Hi. I have 1/2 Asian, 1/2 Caucasian daughters. My younger daughter will be applying to colleges this year. She wants to attend a college in CA (she’s sick of snow & cold!). I’ve been debating whether to have her apply as a Caucasian rather than an Asian. Her guidance counselor is pressuring her to apply Asian. A few months ago I read this article (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/11/18/rejected-asian-students-sue-harvard-over-admissions-that-favor-other-minorities/#) about Asian students suing Harvard & UNC. They cited a 2009 Princeton study that concluded “the average Asian American applicant needed a much higher 1460 SAT score to be admitted, a white student with similar GPA and other qualifications only needed a score of 1320”. I know colleges have their own admission metrics but it looks like the bar is higher for Asian students. My daughter is applying to several highly selective schools in SoCal so any edge she can get she’ll need. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
My opinion is that she should indicate more than one ethnicity, which I think essentially all colleges will allow you to do. It has the virtue of being the truth. Personally, I don’t think designating yourself as one or the other will make any difference, but there’s a slight possibility that a multi-ethnic person might seem a bit more interesting.
Well, if the “highly selective schools in SoCal” include UCs, they do not consider race or ethnicity, but do not offer financial aid coverage on the additional out-of-state tuition.
I am 1/2 Caucasian and 1/2 black, and marked as such on every college app I filled out. The Common App and every other non-Common App school I applied to allowed you to check as many boxes as apply. Is this an option you and your daughter have considered?
I would have been appalled if my guidance counselor had encouraged me to only mark my race as black for the supposed admissions advantages that are attached. People of mixed race already have to deal with the pressure to “choose” a dominant race to identify with, and I think it’s a shame that something like college admissions are aggravating this even further.
I would answer honestly with either both races, or the race that your daughter has identified most strongly with for most of her life (not just the 12th grade). For what it’s worth, the multiracial population at most colleges tends to be lower than that of Asians, whites, blacks, and Hispanics. It a minority (and by extension, a possible “hook”) in and of itself.
What colleges in CA? The public systems aren’t allowed to use race in the admissions process but sounds like you guys are focusing on private universities which obviously can.
I admit, my eldest marked Hispanic/Caucasian and ignored her Filipino side (which gets lumped in the Asian category.) It just seemed odd to add Filipino when she hasn’t been raised in the culture and has had almost no contact with that side of the family. Plus, she looks like a regular white girl unlike my S who looks more bi-racial (of tri-racial… how does that work lol.)
I really can’t advise as I have no clue what is best but we chose to drop the Asian aspect and are comfortable with that.
Hi Hunt, thanks for your opinion. Maybe checking off two boxes is the way to go.
Hi ucbalumnus, thanks for the reply. The UC schools are excellent but we’re out of state and that tuition bill is a lot.
Hi z0e101, thanks for your reply. Between you and Hunt I’m starting to agree that checking off two boxes is the way to go. We never thought of that option. Yeah, the counselor is young and inexperienced. He had my older daughter check the Asian box but she does identify more as an Asian so that’s OK now that I look back on it.
Hi turtletime, thanks for your reply. She’s looking at Pomona, Claremont-McKenna, Pepperdine, and Occidental. She liked all four and would be happy to get into any of them. As stated above, I’m going to discuss checking two boxes with her.
Ah, the race/ethnicity card. Being Asian can mean being the Hmong refugee or the rich Indian or Chinese immigrant. My 50-50 son- don’t remember what he chose (and he wasn’t a targeted Asian for our state schools-eg Hmong or other SE Asian). I would mark multiple boxes just because one box doesn’t work. btw- our Eurocentric society lumps all Asians together even though the Indian subcontinent has vastly different people than the eastern regions.
“I/2 black”- knowing how African Americans often have some European ancestry courtesy of the slave system without being able to document it- it could be you actually are more than 50% white. But, racial prejudices decided, not on majority background, but any bit non European counting.
Hispanic is a cultural, not a race designation. Some Hispanics are of pure European stock (think Spain) while others have new world ancestors who intermarried and took on the dominant language and whose country culture incorporated both continents. So of course there are white Hispanics and brown Hispanics- it depends on where the ancestors were from, not the language spoken.
In the ideal world it wouldn’t matter, but it does make a difference, especially to those who suffer because of their background.
Agree with Hunt (See post #1). Tell her to write such a wonderful, compelling essay that the Admissions Committee members forget to look at her race. Best of luck!
I agree with Hunt, too. But it’s interesting to note that, if you insist on being strategic, the strategy may be different at different colleges. I doubt there is much of an issue with discrimination against Asians at Occidental or Pepperdine, which are both significantly less selective than Pomona or CMC, and unlikely to be overwhelmed by superqualified applicants from ethnic Asian backgrounds.
The issue with discrimination against ethnic Asian applicants mainly comes up at the most prestigious, highly selective colleges. Pomona and CMC are certainly selective enough to be in that category, but I am not certain they are regarded as that prestigious within the relevant Asian-American communities. So the issue of a higher hurdle for Asian applicants may not come up there, either. And none of these colleges except Pepperdine is especially known for its varsity sports programs, so there won’t be much of an issue of few Asians being qualified to play helmet sports, something that may affect Asian admission rates at other prestigious LACs.
