Is there a "penalty" for being Asian American for adm.? Forum

[threeplusthree]

What's the word on being Asian American for law school admissions. Does an AsAm have to have much higher stats than the avg. applicant?

Would it be advisable to not even check a race/ethnicity box? In my case, I have a traditional Asian sounding last name (took Chinese in college as well as my foreign lang.).

[mr.hands]

What's the word on being Asian American for law school admissions. Does an AsAm have to have much higher stats than the avg. applicant?

Would it be advisable to not even check a race/ethnicity box?

No. It makes no difference.

[threeplusthree]

What's the word on being Asian American for law school admissions. Does an AsAm have to have much higher stats than the avg. applicant?

Would it be advisable to not even check a race/ethnicity box?

No. It makes no difference.

But they don't get the diversity boost, right? B/c of overrepresentation?

[sinfiery]

What's the word on being Asian American for law school admissions. Does an AsAm have to have much higher stats than the avg. applicant?

Would it be advisable to not even check a race/ethnicity box?

No. It makes no difference.

But they don't get the diversity boost, right? B/c of overrepresentation?

Correct. The overrepersentation isn't as extreme as it is in UG so there isn't a penalty but there is indeed no boost.

If you can write a compelling personal statement showing how your diversity has effected you as a person and caused you to grow or something, you may get a slight bump. Though nothing in the realm of a URM bump.

[szb5058]

Won't hurt, won't help. You just wont be granted URM status.

[Cicero76]

Not anymore.

Anecdotal evidence I gathered from talking to people at some ASWs says that there used to be (10-15 years ago) some reverse discrimination at the very top schools against Asian Americans.

Then, somebody at HYS figured out that an admissions bias against Asian-Americans is suspiciously similar to a 1920s era quota against Jews. Kind of a bad idea.