Diversity or Discrimination in Disguise?

Original Work by Jessica Duong

In 1996, California Proposition 209 passed a law that prohibits state governmental institutions from considering race,sex, or ethnicity, specifically in the areas of public employment, public contracting, and public education. This is better known as affirmative action, which affects us seniors as we are applying for college this fall.

While this law is supposed to help students by making it illegal to consider their race for college admissions, Asians seem to be still at a disadvantage as there appears to be a quota on the amount of Asians admitted to maintain the diversity of a campus. This would mean that universities are ignoring the law in order to make sure their campus is diverse to make it more appealing to the public. As a result, it raises the much-heated question of whether it’s fair to discriminate against Asians because of their high academic achievements across the board.

Before continuing, let’s look at a few statistics. In 2014, Asians make up around 40% of the enrollment at UC Berkeley. At Harvard, 21% of those accepted were Asians. In fact, however, Asians only make up around 5% of the U.S. population, meaning Asians make up a large majority in comparison to their general population overall.

It’s true that many Asians that are competing with each other receive the similar grades and test scores that are typically in the upper ranges and have similar extracurricular activities. In combination, this makes for a high-achieving bunch that should have a greater chance of being admitted to the nation’s most elite school. Yet, that’s not the case, making some fear to even declare an ethnicity when filling out forms for college. As mentioned before, there are those that believe that Asians are discriminated against during admissions in order to admit students of other ethnicities although they may not have the same degree in qualifications.

Discrimination-wise, this may or may not be true. This is because the fact that Asians are indeed so similar makes them stand out less. For example, they don’t want a bunch of Kevin and Jennifer Nguyens; rather, they’d prefer, an Omar, Amelia, and hopefully a Lisa. To the admission people, it seems like they are accepting the same 10 people because on paper, they are very much alike in nearly every area. When they come along a person who is different, that breath of fresh air may be what they need after having sat there reading application after application all day. Also, it should be taken into consideration that admission people try to be as objective as possible but are human, whether you believe it or not after an ill-received rejection.

Also, in many ways, diversity is important as it exposes students to different cultures, making them more worldly, enhances social development, and promotes creative thinking among other things.

Being a senior and Asian myself, of course I harbor concerns whether these admission practices are true and how they’ll affect me as I’m applying. Unfair as things are made to appear, there are just too many variables that play into college admission that only those privy know of to say that being Asian is why I may not make it into a particular college. Also, when looked at in a different perspective, isn’t diversity all about promoting fairness as it gives every race and ethnicity a better chance?

With so many factors involved, when applying, remember to not compare and make yourself more stressed as you are already paying the colleges to do so. Best of luck to you all, especially the seniors.