AAPI Students Are Not As Awesome As You Think

Surprise, surprise from the not-so-fast-with-those-stereotypes department… according to the preliminary findings of a new report, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are, as a whole, not as well educated and financially successful as prevailing stereotypes often suggest: Asian-American and Pacific Islander Students Are Not Monolithically Successful, Report Says.

According to the “model minority myth,” all us AAPI kids are smart as hell, dominating enrollments in elite universities, and kicking ass in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. When in fact, nearly half of all AAPI students attend community colleges, and many ethnic groups have some of the lowest graduation and college-degree-attainment rates in the United States.

The report says that, from 2000 to 2010, the AAPI population increased at a faster rate than that of any other major racial group in the United States. Population projections show that the trend will continue over the next two decades, and the groups’ college enrollment is projected to increase by 30 percent from 2010 to 2019.

In fact, the population is expected to reach nearly 40 million people by 2050. However, there is a wide variation in college-going and degree attainment among the Asian and Pacific Islander population, the report says.

Among Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders, 55 to 66 percent of adults have not attended any form of postsecondary education. While more than four in five East Asians (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) and South Asians (Asian Indian and Pakistani) who enter college earn at least a bachelor’s degree, larger proportions of Southeast Asians (43 percent) and Pacific Islanders (51 percent) report having attended college but not earning a degree.

For more, visit Angry Asian Man.