Rejected from Virginia publics—am I out of line?

[Anonymous]

4.1 weighted (school does not do UW), maxed out rigor, and involved in activities. Applied as an IR/gov/polisci major to UVA, William and Mary, and Virginia tech and was outright denied by UVA and W&M. VT waitlisted but as far as I know they have no ‘spring waitlist’ program or separate campus like UVA wise you can go to for a year instead.

The only thing I can think of that could be the cause of this is my daughter’s name, which sounds Asian American despite her being Caucasian. Her first name is a name that some people have said is a stereotypical Asian name (think Alice or Christina), and our last name is Lee, which could be either white or Asian Korean.

In our case, it’s white, but people have said in the past when they have seen my daughter’s name but not my daughter (at first meetings, summer camp, etc) that they were expecting an Asian girl based on her name.

My husband thinks I sound like I need to be medicated, but I floated the idea of taking a gap year and changing either my daughter’s first or last name to be more explicitly Caucasian. She was open to it and is very young for her cohort anyway so it wouldn’t make her feel out of place later.

Am I out of line here? I’m not saying that it’s right that there may be a disadvantage for Asian Americans, but I don’t want my daughter to be harmed by any sort of biases.

[Anonymous]

Nice troll attempt. And she wasn't "shut out" of VA state schools, just the top three.

[Anonymous]

OP here.

I wanted to add that the reason for taking this seriously would be to get in-state tuition at a good school, because we can’t afford OOS at comparable quality.

[Anonymous]

😆😆😆😆 You do realize being white or Asian is both a disadvantage?

[Anonymous]

White girls also tend to have high stats. A weighted 4.1 is good but not extraordinary and there are other factors.

You're overthinking this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4.1 weighted (school does not do UW), maxed out rigor, and involved in activities. Applied as an IR/gov/polisci major to UVA, William and Mary, and Virginia tech and was outright denied by UVA and W&M. VT waitlisted but as far as I know they have no ‘spring waitlist’ program or separate campus like UVA wise you can go to for a year instead.

The only thing I can think of that could be the cause of this is my daughter’s name, which sounds Asian American despite her being Caucasian. Her first name is a name that some people have said is a stereotypical Asian name (think Alice or Christina), and our last name is Lee, which could be either white or Asian Korean.

In our case, it’s white, but people have said in the past when they have seen my daughter’s name but not my daughter (at first meetings, summer camp, etc) that they were expecting an Asian girl based on her name.

My husband thinks I sound like I need to be medicated, but I floated the idea of taking a gap year and changing either my daughter’s first or last name to be more explicitly Caucasian. She was open to it and is very young for her cohort anyway so it wouldn’t make her feel out of place later.

Am I out of line here? I’m not saying that it’s right that there may be a disadvantage for Asian Americans, but I don’t want my daughter to be harmed by any sort of biases.

Did she at least get in some good privates? JHU? Rice? Emory? Vandy? and top liberal arts colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:😆😆😆😆 You do realize being white or Asian is both a disadvantage?

OP here.

My husband said exactly this (are you him, ha!) and I’ll tell you what I told him.

If you look at all the data that has been released, it’s clear that Asians are at more of a disadvantage than whites. The magnitude varies, but it’s always greater than whites.

[Anonymous]

My white-Asian kid with an Asian last name, who wrote of his ethnic background in his personal statement, was accepted from Maryland to W&M, dual degree programme with St Andrews, International Relations major. He had a 4.6 wGPA and a 35 out of 36 on his ACT.

I think it's the stats, not the last name, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4.1 weighted (school does not do UW), maxed out rigor, and involved in activities. Applied as an IR/gov/polisci major to UVA, William and Mary, and Virginia tech and was outright denied by UVA and W&M. VT waitlisted but as far as I know they have no ‘spring waitlist’ program or separate campus like UVA wise you can go to for a year instead.

The only thing I can think of that could be the cause of this is my daughter’s name, which sounds Asian American despite her being Caucasian. Her first name is a name that some people have said is a stereotypical Asian name (think Alice or Christina), and our last name is Lee, which could be either white or Asian Korean.

