just curious as to why asians aren't URM

[Gary Glitter]

Asian Americans have been hugely successful in the state of California. The UC Regents like to point at various UCs and say "look, the white population is under 50%, we are so incredibly diverse and contemporary!" - what they fail to mention, however, is that remaining 55% or so is almost strictly Asian. The UC system maintains a strict merit system (a formula based on SAT I, GPA, and various SAT IIs) and Asians are effectively out-competing other races as measured by indicia of traditional academic performance - the demographics in California are stunning: Hispanics are HUGELY underrepresented in the state's university system while the Asians are HUGELY overrrepresented [UC Irvine is now over 60% Asian, Berkeley over 50%, UCLA close to 50%, UCSD in the same range - while Asians on the whole only constitute close to 12 or 15% of California's population].

The UC Regents apparently aren't exactly sure as to how to handle the mismatch of respresentation - there is talk of instituting an academic penalty against Asian males for no reason than that they are Asians males - Hispanics in California are now able to use their SAT II Spanish (in certain, limited situations) to supplant their SAT I score, etc. - basically the entire situation is a complete and utter disaster.

But why are asians not ubiquitously described as URM? Well break down the acronym - UNDERrepresented minority. While they may certainly have the minority part down, the notion that a racial group which constitutes 12 percent of the population and yet represenents as much as 60% of the state-funded university is underrepresented is absurd - if anything, Asians in California can expect penalties to levied agianst them for their high standard of academic achievement.

Apparently on the East Coast the exact converse is true - there is an Asian drain out to the west coast and thus in fact Asians ARE URM in the east - which is why an asian male might ge given the academic benefits of URM status on an application to say Vanderbilt, while that exact same asian male certainly would not be considered URM if he applied to say Berkeley ....

This is happening all over the world where universities maintain strict academic merit systems: In Australia, only those high school students who score into the 99.9 percentile on their high school certificate exam are able to enter medical school. Given the large influx of Asians into the country over the past decade, the entering classes for Australia's medical schools (for the past five  years or so) have now been almost uniformly Asian. Australian education officials are discussing a new admission system which considers soft factors .... which I find amusing ...

The moral of the story? Asians are taking over the world

[plaintext]

ummmm.. the asian population is already in the billions.. i see it less as a matter of taking over the world and more the effects of diffusion;)  (or is it active transport?)

[Gary Glitter]

sodium, potassium, and some cellular membrames


we're talking about an active pump here

this is affirmative global domination

[plaintext]

fascinating hypothesis.  so by shunting the sodium/potassium pump, we can effectively stop the asian world domination plot?  I see now why UC Berkeley, which is heavily asian as you noted, is so antagonistic towards potato chips with artificial components. 

[onstar]

Apparently on the East Coast the exact converse is true - there is an Asian drain out to the west coast and thus in fact Asians ARE URM in the east - which is why an asian male might ge given the academic benefits of URM status on an application to say Vanderbilt, while that exact same asian male certainly would not be considered URM if he applied to say Berkeley ....

.



The moral of the story? Asians are taking over the world

it's you guys in cali thats at fault. If it wasnt you guys, asians would have URM status
I went cali once and holy *&^%, it was like the yellow river.  And it seems like asians in cali are richer then their counterparts in the east

[once denied]

It depends on where you apply.  Asians are generally not considered URM for T15 schools because of the large number of Asians applying . . . but for less competitive schools, particularly those in rural areas/Midwest/South, Asians are often considered a URM.  That said, I believe that being Asian could get *any* adcomm to take an extra "look" at your app if you have soft factors such as past language barriers, discrimination, etc. that are connected to but not necessarily determined by race.

[denk]

This is like asking why are Jews not URMs.

Yeah, I'm guessing we're probably ORMs.  (OVERrepresented minorities) :-)

Maybe, in line with AA, there should have *tougher* entrance requirements for us.  :-P

[Perversely]

i was looking at some statistics, and i was wondering why the asian race is not considered an under-represented minority.

they make up only about 2% of the law profession, while making up 3.6% of the total population. while they are not as "under-represented" as a whole than other minorities, namely hispanics who make up 12.5% of the total population but have only 3.9% in law, they are still under represented as a percentage of the total population.

so what gives?

*these statistics are from the 2000 census, fyi.

can you handle the truth?

i think others have been helpful in touching the surface on this topic though...

[uesi]

Another question that comes up is WHY are these asians overrepresented? Many of them came from just as disadvantaged backgrounds if not worse. Jeez, a good number of them come here not even knowing the language and still wind up more successful that the average "URM". By supporting AA, are we basically saying that certain groups are inferior and can't make it without help?

[knoroozi]

Another question that comes up is WHY are these asians overrepresented? Many of them came from just as disadvantaged backgrounds if not worse. Jeez, a good number of them come here not even knowing the language and still wind up more successful that the average "URM". By supporting AA, are we basically saying that certain groups are inferior and can't make it without help?

this is credited.