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When my eldest daughter had her visit at Princeton, it was pretty obvious that there was no cap at 5% Asian. On the other hand, why should they? My youngest d
by smoyer 14y ago
When my eldest daughter had her visit at Princeton, it was pretty obvious that there was no cap at 5% Asian. On the other hand, why should they?
My youngest daughter was adopted from Korea, but our family heritage is almost entirely Swiss-German ... She's been part of our family since she was 11 months old, and she loves the ethnic German foods we eat (mostly Pennsylvania-Dutch type cooking), but is also fond of many Korean dishes (such as Bulgogi). What should an admissions office consider her ethnicity? A twist on the classic nature versus nurture conversation.
- argonaut 14y agokyro did not claim there was a 5% cap on the proportion of Asians at schools. He claimed that the admissions pool was drawn out of the top 5% of each ethnic bracket. Those are two different things.
- smoyer 14y agoThanks for pointing that out ... I missed it as I read the article. In that case, I can tell you that the pool of WASP kids (like my daughter) at Princeton consisted of those who had "almost perfect" SAT scores, documented extra-curricular activities, proof of social awareness (best shown by volunteer work with disadvantaged populations) and good interview skills. I'd say it's pretty hard to get into that population as well.
- bradleyjg 14y agoWASP stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestent. It sounds like your daughter doesn't qualify on at least two counts, and even a biological daughter would fail on at least one. N.B. Decendents of the Jutes, Angels, and Saxons who remained behind when those tribes invaded England are not referred to as Anglo-Saxons.
- auctiontheory 14y agoIf this is the same daughter, I think you just told us that she is not a WASP! (Maybe a 'P'!)
- beachstartup 14y ago> WASP kids (like my daughter) white nope anglo saxon nope, and not even if she were your biological daughter. protestant ... maybe. is she religious?
- smoyer 14y agoI was referring to my biological daughter.
- runamok 14y agoI almost made that same mistake. I was thinking "are there even 20 racial groups"? Acceptance rate at Harvard is 5.9% for instance. So you get almost 20x applicants than you can accept.
- argonaut 14y agoActually I'm talking about medical schools, which often have admit rates below 5%. Taking the top 5% of every ethnic group is the same as taking 5% of the entire applicant population, so this only applies to med schools with admit rates below 5%. I'm not talking about undergrad.
- pc86 14y ago> Taking the top 5% of every ethnic group is the same as taking 5% of the entire applicant population Except you get an entirely different applicant pool; if the numbers from the article are accurate, the former gives you far fewer Asians and Whites and far more African Americans and Hispanics than the latter.
- spitx 14y agoAll other things on parity, your daughter stands to edge ahead of her peers applying to elite universities due to her unique upbringing and the element of life experience quotient it adds to her candidacy. Unless of course she is in competition with hordes of similar cases of transplanted adoptees.
- sachingulaya 14y agoThis is what we call surface diversity. The minority student who gets in to Princeton was adopted by white parents or grew up in a wealthy suburb. It's common enough and a noticeable phenomenon.
- girvo 14y agoThat's because Bulgogi is simply amazing. I'm yet to master the recipe. In seriousness: I think they'd classify her as "Asian". Whether that's good or bad, I don't know. I think it's a shame we "need" to classify anyone at all.