International Students Are Facing More Severe Admission Unfairness

Jiajun Li

Section A02

Reading Reflection #3

In response to: A Quota on Excellence? The Asian American Admission Debate

                One interesting fact is that, despite the admission unfairness among domestic students from different ethnics, there's another group of students who also suffer even more from this uneven game, the international students. International students have to get usually 500 scores more than average to get into the same college with local students. A 2100 SAT score, which is the score I used for college application, for locals is VERY competitive to get into any IVY League college with certain amount of scholarship, whereas in China, a 2100 is barely just an OK score to get into UC Davis. The most significant difference is the score of MATH, where international students tend to get 750+ whereas residents tend to barely get a 680+. Based on my observation, the average SAT score for California residents admission in UC Davis is around 1500-1700, but for international students, it goes to 1900-2100. So talking about admission unfairness, international students are the group who suffer the most, despite their color, gender and ethnics. What makes things  worse is, not proficient in English, international students tend to stay in their own ethnic enclaves, usually with their own language speakers, not willing to step out such ethnic cage and urge to modify international admission requirements. Such silence is likely to leave things unchanged for the next few decades.

               

Questions: Why is the thresholds for international students harsher than local students?