"A lot of the students in Korea struggle with mental health and suicidal tendencies bec of this. We hosted a Korean exchange student for a year so we had first row seat to this."
Absolutely. Same thing in India. In those countries, your academic standing is the be all, end all to "success". How you do academically in school and the equivalent of the sat/act determines what tier school you go to and much more than America, how you will do in life. It is a pure meritocracy, right or wrong. There is no unspoken one racial group has to score 200 points higher on the sat to overcome their race status.