The idea that underrepresented minorities are admitted on "lower standards" depends on the assumption that test scores and grades are the exclusive standards. Admissions to competitive schools are so much more complex. Student A with a 4.0 denied admission in favor of Student B with a 3.5 might seem outrageous at first glance, until someone starts asking the right questions: Is there any evidence of grade inflation in A's school? Did A take less rigorous classes? Did A and B apply to the same program? (I can tell you, while I got into Carnegie Mellon for undergrad, there was no chance I would have been admitted to their Computer Science program.) Did A have the opportunity to take more AP classes than B, and did A's high school inflate AP grades?
Virginia Kim
University of Chicago graduate
While the achievement from immigrant to blue-chip school in only one generation is astonishing, Korean Americans are rarely taught at home the values that these top schools purportedly espouse: self-reliance, independent and creative thought, community service and leadership. An enormous part of one's education in college happens outside the classroom, beyond a professor's lecture and as a result of the contributions of students from different cultural, political, geographical and socioeconomic backgrounds. Asian applicants certainly deserve to be evaluated and admitted based upon the same criteria as everyone else, but I also wouldn't choose a school that was made up of 100 percent of them. Even if it was Harvard.
Anne Soh
Wellesley graduate
I find it hard to believe that our entire community is educationally successful when a significant portion of southeast Asians live under the poverty line. I also disagree with the insinuation that other cultures do not value education as much as the Asian American community. In my lifetime, I have met students of all cultures who take a full load of classes and work several jobs to pay for their education, including Asian Americans. Each of those students truly deserved their place in their universities.
Huy N. Tran
San Jose State University student
