<p>Whoever is next added to the Supreme Court will have to be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, so be sure to express your thoughtful opinion about this contentious issue to candidates for the presidency and the Senate, and be sure to vote your convictions during the next election.</p>
<p><a href="%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060639007-post1219.html%5D#1219%5B/url%5D">quote</a> ...be sure to vote your convictions during the next election.
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<p>College-bound students (and citizens alike) don't have to wait for a change in the make-up of the Supreme Court. </p>
<p>Denying colleges and governments race self-assessment data by refusing to self-identify 'racially' (see: Alternative</a> to "race-based" Solution Using Out-of-the-Check-Box Thinking) is the shortest path to laying the foundation for the meritocracy many desire.</p>
<p>This only works if minorities, who have very strong incentives to indicate their ethnicity, stop self-identifying.</p>
<p>Lots of students have lots of reasons either to self-identify or not, regardless of what category they would be if they self-identified.</p>
<p><a href="%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060640706-post1221.html%5D#1221%5B/url%5D">quote</a> This [not</a> self-identifying] only works if minorities, who have very strong incentives to indicate their ethnicity, stop self-identifying.
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<p>The statement pre-judges fellow Americans and incorrectly assumes a classification of 'minorities'. </p>
<p>The increasing number of "Race Unknown" self-identifications, the very topic of this thread, is evidence that students are applying to colleges with an overt request to be evaluated on the merits. With informed advocacy, the "Race Unknown" numbers will be even larger and send a message to the policy makers that utilize the self-assessments and throw a monkey-wrench into the statistical (mis)calculations.</p>
<p>Weasel, have you ever thought, what if your name was Li, or Cha, or Zhang or whatever? Then what? The folks in Ivies admit rooms used to scan for and try to filter out Jewish names back in the old days, now they are doing the same with Asian names.</p>
<p>And if your last name was say, Paulus, St. Clair, or Bentley-Prentice or whatever, and you don't identity yourself as black, what do you SUPPOSE the inference at admit offices is going to be? that somehow Mr. Bentley-Prentice is a underprivileged person of colour?</p>
<p>If they really want to be really racist, there are a thousand ways of going about it. Just being pro-active on the admit app won't stop the ingrained racism of the readers in its tracks. Booker T. Washington sure didn't stop racism and segregation towards blacks by being just personally proactive.</p>
<p>and here is my post on this issue from another thread:</p>
<p>It rather bothers me, how every time I feel compelled to write on ludicrous issues like affirmative action, my style (and quality) of writing seemingly devolves from one reflective of an Economist reader (which I am) to one reflective a Newsweek reader. It really quite buggers the mind how instant and appalling the transformation in the quality of the discourse is. I do suppose, however, that it is not a singular fault of my own mind or the momentary rot of my faculty of reasoning: it might, indeed, the suggestive of the lowliness and ludicrousness of the very debate. I am incredulous as to how the demerits of institutionalised racism & sexism could even merit serious public discourse, much less provoke prolonged verbal (and much of it hypothetical) jousting. I must say, seems like racism or no racism, I will have to resign myself to the bumbling stupidity and inanity of admission officers. For I know at least that they are fools, because I have met at least twenty members of that tribe in person. None of them seemed to have the slightest inkling as to the irreconcilable differences between Utopian ideals and circumstances of reality.</p>
<p>The thread-opening post of this thread includes a link deeper into the thread to a post showing how high the percentage of students reported as "race/ethnicity unknown" is at some colleges. It is very high indeed at many colleges, including some of the most selective colleges in the land. </p>
