GW’s top fields of study for Asian undergraduate students are computer science, biology, business, engineering and health, mirroring national trends in which Asian students are most represented in STEM and business fields and underrepresented in the humanities. Nationally, this persistent trend has worked to reinforce the model minority myth, in which Asian Americans are stereotyped as being hard-working and academically inclined enough to overcome societal barriers to success.
Uncontextualized statistics that indicate Asian overrepresentation at colleges, particularly in high-paying majors, feed the model minority myth. Many Asian students at GW share similar cultural and familial experiences that feed their academic ambitions, but as a group, they’re composed of a diverse range of students with intersecting identities and distinctive worldviews. The familiar stereotypes of strict Asian parents and nerdy children overshadow the truths about Asian students carrying the weight of their parents’ sacrifice and aspirations.
White students are the most evenly distributed across different fields of study at GW. The disproportionate representation of Asian, Black and Hispanic students is due to factors ranging from primary education to broader societal inequities, said Dwayne Kwaysee Wright, the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives at the GW Graduate School of Education and Human Development.
“We need to acknowledge that certain fields, because of their history of discrimination, whether that be intentional or unintentional, may not be welcoming to certain people,” Wright said. “Students may not find a sense of belonging there.”
Second-year student Shritha Pillai is majoring in neuroscience and aspires to become a critical pediatric doctor. She spends her time out of class working as a medical assistant in a children’s clinic.
Pillai said growing up she felt her parents, both engineers, had always planned for her to become a doctor by shooting down every other career she was interested in. Originally from an Indian-dominant community in Northern Virginia, the careers of the adults around her were homogenous.
“I feel like being from an Asian family, Indian specifically, a lot of Indian immigrant kids only have three career choices that are acceptable, which are obviously doctor, lawyer, engineer,” Pillai said. “Anyone we met in the community, none of them had ever wanted to do anything related to something outside of those three career paths.”
While she said she feels restricted by her parents in choosing her career path, Pillai said she feels lucky to love what she studies.
Pillai emphasized that while she doesn’t always enjoy the academic pressure her parents place on her, she feels they have a right to be highly involved in her education due to their sacrifices.
“I feel like if they weren't as involved, I wouldn't feel as much pressure. But then again, they have the right to be involved. They came all the way over this country so that their kids can have a good education. So I kinda get it.”
While many Asian students experience parental pressure around their academic decisions, not all are passionate about their studies.
Third-year student Chinh Nguyen is an international Vietnamese student studying business analytics who hopes to become a consultant after graduating. He said he believes that many international Asian students with F-1 student visas choose to pursue STEM because certain STEM degrees allow them more time to find a job in the United States after graduating.
“I picked stem as well as business analytics because it also qualifies for a three-year OPT after college,” Nguyen said. “So I get that additional 24 months of trying to find a job or an internship. And that's gonna definitely help me if I want to work in the US later on.”
Nguyen said beyond his visa’s influence on his chosen field of study, his parents also placed pressure on him to major in a field that could help him attain a high-paying and respected job.
“My parents are just money-oriented. So basically anything that makes a lot of money, they don't mind,” Chinh said. “But the thing is, there's also got to be a title too.”
Growing up, Nguyen’s parents constantly preached the importance of math he said. While their pressure pushed him to do well in his math courses, Nguyen said he never found a passion for the subject.
“I'm a very standard business analytics guy. I'm super basic. Not gonna lie though, I have found a lot of like, European kids or American kids who are actually better than me at math in GW,” Nguyen said. “For me, math isn't something that I'm passionate about and it's just something that I would do.”
Other factors of identity affect Asian students' pathways to STEM. While Asian students have higher concentrations in GW’s STEM studies, sex as a factor also affects their major choices. Asian female students exist at an intersection where parts of their identities carry contradictory stereotypes.
First-year student Caitlin Huyen-Nguyen is considering adding a computer science major to her current interactive design major in hopes that it will make her a more attractive job candidate after graduation. As she progresses through her computer science courses, she said she’s begun to notice the gender gap widen in her classes.
“I wish I saw a lot more women in STEM classes because STEM is so fascinating,” Huyen-Nguyen said.
While 27% of computer science students are Asian, only 48% of those students are female even though 68% of Asian undergraduates at GW are female according to the Office of Institutional Research and Planning. Gender is one of many factors that may complexify Asian students’ pathways to STEM according to a study from the Urban Institute.
Huyen-Nguyen said she believes that the different socialization of boys and girls affects their likelihood of entering STEM. Studies show that female Asian students face a double burden of expectations when entering STEM fields.
While STEM fields at GW have high concentrations of Asian students, many Asian students who pursue fields of study outside of STEM often face the unique burden of having to justify their major choices to their families and communities.
Second-year Seyeon Moon is a Korean student studying philosophy with a focus on public affairs. Before GW, she attended a STEM-oriented high school and planned on majoring in molecular biology. When Moon committed to college and realized she wanted to pursue philosophy, she said many in her predominantly-Asian community were in disbelief at her choice of major.
“I think all of them were pretty shocked and surprised,” Moon said. “I even had a couple of people ask me if I was mental.”
While Moon said she finds more respect for the humanities at GW, she hasn’t seen any Asian philosophy students.
“I'm thinking about every kid I know in philosophy, and none of them are Asian,” Moon said.
The lack of representation extends to philosophy faculty, Moon said. The share of Asian full-time faculty is 34% more than the share of Asian undergraduates. Still, as the distribution of faculty isn’t even across departments, this isn’t reflected in her classrooms, Moon said.
“I was looking at the philosophy faculty department and I just realized there were a lot more white men than females just in general,” Moon said. “I really made an effort every semester to take a class with a female professor, which I have been accomplishing so far. Some of them are Asian professors, but they're also so hard to find.”
Moon takes a different approach to her secondary education than many of her Asian peers. She said she views the years she spends at GW as a space to grow intellectually and find her passions before worrying primarily about her career.
“I told myself instead of focusing so much on my career and like financial, which is also very important, that undergrad would be more for exploring and really foundationing in myself where I want to be,” Moon said. “The later part, the refining part, the really the career important, financially important part will come later on.”
While Moon may be on a road less traveled by Asian students, she shares much of the same fear and weight other Asian students carry about her education. Because she chose a major that to her community is considered riskier than STEM and other majors considered to be a safe investment, she said she feels even more pressure to succeed.
"I think we always have this pressure to succeed no matter what you do, you have to be good at everything. Not even just your studies, but the way I fold clothes, the way I vacuum, the way I walk and eat, the tone of my voice. Everything must be perfect,” Moon said. “I have so many opportunities I know my parents haven't had. I would feel extremely guilty if I took all those opportunities, in a really risky way, and didn't succeed.”
