College Life

Private Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• Cornell University
• Claremont McKenna College
• Northwestern University
• Tufts University
• Stanford University

State Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• University of Illinois
• University of Wisconsin—Madison
• University of California—Los Angeles
• University of California—Irvine

Classes in the Major

Asian-American Studies. Yeah, a real shocker isn't it? Several schools, such as UCLA, actually have classes listed as "AAS" or "AS AM", and we'll give you three guesses as to what those stand for. "But Shmoop, what exactly do you do in those classes?" And our answer is…stuff. Studious stuff. As you might expect, this is a pretty vague descriptor, so these classes could focus on anything from the history of Asian-American playwriting to how Chinese takeout came to be a thing. So yeah, that may not be very helpful…just thing of these like Asian-American-themed history or English in disguise.

History. A good chunk of what makes Asian-Americans, well, Asian-Americans is stuff that happened in the past, and that's where history comes in. Here, you'll take a specific look at American history (generally not much further back than the mid-1800s) through the eyes of Asian-Americans. You'll spend a lot more time on Civil Rights issues, immigration, and all sorts of other things that your $174 history textbook can tell you about.

English. The Asian-Americans you're going to be studying frequently took it upon themselves to scribble out what they thought of their lives. Naturally, you're going to be reading, studying, and distractedly doodling in those works. The actual nature of these Asian-American Literature classes varies (to the point where we can't even confirm that they'll be called that), but suffice it to say that you'll likely be analyzing texts where the author struggles to fit together those two hyphenated terms and define his or her identity.

Contemporary Shenanigans. Okay, we made that title up. But an important part of Asian-American studies is the study of the group as it applies today—it's not like your Asian-American history class ends with them vanishing into thin air. At some point in the future, people are going to open up their history modules on their iHoloTron 3D readers and they'll see what we in the 21st century like to call "current events." Classes in this section deal with the various "issues" that Asian-Americans face today, from political representation to economic welfare.

Ethnic Studies. Asian-American studies not general enough for ya? For a lot of schools, picking this major means that you're going to wind up in ethnic studies classes a couple of times, which naturally deal with all sorts of minorities, not just Asian-Americans. Yay for broadening horizons. These courses are picked to let you get the hang of studying "hyphenated Americans," as there's a fair amount of similarities between those groups—the struggle for equal rights being the big one.