Fastest-Growing Ethnic Category at Great Colleges: "Race Unknown"

<p>Everybody knows a friend, but not everyone knows what was in the friend's admission file.</p>

<p>If you put Unknown, it is not not always to get an unfair advantage- I am adopted and I don't know my ethnicity, so my kids don't know 1/2 of their background. Having said that, I told my son to not put Unknown, as someone might think he was trying to be clever and get an advantage.</p>

<p>wow interesting. Somewhat
pleasing to hear....</p>

<p>I would be shocked to learn that any less than 99% of those who choose to leave race/ethnicity blank were white or Asian. Perhaps at midwestern colleges, like Notre Dame, that are agressively trying to diversify with more Asians, an Asian kid would check the box. But as there is normally no benefit whatsoever, it is highly unlikely that the applicant would do so. In fact, many believe will be a negative piece of the application. Numbers do show a lower admit rate for high scoring Asians. As the holistic admissions process makes clear, statistical analysis of an applicant's chances impossible, kids & their families will always wonder how important that "box checking" really is. Many refuse on principle, believing consideration of one's race to be offensive.</p>

<p>Surnames are quite unreliable in determining race or ethnicity. Lee is a common Irish name (the River Lee, remember?) and Philapinos have Spanish surnames and many American blacks have WASPy surnames carried from their ancestor's plantation owners. Not to mention the fact that there is loads of confusion over what constitutes a minority. </p>

<p>Years ago, when my Fortune 100 company had strict hiring of minority quotas, I would look for resumes that indicated membership in black clubs & organizations, as well as schedule recruiting on traditionally black campuses. If a college wants more minority students, it's certainly not too hard to develop outreach plans to achieve that.</p>

<p>At the risk of being politically incorrect, I believe the entire process is unfair. They should change the wording of "minority" recruitment. The fact is that Asians and Jews are more of a minority in this country and have never been given any advantage. Furthermore, the counterargument that these so-called minorities have been at a disadvantage and need assistance doesn't fly with me. 36 years ago when I applied to college, I was in the top 25 students from a class of more than 1000. The minority students were catered to with scholarships, admissions, etc. Some of them had professional, college educated parents and didn't appear to be at any disadvantage to me. On the other hand, my parents were survivors of Auschwitz, immigrants, and let's face it, not just discriminated but persecuted and tortured. No one gave a hoot about my second generation status. My husband is also from this background. We both worked hard to get educated and become professionals. I resent that now when my kids are applying to college, they still must contend with the same unfair situation in the name of "diversity." Why should my kids' 2340 be passed over for someone else with lesser scores to diversify a campus? And furthermore, I see Asian immigrants slaving long hours at nail salons, green grocers, etc. like that of my parents, whose kids don't get any leg up. It is time for admissions committees to eliminate the question of race/ethnicity and look at applications by social security number. They can assist the disadvantaged with Financial Aid from those separately filed applications.</p>

<p>Socio-economic status (SES) consideration would be a much better "equalizer" than any type of racial identity. When SES is used in evaluating SAT scores there is an incredible correlation between SES and SAT score; wealthy black, white, asian or latino students typically do much better than middle class and working class students who cannot afford to flee into expensive school districts and private schools or take expensive SAT prep courses. There isn't much difference, if any at all, between races/ethnic groups in the various economic categories.</p>

<p>My mother has helped lots of community college students where she teaches. It is amazing how little they understand about the college application game. Most did not even bother to apply to four year colleges when they were in high school and did not know that the SAT was something that could be studied for. With support, many of these students go on to the University of North Carolina (yes, Chapel Hill) and do as well as their wealthy counterparts. Wealthy kids will be taken care of for college, regardless of their intellect.</p>

<p>The real problem is social class in this country. Colleges need to find a better way to identify deserving kids from modest backgrounds. Originally, that is what the SAT was supposed to do. That method of finding the "diamond in the rough" has been destroyed by all the prep courses and time to take prep courses that only the wealthy can afford to do.</p>

<p>Obsessed mom, there are plenty of AA threads take your rant over there ...neways there must have been something wrong with your kid for your "kids 2340 be passed over" b/c there are plenty of Asian and Caucasian kids that got into ivy schools with far lower SATs. Just glance at the ED thread. WELCOME to college admissions in 2008. SATs alone wont get your kid into college</p>

<p>Yeah, Obsessed Mom, take your legitimate points elsewhere! Erm . . . speaking of equalizing, I have a friend whose parents fled the Chinese "Cultural Revolution", arrived in the US without speaking English, went to community college and then state schools and now have a miniature rental house empire and six figure salaries each. So, I suppose regardless of the best attempts of high-minded admissions officers at social engineering, or whatever is they're paid to do, folks with chutzpah, moxie, cojones, bollocks (or whatever it's called) can be and often are super successful. I don't think college shenanigans necessarily translate into real world success.</p>

<p>Also: Under what definition do sweeping terms like "Black" or "Caucasian" constitute ethnic groups? There are people with dark skin and people with light skin who are culturally and linguistically identical, eh? I'm confused, but who would dare question those admissions officers of ineffable wisdom!?!? Not I!</p>

<p>
[quote]
"hmm 3.8 2350, and asian hmm " </p>

<p>Umm no that is deff an accept...keshira is one of those AA cry babies

[/quote]
</p>

<p>No need to sink to name-calling. As for whether a 3.8 2350 is an accept, it depends on the college really. And you do realize that I'd changed that from 'REJECT' as the original poster (rather sarcastically) opined to 'MAYBE'...?</p>

<p>Allow me to repeat myself: </p>

<p>There is a very large number of enrolled students who are reported to the federal government by colleges as "race unknown." </p>

