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[Boston Globe] To get into elite colleges, some advised to ‘appear less Asian’

June 3, 2015
Widener Libary at Harvard University (Courtesy of Wally Gobetz via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Widener Libary at Harvard University (Courtesy of Wally Gobetz via Flickr/Creative Commons)

[BOSTON GLOBE]

Brian Taylor is director of Ivy Coach, a Manhattan company that advises families on how to get their students into elite colleges. A number of his clients are Asian American, and Taylor is frank about his strategy for them.

“While it is controversial, this is what we do,’’ he says. “We will make them appear less Asian when they apply.”

That a hard working, high achieving Asian American student would want to appear less Asian on a college application may seem counterintuitive. But Asian American students already make up a disproportionate percentage of the student body at many select schools, compared to their share of the general population.

And that’s the problem.

Some call it “the bamboo ceiling” of racial quotas, telling stories of Asian-American students with perfect SAT scores and GPAs turned down by elite colleges who limit the number of Asians they will admit, effectively forcing them to face a higher bar for admissions than other racial groups, including whites.

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