does indicating ur race on college apps help?

<p>im asian (korean) and i made up my mind to not putmy race down on my apps because its just a personal thing. i dont feel that race should apply in the admissions decision...</p>

<p>however, after speaking with a college admissions officer from macalester, she said that she would indicate it because it may help with the amount of financial aid and stuff that i get...</p>

<p>but then again...wont some other colleges not accept me because there are more qualified asians or something compared to me?</p>

<p>help!! if it helps, some schools im looking at...(im still a jr)</p>

<p>grinnell
macalester
carleton
wellesley
mt holyoke
smith
university of illinois, for safety (im a resident)</p>

<p>yeah...help guys!</p>

<p>At all those colleges, if you are an under-represented minority, your race/ethnic background can be a plus factor considered along with everything else in admissions. However, asians are not considered URM's anywhere and thus putting down asian is not likely to mean anything, one way or the other.</p>

<p>Asians are under represented at some schools. Macalaster sounds like it is one if this is what the admissions officer told you. There are many highly qualified Asian candidates at ivies, schools in CA and prestigeous schools in general. At those schools you will be up against stiff competition from other Asians. Yet there are many schools that don't have a lot of Asians applying and will give you a UTM-like advantage. My best friend from high school went to Colby where he probably wouldn't have gotten in had he been white. So if you're borderline for the calibre school you want, just look up Asian % to see where you will add to diversity.</p>

<p>Very Very few colleges give benifits for being asian, the vast majority of the time it makes it more difficult for you to get in if they think your asian.</p>

<p>korean would not be a URM at any university. filipino, vietnamese possibly.</p>

<p>i think they can guess from looking at your last name</p>

<p>but last names can be misleading</p>

<p>a ton of asians got into UMichigan last year as an URM from my school. mostly the kids who got rejected from UCLA</p>

<p>i'd probably not indicate race if i were an overrepresented minority. but if u're going to interview somewhere, this could look suspicious (b/c they usually can tell your race when they interview you). so if u anticipate interviewing at schools, then maybe should identify your ethnicity.</p>

<p>Macalester and Grinnell have only 5 percent Asian enrollment so it might be a plus there; Smith and Carleton are at 9, Mount Holyoke at 12, Wellesley is at 17. </p>

<p>Schools with low percentage of Asians might actively want you for diversity and be willing to sweeten FinAid offers. At schools with high Asian enrollments, it's not going to help you.</p>

<p>Btw, jpf, my D attends Smith and is very happy there. Feel free to drop into the Smith forum under "Top Liberal Arts Colleges" and ask any questions. She took Smith over Wellesley and did not like Mount Holyoke at all because it was too rural/remote.</p>

<p>Howdy guys! Glad to be an alien. never thought i too could be one cos getting to space is not s o easy for us HS people at this stage. Anyway, was wondering if any of you knew why and where from the name came from and was used?:D Pretty neat term though.</p>

<p>some schools may consider your race but your stats are more important. race is just a little 3% plus or minus.</p>

<p>but alien is special ;)</p>

<p>jus kiddin people :P</p>

<p>Yeah race is only a big deal if you are black, hispanic, or native american at U of I. There are a lot of Asians at U of I so it isn't really a minority.</p>

<p>i indicated my race in cal poly SLO and didn't get in..heh. it's a 90% white school..kinda rare in CA</p>

<p>can you lie about your race? im sure you could justify a lie by saying, 'oh my great great granddaddy was greeen'</p>