What Blind Spots Do Asians Have about the American (Ivy League) College Admissions Process?

I was wrapping up a consultation with a family from China recently when the father asked this thought-provoking question: “What blind spots do Asians have about the American (Ivy League) college admissions process?”

It was such an insightful question I knew I wanted to share my perspective here:

1.) The American college admissions process is holistic.

In many countries, grades and test scores are the only considerations for college entrance. While American schools value academics, U.S. universities also consider extracurricular activities, essays and teacher recommendations (among other things).

One mistake many Asian families make is prioritizing academics at the expense of outside activities. If you’re aiming for top schools, you must have an outstanding extracurricular profile, often with state, national or international level achievement.

Over the years, I’ve worked with students who’ve:

• won regional and state science fairs and competed in international science fairs

• started YouTube channels with a 100,000-person audience

• led a team to create a potentially viable cancer drug

These are the types of extracurriculars top students are taking on, and such projects require extraordinary amounts of time outside of schoolwork.

While it’s important for students to participate in extracurriculars, it’s equally — if not more — important for students to know how to tell stories (write essays) that clearly communicate these achievements.

For example, I once coached a Korean transfer student who called herself a tutor. After thorough questioning and direction from me, she started positioning herself as an entrepreneur who ran a thriving tutoring business that supported herself and her elderly parents — even though she hadn’t yet completed college.

Oftentimes my students are too modest. I help them see who they truly are, and the amazing things they’ve accomplished.

In terms of teacher recommendations, if you’re aiming for a top school, you have to find teachers who will evaluate you as one of the best students they’ve encountered in their career. If you don’t have a teacher who will say that, start building deep relationships with your teachers today.

2.) Don’t get preoccupied with school rankings / brand.

Many families come to me wanting their teen to get into an Ivy League or Top 30 school. While name recognition seems important, you don’t necessarily get a better education at a “higher ranking” school.

There are many ways universities can manipulate rankings. For example, one factor some rankings systems consider is how much money schools spend on each student. How do schools manipulate this factor? They spend a lot of money — on constructing new buildings.

Do new buildings improve the quality of your teen’s education? Or are small class sizes with access to professors more important?

The book Colleges that Change Lives argues that students receive the best education at small liberal arts colleges rather than large research institutions, because students at small schools are taught — and mentored— by professors rather than graduate students.

I can attest to this. When I was at Stanford taking the very popular Human Biology core for pre-medical students, professors lectured to hundreds of us, graduate students taught our discussion sections, and we took multiple choice exams graded by machines. My friend always wondered why we were spending so much money to be taught by people just a few years older than us, and why we were filling out bubble sheets for tests.

It was only in smaller humanities courses that I got more feedback from professors. And I actually learned to write when I got one-on-one tutoring by a resident tutor in our dorm (a.k.a. another Stanford student who was a bit older than me.)

It’s not always the name brand school that produces the “best” education. Studies have found that in comparison to MIT and Caltech, Reed produces a higher percent of STEM students who go on to get STEM PhDs.

3.) Don’t focus on results, which are uncontrollable. Instead, focus on the preparation process and build life skills.

There are so many reasons why colleges admit students and many of those factors are variables we can’t control, like whether schools want to admit a faculty, donor or legacy child, or an athletic recruit.

So, I don’t view my admissions coaching work as just preparing students for college — I aim to prepare students for life.

The very traits that help students “succeed” in academics are often stereotypically Asian - i.e. follow rules, obey authority, excel at test taking, etc.

However, these characteristics are not valued by the upper echelons of America. In the U.S., characteristics like creativity, risk-taking, self advocacy and disrupting the status quo help people “get ahead”. Just look at Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.

In the process of coaching my students in extracurriculars, I teach them creative ways to build their leadership skills, which are highly valued in American culture. For example, I encourage students to develop and pitch their own projects at internships, rather than waiting to be assigned work no one else wants to complete.

I also advise students to seek mentors and build relationships with as many people as possible because you never know where people will land.

———

Through the process of writing this post, I’ve realized that the American college process is not intuitive for Asian immigrants because our cultures are so different.

Many Asian cultures are heavily focused on academics, deference to authority, and hierarchy (in schools, social ranking, gender, age etc.) However, American culture values soft skills, out-of-the-box thinking and entrepreneurial spirit — and that’s reflected in our college admissions process.

Not only are Asian-American/immigrant youths going through the college admissions process, they’re going through a journey of acculturating to American values.

No wonder the college preparation process is such a challenge, both academically and emotionally. Asian (American) youths have to be academically outstanding and also figure out the unspoken rules of American culture. Plus, they have to balance everything with the tension of their parents’ cultural expectations — talk about code-switching.

I’m grateful I have the opportunity to support some families through these journeys.

What do you think Asian immigrant parents need to know about the American college admissions process? What is the hardest part of acculturating to America and how did you learn to do that?

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