Instead of an all-expense paid visit spanning from Thurs-Sun and including sitting in on lectures, I was allowed to come for a single Sunday-only event. I spent more money on that trip than I had ever spent on anything in my life, except for my college computer. I was pretty ticked that the school was treating different minorities differently, and that for all the money I spent I couldn't even visit a class in session (since I was only allowed on Sunday). I remember meeting a half-Chinese / half-Vietnamese guy there, who regaled me with tales of the wining and dining that the favored-minority students had enjoyed.
I should note that this was way after Prop 209 (barring affirmative action at the UCs) was passed. I ended up attending the UC, and I asked an administrator about how recruiting trips like this were legal (he happened to be a lawyer). He gave some hand-wavey answer about federal pre-emption that, if true, would have completely gutted Prop 209.
There's a very large Vietnamese population in Houston. Probably other cities.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_large...
But, in the very specific context of what I was saying regarding university admissions in 2017, I don't think there was a lot that a Taiwanese-American person could do to distinguish themselves from being labeled or otherwise considered Chinese-American.
Average household income, Chinese American, excluding Taiwanese, 2018: $91,944
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_U...
People immigrate for different reasons at different times. The causes combine with changing US immigration policies and the dynamics of preferential attachment to diaspora clusters to create distinct cohorts that have similar socioeconomic outcomes.
Note that Vietnamese here is good, because in other situations, it ain't good. The college admissions context is a confounder that flips the desirability of being a particular ethnicity.
Chinese Americans: 2.5M[2]
It's almost double, but is it really on a rare pokemon level?
1 - https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/vietnamese-immigrant...
2 - https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/chinese-immigrants-u...
My guess is there's much more ethnically Chinese applicants (which includes international students).