blub212212

I'm definitely not the only one affected by this.

Right now i want to talk about colleges. As an 8th grader, college isn't really big in my life right now. But for my sister, an 11th grader, it is. Being dragged along to these college orientations, I realized something extremely biased, specifically racist. Colleges only allow a small amount of Asians into their schools. The % differs between different colleges, but in no college is it completely fair. For example:
School only accepts 5% asian kids. 100 people get in.
Students A(sian) 1-5 are accepted into college.
Students W(hite) 1-95 are accepted.
Student A 6 is not accepted, although his/her application was better than Student W 95. Why? Because they only accept a certain amount of Asians.

Some people may say its stupid to think about, but it really "Grinds my Gears" (Family Guy anyone?).

so anyone else think this is unjustified, or do some of you think this is fair?

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pantstofry

I go to a school that has a quite a significant asian/indian population. My high school has near 5,000 students (i am also in 11th grade, actually). most of the people i talk to get in to the school of their choice no matter their race. I don't know if i see it as big of a problem as it once was. I'm no expert in this, I have no sources, this is just my opinion. Maybe I'm blind to the whole thing.

Dante

Yeah I think it's abominable, discrimination like that is unfair and overall bad for the schools in general i'd've thought, considering they aren't getting the best students they can.

On the other hand I think I can see the original rationale behind it, I suspect it's down to the Chinese government sending students to US education institutions because they are highly reputable (a similar thing happens in the UK) and paying for their education over there. Then once the student complete their education they are recalled to their native country, in this example China, to help with the development in the skilled industry and emerging economy over there.

If this is the case then the US doesn't benefit from the time (and possibly money) they have invested in the student. If they excepted say 50% foreign students, then 50% of all college graduates would potentially leave the country immediately after graduation, effectively leaving America with 50% less people with a graduate level education. At least by limiting the amount of foreign students they leave themselves with some "home-grown talent" as it were.

However, like I said, despite seeing the possible rationale behind it I still think the idea of depriving people of an education based on any factors besides their intellectual ability is unfair and counter-productive as a whole.

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blub212212

I can't seem to find proof that schools have that sort of acceptance. If anyone else finds it, it'd be greatly appreciated. But i know FOR A FACT this really happens.
And now, i think, more asians (and other races) are here to stay.
The strengthening chinese government type thing doesn't really happen i think.

these also ticks me off:
Chinese Exclusion Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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pantstofry

oh yeah i remember reading about that. the United States did some weird/dishonorable stuff, like this and the Japanese Internment. But back then racism was normal, you weren't really chastised for it...This kind of exclusion is nonexistent around my school because nobody really has a problem with getting into a school as long as GPA and everything is good etc. I have to get out more and talk to different people, because I could totally see this happening, as you don't know what is going on in the admissions process, if they are considering you and another, and you are of a race which they personally dislike for whatever reason, they may hold that small grudge against you... unfortunate and sad really

SgtJoo

I'm a 12th grader already accepted to college, so this is where I'm coming from. My school has roughly 2,000 students. The admissions process doesn't really count race against you only for you as as far as I know. Admissions officers only take your GPA/Out-of-School Activities/Clubs/Volunteer Work/Test Scores/etc. into account. Some people speculate that there is a magical quota of races to be admitted, but the only thing I'm certain of is minority scholarships. Certain universities do admit minorities specifically for scholarships.

This is from the Alumni Magazine of one of the best schools in my state (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill):

Myth: UNC has hidden admissions caps and quotas.

It is the granddaddy of all myths, so powerful and enduring because it can be spun in any direction: UNC caps the number of students it accepts from a certain school or the number of white males; it takes a minimum number of students from one part of the state or a maximum from another. The quota myth "comes up from one end of the state to the other," Farmer says. "The perceived quota always works against whoever is in the room."

Farmer emphasizes that there are no quotas and cap, no mandate to balance out admissions across the state or in any other particular way. And the numbers back him up. Students from crowded and competitive Wake County had a 44 percent chance of getting in last year (800 Wake residents were admitted), a figure only slightly below the 47 percent from the state as a whole. White males from North Carolina were admitted at a 48 percent clip last year, while 37 percent of in-state African-American males got in. And on and on: Paging through the reams of admissions statistics that are readily available, it is hard to see patterns of any quota conspiracy.