<p>U-CAN:</a> Harvard University :: Page 1 </p>

<p>(15 percent at Harvard) </p>

<p>U-CAN:</a> Columbia University :: Page 1 </p>

<p>(13 percent at Columbia) </p>

<p>U-CAN:</a> University of Pennsylvania :: Page 1 </p>

<p>(13 percent at Penn) </p>

<p>U-CAN:</a> Yale University :: Page 1 </p>

<p>(11 percent at Yale) </p>

<p>U-CAN:</a> Cornell University :: Page 1 </p>

<p>(11 percent at Cornell) </p>

<p>U-CAN:</a> Massachusetts Institute of Technology :: Page 1 </p>

<p>(10 percent at MIT) </p>

<p>And, whatever ethnic group you think you belong to, there are members of it at the college of your choice. A friend reminded me recently that a lot of threads that appear to relate to "affirmative action" tend to degenerate into blather and name-calling, and I have certainly observed that from time to time. But if we stick to the facts, the fact is that YOU can get into college if you make a case for getting into college (everyone in the United States can get into some decent college), and if you want your ethnic affiliation entirely disregarded, which you may or may not choose based on reasons important to you, you are welcome to leave it unreported. There has been guesswork to the contrary in this thread, but I think the facts about what colleges report to the federal government show that colleges don't second-guess your ethnicity if you don't tell them about it.</p>

<p>
[quote]
...I told my son to not put Unknown...

[/quote]
I've never seen any box where you could check "Unknown." I believe the college or corporation reports any who leave the boxes blank as "Unknown."</p>

<p>Anyone who thinks that a university like Harvard would become a better place if it were 100% race-blind is fooling themselves. (Unless of course, you think it was a better place when it was mostly one race.)</p>

<p>How many Harvard alumni do we have reading the thread?</p>

<p>I am asian, and honestly, I would feel bad if I was accepted to HYP and put down "race unknown." I know they didn't accept the real me. And putting "race unknown" is sort of rejecting/ignoring your heritage just for college admissions. I wouldn't be happy when I know I didnt want to be asian becasue I would be "disadvantaged."</p>

<p>I don't know. I guess it's a personal issue/choice everyone has to deal with. I respect what everyone puts down b/c they do have good intentions. </p>

<p>Good luck</p>

<p>The</a> Unhyphenated Amercian's core principles:</p>

<p>Core Principles: The momentum for 'racially-based' social policies is strong in our nation. While many of these policies may have been well intentioned in their origin, they have not evolved to policies based solely on the pure needs of our fellow citizens without consideration of 'race'. 'Race-based' policies are a dividing force in our nation. Only well reasoned principles will help guide an Unhyphenated American and his fellow citizens to remove the misconception of 'race' from our society and the divisiveness it engenders. Unhyphenated Americans share the following principles:</p>

<p>*** We owe it to our children and grandchildren**: The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Removing 'race' from our society will be a multi-generational effort and may not be accomplished in our life time.</p>

<p>*** 'Race' is man-made**: Genetically speaking, we as humans can't be categorized into races. As the American</a> Anthropological Association states "..physical variations in the human species have no meaning except the social ones that humans put on them". This is not to say that we don't differ culturally; but the perceived 'racial' differences in humans don't have biological roots. </p>

<p>The differences some perceive as 'race' are just in our</a> minds; an unfortunate consequence of the evolutionary skills humans developed to sort, categorize and distinguish. Like many things in life, this innate (mis)categorization skill has turned out to be a two-edged sword; collectively getting us this far in our biological evolution, but a ball-and-chain with regards to our social evolution. </p>

<p>Furthermore, cultural differences are memes[/url</a>] humans have developed in parallel to our biological evolution. Cultural differences should be celebrated and cherished as long as the principles of a culture are founded on [url=<a href="http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/goldrule.htm%5DThe">http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/goldrule.htm]The</a> Golden Rule.</p>

<p>*** "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."- Mahatma Gandhi**: If we ask for 'race' to be removed from our government's interactions with its citizens, we should seek to remove it from our personal lives and the way we individually interact with our fellow Americans. We must 'practice what we preach'. </p>

<p>One of the most personal decisions we make as individuals is selecting a spouse and mate. It would be hypocritical to seek freedom from the misconceptions of 'race' and have it influence the loving union we make with another human. If 'race' really doesn't exist, then it doesn't exist in any context.</p>

<p>=============================================
Btw, the Golden Rule as a philosophical concept is being researched [url=<a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_4_166/ai_n6151880%5Dscientifically%5B/url"&gt;http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_4_166/ai_n6151880]scientifically[/url&lt;/a&gt;] as well.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Genetically speaking, we as humans can't be categorized into races.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>This is correct science.</p>

<p>my first name is celtic (im not); and my last name sounds japanese but i'm not. my last name is actually romanian, but no one would guess that.</p>

<p>Hey guys, heres the deal...</p>

<p>My ethnic heritage consists of Chinese, Native American, and Latin American. I did not fill in the "Race" area of the CommonApp, because I felt it was morally wrong to judge people by their heritage, and I wanted to be accessed solely on my credentials. </p>

<p>But when I tell people this, they say I'm an IDIOT. People have told me to mark down my Native American heritage on college applications, saying it would help me greatly. First off, I being of mixed race, do normal "affirmative action" guidelines even apply? Say if you were in my situation, what would you mark down as your race? I can't simply mark down "Native American" and nothing else, right?</p>

<p>I can't say I feel good using my background to get into a school, but the people around me are insisting I should. Anyway, my CommonApp has already been locked, so I can't changed that. But I am applying to USC by tomorrow, and they have a totally separate online application. What should I do? </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Yes, but I think to be able to put down Native American though that you have to have some sort of tribal affiliation.</p>

<p>1/8th and up, yes.</p>