<p>I'm looking to apply SCEA later on this year, as an international student from New Zealand.
I was born and raised here, but my parents were born in India and moved here about 25 years ago.</p>
<p>As far as anybody is concerned, I'm a New Zealander (Passport, Schooling, Accent etc.) but from a genetic standpoint, I'm Indian.</p>
<p>In short, should I be putting Asian, Pacific Islander, Both, or N/A for my ethnicity.</p>
<p>Living in New Zealand doesn’t make you an ethnic Pacific Islander, any more than living in Europe would make you Caucasian.</p>
<p>There isn’t much of a dilemma. The question asks about your race, not where you grew up…you’re Indian</p>
<p>Your race would be considered Indian.</p>
<p>There are thousands of Eastern Asian and Indian applicants from the United States each year. Like you, their parents immigrated to the States in the 70s and 80s. Nevertheless, they are still considered “Asian” for any question regarding race. Furthermore, New Zealand is generally not considered “Pacific Islander.” And while it certainly is a Pacific Island, I believe that category applies more for Indonesians, Polynesians, Native Hawaiians, etc.</p>
<p>It’s deceptive. It’s like writing that you’re “African” (Black) if you are a white person living in South Africa.</p>
<p>Race is a social construct. You are allowed to self-identify as whatever you want. My advice: be pragmatic and tell them you identify yourself as a Pacific Islander (which will help you most in the process).</p>
<p>Buegie: Let me ask you a question. How “Indian” do you have to be to be an Indian? </p>
<p>I am 1/4 black but wrote “white” on my application and got waitlisted. If I had known that being an underrepresented minority would help so much, I would’ve written black. I advise you to take advantage of their abhorrent racial policy and self-identify as whatever the hell you want to!</p>
<p>“Race is a social construct. You are allowed to self-identify as whatever you want.”</p>
<p>No, you are not. The Federal Government specifically outlined this years ago. If you falsify your ethnicity on your application, Stanford will rescind your acceptance.</p>
<p>Besides, white people living in New Zealand aren’t Pacific Islanders either. They’re ETHNICALLY white.</p>
<p>I thought as much, I was just checking if I should put both since here they have options such as ‘Kiwi Indian’ which I would fall under. </p>
<p>Also New Zealand does fall under Pacific Islander since the indigenous people are considered Polynesian</p>
<p>JonWantsStanford actually doesn’t know what the word “race” means. He is confusing it with ethnicity. You are NOT allowed to lie about or distort your race to gain an advantage. Race does not depend on where you live and what culture you feel that you fit into. It is static for your entire life. Your race is Asian (Indian), so you have to enter that on the Common App.</p>
<p>Yeah, anyway since my place of birth and country of residence is NZ, surely there can’t be too many Kiwi-Asians applying. Plus I could always write about being a first gen Indian in my essays</p>
<p>Unless it is very meaningful to you, I wouldn’t write about your race. Write about what is most meaningful to you, and just forget about how they view race.</p>
<p>This is what the Common App SPECIFICALLY ASKS:</p>
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<p>Key words: HOW YOU IDENTIFY YOURSELF</p>
<p>Who can tell me how I can or cannot self-identify?</p>
<p>Also, you guys are telling OP he’s Indian. How “Indian” do you have to be in order to be considered Indian? 50%? 25%? 15%? How far back do you go? All of this talk is silly. OP, identify yourself as whatever the hell you want to identify yourself. A Moroccan kid at my school got into Yale and he identified himself as an African American. Nothing happened, even though he has an Arabic name. He’ll be at Yale this fall. According to orion222, this is deception. I think it’s practical.</p>
<p>More anecdotal evidence: kid at my school has one Hispanic great-grandfather. The kid now has his Hispanic last name. Even though he’s culturally white and isn’t culturally Hispanic in any way at all, he identified himself as Hispanic. He got into Harvard, Stanford, and West Point. Nobody’s going to check his self-identification. Yes, it’s deceptive. But he beat out all of the other Asians (who are completely shafted in the process) and it worked.</p>
<p>This thread and some comments in it make me sad.</p>
<p>People should focus on writing great essays, doing interesting work over the summer, writing a book, anything except trying to game the system with this junk.</p>
<p>Someone from another school had the best comment: “if it takes you more than 2 seconds to answer that question, you are doing it wrong.”</p>
<p>Jon, both of the examples you mentioned actually had a legitimate case for their selection. The OP is wondering if he straight out lie about his race and say he is Pacific Islander when his race is Indian.</p>
<p>Ethnicity =/= race.</p>
<p>According to your argument, I can just put down that I’m Black to gain an advantage when I am clearly White. Stop giving bad advice that could get the OP in trouble.</p>
<p>Also, maybe you should heed one of the poster’s words of warning (I’m not sure if this is actually the case) “No, you are not. The Federal Government specifically outlined this years ago. If you falsify your ethnicity on your application, Stanford will rescind your acceptance.”</p>
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You don’t have to choose just one race. The common app specifies checking “one or more” races and leaves an area by each checkbox to explain being whatever applies to your situation, including being a low percentage. </p>
<p>The app also calls Pacific Islander “original peoples”, making it clear they are not talking about native Indians who moved to a Pacific Island in the 1980s. I’m sure they will realize the original poster is from New Zealand from other sections of the application, regardless of what race(s) he chooses.</p>
<p>Theoretically, as a foreigner, your race is irrelevant to colleges.</p>
<p>They are treating you as an international admit, part of about 10% they will be admitting without consideration of race. So being a New Zealander is quite advantageous.</p>
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<p>Ah, so being 1/8th Hispanic allows you to self-identify as Hispanic. What if you’re 1/16th Hispanic? 1/32? 1/64? Where do you draw the line?</p>