(CNN) -- So we thought Asian kids did great in school. Think again. A new study suggests that women and minorities are less likely to receive early support from potential academic mentors. Researchers from Wharton, Columbia and NYU ran an interesting field experiment: Pretending to be students, they e-mailed more than 6500 professors at top U.S. universities admiring each professor's work and asking to meet. The e-mails were all identical except for the senders' names. Names that one can associate with a gender or race -- like Brad Anderson, Meredith Roberts, LaToya Brown, Juanita Martinez, Deepak Patel, Sonali Desai, Chang Wong, and Mei Chen -- were used.
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A Wharton study shows high level of racial bias against Asians and Indians
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Helen Wan: The "model minority" stereotype of Asians is pernicious
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She says even though Asians do well in school, in the workplace they fall behind
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Wan: One way to help Asians is to improve mentor and sponsor programs
I'm not the only American of @placeholder descent who has been told, in the form of a compliment, that I'm surprisingly outgoing, funny, or sociable -- for an Asian.