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376 points undefined1 | 4 comments | | HN request time: 0.249s | source
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WholeLottaTrash ◴[] No.22976340[source]
This is very clearly a throwaway. I found my experience as someone born in Asia who moved to the United States at a young age terrible, with regards to college admissions. We lived in a 1 bedroom apartment when we moved here, and didn't really advance more. I took quite literally every AP offered at school and did well, played a Varsity sport, and got a perfect 2400 out of 2400 on the SAT, in addition to various extracurriculars like a well-developed photography portfolio and robotics. I also happened to go to a very good public high school because my parents focused on my education instead of buying a house where they could afford one. I was rejected from every school I applied to, from the most prestigious to even "lowly" and "safe" Cal States, except for one. My sister, several years younger than me, with lesser metrics, ended up at a top 5 school with nearly a full ride in scholarships earned. I don't think it was from a lack of a good essay too, because I won several writing awards as a kid, and wrote many of my friend's college essays too, and they all got in.

I feel like it set me back tremendously in my life in the things that I value. There's a lot of bitterness here, but even more confusion.

Not really sure what else to say.

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jeffdavis ◴[] No.22976404[source]
How did they know you are Asian? Could you have just checked a different box and got in, at least to state schools which don't do interviews?

(I am in no way suggesting that it's right to make people misrepresent their ethnicity to get fair treatment.)

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1. WholeLottaTrash ◴[] No.22976453[source]
My name is a dead giveaway that it is foreign.
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2. TheSpiceIsLife ◴[] No.22976631[source]
Have you seen this?

found that people with Chinese, Indian or Pakistani-sounding names were 28% less likely to get invited to an interview than the fictitious candidates with English-sounding names, even when their qualifications were the same.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/05/job-applications-resu...

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3. WholeLottaTrash ◴[] No.22976656[source]
Thanks for sharing this. Will read. I'm not surprised.
4. jeffdavis ◴[] No.22983040[source]
Do state schools really look at names? It's hard for me to imagine a state school looking at peoples names or pictures and reclassifying the races of applicants. It would be fairly disturbing if they did, in fact.

(Again, I'm not suggesting that you should have to misrepresent your race to be treated fairly. I'm just suggesting that, from a practical standpoint, you could probably avoid discrimination in state school college applications by ticking a box that would be more favorable to you.)