Some Asians' college strategy: Don't check 'Asian'

[alp227]

Lanya Olmstead was born in Florida to a mother who immigrated from Taiwan and an American father of Norwegian ancestry. Ethnically, she considers herself half Taiwanese and half Norwegian. But when applying to Harvard, Olmstead checked only one box for her race: white.

"I didn't want to put 'Asian' down," Olmstead says, "because my mom told me there's discrimination against Asians in the application process."

For years, many Asian-Americans have been convinced that it's harder for them to gain admission to the nation's top colleges.

Studies show that Asian-Americans meet these colleges' admissions standards far out of proportion to their 6 percent representation in the U.S. population, and that they often need test scores hundreds of points higher than applicants from other ethnic groups to have an equal chance of admission. Critics say these numbers, along with the fact that some top colleges with race-blind admissions have double the Asian percentage of Ivy League schools, prove the existence of discrimination.

full: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2011-12-03/asian-students-college-applications/51620236/1

[RandySF]

1. Living in Detroit and SF, I never saw it.

I moved from Detroit, where the Asian population is negligible to San Francisco where Asian-Americans hold all kinds of prominent positions. I guess we will have to watch carefully when our son applies for college in about 15 years (hopefully, things will change by then).

[pnwmom]

2. Since she had the option of choosing "multiracial" -- and did -- I don't understand

why she checked also white and not Asian. Why didn't she just leave it at "multiracial" and treat each part of her background the same?