob. you wasted a whole thread just to state the obvious. congrats.</p>

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<p>"Universities don't want an overwhelming proportion of One-sided math STUDENTS"</p>

<p>Do you mean 800 on SAT math or 5 on AP Calc? Students with 800 SAT math in 11th or 12th grade or 5 on AP Calc are not really special. They are not necessarily math wizards.</p>

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<p>well i would hope it would be obvious, but a lot of people dont seem to think so...</p>

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<p>I don't think so. It's more than having a high concentration of math-oreinted students. Asians are held to higher standards because they are OMR's.</p>

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<p>and What would be the reason behind that? what would a university gain from having less asian students?</p>

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<p>Many colleges (not all) are also looking for ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. In other words, it could certainly hurt if an Asian is applying to a college with a lot of Asians and/or Asian applicants.</p>

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<p>like the Ivys because the Int'l students don't fly halfway around the world to go an unprestigious university..</p>

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<p>Many colleges make their judgement in the end wholey on your race or birthplace, so some ppl are just destined to get rejected while others accepted because of their race.</p>

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<p>^"destined to get rejected" that's nice to hear....not.</p>

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<p>Asians generally have high GPA's, SAT scores, and are overrepresented at top colleges. </p>

<p>So you'll be just fine if you don't fit the above profile.</p>

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<p>no, not really. </p>

<p>some people just want to believe that the reason they are getting rejected is beyond their control, because theyre asian. And in some ways it is beyond their control, because people cant help if their simply math-oriented. But its not the fact that colleges dont want too many asians, they just dont want too many of those solely math oriented students.</p>

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<p>That's completely untrue</p>

<p>Colleges decide how many asians they want just like they decide how many black people they want or white people or w/e race you are. Otherwise AA wouldn't play a role, but since it does, that means the whole race thing is the factor.</p>

<p>Obviously the interests play a equal role as well usually. But a Black math-person would easily get accepted over a better at math asian person.</p>

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<p>Tyler09, if asians are just one-sided math students, what are african americans?</p>

17

<p>Ok, I don't know about you guys, but I am kinda tired of seeing the same threads repeated over and over again. Whether you are Asian or African American or White really isn't something that is in your control. What you can control however, is how you do in school and how willing you are to work hard to get into your top choice school. Do I think that it's odd to count race as a factor? Yea, to a certain extent, but w/o doing that, you would either have a school dominated by one race, doesn't matter which race but the percentages would be overwhelming. You can't have a school with just 4.0, 2400 students either. Can't have all legacies and athletes either. So, there is really no way to find out why one student was admitted over another. I think it's better to focus on what you can control, and if you don't get in, its not because you weren't qualified and you shouldn't blame it on your race either b/c the truth of the matter is, in essense there is no definitive answer.</p>

<p>btw, I am a rising senior applying to college this year and I am an Asian who is applying to some of the top schools. Good luck to everyone!</p>

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<p>tyler –
[quote]
It seems that here on CC there is a general craze of assuming that being asian is a huge disadvantage in college admissions. But if people would just take a second to think, they'd realize it wasn't being Asian at all.</p>

<p>Universities don't want an overwhelming proportion of One-sided math STUDENTS. and asians are disproportionately sheer math-oriented, they disproportionately take the hit for that. </p>

<p>Now if only people on CC would notice that, its kind of a duh moment.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I must say that I am quite impressed by the careful analysis (not to mention research of actual facts) that tyler has shown in coming to his/her “conclusion” (must not have taken more than a “sec”).</p>

<p>Yes – an overwhelming percentage of Asian students are math-oriented students which is why the most popular major for Asian students at CUNY (who are more apt to fit the “stereotypical” Asian profile in that 82% are foreign born) is Business Management (31%).</p>

<p>At another school with a large Asian student body, UIC, the top two majors are biological sciences and business. </p>

<p>At UC Riverside (43% Asian student body) – the two most popular majors are Psychology and General Studies.</p>

<p>Hmm - and how is this different from that of the general student body?</p>

<p>Not much - according to a study done by the Princeton Review, the most popular major is Business, followed by Psych - with Biology placing 4th (3rd is elementary education).</p>

<p>At UC-Berkeley (43% Asian student body) – a comprehensive survey was done with regard to the fields that students were planning in pursuing after getting their degree.</p>

<p>92 (1.2%) Accountant
154 (2.0%) Advertising, Marketing or Public Relations Specialist
229 (3.0%) Architect or Landscape Architect
158 (2.1%) Banker, Investment Banker, Stockbroker or Financial Analyst
201 (2.7%) Biotechnology researcher
311 (4.1%) Business Executive or CEO
143 (1.9%) Business Owner or Proprietor
39 (0.5%) Business Sales/Buyer
317 (4.2%) College Professor or Instructor
118 (1.6%) Computer Programmer
59 (0.8%) Dentist
29 (0.4%) Educational Administrator
278 (3.7%) Educator (Early, Elementary or Secondary School, including special education and counseling)
138 (1.8%) Chemical Engineer or Chemist
136 (1.8%) Computer Software Developer or Engineer
153 (2.0%) Electrical Engineer
168 (2.2%) Mechanical Engineer
196 (2.6%) Other Engineer
91 (1.2%) Environmental Scientist
101 (1.3%) Foreign Service Officer or Diplomat
26 (0.3%) Graphic Artist or Web Designer
27 (0.4%) Human Resource Specialist or Career Counselor
80 (1.1%) Journalist or Photo-journalist
47 (0.6%) Judge
31 (0.4%) Law Enforcement/Criminologist
647 (8.5%) Lawyer
38 (0.5%) Broadcast Media Professional
25 (0.3%) Military Service (career)
81 (1.1%) Non-profit Administrator
43 (0.6%) Nurse or Medical Technician
58 (0.8%) Optometrist
55 (0.7%) Performer (Actor, Musician, Entertainer)
112 (1.5%) Pharmacist
20 (0.3%) Physical Therapist or Speech Pathologist
669 (8.8%) Physician
49 (0.6%) Politician
42 (0.6%) Producer/Filmmaker/Director
17 (0.2%) Psychiatrist
153 (2.0%) Psychologist
67 (0.9%) Public Servant
68 (0.9%) Social Scientist
250 (3.3%) Scientific Researcher
63 (0.8%) Social Worker
26 (0.3%) Veterinarian
33 (0.4%) Visual artist/ Photographer
133 (1.8%) Writer
1029 (13.6%) I have no idea whatsoever
574 (7.6%) Other (please specify below)</p>

