A common stereotype of Asian Americans is that we’re all good at math and we can’t speak English, at least not very well, but a new report by the College Board
counters that stereotype.
The report looks at which Advance Placement exams are taken by Asian Americans. In all, 100, 795 Asian American students from the class of 2012 took the test.
The most popular AP exam among those students turns out to be American history, not calculus. 43, 993 AAPI students took the history AP exam in 2012.
English language and composition was the next most popular exam with 41,961 Asian Americans taking that examination.
Coming in third was English literature and composition. 35,486 took English lit.
Calculus AB came in fourth with 34,968. Next was biology with 29,561 taking that test.
So does this mean fewer Asian Americans will become engineers, accountants and doctors and more will enter fields that require a greater command of the English language?
It would be great to see a better balance. It would be a sign that Asian Americans are being better integrated into American society. But at least in the short term, that’s doubtful. Parental pressures will still play a role in steering Asian Americans towards more “prestigious” and higher paying careers.
What do you think? Do you see a day when we’ll see Asian Americans making a greater variety of career choices? Share you thoughts with AsAmNews?
