Why Our Asian and Asian American Students So Often Earn Admission

Our students at Ivy Coach dare to present fresh and exciting profiles (photo credit: Chensiyuan).

It likely comes as little surprise to our readers that some of our clients at Ivy Coach happen to be Chinese American, Korean American, and Indian American. It also likely comes as little surprise to our readers that some of our clients aren’t American at all, hailing from all over the world, including China, Korea, and India. So, yes, we’ve got an opinion (or six) on how Chinese American, Korean American, Indian American, and students from China, Korea, and India can overcome the discrimination that they invariably face in the highly selective college admissions process. And, yes, these students — members of overrepresented minorities on elite American college campuses — are absolutely discriminated against in the admissions process. To suggest otherwise reflects a certain naïveté, a fundamental misunderstanding of how the admissions process works.

Our Asian and Asian American Students Overcome Discrimination

At Ivy Coach, we help present our Asian and Asian American students with the most interesting profile possible to admissions officers at our nation’s most selective universities so they can overcome the phenomenon of implicit bias. In our firm’s over quarter century of helping students earn admission to their dream schools, you could say we’ve seen a whole lot of students’ profiles. And while some might be offended, it doesn’t mean it isn’t true that when many Asian and Asian American applicants come to us, seeking our help, they showcase activities and extracurricular involvements to us that the vast majority of Asian and Asian American applicants choose to present when they apply to college.

Our Asian and Asian American Students Dare To Be Different

In college admissions, on the job market, on the dating scene, in life, it’s rarely a wise move to present in the same or similar way to so many others. The game is about differentiation. We don’t know why so many Asian and Asian American college applicants choose to play the piano. We don’t know why so many choose to play the violin or compete in math competitions. Turn red in the face because we said it. Holler at the top of your lungs. But that doesn’t mean what we’re saying isn’t true. Even if it happens to offend you. In fact, you’re probably so upset because you know in your heart of hearts that we’re right.

You see, our Asian and Asian American students don’t file lawsuits against Ivy League schools. Do you know why? Because they so often earn admission to these schools. It’s an oversimplification — one we ourselves are guilty of — to suggest that America’s elite universities discriminate against Asian and Asian American applicants. They discriminate not solely based on the race of the applicant but on the profile that so often goes hand-in-hand with that race. Our Asian and Asian American students at Ivy Coach, like all of our students of all different races from all around the world, always dare to be different. And they so often get in not in spite of being Asian or Asian American but rather because they’re Asian or Asian American…and because of their extremely compelling and wonderfully weird profiles. Yes, we help make students weird.