<p>Hmmm – despite the minority-majority of Asian students, it seems quite varied to me.</p>

<p>And mind you, Asian students who attend CUNY, UIC and UC-Riverside tend to be those who come from recent immigrant families on the lower end of the socio-economic scale – Asian students more apt to fit the “Asian student stereotype”.</p>

<p>The majority of Asian students who apply and attend the elite private universities tend to be 2nd, 3rd, 4th+ gen Americans and/or those who have grown up in affluent and predominantly white suburbia (and are no different with regard to their white counterparts in interests).</p>

<p>And I guess, according to tyler, all those Asian students who end up going to law school or business school are nothing but “math-oriented geeks”.</p>

<p>In addition, I guess all those Asian-American students attending schools like FIT (over 12%) are just frustrated math-oriented geeks.</p>

<p>
[quote]
well i would hope it would be obvious, but a lot of people dont seem to think so...

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Notwithstanding the facts, I guess it is “obvious”.</p>

<p>Plus, the Ivies aggressively pursue students from black immigrant families (from Africa and the Caribbean), students, who stereotypically, are "math-oriented".</p>

<p>
[quote]
and What would be the reason behind that? what would a university gain from having less asian students?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Uhh, you know, there is such a thing as “white flight” </p>

<p>If one switched the profile of Jewish students for that of Arab students (1.5% of student pop., top scorers, etc.) – would schools like Penn, Yale and Harvard have Arab students comprising 30, 29 and 26% of the their student body, respectively?</p>

<p>Or what if one substitutes non-White Hispanics or blacks?</p>

<p>Btw, at Wellesley, Asians comprise 29% of the student body (I guess Wellesley isn't interested in "well-rounded" students).</p>

19

<p>
[quote]
Many colleges (not all) are also looking for ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. In other words, it could certainly hurt if an Asian is applying to a college with a lot of Asians and/or Asian applicants.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Uhh, Asians comprise one of the most diverse groups ethnically, culturally and socio-economically (and that’s taking into account all the “whitewashed” Asians) – much more than Jews.</p>

<p>Funny, how this is the argument these universities use in defending their rationale for admitting significantly higher percentages of black students who have immigrated from Africa and the Caribbean.</p>

<p>
[quote]
no, not really. </p>

<p>some people just want to believe that the reason they are getting rejected is beyond their control, because theyre asian. And in some ways it is beyond their control, because people cant help if their simply math-oriented. But its not the fact that colleges dont want too many asians, they just dont want too many of those solely math oriented students.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Aside from the fact that your assertion that Asian students = math oriented has been debunked, the irony of this whole thing is that the US isn’t producing enough students who go into engineering, math and the hard sciences – which is why institutions of higher learning have to import thousands from China and India.</p>

<p>In addition, it's at schools like Harvard and Princeton where there isn't any real diversity with regard to majors.</p>

<p>At Harvard, 38% of the students major in Social Sciences.</p>

<p>At Berkeley, the most popular major is also Social Sciences – but with a significantly smaller hold at **20%<a href="in%20the%20heartland%20at%20B10%20state%20universities,%20there%20is%20much%20more%20diversity%20in%20majors%20with%20the%20largest%20majors%20taking%20into%20account%20LESS%20than%2020%">/b</a>.</p>

<p>At Princeton, 5 majors (including economics, history and politics) have comprised the area of study for 40-45% of the student body – not much diversity there.</p>

<p>crzy -
[quote]
Ok, I don't know about you guys, but I am kinda tired of seeing the same threads repeated over and over again. Whether you are Asian or African American or White really isn't something that is in your control. What you can control however, is how you do in school and how willing you are to work hard to get into your top choice school. Do I think that it's odd to count race as a factor? Yea, to a certain extent, but w/o doing that, you would either have a school dominated by one race, doesn't matter which race but the percentages would be overwhelming. You can't have a school with just 4.0, 2400 students either. Can't have all legacies and athletes either. So, there is really no way to find out why one student was admitted over another. I think it's better to focus on what you can control, and if you don't get in, its not because you weren't qualified and you shouldn't blame it on your race either b/c the truth of the matter is, in essense there is no definitive answer.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>And Jews, African-Americans, women, etc. have all just sat in their hands and just accepted the fact that they couldn’t do anything about things they couldn’t control.</p>

<p>As for "domination", Jews are vastly overrepresented at the Ivies (particularly at Penn, Yale and Harvard, 30-26%) despite making up only 1.5% of the student body (this overrepresentation is at many times the multiple of that for Asians). </p>

<p>It wasn’t that long ago when the % of Jews at the Ivies were artificially capped.</p>

20

<p>You are so right, k&s! Asians think they have it bad, but it sounds like its really the WASPS who are discriminated against in the Ivies! Isn't it time they took a stand on this, too?</p>