<p>What amazes me is the hypocrisy of many defenders of affirmative action. They scold others for not being progressive, but then throw around stereotypes of Asians as a reason why they should not be admitted. They'll say that a URM kid deserves a boost because they live in an anti-intellectual culture, and then turn around and say it is the fault of Asians because their parents discourage EC's In other words, hey, they live in an anti-EC culture so that's their own fault. People will say there must be discrimination in the NFL because there is a high percentage of African American players but few head coaches. However, Asians are over-represented at elite colleges but are under-represented as university presidents; people interpret this by saying Asians must not have leadership abilities. I didn't live in a time of open racism toward URMs, but ironically this tells me just how capable of prejudice people must have been toward them. I can only imagine how bad it was for URMs 30 or 40 years ago. People don't use their own brains. If they are told people of a certain group are bad and deserve to be screwed over, then they just accept it blindly. </p>
<p>I think there are plenty of valid reasons for AA, and almost anybody will admit that it was necessary when it was instituted.. I'll just throw one out there. Even if a URM has perfect scores and grades, it may be harder for them to succeed at an elite college if they are the only URM there. For instance, it may be somewhat harder to find study partners or something like that. I'm even willing to accept the reparations argument, but then Asians deserve something as well considering their treatment in the last century. As with any policy, however, there are shortcomings. I am suspicious of anyone who submits that there are no negative or unjustified outcomes to this policy. It suggests to me that AA is a sacred cow to them, a religion rather than a solution to a problem.</p>
<p>So, I have a bit of a problem. I'm not sure what race/heritage to put on my apps. I am a rising senior. Generally, I have always just put white because it hasn't really mattered and it was simply easier. </p>
<p>Ok here it goes: my dad is 100% white. Nothing complicated there. My mom on the otherhand... her family is Roma (gypsy) and really don't have one set place on where they are from. She was born and raised (until her teens) in Spain, but her dad is from Hungary, and he is Roma but there is also Indian (from India) in her family.</p>
<p>Should I just stick with white on apps? But it's kind of bothersome because I feel like I'm disregarding half of myself. I am still involved in both the Hispanic and Roma side of my family. </p>
<p>Or does any of this matter at all (the difference between simply being white or being Hispanic/White)? I don't have really anybody else I could ask, and my counselor told me to ask my mom, who just told me a really long story about how she was Roma and Spanish and how she hates to put her race in a category blah blah blah :rolleyes: lol...Thanks so much!</p>
<p>I would put "Other" and then write a very brief explanation in the little given box.</p>
<p>Anything but White (or Asian, it seems) will help</p>
<p>^ Lol, this is going to sound stupid, but there's a little box next to race? I haven't filled out anything other than standardized testing and there I just checked white or mixed race (depending on which one).</p>
<p>Yes I just checked, the Common App has a little blank box next to "Other," but I think it's limit is really small, so I would put "gypsy" lol URM BIG-time.</p>
<p>^ Ok so I just looked on ancestry (I have a family tree on there lol) and my grandpa put Magyar for ethnicity when he came over the first time from Hungary [before he moved back to Spain]. So I guess I'll put that? I'm not sure if that falls under "white". I'm confused... lol.</p>
<p>do something uncommon like that. You have a great opportunity here.
being a URM is a killer hook, if you truly are something out of the ordinary like gypsy or Magyar or what-have-you.</p>
<p>Take advantage of the system! anything but the dreaded.......caucasian <em>shudders at own plight</em></p>
<p>^ Haha. I suppose. And yes, I truly am Roma/Magyar/what-have-you :P. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<ol>
<li>Spanish is not Hispanic, it is white.... usually, the term refers to Latin America and not Spain itself</li>
<li>Magyar is white.... Hungarians are considered white, just like English, Polish, Germans, etc.</li>
</ol>
<p>It sounds like you can either put white, or write out a brief description. I would go with listing the specifics. As a total guess, I think it probably won't hurt you (or help you) .</p>
<p>^ Spanish is white? I honestly didn't know that...</p>
<p>The term Hispanic refers to culture and language, not race. There are white, native american and black Hispanics. While I agree that for college URM purposes, the term Hispanic refers to Latin America, a broader definition sometimes includes the inhabitants of Spain.</p>
<p>Rawr, I hate when threads get merged. Especially when they're not entirely related. Lol.</p>