8 Asians

Do Asians have to work harder to get into an Elite College?

By Jeff | Thursday, October 15, 2009 | Comments


A mother called up the admissions officer of a local private high school.
“How can I best position my daughter to get into your high school?” she asked.
“What grade is she in?” replied the admissions officer.
“Fourth grade,” said the mother.
“Too late,” said the admissions officer.

That admissions officer recounting this story at a high school information night said with a grin that the mother went nuts.  We knew that he was joking, but in the same room were an Asian family who dragged along what looked to be a fourth grade girl and fifth grade boy. Why were the Wife and I were at the high school information night?  Number One Son will be applying to the local private high schools in about a year, and some of the best known private high schools in Silicon Valley were giving presentations and other information.

(flickr photo credit: Joe’s Photo Dump)

It may seem both extreme and crazy, but that Asian family might have the right idea.  According to this US News and World Report article, Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade calculated that for students with similar grades, test scores, athletic ability, and family background, whites were three times as likely as Asian students to get in an elite college.  When I first read that, I got pretty angry.  Do I have to push my kids three times harder than white kids just to keep up?  I calmed down when I realized that there are a number of caveats to this study.  The study did not factor in extracurricular activities other than athletics.  Mitchell Chang, a professor of higher education at UCLA, says in the article that Asian students might be less likely to participate in certain kinds of extracurricular activities and that Asian parents push their children to apply to big name schools.  Also, Espenshade’s data from the 80’s and 90’s deals with elite colleges – what about the next tier of schools?  I wish there was data about those.

Still, I have to admit that I am a bit spooked by all of this.  I don’t think that those mitigating factors I mentioned explain away all of that three to one advantage.  The Daughter will be applying to colleges next year, and I feel pangs of guilt that I let her drop out of Kumon a couple of years ago and didn’t make her to do club sports back when she was younger.  Remembering her experience applying to the local private high schools (there are entrance exams and of course, test prep courses for that exam), it’s going to be a stressful time next year for Number One Son.  On top of that, The Daughter will be going to waiting for college acceptance letters at the same time.  Spring of 2011 will not be a happy time.  Before then, I’ll probably end up reading Espenade’s forthcoming book Not Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal, that has more details from his study.
(Hat tip to John)

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  • timat8asians
    Based on my own experience, I absolutely believe Asians have to work harder to get into elite schools. I went to college in the '80s and while I was accepted and two out of three Ivy League schools I applied to, at the third where I was rejected, the others from my high school that got accepted were white, had lower scores, and about equal in activities. I know it's anecdotal, so take it for what its worth.
  • I've heard as much, although... I can't point to anything solid that says "YES, Asians definitely are held to a higher standard for college admissions.

    But, it's an intriguing issue. I just went on a quick search for some articles to try to find out how this may impact college enrollment in California.

    From (what appears to be) a very conservative leaning source...

    "With the enactment of California's Proposition 209 in 1996, outlawing racial discrimination in college admissions, Asian enrollment at UC campuses has skyrocketed. UC Berkeley student body is 42 percent Asian students; UC Irvine 55 percent; UC Riverside 43 percent; and UCLA 38 percent. Asian student enrollment on all nine UC campuses is over 40 percent. That's in a state where the Asian population is about 13 percent."

    The full article is here...

    http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=5580

    Just a random guess... but assuming that there is no racial discrimination in the admissions process... IF it's also 3 times harder for Asians to get accepted into college in California...

    My first instict is to believe that it would be primarily related to athletics (actually the money involved in athletics)... Only because I BELIEVE college athletics are a relatively large revenue source for most colleges (though I have no information to back that up).

    I'd wonder how those enrollment numbers compare to the number of Asians involved in "big money" college sports... Football, baseball, basketball and such.

    OR, it may be interesting to see the total of Asian female admissions versus white female admissions (since I don't believe revenue is particularly large for women's athletic programs).
  • cathnguyen
    I think it's definitely possible that Asians have to work harder to get into an elite college.

    You also have to consider representation - both over and under - representation.

    To take an elite college like Harvard for example, the ethnic makeup of Harvard's undergrad population is as follows: Black 8%, Hispanic 8%, White 48%, Asian 18%. The ethnic makeup of the US population consists of Black 13%, Hispanic 15%, White 74%, Asian 4.5%.

    So Asians are overrepresented at Harvard, while the other groups are underrepresented. And a similar pattern is found at other elite colleges.

    Furthermore, if you break down the White population at Harvard, you'll find that Jews are around 30%[pdf] of the Harvard undergrad population, which means that non-Jewish White Christians are about 18% of the Harvard undergrad population. Jews are around 3% of the US population, whereas non-Jewish White Christians are about 70% of the US population. And again this pattern seems to hold at other elite colleges.

    So as far as representation is concerned, broadly speaking Asians are overrepresented while all other groups are underrepresented at elite colleges. To be precise, Asians and Jews are quite dramatically overrepresented, while the other groups are underrepresented, with non-Jewish White Christians most underrepresented out of all.

    These patterns generally hold for the most prestigious, elite colleges. The less elite, less prestigious the university, the less likely you will see such patterns.
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