What defines an Asian? *not a racist post*

Hi fellow monkeys,

I will be applying to BSchool in the next 2 years and I was wondering if Asians fit the URM category? I understand Asians as a whole are not minorities in any case (especially in finance and in B-School), but the term "Asians" is relatively vague considering there are so many types of Asians. Indians and Chinese students make up majority of the Asian population in schools, but what about the other Asians i.e. Sri-Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia etc.?

Do you think adcoms would consider, lets say a Thai student, as an URM? Assuming he/she highlights their background in their application?

Thanks,
Geoff

Background disclosure:

I am an Asian myself.

 

I don't think the admissions committee really views what type of Asian - its either you're Asian or not. Then again, I've never applied to B-school and I'm still in undergrad :)

Just my $0.2

 
pphi:

I don't think the admissions committee really views what type of Asian - its either you're Asian or not. Then again, I've never applied to B-school and I'm still in undergrad :)

Just my $0.02

 

Based on my experience your ethnicity plays very little role in determining your acceptance by any program. I am a Chinese American, and I was accepted by all the programs I applied to. Schools are more interested in your education, work experience, and how they contribute to your future prospect in the finance industry. You being a Thai/Nepalese doesn't make a better or worse person than anyone else, so they do not care.

 

Most schools follow the general standard for under-represented minorities described as

African Americans, Mexican-Americans, Native Americans (American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians), Pacific Islanders, and mainland Puerto Ricans

While this is not a federal government site, but in fact a med school link, it's fairly clear: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Medicine/diversity/urm_definition.html

Betsy Massar Come see me at my Q&A thread http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/b-school-qa-w-betsy-massar-of-master-admissions Ask away!
 
Betsy Massar:

Most schools follow the general standard for under-represented minorities described as

African Americans, Mexican-Americans, Native Americans (American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians), Pacific Islanders, and mainland Puerto Ricans

The answer is a bit more nuanced than this. I've heard adcoms from two M7 schools speak in the last year and both acknowledged that the minority student numbers reported in most datasets include Asians. This number is typically between 20-30%. Both also said that schools are very conscious of internally-tracked URM numbers, which exclude Asians (more like 10-15%). WSJ wrote this article on the subject a few years ago.

Hmm... link doesn't seem to be working. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB100014240527023048307045774969015…

 
brj:

The answer is a bit more nuanced than this. I've heard adcoms from two M7 schools speak in the last year and both acknowledged that the minority student numbers reported in most datasets include Asians. This number is typically between 20-30%. Both also said that schools are very conscious of internally-tracked URM numbers, which exclude Asians (more like 10-15%). WSJ wrote this article on the subject a few years ago.

Hmm... link doesn't seem to be working. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB100014240527...

The way demographic numbers are reported from one school to the next aren't consistent. To make it even harder to compare, some schools will report their numbers as a percentage of the American students (so that the % look higher, whereas others will report it as a percentage of total students (American + international). Furthermore, there's a not so insignificant number of US Permanent Residents (green card holders) of all stripes (URM, Asian, Caucasian), and while these folks are usually classified as Americans (i.e. US citizens and permanent residents), are they as a group considered "URM" or are they broken out by race? Are they part of the denominator in calculating "% of Americans who are minorities" or are they excluded?

Again, schools aren't always as detailed about how these numbers are calculated. I don't want to accuse them of deliberately manipulating their stats, but the fact that there isn't one way to report this makes it more convenient for schools to publish stats to suit their needs.

Furthermore, schools were better at reporting URM numbers in the 1990s and earlier (more detailed about the breakdown of what those URM numbers were by ethnicity, as well as how the % of URM was calculated, etc), but in the last 10 years, they've been less detailed about it.

Alex Chu www.mbaapply.com
 

I don't think Thai, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. would count as URM. I believe if you are Philippino you would classify as URM (Pacific Islander category), but if an actual adcom can attest to it we wouldn't know (doubtful they would).

 

What countries of origin are we talking about here?

From Japan in the east to what in the west? Pakistan/Afghanistan? What about Iran? Are they Asians?

What about the Stans? What about Arabs?

 

@MBAApply is spot on

If you try and "spin" it, you'll look like a complete fool.
Betsy Massar Come see me at my Q&A thread http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/b-school-qa-w-betsy-massar-of-master-admissions Ask away!
 

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