<p>Does affirmative action help or harm Filipino-Americans in the admissions process?</p>
<p>I'm a half-filipino, half-white American, living in SF, raised by my single immigrant Filipino Mom. </p>
<p>When applying to colleges, should I check [Filipino] if it provides it as a subgroup under Asian, considering that affirmative action might help or harm my chances for admission?</p>
<p>Or should I check [white], or nothing at all?</p>
<p>I also plan to start a Filipino pride club at my school, so perhaps checking Filipino and this EC would nicely go hand in hand as "hook" in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Essentially, does affirmative action help or harm Filipino-Americans in the admissions process?</p>
<p>You will either be penalized (if you apply as asian) or get to be on a neutral playing field (applying as white). You will not be able to get any hooks from your race.</p>
<p>Impulsively, I would check White and Asian. But college admissions conspiracies and statistics will say that marking Asian really puts me at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>Considering my background, which boxes would you check if you wanted to maximize my chances for admission?</p>
<p>I would check both boxes. Applying as a mixed-race student seems to be a plus these days, as colleges cannot assign you to one specific ethic category.</p>
<p>Are you Hispanic or Latino?
<em>?</em> Yes </p>
<p>Regardless of your answer to the prior question, please indicate how you identify yourself. (Select one or more)</p>
<p>__ Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander</p>
<p>Last I checked the Philippines were Pacific islands and the official language for centuries was Spanish. I suppose it depends where your parent came to the Philippines from, on the Hispanic question. </p>
<p>Says who? Many Filipinos disagree as to whether they are Asian or Pacific Islander (google is soooo easy to use), and the Hispanic thing is something I’d certainly claim if I had a Spanish heritage, language, name in the Philippines. You can be Hispanic and live anywhere.</p>
<p>Perhaps the question is, how do you see YOURSELF, OP?</p>
<p>^ Well, if he has Spanish heritage, definitely. But not because “the official language for centuries was Spanish.” Sorry, not trying to be rude, just avoiding confusion.</p>
<p>Anything less than a 1/4 (ethnically) is grasping at straws -just my opinion, though.</p>
<p>Yeah. From what I’ve gathered from this post, I’ll just stay true to whatI identify as: FilAm. FIlipino American. Half-white half-filipino. Filipinos don’t really represent the asian majority (chinese, koreans, indians) that bulk up the top universities, so identifying as filipino shouldn’t hurt me. Also, having the ability to check more than one box as a person of multiple races would present a more modern individual that wouldn’t necessarily harm or help me anyway.</p>
<p>I don’t want to lie or speculate about my possible Spanish heritage, and receive penalties after admission for fraud. I also wouldn’t want to attend a college that wouldn’t accept me for who I really am.</p>
<p>I think you are wise to do it that way. Race isn’t nationality (as we know it is entirely possible to be Filipino and also be Black, Spanish, Mexican, Chinese, Igorot…or American white. Race as a classification (love how the US census tries to define it for us) is already dumb (and I don’t mean in the college app sense, I mean in the societal sense which the college thing just reflects), say who you are if you want to, check all the boxes that apply to you if you want to, and then kick butt :)</p>