This past Friday, The Wall Street Journal had a book excerpt from Fat Envelope Frenzy: One Year, Five Promising Students and The Pursuit of the Ivy League Prize and one of the five students the book profiles is an Asian-American high school student named Felix Zhang. Zhang has always dreamed of going to Harvard, yet despite his very, very impressive academic and extracurricular credentials, he is worried that he will be discriminated against because he is Asian:
“On the surface, it might seem that Felix is a shoo-in for admission to Harvard. However, as an Asian American, Felix is also a member of a group that is overrepresented in the Harvard applicant pool, which could be a disadvantage in the admissions process. In the past two decades, selective colleges have been repeatedly accused of a bias against Asian Americans, and several students have gone so far as to file official complaints with the federal government at the Office for Civil Rights. No university has ever been convicted of discrimination, but an investigation into the admissions process at Harvard in the early 1990s uncovered a number of offensive remarks written by the staff in regard to Asian American candidates, including glib descriptions such as ‘he’s quiet and, of course, wants to be a doctor.’”
Obviously, this is a very sensitive topic amongst Asian-Americans. There has always been the myth of the model minority amongst Asian-Americans, but the racial categorization has always been a disservice for those Asians who come from lower-income families. I’m still a proponent of affirmative action for traditionally under-represented minorities, but I feel a tension when I know that with a “fixed” number of admission spots to the best universities in the nation, plenty of qualified student applicants will be rejected to their first choice. And this may disproportionately affect Asian-Americans more than any other racial group.
Instead of “racial profiling” applicants, the biggest factor influencing academic achievement I think is based on family income. One thing that I do admire about countries with one single entrance exam to be admitted for college and universities is that there is a clear criteria for admissions - scoring a certain score to be admitted. Though some countries, like Taiwan, are moving more towards the American model of college admissions - striving for more “diversity” - academically, as well as extracurricularly, since talent and intelligence (in all forms) is simply too difficult to measure in a single exam.
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jennifer wrote:
the UC system has side-stepped the affirmative action issue by admissions based on income levels, which I think is a diplomatic way of admitting students without having to base the decision on race or ethnicity.
Posted on 17-Mar-08 at 12:23 pm | Permalink
David wrote:
Read “The Price of Admission” by Daniel Golden, who is a pulitzer prize winning writer for the WSJ. It basically tells you how the system, which was originally instituted to discriminate against Jews, is now being used to discriminate against Asian-Americans. The parallels are uncanny, with all the same stereotypes used for both sets of minorities (”quiet”, “unathletic”, “weak”, “not leadership material”, “all the same”, etc.). Are Asian-Americans discriminated against, yes. Top universities will never publicly release statistics so that they can hide behind a wall of secrecy. The discrimination is even worse at top MBA programs - but don’t even get me started on that.
Posted on 17-Mar-08 at 10:55 pm | Permalink
John wrote:
David - I am aware of “The Price of Admission” - I just haven’t gotten around to buying or borrowing it to read. As for top MBA programs, I went to one… not sure what you are talking about.
Posted on 18-Mar-08 at 12:00 am | Permalink
Ivy Leaguer wrote:
I know this kid. He’s actually a bit of an ass. He plagiarized the essay that got him into Harvard and won him some lofty scholarship. The school found out but he and his mom pleaded their way out.
Also, there’s mad rumors about him cheating on a girlfriend with two other girls.
Posted on 18-Mar-08 at 3:17 am | Permalink
John wrote:
Ivy Leaguer - while what you say may be true, unless there is solid evidence of his plagiarized essay, I’d rather not have people speculate on this. As for Zhang cheating on his girlfriend - well, that’s reality if it is true. Note: I do not know Felix Zhang.
Posted on 18-Mar-08 at 8:05 am | Permalink
Sophia wrote:
re: MBAs. well John, you may have been the lucky one. someone always gets in. but does the same proportion get in that deserve to get in?
=)
You gotta look at the big picture. not just your n of 1.
Posted on 18-Mar-08 at 9:16 pm | Permalink
DJKuulA wrote:
How do you define “deserve” to get in? Top programs like the one John attended accept far fewer applicants than “deserve” to get in based on their academic and personal qualifications.
Posted on 24-Mar-08 at 10:32 am | Permalink
John wrote:
Well, most college admissions in the United States is subjective, i.e. - not based on a specific criteria of GPA and test scores. So I guess one could argue that “deserve” is also subjective.
Posted on 24-Mar-08 at 12:06 pm | Permalink