Diversity concern at liberal arts schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child graduated from Swarthmore. It seemed pretty diverse to me especially compared to their high school.

Agree very diverse. It’s diverse economically also.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some are better than others in terms of diversity.

Williams - 51% white; 12% Latino; 12% Asian, 5% Black (ouch)

Swarthmore - 40% white; 12% Latino; 16% Asian and 7% Black

Pomona - 35% white; 16% Latino; 15% Asian and 10% Black

Generaly the higher ranked and better endowed schools have more diversity

My DD does not have the stats to get into the above somewhat more diverse SLACs. The ones she can get into are around 75% white

If she can get into a SLAC that is ranked in the top 75, she can find ones that are somewhat more diverse. See the post that listed midwestern SLACs, many of those had more like 50-70% white population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD would like to look at liberal arts schools but I am concerned about the lack of diversity. Majority of these schools are 70-75% white with as low as 1-5% asians. Any input from asian parents who have kids at liberal arts schools with relatively less asian population please share your and your childs experience. Thanks

One way to answer this is to figure out the reasons for the concern.

If she wants to be able to take Asian history and language courses, she could just make sure to focus on schools with, say, a minimum number of Chinese classes, or something like that.

If she wants to be able to buy certain types of food: Use Google maps to figure out how close Asian (or Japanese, Chinese, etc.) groceries and restaurants are to the school. You could even try emailing the owners and ask them if they think the school is a good school for kids from your daughter’s demographic group.

If your daughter is afraid of discrimination or just feeling odd: Look at how she thinks of that. If she’s Chinese, and she’d be angry if she were around students who were hazy about the difference between Koreans and Chinese people, then she might need a school with many Asian students. If she’s just afraid of open discrimination and hostility: I have a hard time believing that there are any decent U.S. schools where that would be common. But your daughter could limit herself to schools with active Asian student groups, where you can reach a group officer and the officer endorses the school.

If, in your heart, your daughter would like to pass on her heritage by marrying someone from her group: The ideal
would be send your daughter to school in the region with the ideal dating pool. If that’s not possible, and getting into a duper selective school would be too hard, maybe use Census data, or your own knowledge, to figure out where a lot of people from your daughter’s demographic group live. (Whether that means “Asian,” or something more specific, like “Thai.”) Look at colleges in and near those communities. Maybe they end up with a lot of kids in the desired demographic group by default.

[Anonymous]

OP, I hope someone actually answers your question as it’s a good one. I think it won’t matter too much at SLAC’s that there isn’t a huge number of minorities, just given the whole student body is so small. I was more worried when I looked at U Miami Ohio as a safety school, and saw that despite having tens of thousands of kids, their number of Asians was minuscule. That to me indicated that it might be more parochial and not great for my kid. Ohio State, on the other hand, looked fine. I went to Michigan, and that was fine (great in every way- Go Blue!)

[Anonymous]

If you apply to schools who have trouble with diversity, they will probably value your child's application more. My Asian child got wined and dined by many SLAC's because they want to keep their minority numbers up. (Like they offered to fly her to campus for Admitted students day, sponsored special "identity" dinners with the dean the night before, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you apply to schools who have trouble with diversity, they will probably value your child's application more. My Asian child got wined and dined by many SLAC's because they want to keep their minority numbers up. (Like they offered to fly her to campus for Admitted students day, sponsored special "identity" dinners with the dean the night before, etc).

+100. This is the other side of the race in admissions consideration which makes it harder for Asians at Ivies can actually be a tremendous benefit to them at other highly ranked schools. Not optimal maybe, but the system is here now and should be utilized as it is while it is.

[Anonymous]

SLACs have fewer Asian-Americans because fewer of us apply to them. When my DC was applying, her counselor put many/most SLACs on her safety list because Asian-Americans are considered URM at them. The bulk of Asian-American college goers are 1st or 2nd gen immigrants and don't know much about American higher ed beyond the name brand schools. Most are also aspiring engineers and programmers who don't realize SLACs how much SLACs have to offer them. I mentor a couple Chinese-American high schoolers and I've had to convince their parents that there are many more options besides MIT or NVCC. But, they are almost completely driven by what they read in the Chinese language newspapers because of their own limited backgrounds.

[Anonymous]

Interesting...and consistent with patterns I have seen.

[Anonymous]

One excerpt from an interesting article:

"Asian-Americans are 29 percent more likely to say they’ll spend more for name-brand food items, even if a comparable generic is available."

https://storebrands.com/understand-asian-american-consumer-0

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SLACs have fewer Asian-Americans because fewer of us apply to them. When my DC was applying, her counselor put many/most SLACs on her safety list because Asian-Americans are considered URM at them. The bulk of Asian-American college goers are 1st or 2nd gen immigrants and don't know much about American higher ed beyond the name brand schools. Most are also aspiring engineers and programmers who don't realize SLACs how much SLACs have to offer them. I mentor a couple Chinese-American high schoolers and I've had to convince their parents that there are many more options besides MIT or NVCC. But, they are almost completely driven by what they read in the Chinese language newspapers because of their own limited backgrounds.

Thank you. I was the one with the Tiger Mom comment reflecting exactly this. I got called a racist for it. My spouse is first-gen Asian and this exactly describes the issue.

If you check out other threads on these fora, this phenomena is certainly not limited to Asians. There are plenty of other folks with an Ivy League or nothing attitude. Look at the other current thread on liberal arts and STEM. Many people have no concept of what a liberal arts education is.

One group that probably understands college education the best--professors--send their kids to LACs at a rate three times normal. That should tell you the true value of a liberal arts education.

Also, consider the proportion of people of various races in the college age population, perhaps adjusted by geography. I understand the relative general college readiness profile of the applicant pool across various races. It is simply mathematically impossible for elite colleges, each operating with similar admissions processes, to have demographic profiles similar to TJHSST.

[Anonymous]

It is racist to assume all Asian parents are the same, and label non-Asian parents as the "normal ones."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is racist to assume all Asian parents are the same, and label non-Asian parents as the "normal ones."

I wasn't the one who called non-Asians "normal"
One premise of the thread is that all whites are the same and not accepting of Asian students.
Furthermore, my comment doesn't assume all Asians are the same, but rather there is an Asian average effect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is racist to assume all Asian parents are the same, and label non-Asian parents as the "normal ones."

I wasn't the one who called non-Asians "normal"
One premise of the thread is that all whites are the same and not accepting of Asian students.
Furthermore, my comment doesn't assume all Asians are the same, but rather there is an Asian average effect.

No one stated the premise you infer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you apply to schools who have trouble with diversity, they will probably value your child's application more. My Asian child got wined and dined by many SLAC's because they want to keep their minority numbers up. (Like they offered to fly her to campus for Admitted students day, sponsored special "identity" dinners with the dean the night before, etc).

wow!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is racist to assume all Asian parents are the same, and label non-Asian parents as the "normal ones."

what PP are you referring to?