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Luckily, I don't have to change my kids' last name. There's no way anyone can tell they're Asian by their names.

I don't think it matters where you went. It only matter how much you donated. I remember getting a question on Stanford's application asking "Do you see you family's name on any building" :-D. Paul Jacobs spent his entire college career at UCB. I'm sure Ivy leagues would love to get his kids/grand kids.

I wonder if having heritage at a public university mean anything. What if both of your parents went there and they do donate some to the school.

Welcome to the club.

Asian American enrollment at U.C. Berkeley from 2009 to 2010 dropped from 22 percent (a 314 student decline), Chinese student enrollment increased during the same time from 55 to 96. White enrollment dropped 29 percent.

Asian American dropped 22%, White dropped 29%.. We are all getting screwed.

The new policy, passed by the Board of Regents in 2009 and scheduled to go into effect later this year, ditches the requirement that all applicants take two SAT Subject Tests (formerly known at SAT II tests) and also reduce the number of students guaranteed admission to solely based on grades and test scores.

The purpose of this is not to harm Asians to the benefit of Whites.. the purpose is to allow the Regents to continue their policy of 'quotas' even after the legitimacy of quotas has been challenged. The two races that do well on those SAT II tests are Asian and White in that order. The groups that removing the tests benefits are Hispanic and Black. Ironically two racial groups that, when they go to college, generally do not major in hard sciences in the same percentages that Asian and White do.

btw, flu, are you gonna change your daughter's name to Shaniqua Johnson or something?

Dont get me wrong. I know this isn't an asian versus white thing at all... I just think the entire quota thing is bullshit for anyone of any race.

We're in the 21st century, and frankly I don't get why folks still feel that certain ethnicities are "underprivileged" or "underrepresented". Didn't we read the article recently that the first time, there were fewer white babies born than non-white babies? And I don't get how someone that is in the social/economic background of going to a great public school like CV or LJ or Encinitas but nevertheless fits the definition of "underrepresented" minority would be at a greater "disadvantage" versus some white or asian kid that lives in/ the inner city exposed to gangs, drugs, etc. I'm not against helping people with a disadvantage because of the environment, but race shouldn't be a measurement.

Imho, it should be illegal for an admissions application to ask for race or gender or sexual orientation for that matter...When one applies for admissions, a random application id should be generated attached to the person's identifying information...The application should only contain that applicationid, and only the persons merits and accomplishments should be considered....

Damn right. Although it probably won't be Johnson, because that might be miscontrued as white, and that wouldn't be helpful to get around the quota rules probably :(

We kinda have that (though not as anonymous) from the 90s up until now at the UC system. So, although it would be great to be completely merit based, I don't see that happening. But if it does, the result will probably be similar to what you see at the UC system before 2011/2012 in term of racial ratio.

Johnson is the 2nd most common last name for blacks, only after Williams. So, if you don't go with Johnson, your other choice would be Williams :-D.
http://names.mongabay.com/data/black.html

I'm thinking of going with Washington or Jefferson. Then there's the first name too, Jerome for a boy and Shawniqua for a girl.

What is your name? Young or Lee? I think in CA they will assume Lee is Asian. I think the Filipinos are lucky, they have Spanish surnames.

Will it matters if you don't check the Asian box?

Neither. But I can tell you it sounds like someone famous from Western Europe :-D.

Interesting article. I'm a little confused by the stats about UC Berkeley; it sounds like foreign-born students are replacing ALL ethnicities, not just Asian Americans? But the implication is Cal may be the exception, not the rule?

As for the changes to reduce the number of students admitted based solely on grades and test scores, it's probably a good change overall. I'm someone who did very well on the SAT, and I can say it's only one data point and grossly over weighted. The SAT Subject tests are terrible and exist primarily to line the pockets of The College Board. There really is something to be said for "well rounded" college applicants.

