Does UT-Austin Discriminate Against Asian and Asian-American applicants?
I want to comment on a contentious issue in American college admissions. I receive the frequently asked question from concerned Asian and Asian American families wondering if their child might experience a disadvantage or discrimination in UT-Austin’s admissions process.
The answer to this question is an equivocal no. UT-Austin does not discriminate against Asian applicants.
I’m critical of many UT admissions practices and higher education in general, but on this topic, UT-Austin does not discriminate against Asian and Asian-American applicants.
Asians are the most over-represented demographic on campus at 22% compared with 5% of the overall Texas population. Asian enrollment has trended up and now down over the past two decades. Hispanic, white, and black students are all less represented at UT compared to the general population. It could potentially be the case that UT does indeed discriminate and that even more Asian students could be on campus, but I suspect this isn’t the case. It’s impossible to say whether any individual admissions reviewer has biases or stereotypes against any given group of people.
Still, until we see a significant drop in Asian enrollment at UT, or there is some other smoking gun internal documents or review, I will remain firm in my belief that discrimination as a UT admissions policy isn’t present.
UT’s holistic review process precludes discrimination
UT’s holistic review process and how they distribute admissions decisions is quite mechanical. Students are scored based on how well they fit for their major and are placed on a spreadsheet. Then a line is drawn for who gets in or not.
UT is not handpicking students by committee like what tends to happen at private universities.
The process is much less subjective, meaning less dependent on the whims of human decision-making. In general, Asian diaspora and Asian-American students are well-represented at top public universities nationwide.
Model Minority stereotypes are real and harmful
This isn’t to say that Asian students don’t experience discrimination at school or in their daily lives. The model minority stereotype is very real and concerning, placing unnecessary pressure on an already stressful adolescence for any teenager, regardless of race. Non-Asian families often claim that Asian students are taking the spaces of their children, whether there’s any basis to this claim or not. I’ve worked with dozens of Asian students from all kinds of backgrounds over the years. I share their concerns about how the Asian-American category paints them as a monolith when there are almost infinite variations in their life paths, backgrounds, identities, and interests.
Feel free to write about being asian
I will never tell a student they must or must not discuss their race and ethnicity. Even so, many Asian students feel timid or embarrassed to discuss their background, so I encourage them to discuss their identity or background in an essay if it’s relevant to their personal development or life goals and they wish to share about it. It really irritates me and frankly pisses me off when some independent counselors tell Asian students to downplay their Asian-ness even if the student has spent many years doing activities like Indian classical singing, Chinese fan dancing, or celebrating Lunar New Year in their ancestral home. I’ve had dozens of clients gain admission to top 20 universities over the years who dedicate significant essay content about their Asian perspectives and experiences.
Flipping the variables, it’d be hypocritical and racist to tell a black student to downplay their blackness or homophobic for an independent counselor to tell a gay student to not discuss being gay if these are central to their identities and perspectives. It is certainly the case that universities celebrate and embrace black and LGBT students in the college admissions process while being Asian is muted or perceived as negative. So, I understand the concerns of Asian families about how reviewers might perceive them.
The Supreme Court found Some private universities liable for asian discrimination
Let’s circle back and address the primary concern Asian families have. It comes from alarming practices at elite private universities. Recent research and court rulings indicate that Asian students do experience discrimination at some of the nation’s top private universities. Asian applicants require higher SATs to gain admission relative to similar applicants from different races. There also seem to be issues related to human reviewers rating Asian students with similar profiles lower in likeability or leadership relative to students with similar resumes from different races.
This is why the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard & UNC against considering race as a category in college admissions. But I won’t go into that court case here.
In short, Asians need to be even more impressive at many universities to gain admission, just not at UT and most public universities that do not admit students by human committees. Their enrollment has remained stable at elite schools like Harvard and Princeton despite constituting a larger proportion of applicants. These practices recall the 1920s and 30s when elite universities placed informal caps on Jewish students. So, I sympathize with Asian and Asian-American families when they have concerns about formal discrimination in the admissions process. At UT, at least, it’s highly unlikely that they are at a disadvantage.
I hope you enjoyed this post on a sensitive subject, especially recorded by someone who isn’t Asian or from a marginalized group. The easiest way to reach me is by email kevin@texadmissions.com