Farmer does not hide the fact that UNC seeks diversity in each class or that it recognizes race and ethnicity as forms of diversity. And the numbers show that the student body has grown more diverse over the years. But, Farmer says "the same holds true for the world." He adds that incoming students have ever-stronger credentials and are performing better than ever after they got to Chapel Hill.

"It's fair for us to consider not just where the child is but how they got there. But that doesn't add up to a quota. We pick students one by one."

Added at the end is that the only cap is between in-state and out-of-state students. Obviously, they accept more from in-state. Hope that helped.

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blub212212

Congrats on acceptance Joo =P
Perhaps UNC is like that, but I'm 99.99999999% sure that the ivy leagues, and those other amazing schools (MIT, etc.) are not. why 99.9999999999? I've heard them say it, and my whole family remembers.
According to my parents, this is to "reflect society" and if society had about 95% asians, then 95% of the school would be Asians.

Of course there are other things about racism in my mind. Well not only racism, but sexism (Females, mostly. the ones who think they are superior while everyone is equal. Of course the same goes for males but i rarely find a malist. is that the word? like feminist, but the opposite). Also bullying-racism annoys me, especially with my name.
In chinese, its he. not H-EE but h-e as in...soft e. but through the immigration process it became Ho. WTF? now i get bullied consistantly
and of course, stereotypes.

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SgtJoo

I'm pretty sure that admissions officers are supposed to look at applications without any bias. I think your earlier statement pretty much reflects this. Because Asians are such a minority, it's going to be reflected in a college campus. Asians make up 4.5% of the population of the United States. That's everyone... kids... adults...older men and women. Taking the slice of the population that is in "student" age range, you're left with even more of a minority. It's not discrimination or bias reflected in the college community, it's the fact that whites make up 80% of the US population. Not to mention applications are based on individual merit, so I'm sure the Asian stereotype of all being "super smart" isn't true. Discarding this stereotype, even less Asian-Americans are going to be represented in college.

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TheHunter360

That's society morally corrupt while blissfully oblivious to it. While our society doesn't have that traditional racism of the 60s, stereotypes seems to have replaced this.

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SgtJoo

Care to elaborate?

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blub212212

Let's see...

Black People->Trouble makers, love fried chicken
Asians->Extremely smart, nerdy, and socially ...no friends.
thats all i can actually think of lol.

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TheHunter360

Sure I guess.

Racism at my school usually comes through "harmless" sterotypes jokes. Its all great humor until someone gets offended. It pisses me off to hear someone be racist to another student pass if off as just a joke then get offended by another joke when his ethnic/religion group is the punchline. Its absolute hypocrisy to call another person racist when the accuser is responsible for the same behavior he accuses others of.

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Vasq

Yes, especially here in my school. I pretty much can't go a day without hearing cracker, chink, niger and what-not.
People call me racist, but in reality I'm not. It's just that there is a big influence of hatred for stupidity and ignorance on me from my school and it just happens to be that alot of those people are African-American.
Again, I'm not racist. There are plenty of good people out there and I'm sure some of them are African-Americans, it's just a big majority I dislike due to sociality resons...

SgtJoo

I mean I joke around with my black friend about fried chicken, purple drank, and welfare, and my Indian friend about curry etc. but I expect the same back. It's just messing around with friends, and I'm fair game to them for being Jewish. I never hear the end of holocaust jokes. But that's how society is... it's gotten too politically correct for people to even mess around.

That being said, the OP was specifically talking about college. Racial bias should and doesn't enter the mind of an admissions officer (I know some personally) when making decisions. It's entirely merit based.

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Voodoo

Going further on Joos points.

In Victoria (state in Australia where I am from) the only thing taken into account is your TER (Tertiary Enter Score) which is a % given to you at the end of the year is accordance to how well you did in your subjects. For scholarships other things may be taken into account, such as an interview, but basically getting into Uni (college) requires one of two things:

An enter score that is higher than your courses required minimum, e.g Journalism @ RMIT is an enter score of 96% because it is deemed to have a better quality of education in this field than say Monash University (86%)

Law is usually around the 96% and Medicine you really need to get about 98-99%. (the maximum possible enter score is 99.95), popular courses such as Commerce at the prestigious universities often requrie a enter of 95+

The second thing is money, providing you did ok in your higher school education you can buy yourself a place at full price. (getting in on enter you can choose HECS which is Higher Education Contribution Scheme, where you don't pay till you graduate with a fulltime job iirc and then you pay the government then).

