<p>Hi guys,
I was wondering if it is mandatory to indicate your race in the common application. I've heard nasty things about discrimination in college admissions on the basis of race and was wondering if there was any way to bypass it.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>It does say “optional” right there on the form: “The items with a gray background are optional. No information you provide will be used in a discriminatory manner.” Even if you doubt the second part, you can just choose not to answer.</p>
<p>Also, this subforum was intended for people applying to Harvard’s class of 2012 (i.e., people who were graduating from high school in 2008). Your questions aren’t likely to attract a lot of notice here.</p>
<p>Thank you for your response.
I posted this in the Harvard forum because I heard about race-discrimination in Ivy League schools, but thank you for pointing it out. I’ll post somewhere else in the future.</p>