Comments on: Musical Chairs: Hidden Math in Admissions

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:03:35 +0000

And what is exactly wrong with rewarding hard work and results? Instead, we should just slap them in the face and replace them with a less deserving candidate?

Please don’t give me socioeconomic reasons when it’s the Asians that have only recently immigrated to this country through the open door policy. The benefactors of AA are from families that have resided in this country far longer than Asians and therefore more likely to have greater financial backing.

The only viable premise for AA would be for the security against legacy and donation applicants. Even then, it just seems downright stupid to turn down an applicant just because she or he doesn’t fit the applicable racial classification.

During the Cold War, Americans and Russians tried topping each other in every aspect of research and military might. Now, instead of competing with hard work and merit, everyone just seems to cry that Asians are gonna take over the world. Maybe if we Americans got off our lazy behinds and stop teaching our children that it’s okay to be lazy and mediocre then we wouldn’t be in this AA predicament.

By: Julius

Julius — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:12:33 +0000

I don’t see the importance of this article. First of all, you are assuming that all the schools are somehow going to give you the information abut how many people have deferred the current year and previous year, how many they accept from SMPs and from early decision programs. The most important aspect is the out of state ratio, which most pre-meds already know about. You are not going to choose to not apply to a school just because it accepts 10 more early decision students. You never know where you are going to get in and the most important factor is how much you like the school and think you satisfy what they need. So again, I don’t see the usefulness of these numbers.

By: OSMD

OSMD — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:41:58 +0000

In reply to AA comments.

The fact is that Asians are over-represented in medical schools in proportion to their population. In a sense, they are already “dominating.” Just look at the facts at http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/start.htm

Asians account for around 5% of the general population, yet they are almost close to 20% in medicine.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:56:18 +0000

Great article.

By: livefrom215

livefrom215 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:09:09 +0000

I think AA is “racist” in the pure sense of the word; i.e. it is institutional discrimination based on race/ethnicity. On the other hand, AA has the good intention in increasing the representation of under-served minorities in medicine.

I think it’s time to do away with AA as we know and instead focus on socioeconomic class (in place of or in addition to race) as a means for improving the representation of under-served minorities.

I know this is not an AA debate. . . sorry

By: asian american guy

asian american guy — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:48:43 +0000

John, I see that you hold a lot of anger towards those “obnoxious white A&F wannabe frat boys.” But I completely agree with you and see where you are coming from. But I also feel obligated to point out that if you’re an immigrant of any sort, you will definitely have a harder time trying to achieve “success” in a foreign land. Just remember, this wasn’t our country to begin with and the ancestors of the “obnoxious white A&F wannabe frat boys” were here first to take the land from the natives. I also must point out that Asian Americans as a group tend to be very divided and exude very little political unity. Just admit that the “typical” Asian American dream is to become the 1)Doctor 2)Lawyer 3)Engineer, make your relatively high wage, marry someone from the same background, move out to the suburbs and repeat the cycle; oh and don’t forget to not give a rats a** about anything else that goes on. Oh and don’t forget to compete with your fellow Asian American neighbors to see who makes more money and whose kids graduate from the more “prestigious” school. And all because we were raised to believe that such decisions in life will ultimately lead to success and true happiness. So I do see where you’re coming from John, but then again, we can continue to b*tch all day long about it or we can actually focus on attempting to do something about it…

By: chris

chris — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:08:17 +0000

AA is racist

By: John

John — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:03:55 +0000

Wow, I wish we could all be the obnoxious white A&F wannabe frat boys that can rely on their rich parents for support, and thus, just party and drink all day.
Btw, does anyone ever consider that Asians(I will use the term to include any group from Asia, ie, Indians, Persians, etc) must focus more on grades and hospital work mostly because the medical school admission process forces them to since they will always have a harder time to gain acceptance to medical school, relatively to other ethnic groups, due to their overrepresentation in the medical community? Given equal stats across the board, an Asian will have a hardest time gaining acceptance, especially given how subjective the admission process is.

By: Me

Me — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:38:44 +0000

Speaking from personal experience, I suspect the large number of Asian Americans could relate to the observation that many Asian Americans are persuaded towards the career of a doctor. To speak in broad terms of success or GPA of various races can be difficult to defend, and even less likely to relate to the article in question.

With regards to the article, I believe it was very well written and certainly illuminating. However, would deferrals truly matter in this case? If five students deferred into the class, wouldn’t it be safe to assume that another five students would defer into next year’s class, thus creating the same amount of seats without calculating deferral numbers?

By: Asian American

Asian American — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:16:18 +0000

I would like to add my input as an asian american. I think Michael is correct to a certain extent that there probably isn’t a profound difference in intellect between caucasians and asians. The reason there are so many of us in medicine is primarily cultural. Many of us grew up with HEAVY parental pressures to succeed. By succeed, I mean go to college and then a professional school and make lots of money. Doing an english degree and pursuing a career in writing would not be acceptable. For example, my college girlfriend, also an asian american, was pressured to be premed by her parents… it was the only way they would help her pay for tuition. So, she lied to them for 4 years and secretly got her English degree instead. My parents didn’t blackmail me like that, but when I expressed interest in genetics after a high school bio class my mother and I got in a heated argument and was again strongly urged to pursue medicine. Unbelievable, right? A PhD in genetics “not good enough”. I’ve heard from similar stories from asian(indian) americans. I’m sure it is a projection. My college girlfriend’s parents and mine both came from “third world” asian countries and probably only wanted us to have a better life than they had growing up. In my case, I was lucky as I eventually found I was indeed passionate about medicine. Others were not so fortunate and either “failed” in the eyes of their parents or are living a lie in a career they are more than capable of excelling in, but may not particularly like.