(NAME-MCE) More Asian Americans meeting obstacles to academic success

[Anselmo Villanueva]

For Immediate Use

October 11, 2007

More Asian Americans meeting obstacles to academic success

By Kathleen Wyer, wyer at gseis.ucla.edu  (310) 206-0513

Collectively, more Asian American college and university students are
experiencing obstacles to academic success in U.S. higher education
than in the past, according to a new UCLA report.

More Asian American students now come from low-income homes with
limited financial capacity to pay for college, and fewer are attending
their first-choice institutions than in past years. In 2005, 51.8
percent reported attending their first-choice school, a significant
decline from the 68.0 percent reported in 1974.

"This trend has occurred during a time span when entering Asian
American freshmen are becoming increasingly better prepared for
college, as measured by high school grades and their own self-ratings
of key academic and social skills, and becoming increasingly more
civically involved and interested in becoming community leaders," said
report co-author and UCLA associate professor of education Mitchell J.
Chang.

"Beyond Myths: The Growth and Diversity of Asian American College
Freshmen, 1971-2005," documents trends in the values and
characteristics of Asian American college freshmen nationwide and is
based on data for 361,271 Asian and Asian American first-time,
full-time college students compiled over 35 years. The report, which
represents the largest compilation and analysis of data on Asian
American college students ever undertaken, is part of the Cooperative
Institutional Research Program administered by the Higher Education
Research Institute at UCLA's Graduate School of Education and
Information Studies.

In 2005, Asian American freshmen were more likely than the national
freshman population to come from families with household incomes of
less than $40,000. Nearly 31 percent of Asian Americans came from such
backgrounds, compared with the national average of 22.7 percent -
presenting these students with an obstacle to success in higher
education.

"A substantial number of Asian Pacific American college students come
from poor and modest-income families and are likely to have attended
high schools that are predominantly minority," said co-author Don T.
Nakanishi, professor of Asian American studies and education and
director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. "Moreover, Asian
American students and parents do not take full advantage of loans and
other financial aid opportunities that can assist in meeting the
rising costs of a college education."

Indeed, Asian American students rely heavily on parents, relatives and
employment - rather than loans - to finance their college education,
with 43.3 percent reporting in 2005 that there was a "very good
chance" they would obtain a job during college, up from 32.4 percent
in 1980. Asian American women in particular were 12.9 percentage
points more likely than their male counterparts to anticipate working.
Also notable is the steady rise in Asian American freshmen who say
they plan to work full-time to cover expenses - an increase from 1.9
percent in 1979 to 4.6 percent in 1999.

"Low-income Asian American students, compared to their higher-income
counterparts, are less savvy about applying to college, are more
likely to be non-native English speakers and are more in need of a job
to help pay for college," Chang said.

Over the past 35 years, entering Asian American students appear to
have become better prepared for college, although nearly 20 percent in
2005 believed they would need special tutoring or remedial work in
English. This percentage is similar to that for incoming Latino
students (20.9 percent) and is higher than that for all other racial
groups, underscoring a critical remediation need for colleges and
universities.

The percentage of Asian American students who applied to six or more
colleges more than tripled between 1980 to 2005; 35.9 percent reported
having applied for admission to six or more schools in 2005, compared
with 10.7 percent in 1980. Asian American students from low-income
backgrounds, however, were least likely to apply to six or more
colleges, giving them fewer options.

While women in the general college-going population began to outnumber
men in the 1970s, Asian American women did not outnumber their male
counterparts until 1990. Since 2000, a higher percentage of Asian
American women than men came from low-income backgrounds. And while
the increased enrollment of Asian American women in higher education
is a positive trend, it underscores how Asian American men,
particularly those from low-income households, are not keeping pace.

"Nearly 75 percent of first-time, full-time Asian American students
attend four-year colleges and universities," said Sylvia Hurtado,
professor of education and director of the Higher Education Research
Institute at UCLA. "This is the first report of its kind to track this
population since the 1970s, opening the pathway for further research
on a myriad of policy and practice issues that impact their progress."

Asian American enrollment in higher education surpassed 1 million
students in 2001 and continues to increase each year.

In addition to Chang and Nakanishi, co-authors of the report include
Julie J. Park, Monica H. Lin and Oiyan A. Poon

For a copy of "Beyond Myths: The Growth and Diversity of Asian
American College Freshmen, 1971-2005," visit www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri.
To reach the Higher Education Research Institute, call (310) 825-1925.

Since 1966, the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) has
administered the Freshman Survey, in which more than 8.3 million
incoming first-year students at 1,201 colleges and universities
nationwide have participated. The CIRP Freshmen Survey is the largest
and longest-running survey of American college students, and it
documents the changing nature of students' characteristics, values,
attitudes and behaviors. The data have helped shape public opinion
about key issues related to the concerns of college youth and
contribute to critical policy considerations in education.