Rejected or waitlisted everywhere I wanted to attend due to my race

Absolutely not. But the people who complain the most about college admission being unfair are average white kids, and they don't realize that if it wasn't for discrimination against Asians, they'd really, really be down bad. They don't know how good they have it.

Either way, colleges should be making decisions based on who will make their campus a better place and nothing more. Academics are a part of that. But no campus should want a whiny, entitled loser like OP who brings nothing to table other than studies over someone who is perhaps less academically successful but has hobbies, is well-adjusted, demonstrates an interest in joining the campus community, and so on.

Said another way, this kid isn't being discriminated against -- he just doesn't bring anything to the table other than something that a lot of other kids also have. Boo hoo hoo.

Many people support it even though they are angry about past discrimination against blacks.

It's honestly amazing

Your 2nd sentence is racist. Have you spoken to thousands of high school akd college kids in order to form a reasonable opinion? Even if you have, racist statements aren't nice.

He is just a kid. While I may agree with your general line of thought, calling a kid a whiny entitled loser is no way to change his less than healthy views. I have never once met a promising but flawed young person who responded to name calling.

Building one's emotional maturity is a part and parcel of going to college. In a social media world where kids learn by word of mouth and contagion rules, they are exposed to some adults and adult thinking in college. The idea is to grow.

I wouldn’t say that undergrad doesn’t matter, but the OP is still in at very good schools. I didn’t even apply to any Ivies (or MIT/Stanford) as I didn’t have any interest and my HS grades were too low. I ended up getting accepted at five different Ivy grad programs (all top/mid-tier Ivies), as well as other top schools. Most of my classmates in grad school didn’t come from the very upper echelon of schools either, although of course HYP undergrads were well represented. If you end up going to grad school, in most cases that will be much more important than your undergrad, and a school like Wash U or Rice would very well respected for grad admissions (as well as open up a lot of post-college careers). You will also find a lot of very, very smart people at any “good” school, particularly in the math department.

Buddy, top 5 percent in a South OC high school means you were ranked 21+ in your class. You’re probably one of those idiot kids zipping around Back Bay on your e-bike. What were your national and state level ECs?

honestly, who cares which school is "better" - they're both great schools. i would consider anyone spending time arguing over which school is better to be a clown. then again here i am responding to this post so count me as one too.

This is so sad and messed up. If it were 1945 and a black person were denied from a restaurant for his race you would be calling him "whiny" and saying he wasn't discriminated against because "restaurants make decisions about who they want inside and you're the wrong type of person." I can't even fathom having this type of worldview. And by the way he's just a kid. You're telling this to an 18-year-old. I think high schoolers deserve some lenience, none of the high schoolers I know have full "personal responsibility" to compensate for every systemic injustice. Remember only 19% of young Asian Americans feel like thye are part of this country. I suppose you're fine with that because you think they're whiny losers. Honestly I'm praying for our country tonight because I don't know how it survives this.

First off, even if affirmative action were to be banned, schools are favoring underrepresented communities of color. Nothing will change. For instance, the UC system just gave UCLA’s nursing program $700k to use to admit non white students.

Anyways, this is the mindset that got Trump elected and I think it will get worse as a larger proportion of the country believes they are being discriminated against. Whether it’s true is irrelevant because perception is reality.

Nah, plenty of people of his races get in. He just wasn’t good enough.

There are big, material differences between the kinds of research that you have access to at various schools with graduate programs, but you wouldn't know that without familiarity in such areas. You can get into graduate programs from just about any undergraduate. All you need to do is to be outstanding and impress three profs a lot. Many of those top grad students come from no name undergrads. But make no mistake that your education is not very similar with the kinds of faculty at top Ivies, Berkeley, Stanford, Chicago, Northwestern, on the one hand, and places like Rice on the other. The SATs are all about the same (not counting Cal, they are 1520-1530) but some profs are current or future Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer winners, etc., and the Rice profs are not typically going to be close to that level.

You're half Asian. That's the problem. Asians are dime a dozen in those Ivy league schools. It's a status symbol for Asians to get into a prestigious school.

You might try schools in Middle America where they are clamoring for more diversity. Try the School of Mines in SD or CO. Both need more Asians that are good with numbers.

Might have been your Russian first name. OP could have used an excellent native American name like Warren.

Good advice earlier on the thread. Go with lowest cost option.

As a hiring manager, I admit I have blind spots. When a recent grad candidate is in front of me from Stanford or the Ivies, I have to fight against judging them:

white: entitled legacy

Asian: merit

other: affirmative action

Regardless, of race I also am worried that they will be a malcontent. In other words, is the juice worth the squeeze?

I admit I'm biased towards high achievers from a less prestigious colleges. hard work ethic, less bs. I definitely won't pay significantly more for an Ivy degree.

Ironically, the students don’t rate the professors at Northwestern as well as they do at Rice. And that matters. Nevermind that Rice is #6 overall (most is objective but a lot is subjective with these ratings). It rates better among the students.

https://www.niche.com/colleges/northwestern-university/academics/

I would’ve sent my daughter to Rice before Northwestern. My doctor went to Northwestern. Has all the “accolades” but is quite unimpressive.

For anyone reading this though, nobody cares once you are below the top 15. There’s very little difference. So, go where the money is. Are you going to be better off paying full go at a Brown or going to a Davidson or Emory or W&L with almost full tuition? I surely know the answer. Undergrad very rarely matters in the long run, unless it is very mediocre.

Bingo. Couldn’t agree more and conduct myself the same way.

Good response. Thank you. Exactly right.

Sounds like you are lying. If if you are telling the truth....too bad.

Now just think for 1 minute of the millions of Native Americans, African-Americans and Hispanic Americans who couldn't attend most universities in America for centuries because they banned any person of color. Not just from universities, but marginalized them from society.

Shut up.