Asian-Americans just want fairness

As students prepare their college applications this fall, their minds are filled with a combination of hope, excitement and dread. For high school students in particular, the thought of college applications and acceptances looms large. For high-achieving students, the primary purpose of 12th grade is to prepare for the gauntlet of SATs, applications and interviews that will soon engulf them.

In jockeying to get accepted, students of all races face anxiety and fear; however, for many Asian-Americans, typical college admissions fear and anxiety is compounded by several factors.

First, our families place a large cultural emphasis on educational excellence and prestige. Second, the systemic policy of affirmative action blatantly discriminates against Asian-Americans who would otherwise “overrepresent” top Ivy League schools. Harvard University, for example, is in the throes of fighting a lawsuit filed in 2014 alleging that an Asian-American must score 450 points higher on the SAT to have the same chance of admission as a Black applicant. Because of this unequal treatment, there is significantly more pressure on Asian-Americans to excel in academics.

Jordon Guo, a high school senior from Maryland, tells me that he has been told many times by his Asian parents that “[the college application process] is one of the most important times of his life.” Stress and anxiety pepper his routine as he prepares his resume, transcripts, essays, interviews and more in the hopes of getting into one of the Ivy League schools or at least another top-tier university. He feels his future is dependent on which college he gets accepted to.

An analysis of Harvard admissions research found that Asian-Americans, on average, do better than any other race or ethnicity when it comes to academics. They have higher SAT/ACT scores, higher cumulative grade-point averages, and take more rigorous courses such as honors and Advanced Placements.

Although Asian-Americans surpass their peers in terms of academics, the number of Asian-Americans being accepted into top schools does not proportionately correlate with their outstanding academic performance. In fact, Harvard’s own 2013 analysis revealed that if Asians were not discriminated in admissions, they would make up 43% of Harvard’s student body. Instead, they made up 19% at the time the lawsuit was filed.

I do not mean to suggest that there is no value to a college going out of its way to ensure a diverse class. But it’s incumbent on us to remember the real young people harmed when we discard more objective, meritocratic admissions systems.

I recently interviewed Michael, another Asian-American young person. I asked him what he felt prior, during and after the college application process as an Asian-American student. He immediately brought up affirmative action. Michael told me, “I felt very cautious, if that’s even the right word. My applicant profile seemed strong to me, yet I constantly lowered my expectations due to my race and how policies like affirmative action actively hinder Asian-Americans’ chances at some of the elite institutions.”

He continued: “I think affirmative action, the way it is currently implemented, is wrong and should be eliminated, or at the very least adjusted. It treats Asian-Americans as a monolithic population, but we know that’s not the case... One may be a wealthy Chinese immigrant whose parents have access to endless resources such as SAT tutoring, networking for internships, etc. Another may be a Chinese immigrant whose parents work 18 hours a day to put food on the table and pay rent. They have no access to tutoring — let alone cannot afford it — and do not have a stable house life. Treating these people as similar to any extent is wrong.”

Michael believes that affirmative action should be modified to account for socioeconomic status rather than race. He also feels like he had to do something special or extraordinary to stand out so that he was not immediately perceived and labeled as a “stereotypical Asian-American applicant.” To do so, he held three leadership positions and was involved in a multitude of extracurriculars.

Michael’s experience correlates with Harvard’s recent revelations that they employ a “personality score” to grade applicants on characteristics like leadership, likability, humor and friendliness, characteristics on which they score Asian-Americans lowest out of all groups despite comparatively high alumni interview and teacher recommendation reports. (Court documents also showed that Harvard internally investigated its admissions policies in 2013 and discovered bias against Asian-American applicants.) It seems that no matter what Michael tried to do to “break the box,” Harvard saw an overachieving striver unworthy of its mantle.

If race-based affirmative action is not stopped or cut back, the discrimination against Asian-Americans will only get worse as a narrow and exclusionary understanding of diversity, rather than merit, becomes the new standard for college admissions.