Before reading Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety: Ethnic, Gender and Generational Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices, I did not think much about my own college process and application. It is easy to overlook a lot of the details regarding the college application process. For me personally, I forgot a lot about my own experience once I started attending college. Reading this research paper, I found myself trying to remember my own experience. I grew up in a predominately white and Latinos school students with many being middle and upper-middle class. I am a 1.5 generation Filipino-American raised in a middle class household. Both of my parents attended college in the Philippines thus were unfamiliar with the U.S. college application process. I found myself relying on my older brother who was able to figure out the process and my peers who were also going through the same thing. After reading this research paper, I realized the influence teachers and counselors had on me. While it may be an indirect influence, the encouragement and advice of my teachers and counselors disseminated around my peers. Like what Elizabeth said in the study, the teachers encouraged the idea and almost expected college to be our next step after high school. My peers and my older brother also felt that encouragement which then influenced me even more. Though my parents instilled a high priority over my education, I knew the limitations of their advice, thus I valued the opinions of others around me.
I did not realize the factors for college choice process could differ among Asian Americans. Differences such as ethnicity and gender seemed particularly interesting to me. It would be interesting if more research was conducted to further study these factors. I know each ethnicity has faced unique struggles in the U.S.. so their process could be affected as a result. While expected gender roles still exist in the U.S., Asian Americans also experience it from traditional Asian values, which, in my opinion, are more strict, resulting in the differences found in different genders. How would other forms of identities also effect college choice experiences such as sexuality?
References
Poon O. & Byrd A. (2013) Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety: Ethnic, Gender and Generational Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices. Journal of College Admissions, 23-31
[Photograph of a local college fair]. Retrieved from https://www.unigo.com/get-to-college/college-search/the-ultimate-college-fair-guide
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