Concentrated Disadvantage or Cosmopolitan Cloak? How White-Asian College Applicants Understand Their Identities and Diversity

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 10:50 am
  In Roundtable Session: Understanding the Self: The Tensions of Identity, Racial Diversity, and Sociocultural Geopolitics (Table 32)

Abstract

How do Asian-White applicants understand their identity in relation to diversity in selective U.S. higher education? Drawing on rich interviews with Asian-White applicants and their families in the 2021-22 college admissions cycle, I show their meaning-making processes as they consider how to identify on their applications, whether they benefit from affirmative action, and how and to what extent they contribute to diversity. Reflections reveal a breadth of conclusions: some see an Asian-White identity as doubly-disadvantaged in selective admissions, while others consider it a potential advantage relative to identifying as Asian or White. Findings illustrate how a quickly growing demographic challenges extant understandings of diversity in U.S. selective higher education during a highly politicized era of college admissions.

Author

• Sonia Giebel, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB)