quality has never been problem. In fact with quotas you can have the best students. The problem is that the numbers are just huge. Also Dominic is accusing the US schools of racism. Well Dominic would you like it if the UK was flooded with Chinese applicants and your esteemed Oxbridge was no longer english but 80% Chinese. EU regulations prevent this from happening. In the US there is no such case. In Europe, the regulations give first preference to europeans - and people can argue whatever they want but this is the truth.
I think some perspective needs to be put here. And what about Chinese or Indian Americans who are been pushed out or marginalized. I think each university is entitled to its own admissions criteria. I think the real shame is that black and hispanic students are being pushed out. The numbers of Asian students is rising. What of the schools in China or Korea or India - why do these students want to come to US. Can't they go to schools in China or Korea.
The problem is everybody wants the US prestige schools - even more so in Asia. And that is why numbers are rising. And admissions is a difficult process. I read in one of the links that Asian students have a flat profile. Whatever that means. But how do you get quality and ascertain student quality. I went to a very prestigious Ivy League. And my school has many applicants from China. Ascertaining quality is like a potshot and totally random.
Why are not Europeans or Americans rushing to study in Asia. What would Korea universities do if they were inundated with white Americans. I think the US schools are too fair and thus they get taken advantage of.
Some things appear to be conflated in this thread. There are two groups we are talking about. Asians from overseas and Asian Americans. If American universities are globally regarded as very prestigious yet they have a raison d'etre of benefiting American society (by educating Americans), it is logical that they would limit the amount of foreign students (from any country) they educate in preference to educating American natives. For the same reason and in regard to the structural limitations of a country's population, although America is a great place to live, it does not freely admit all persons who would wish to immigrate here.
However, if your comments about schools being 'flooded' with Asian applicants relates to the existing diversity regimes which are a defacto quota on the number of Asian Americans who can attend a university, this reveals a prejudice that Asian Americans are not 'real Americans' and so do not have the same constituent rights to benefit from universities as American Caucasians or any other non-foreign group (none of whom face more stringent treatment in the admissions process in comparison to whites ; this only happens to Asian Americans and foreign students).
It is false that the greatest losers of University diversity regimes are whites ; it is the Asian American candidate who must be more competitive in terms of academics and extra-curriculars in comparison to a white candidate to gain the same seat at University as the white candidate must be more competitive in comparison to an African American or Hispanic candidate.
I would not hesitate to call the US admissions systems (as it relates to US Citizens) racist on this account. Most Asian Americans (myself included) do not find it productive to engage with the culture of activism, yet most Asian Americans are also well aware that they have always been held to a higher standard.
A further aggravation of these regimes, as Dominic pointed out, is that diversity regimes (if diversity is actually their aim) do not attempt to differentiate between different countries in Asia, much less between the culturally diverse areas of the two countries that house over a third of the world's population. From 'a contribution to diversity' standpoint an Indian American and a Chinese American come from the same culture. I don't think I need to comment on the absurdity of this.
This is being discussed currently in the news media:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/463ufyzo.asp?page=1
From my experience, I have not seen this to be nearly as much a factor in graduate school, FWIW.
