For years, many Asian-American students have been convinced that it is harder for them to gain admission to the nation’s top schools.
Studies show that Asian-Americans meet these colleges’ admissions standards far out of proportion to their 6 percent representation in the United States.
Thus, they often need test scores hundreds of points higher than applicants from other ethnic groups to have an equal chance of admission.
Many colleges in the United States consider ethnic group percentages as a criterion for admission.
Critics  of this system say  that Asian-American students would need to go above and beyond to gain admission to these schools.
They also claim that the universities that don’t consider race in admission have double the Asian-American percentage that Ivy League universities do.
This proves the existence of discrimination in the admissions process.
They believe that Asian-Americans are evaluated not as individuals, but against the thousands of other over-achieving Asian-Americans who are stereotyped as boring academic robots.
Statistics indicate that there are overwhelming percentages of Asian-American students at universities in which an applicant’s race is not required.
The University of California, Berkeley is about 40 percent Asian-American, while the University of California, Los Angeles is about 36 percent Asian-American.
This is disproportionate to the number of California residents who claim Asian ancestry, which numbers around 13 percent.
The University of California is prohibited by state law in considering race for admission purposes.
Asian-American students  tend to score higher on the SAT than any other ethnic group, and would thus need to achieve a very high score to be considered for admission.
According to a 1997 study by Thomas Espenshade,  a sociologist from Princeton, Asian-Americans needed a 1550 SAT score to have an equal chance of getting into an elite college as white students with a 1410 or African-American students with an 1100 score.
This was when the maximum SAT score was 1600 (today it’s 2400).
Additionally there are stereotypes that people place against Asian-Americans.
Asian-Americans sometimes  are considered a “model minority” in the United States, due to their educational and socio-economic status.
However, not all Asian-Americans fit this stereotype.
Some embrace American culture rather than Asian culture and have integrated perfectly into the American society.
Their economic status, ancestral countries, and customs vary.
Through all of this, it raises  the question if race should be a factor in admission or if it should strictly be based on academic achievement.