If rich Chinese people want to subsidize our education system by paying sticker price for a UC education for their kids, more power to them. Clearly there is no political will to spend money to fully fund the UC system right now through taxpayer dollars, so that's the solution.

Funny, I agree with you, but disagree with your conclusion. It's not about race, it's about money. If you are poor, you deserve extra consideration. A poor kid with a 2100 SAT is more impressive to me than a rich kid with a 2300 SAT. The system needs to exist to give our best and brightest a fair shake, regardless of their backgrounds. It's one reason class rank is a nice way of measuring things, although, again, only one data point. A poor white kid deserves more consideration than Jay-Z's child.

I don't think this strategy works. I remember reading stories in the press that elite schools (e.g. Harvard) also require the applicants to go through face to face interview with one of their alumni. There were allegations that these interviewers have a code to tell the admissions committee that the applicant belongs to such and such race if that is not clear from the file itself! If UC schools do not have this system yet, they will surely have it in place as more and more people will try to game the system! LOL!!!

Ivy league schools from my experience do face to face interviews. That's where saying your dad/mom went there and having them a benefactor helps.

UC's schools, if I recall never have face to face interviews (at least not when I did it).

Worse comes to worse, I'll have my kid wear a wig.

WRT to Ivy, if they get disqualified because of the face-to-face, then there's nothing I can do. However, if UC start to implement that, then they might have a leg up. Both if their parents are products of the UC system and we have our name permanently in one of the campus (we made some donation) :-D.

There's nothing bleaching and plastic surgery won't fix if you want to take it to the extreme.

In future, they will just need to check the Facebook/Myspace/Linkedin/G+ profile of the applicant, his parents etc. to determine race!

Another reason to stay off those things !!!

If they really want to, they can find out, even if you're not on any social networking sites. They can take your social, tie that to your birth certificate, and they can find out what your parents' race are and what your race is.

I'm not on those things. But you know, that's fine if they do that.. The more of a paper trail they do, the easier it is to prove in court that they have a discrimination policy...

And that means $$$$ in lawsuits.So hmmm...If my kid can't get in based based on a fair admissions policy, I'll at least have the UC school pay for her own business.

This would be the first lesson in how to make money in the U.S. the good old fashion way...Not necessarily by hard work and perseverance...But by suing someone else that has money,.,,Hmmm. Maybe it's going to be a good idea for her to apply to both UC and CSU schools for that purpose...$$$$$$$$$$$

we've been watching these tracing ancestry shows such as "who do you think you are" and "finding your roots."

and one take home message is this type of "name changes" that flu is jokingly talking about is extremely common place in the caucasian world, especially with folks of eastern european and jewish origins.

for example, I had no idea Martha Stewart is a 2nd generation polish american. But of course, to be successful, she uses her married name. but then it turns out both of her brothers also changed their last names to hide their non-anglo origin, one even took on his wife's name.

if people can get away with it, people will change their last names to fit in. makes you wonder how many Smiths and Stewarts are really truly of Anglo origin?

It turns out that you don't need to change your kids' last name to represent US in International Chemistry Olympiad Team. So here are the names of the candidates:

http://finance.denverpost.com/mng-denver...

Yeah, but probably most of them are not gonna get into a UC school... Lol...

Hillenbrand is going to Harvard

I'm not sure if relevant now, but back in early 90s, I had a friend who got into my UC school because his parent was an alumi and donated before and wrote a letter to get them in.

Originally, he was either denied or waitlisted, not sure which.

I don't mind too much of this actually since I already accept the world we live in, and with the school funding issues, you either get funds elsewhere (China) or quality of the school would suffer in general. I could see them dumping all these fancy facilities.

Pretty much, either way you lose and it will never be fair when it comes to admissions.

it's funny only because there's a lot of truth to it.

It is really amazing how economic based affirmative action is never taken seriously. It would be much more acceptable to many people to decide to help certain students because their backgrounds justified it. To the extent that economic factors overlapped race then fine, just don't make decisions based on race.

Your posts are always most reasonable.