It is a fact races are taken into consideration in college apps. Is it better to leave it unchecked? I am Asian. But then my last name tells the race. It probably does not look good if I leave it blank?
Just leave it blank if you don’t want to answer. You just won’t get any tip factor that Some schools May provide for that.
If you are in California, race won’t matter at the public schools because it is against the law to use that for admission.
It depends on the school but I think only tippy top schools might make a difference.
Rergardless of whether a college considers race as a factor in admission, it will ask for your race. That is because it is required to ask the questions concerning race and ethnicity you will find in the application by federal regulations; the government uses the information for providing reports on the racial and ethnic make-up of college students in colleges. Those regulations also state that you cannot be required to actually answer the questions and thus it is your choice.
Honestly if you leave it blank, they will still be able to tell based on your last name and usually only ORM’s leave that blank so they’ll automatically assume you’re white or Asian. For admissions purposes, leaving it blank or filling it in doesn’t make a whole lot of difference.
It might help if you’re Vietnamese opposed to being Chinese or Korean.
What is"ORM"?
Over-represented minority, e.g. Asian.
From the CA: