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My daughter has been turned down for undergrad admission at UC-Davis, UC-LA, and UC-San Diego. She's got a 4.0 average, high SAT score, great extra activities. She's taken AP classes but not too many of them. Can't imagine a school turning her down (biased I know because I'm her father). But what gives? What the hell are the UC schools looking for?
She has asian friends, and one told her that all the asians who applied to UCLA, got in. Incredible! Anyone have any insight?
My daughter's boyfriend really wanted to go to Cal Poly, they turned him down. He also applied to UC Irvine. They liked him so much they gave him a scholarship cause they felt he had great potential (it was NOT need based). He isn't Asian. I have no idea what any of it is based on............
My daughter has been turned down for undergrad admission at UC-Davis, UC-LA, and UC-San Diego. She's got a 4.0 average, high SAT score, great extra activities. She's taken AP classes but not too many of them. Can't imagine a school turning her down (biased I know because I'm her father). But what gives? What the hell are the UC schools looking for?
She has asian friends, and one told her that all the asians who applied to UCLA, got in. Incredible! Anyone have any insight?
Well, those are three of the best UCs so she's got to have something going in order to be accepted.
My daughter's boyfriend really wanted to go to Cal Poly, they turned him down. He also applied to UC Irvine. They liked him so much they gave him a scholarship cause they felt he had great potential (it was NOT need based). He isn't Asian. I have no idea what any of it is based on............
Neither do I, which is why I asked. Maybe she didn't apply early enough, I don't know.
I have to think though that if they don't take students like her, what the hell are they looking for in their applicants? Boggles the mind.
With Asians disproportionately represented in the UC system (and college systems all over the nation), it is actually quite understandable why people perceive Asians as having unfair advantages. However this view is quite deceiving. Asian culture places heavy emphasis on education and grades, as a result, many Asians do extremely well in academics. Therefore many Asians have 4.0+ GPAs, and 2100+ SATs and seem to just get shooed into colleges. However, many of them get rejected as well, you just don't hear about them. (I've known many asian students with spectacular scores who have been rejected from top schools, even one with a perfect 2400).
The UC does not place any bias on race whatsoever, since affirmative action is outlawed in California. Therefore any bias towards Asians can be subject to court. In fact, all over the country where affirmative action is allowed, Asians (including Causasians) actually receive a disadvantage in terms of admissions (since colleges places preferences on under-represented minorities such as African Americans and Hispanics.)
Now for your particular case with your daughter, I am not sure why she wasn't able to at least get into UC Davis (sometimes San Diego, LA and Berkley can do weird things), however it may be due to the recent budget cuts. The UCs have been cutting admissions, IN addition, more applicants have been applying to UCs (since UC's are relatively cheap compared to other schools). This may have created much fiercer competition this year (I have heard this from others too). In addition, this year UCs have stopped giving guaranteed spots to top students too. Honestly though, it seems like your daughter was just plain unlucky this year.
I personally know as a medical school applicant that UCs have cut roughly 10% of their med school admissions pool (which is huge considering there are only 110 seats/UC)
Oh absolutely not. Many asians students get turned down at top schools because they are overrepresented and being asian actually is a disadvantage when applying. Applicants with even less stellar stats are favored because of affirmative action. It is hard to believe but if it wasn't for affirmative action, asian students would be even more represented at top schools than is currently. I've heard many complaints of asian students of being turned down in favor of other students because of affirmative action.
With Asians disproportionately represented in the UC system (and college systems all over the nation), it is actually quite understandable why people perceive Asians as having unfair advantages. However this view is quite deceiving. Asian culture places heavy emphasis on education and grades, as a result, many Asians do extremely well in academics. Therefore many Asians have 4.0+ GPAs, and 2100+ SATs and seem to just get shooed into colleges. However, many of them get rejected as well, you just don't hear about them. (I've known many asian students with spectacular scores who have been rejected from top schools, even one with a perfect 2400).
The UC does not place any bias on race whatsoever, since affirmative action is outlawed in California. Therefore any bias towards Asians can be subject to court. In fact, all over the country where affirmative action is allowed, Asians (including Causasians) actually receive a disadvantage in terms of admissions (since colleges places preferences on under-represented minorities such as African Americans and Hispanics.)
Now for your particular case with your daughter, I am not sure why she wasn't able to at least get into UC Davis (sometimes San Diego, LA and Berkley can do weird things), however it may be due to the recent budget cuts. The UCs have been cutting admissions, IN addition, more applicants have been applying to UCs (since UC's are relatively cheap compared to other schools). This may have created much fiercer competition this year (I have heard this from others too). In addition, this year UCs have stopped giving guaranteed spots to top students too. Honestly though, it seems like your daughter was just plain unlucky this year.
I personally know as a medical school applicant that UCs have cut roughly 10% of their med school admissions pool (which is huge considering there are only 110 seats/UC)
Anyways I hope that clear some things up!
Thanks for this post. Very informative and I appreciate your perspective.
I actually support affirmative action for traditionally disadvantaged groups like blacks and native Americans. Active prejudice and anti-bias has not dealt these races a fair hand. I don't advocate lowering standards to admit blacks for instance, but with the level and extent of discrimination that black people are subjected to throughout their lives, some mechanism needs to be put in place to recognize those many instances where a black applicant with a 3.5 has overcome far more adversity and traveled further than perhaps an asian applicant with a 4.6, who studies 15 hours per day in solitude.
I do appreciate the emphasis that asians have on high-academic achievement. However, encouraging everyone to study 15 hours per day in order to compete with their level of extreme dedication really supports people who are more comfortable in anti-social settings than in settings where they must have enough versatility to effectively communicate with people different from themselves. After all, we are a nation of many cultures, many immigrants, many religions, beliefs, backgrounds, and perspectives. The ability to relate to varying types of people is advantageous and preferred one would think. Hard to develop the well-roundedness this requires when you spend all of your time in a vault with your face in a book or looking at a computer screen. With the emphasis on rewarding those who excel in solitude, studying to the outer limits of human tolerance and endurance, detachment and avoidance become the norm in social settings. This is now quite evident. We have become a nation of achievement-driven, self-absorbed people who live in cocoons and only interact when necessary. Or maybe this is just California.
To me, the banning of affirmative action is naively believing that racial prejudice does not still exist to the detriment of for instance black people. This certainly isn't the reality. Affirmative action, in its original intent, was designed to identify, remove, and prosecute those people who practice racial discrimination against blacks as well as provide greater opportunity for those who have traditionally been denied. This is needed. Shame that UC and CA has regressed on this front.
Also, I think schools ARE looking at race because if they didn't, all of the top-ranked schools would be full of asians because they scored higher than every other race on exams. I talked to an admissions officer once who told me that they received over 2000 applications the first four days, and at least 80% of those were from asian applicants with 4.0 averages and exceptional SAT scores. They essentially had enough asians who scored higher than everyone else within the first week to fill their freshman class! Certainly, they have to pay attention to race, to keep from only admitting asians simply because of the numbers. My point is that if they see an application from a black applicant or native American with a 4.0, they should take special notice as this applicant is "one of few, not one of many." Some additional value must be placed on this.
With that said, I am thus far quite disappointed with the UC system. I expected better and so did my daughter. Can't express how shocked I am that possibly budget constraints would cause the UC schools to pass up such an extraordinary young woman. Spoken like a true, completely biased, loving father I know. But still, utterly inexcusable...
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