<p>Is it wise to mark your ethnicity/race (asian-american, white, mexican-american) or leave that section blank on an app?</p>
<p>being a minority will help. being white will not. asian might, depending on the school, not at top tier universities.</p>
<p>not marking will most likely make them assume you are not a minority, and thus have the same effect as marking white. i'm white and i didn't check anything.</p>
<p>ethnicity can help if there are specialized funds that a school offers according to ethnic status. If you mark it they know whether you can be considered for them.</p>
<p>Many times, marking it simply helps colleges keep track of their statistics for reporting purposes, i.e. % of each ethnicity that applied, were admitted, enrolled, etc.</p>