There are a lot of foreign students (not so much Indian students now, that is a real big thing over here atm google melbourne and indian students into google will get you familiar with the situation) because they can either 1) pay or 2) do better in VCE (high school) it's entirely merit and money based.

I would say, at the 2 more prestigious schools in Melbourne, Monash University and Melbourne University more than 50% of the students are of asian descent.

In Australia I suppose we have the opposite to what the OP was talking about. That is, racism on the publics part and not that of the universities. There has been an epidemic of racism fueled violence towards Indians in Melbourne, particularly students. Melbourne has had a large influx of Indian students and I suppose it just reached a boiling point for some people.

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OzballO

If anything it seems more places will most likely accept minority students than the majority. It's like Equal Opportunity Employers, if two people have the same credentials one is minority while the other is majority the minority will get the job basically all the time. They have to mirror the number of races living in the area at the time. It could be different in schools but I'm guessing not. Granted there may be some people who are racist but not the majority of people.

ix_PL3Y_NAKAD_x

Me and my friend got into an argument last february. He was complaining about how we whites have out history months the rest of the year. I got so pissed at him I wanted to punch him right in the ******* face and stomp on his face again!

I am so tired of hearing the race crap in movies, t.v. shows, in school, on the streets, everywhere! Stop being ignorant and shut the **** up if you want to say something about race.

Thats all I have to say

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SgtJoo

I don't think people are taking this in the right context. Racism is a bad thing. That's an indisputable fact. This isn't about the vague concept of 'racism'.

More precisely (according to the OP), it's about racial preference in selection in colleges. As far as my knowledge goes, there is no preference of any race (majority or minority) and it would seem to actually work in favor of the minority in terms of scholarships and opportunities. A middle-class caucasian boy needs to do a lot more to seem outstanding on an application rather than a minority.

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Amadeus102

Well, let's see. At least 20 times a day, someone walks up and makes fun of me for being Jewish. Here's the makeup of the jokes:

80% - Holocaust related
15% - Money related
5% - Harmless little things that make me laugh

Here's an example of a harmless on:
Jew: Do you have a synagogue in this town?
Man: No.
Jew: What's the closest thing you have?
Man: Cinnabon.

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Ginger Snipes

After reading the majority of the posts in this thread, I've come to a conclusion.

What I think I've noticed is a misunderstanding. It seems as though many of the posters in this thread have blamed the racism on some sort of spite against the Chinese, their home country, or their former government. The reason for the unfair selections for college are rooted in something called affirmative action. Affirmative action is a process that favors students such as black males over white females. Why? To appear racially diverse and politically correct, colleges are obligated to accept those who are less common in colleges despite the lower qualifications. A black male with a lower GPA who scored lower than a white female on the SATs could get priority in college application over said female with a higher GPA.

WeAre138

We misanthropes hate everyone equally.

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TheHunter360

Man that sucks. Same thing happens to me except its Arab and Muslim jokes. The jokes will piss you off for now, but you'll get use to them after a while.

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blub212212

my last name is a synonym for an insult (equivelent to curses but not one) so basically i get called my last name a lot
dam chinese last names. it wasnt even that, but it was changed at ellis island

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pantstofry

i dunno, I think racism is terrible when the offender means it. As far as jokes go, yes, some of them aren't funny especially if you can relate to them somehow. But i think you just gotta ignore it and move on, or learn to laugh at them. I'm not saying its okay to go around saying "why don't jews like cooking? cuz ovens blah blah". i don't like or condone that shit, that's just terrible. But harmless stereotypes like the money thing i think are funny, because honestly how is that insulting? so the stereotype is being stingy, that's not even really a bad thing... my school is over 50% jewish, and all of them are super rich, so i personally wouldn't mind it. Sorry if you guys disagree, don't want to say all jokes are okay.

ChoongJing

lol, at school, if racism jokes are thrown at me, i just throw them back. My school are full of preppy kids that have everything they want (money, food, sex), and they always cry about how bad their life is. Not trying to be racist, but most of them are white...