<p>This is a general UC question, but I've been wondering about this for a while.</p>
<p>To completely exterminate affirmitive action and bias against Asians and Caucasians, why dont the board of Regents eliminate the race section of the UC application, as well as give each applicant a number before the app is reviewed by the admissions council. Most UC applicants know that one of the first sections of the application includes "race". Asians and Caucasians at my high school were actually told to mark the 'decline to specify" spot.</p>
<p>If more Asians and and Caucasians are admitted the first year they do this, then it means that the UCs were indeed still using affirmitive action in their decisions.</p>
<p>I always mark "decline to specify," no matter what the application is for. My gov teacher, a UCLA grad, said the admissions board gives each race a number(bigger number for the "under represented" races), and that adds in to the total number of points an applicant has, so it doesn't count as affirmative action becasue that's not the main reason an applicant is offered admission. But, he's not sure this is how it still works.</p>
<p>You can remove the check box but it won't matter, here's why:</p>
<p>**"Question Three:
Focus: Open-ended
Rationale: This question seeks to give students the opportunity to share important aspects of their schooling or their lives, such as personal circumstances, family experiences and opportunities that were or were not available at their school or college, which may not have been sufficiently addressed elsewhere in the application.</p>
<p>Question: Is there anything you would like us to know about you or your academic record that you have not had the opportunity to describe elsewhere in the application?"**</p>
<p>"Growing up an African American in a world of caucasians means I understand what it is to be the odd man out....blah blah, bleeding heart crap, oppressed here and there, white man keeping me down, despite that, I worked hard for my 2.5 so gimme a scholarship and let me in..."</p>
<p>You don't need a check box to convey what your culture is. And don't think for a second adcoms aren't under some kind of political pressure to bring in certain students.</p>
<p>Well, you get the idea. This is of course an exaggeration only to underscore the point how affirmative action is a poor excuse for evening the playing field. ANY policy that negatively affects worthy students of ANY color is flawed and therefore a poor excuse to fix any perceived issues.</p>
<p>You guys are missing the point...that does nothing. There are many, many ways to indicate your race in an app without having to check a box. It's just a political exercise that accomplishes nothing other than making certain bureaucrats happy.</p>
<p>I think we're still missing exilo's points. All the chirade about blacking out the race and covering names doesn't really work because a loophole is established with the open ended statement.</p>
<p>Most essays dont give away the race. If a person wants to, he can.
And the the names would be replaced by numbers, so no one would be able to tell by the race.</p>