<p>I think everyone that is a minority should put it down. It’s just a business decision–use every advantage you have available to you. I guarantee the rest of the world will be doing the same thing, if not in college admissions then somewhere else farther down the line. It’s just life.</p>
<p>I’m black and I got into every school I applied to, and I definitely got a lot of BS from kids at my high school about getting in off of affirmative action (which was false, i had a 3.9 unweighted GPA at a great/super small college prep high school, went to summer engineering programs since i was in 7th grade finishing off with MITES, and was a 1st team all state basketball player… among other things) but you know at the end of the day I was going to whatever school I wanted to while they had to settle for their safeties. They will all do just fine in life I’m sure, college admissions is just a big game that I did better than them. </p>
<p>Even if you could prove that an “AA candidate” took a spot at a top school from someone else (which you can’t) no one should feel bad about that because its not like you condemned the person to being homeless forever or anything. they just may not get to go to harvard.</p>
<p>“I think everyone that is a minority should put it down. It’s just a business decision–use every advantage you have available to you. I guarantee the rest of the world will be doing the same thing, if not in college admissions then somewhere else farther down the line. It’s just life.”</p>
<p>I agree. However, also be honest with yourself. You used every advantage that you have available, including the color of your skin, so don’t pretend that you don’t believe that AA gave you an advantage over similarly qualified applicants. While there is NOTHING wrong with using the color of your skin as an advantage, you should accept that AA helped you and not be too indignant when others might suggest the same.</p>
<p>you should check the box of the race(s) that you are and leave it at that. i think writing egregious essays of struggle and overcoming obstacles has been done to death, and a majority of black applicants write something to the effect of race in their admissions essays. unless something really special happened to you, you should go ahead and try to think of something creative, like the effect of eating skittle too fast before a math test, or why ninjas are cool. they already know what color you are by the box you checked, but telling them your struggles and obstacles doesn’t really tell them anything they don’t already know or haven’t already heard. write about something that tells them something about you. so ok, you’re black, we know there are certain stigmas attached to being so, but now tell them that you are black…and love racing video games and how you hold the high score on cruisin’ exotica at the bowling alley (which i do, score!).</p>
<p>also consider that if you get the black ao who had a simillar experoence you could get straight in, or if you get the asian one, who had to work her ass off to be top of her class to achieve the same ends, she may not really think much of it.</p>
<p>I understand what you’re saying and do understand that AA helps. My issue is more when people pretend that minority candidates get in for free while everyone else has to work their ass off to get it.</p>
<p>i think any and every advantage is free game. everyone will use any and every advantage available to them and rightfully so. legacies didn’t ask to be born to harvard graduates, athletes work their asses off in a different way, and black kids didn’t ask to be born black. you would be remiss not to use every possible advantage. but as for writing the essay, see my previous post for my views on that… there is such a thing as overdoing it.</p>