In our case, it’s white, but people have said in the past when they have seen my daughter’s name but not my daughter (at first meetings, summer camp, etc) that they were expecting an Asian girl based on her name.

My husband thinks I sound like I need to be medicated, but I floated the idea of taking a gap year and changing either my daughter’s first or last name to be more explicitly Caucasian. She was open to it and is very young for her cohort anyway so it wouldn’t make her feel out of place later.

Am I out of line here? I’m not saying that it’s right that there may be a disadvantage for Asian Americans, but I don’t want my daughter to be harmed by any sort of biases.

You can calculate unweighted GPA yourself. What is her unweighted GPA? And standardized test scores?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:😆😆😆😆 You do realize being white or Asian is both a disadvantage?

OP here.

My husband said exactly this (are you him, ha!) and I’ll tell you what I told him.

If you look at all the data that has been released, it’s clear that Asians are at more of a disadvantage than whites. The magnitude varies, but it’s always greater than whites.

You're Asian, not white. Do you think we're idiots?

[Anonymous]

You are crazy. She got rejected from the top 3 schools, like anyone could. Not all VA schools.

Apply to the other VA colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:4.1 weighted (school does not do UW), maxed out rigor, and involved in activities. Applied as an IR/gov/polisci major to UVA, William and Mary, and Virginia tech and was outright denied by UVA and W&M. VT waitlisted but as far as I know they have no ‘spring waitlist’ program or separate campus like UVA wise you can go to for a year instead.

The only thing I can think of that could be the cause of this is my daughter’s name, which sounds Asian American despite her being Caucasian. Her first name is a name that some people have said is a stereotypical Asian name (think Alice or Christina), and our last name is Lee, which could be either white or Asian Korean.

In our case, it’s white, but people have said in the past when they have seen my daughter’s name but not my daughter (at first meetings, summer camp, etc) that they were expecting an Asian girl based on her name.

My husband thinks I sound like I need to be medicated, but I floated the idea of taking a gap year and changing either my daughter’s first or last name to be more explicitly Caucasian. She was open to it and is very young for her cohort anyway so it wouldn’t make her feel out of place later.

Am I out of line here? I’m not saying that it’s right that there may be a disadvantage for Asian Americans, but I don’t want my daughter to be harmed by any sort of biases.

Did she at least get in some good privates? JHU? Rice? Emory? Vandy? and top liberal arts colleges?

OP here.

My husband has more than 700,000 in non-primary home assets that are tied up for at least the next 5 years due to a death in the family. We can’t use the money and we can’t store it somewhere colleges wouldn’t see/count it against us. So it’s either in state or sacrifice quality because we aren’t getting need based or probably merit based aid.

[Anonymous]

4.1 Weighted - the reject from UVA and W&M isn't out of line -- waitlist at VTech probably not surprising either these days.
Scores? Leadership in activities? Theme of common app essay something special or unique?

Like PP said, there are lots of other universities in VA - where else did she apply?

Also - why didn't you look at NPC for some out of state? There are a lot of schools that could come close to the instate cost of those three and/or may offer $$ to get it pretty close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4.1 Weighted - the reject from UVA and W&M isn't out of line -- waitlist at VTech probably not surprising either these days.
Scores? Leadership in activities? Theme of common app essay something special or unique?

Like PP said, there are lots of other universities in VA - where else did she apply?

Also - why didn't you look at NPC for some out of state? There are a lot of schools that could come close to the instate cost of those three and/or may offer $$ to get it pretty close.

OP here.
We are in a tricky financial situation for determining aid for at least a little while so out of state was not an option. After finding out what was making the net cost estimators so high, we essentially gave up on the idea of out of state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:😆😆😆😆 You do realize being white or Asian is both a disadvantage?

OP here.

My husband said exactly this (are you him, ha!) and I’ll tell you what I told him.

If you look at all the data that has been released, it’s clear that Asians are at more of a disadvantage than whites. The magnitude varies, but it’s always greater than whites.

You're Asian, not white. Do you think we're idiots?

OP here. Why would I post this if I was Asian?