Week 2 - Alex Nguyen - Section 3

In this week’s reading, what stood out to me the most was how universal it was that for Asian American students deciding on colleges to apply to or attend, their families’ acceptance of the decision was an extremely important factor, alongside the school’s reputation. My chemistry teacher in high school, who was Chinese American, shared with us how during his college application process, he only applied to Ivy Leagues and the top UCs, even though that limited his chances of getting into a college at all, because of pressure from his family and the unspoken hierarchy of colleges for Asian Americans. Staying close to home was also a large factor to the college selection process for me and many others. My parents refused to let me apply to prestigious schools that would have been perfect for the career path I had in mind because they were too far from home, which as evidenced in the findings from the article, Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety, was common for a Southeast Asian family. However, I also understood that remaining in a close knit ethnic and familial community, something my parents wanted for me, was a reasonable thing, considering the large Vietnamese community we lived in in San Jose. I also understood the pressure my parents put on me to go to a prestigious university as being concern for an investment they’d made in me when they immigrated to the states and worked hard every day to ensure I had a good future. I decided to go to Davis because it was both prestigious, close to home, and a school attended by many of my family members, and was therefore approved by my family.

I’m glad this article and the readings for this week analyzed Asian American trends in education beyond the stereotype of living in a Tiger Mom’s household or being generally better suited for academic environments. These stereotypes are definitely harmful to Asian American college applicants in real life — I know of many Asian Americans who refuse to mark the race portion of their SAT exams for fear of being judged by unfairly high standards simply due to their race.

I wonder how the boards of admission for prestigious universities really treat Asian applicants, and whether they plan on doing any cultural research now or in the future to dispel stereotypes.

OiYan Poon andAjani Byrd Loyola. “Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety: Ethnic, Gender and Generational Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices.”
Werrel, B. (2017, November 16). [Asian parents helping their daughter study.]. Retrieved January 13, 2019, from https://blog.connectionsacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/parent-involvement.jpg