Week 2 - Tiffany Nguyen

Tiffany Nguyen
ASA02 A02
Week 2

The first thing that struck me when reading "Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety: Ethnic, Gender and Generational Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices," was the title. Growing up, education was constantly emphasized as the gateway to a happy and successful life by my parents, especially my mother, so I was already amused before even beginning to read the passage. I had initially thought before reading that the focus would be about how the Asian parenting method can be overbearing or even controlling. However, the article turned out to be a study of the several different factors that go into the college decision processes for Asian Americans, and surprisingly parents weren’t the utmost important component for everyone. Other factors such as counselors, ,location, financial aid, etc. went into the decision-making process for most people. As I took in this information, I looked back to the not-so-long-ago time ago when I was deciding between colleges and realized that this was actually true. Most of the advice and counseling I received were through my tutors, who had more experience than my mom who had never properly gone through any college application process. While applying, my mom did stress that she preferred for me to choose a place close to home aka, UC Santa Barbara, and yet I am here, 7 hours away at UC Davis. What ultimately influenced my decision to come here was the excellent pre-med program offered here, as well as financial aid.  Although my mom is not exactly the most qualified to guide me through my decision, she still was supportive of my results and is all in all satisfied with my decision to go here, so wouldn’t that make her more of a baby tiger mom?

Question:

In the article, it stated, “...Asian Americans aspiring to attend elite institutions have also been found to be less likely  than comparable white students to be admitted at their first-choice institutions,” and I was curious as to why that is the case? Although some colleges claim that race is no longer a factor in the admissions process, why is the equally qualified white applicant automatically preferred over the Asian one?

References:

Hold On, Tiger Mom [Digital image]. (2014, September 22). Retrieved October 1, 2017, from https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/tiger_mom1.jpg

Poon, O., & Byrd, A. (2013). Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety: Ethnic, Gender and Generational Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices. School Of Education: Faculty Publication And Other Works, 23-30.