<story><title>Harvard Accused of Bias Against Asian-Americans</title><url>http://www.wsj.com/articles/asian-american-organizations-seek-federal-probe-of-harvard-admission-policies-1431719348</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>streptomycin</author><text>Personally I&amp;#x27;m not too concerned about this at the undergrad level. So you don&amp;#x27;t get into Harvard and you have to go to a state school or whatever, that&amp;#x27;s not really an impediment to your life and career unless you want to become a congressman or a supreme court justice or whatever.&lt;p&gt;Where it does bother me is med school. I&amp;#x27;ve seen several of my Asian friends who were just ridiculously obviously great applicants either fail to get into med school or struggle to get into med school over several years. I&amp;#x27;m not talking about someone who you see and think &amp;quot;yeah he could be a doctor&amp;quot;, I&amp;#x27;m talking about someone who you see and think &amp;quot;wow this person has it all - smart, charismatic, hard working, intellectual curiosity, top notch GPA, tons of extracurriculars - this is a no brainer, he&amp;#x27;d be a great doctor&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;All my friends of other races who seemed similarly qualified to me had no trouble getting in on their first try. And getting into med school or not is a big fucking deal. In some cases, we&amp;#x27;re turning away people who would be incredible doctors and making them pursue other careers, which is a huge waste.&lt;p&gt;Those are just anecdotes of course, but I wonder if anyone else has noticed the same thing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>yummyfajitas</author><text>Data on MCATs agree with your anecdote - Asians seem to need to meet a higher bar to be accepted into med school.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;web.archive.org&amp;#x2F;web&amp;#x2F;20080801022539&amp;#x2F;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.aamc.org&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;facts&amp;#x2F;2007&amp;#x2F;mcatgparaceeth07.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;web.archive.org&amp;#x2F;web&amp;#x2F;20080801022539&amp;#x2F;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.aamc.o...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Harvard Accused of Bias Against Asian-Americans</title><url>http://www.wsj.com/articles/asian-american-organizations-seek-federal-probe-of-harvard-admission-policies-1431719348</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>streptomycin</author><text>Personally I&amp;#x27;m not too concerned about this at the undergrad level. So you don&amp;#x27;t get into Harvard and you have to go to a state school or whatever, that&amp;#x27;s not really an impediment to your life and career unless you want to become a congressman or a supreme court justice or whatever.&lt;p&gt;Where it does bother me is med school. I&amp;#x27;ve seen several of my Asian friends who were just ridiculously obviously great applicants either fail to get into med school or struggle to get into med school over several years. I&amp;#x27;m not talking about someone who you see and think &amp;quot;yeah he could be a doctor&amp;quot;, I&amp;#x27;m talking about someone who you see and think &amp;quot;wow this person has it all - smart, charismatic, hard working, intellectual curiosity, top notch GPA, tons of extracurriculars - this is a no brainer, he&amp;#x27;d be a great doctor&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;All my friends of other races who seemed similarly qualified to me had no trouble getting in on their first try. And getting into med school or not is a big fucking deal. In some cases, we&amp;#x27;re turning away people who would be incredible doctors and making them pursue other careers, which is a huge waste.&lt;p&gt;Those are just anecdotes of course, but I wonder if anyone else has noticed the same thing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dominotw</author><text>&amp;gt;wow this person has it all - smart, charismatic, hard working, intellectual curiosity, top notch GPA, tons of extracurriculars - this is a no brainer, he&amp;#x27;d be a great doctor&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;All those don&amp;#x27;t make a great doctor. I have couple of friends who are currently in med school  and are there because they wanted social prestige of being a doctor and not particularly because they have some sort of passion for medicine.&lt;p&gt;All of them did &amp;quot;volunteering&amp;quot; in school just so they can brag about it in their med school applications, not because they wanted to better the community they live in.&lt;p&gt;Being a type A prestige seeker doesn&amp;#x27;t make someone a good doctor.</text></comment>