I note that Asian enrollment at all of these colleges is well below the level alleged to be a quota at Harvard and its peers. That suggests to me that any of them would probably be happy to admit more qualified Asian applicants.
One final note: There are vast differences between Pomona, CMC, and Occidental, on the one hand, and Pepperdine, on the other. It’s hard to imagine the same student would be happy at all four of them. Pomona, CMC, and Occidental are all classic small liberal arts colleges, with a pretty big accent on the liberal. Pomona and CMC are really regarded as among the most elite, most academically challenging colleges in the country; Occidental is fundamentally similar in academic philosophy while being maybe a tad less intense (and maybe a little hippie-ish). Pepperdine is an Evangelical Christian college where everything is imbued with religious purpose; it is twice as big as the others and educates students with a much broader range of abilities. (It is also super-gorgeous, perched just above Malibu Beach.)
Among Evangelical colleges, Pepperdine is probably among those that most incorporate mainstream academic values, but it’s not a place where most of the students at Pomona, CMC, or Occidental would feel comfortable. And, by the same token, the kind of students who are looking for the Christian focus Pepperdine provides are likely to feel alienated and a little oppressed at Pomona, et al.
For at least the first two schools on your list, it will not make ANY difference! The best avenue and the one that always works is to be … entirely honest. Mark the two boxes and safely assume that the “study” you quoted is just a bunch of baloney that has been sliced ad nauseam by agenda-carrying activists. It was based on a questionable set of parameters that hardly reflected how comprehensive admissions work. That misused and mostly misunderstood speculative research by Espenshade et all surfaces with regularity and has made no difference in the REAL life of applicants. The purported discriminated class continues to be admitted in numbers that are manifold their representation in the US. Sort of landing in a very partisan court, the quoted lawsuit has little chance of proceeding as it is a hopeless mess of twisted data and outright fabrication.
Your children will be admitted or rejected based on their applications and not based on massaged statistics and projections.
Race does make a difference when it comes to college application, but it is more relevant to URMs.
Hi JHS, thanks for your reply. I agree that Pomona and CMC are far more selective than Occidental and Pepperdine. She’s also applying to Stanford which is even more selective. I believe you’re correct about the number of Asians applying to Pomona and CMC since their admitted percentages were 11% and 10% last year while Stanford was 19%.
As for feeling comfortable at the four that we visited, she is. She likes the Claremont consortium and both colleges for different reasons. She felt very comfortable at Occidental and would be happy there. She has a friend at Pepperdine who we met with. She answered a lot of questions that you wouldn’t ask a tour guide, mostly regarding the religious aspects with the school. It was more about the strict rules rather than the religious emphasis that my daughter was concerned about.
My daughter is left of center so being around liberals or conservatives isn’t a problem. She does have her limits though: really disliked Pitzer since it was too “crunchy-granola” (her words). In the end it’s all about where she’s accepted and hopefully it’s a school she’s comfortable with.
Hi xiggi, thanks for your reply. I searched the forum posts regarding the Espenshade study and found nothing; maybe my search was too broad. Sorry if this has been discussed earlier. I agree the lawsuit has no legs. At some point colleges have to make the cut but of course I want my child to be on the good side of the cut 
. I totally agree acceptance is based on the application. I hope her application stands out to the reader at the school where she wants to go.
“the average Asian American applicant needed a much higher 1460 SAT score to be admitted, a white student with similar GPA and other qualifications only needed a score of 1320”. I don’t think this comparison tells the entire story, but is using a statistic taken out of context to push an agenda.
Liberal arts schools want to fill all their classes, not just the STEM ones. I have yet to see a score comparison broken down not just by race but also by major. I would not be surprised if the white STEM majors also have higher SAT scores than the white non-STEM majors and if the non-STEM majors–who are much less represented among Asian cultures which do not value these areas so highly-also tend to score a bit lower.
If you look at schools which do admit by major, you see this happening–the Engineers often have the highest scores, and the more artsy majors have lower scores. Can a white student get into an Engineering program with the same scores as the white students in the drama school? Is it about race or is it about major? I’m not sure any of these schools have released sufficient information to say. I don’t doubt that similar things are going on in liberal arts schools but we don’t see the score breakdown by major for these schools, just the race info.
My own feeling is that a large part of the discrepancy can be explained because I think STEM applicants–both Asian and white–tend to have higher overall scores. If it’s easier for poets to be accepted but Asians aren’t jumping into that applicant pool, then they don’t get the easier admits and the Asian admits will have higher stats because most of them are choosing to jump into the most competitive applicant pool.
Just be honest and check both boxes if she is bi-racial.
Hi oldfort, thanks for your reply. At some level race does play a part, I agree.
Hi mathyone, thanks for your reply. I believe you have a point with the STEM reference. My daughter is strong in mathematics and plans on majoring in it. She may double-major in economics if possible (colleges differ with this). She wants to attend a liberal arts college just in case she changes her mind about her major. I agree to check both boxes and be honest.
Thank you for this question as it is something I have been thinking about for a while now. My daughter is 1/2 Indian (Dad from India) and 1/2 White American. However, she has been raised mostly in India. We have started having some very interesting conversations about what she “identifies” as and in the end…she doesn’t really identify with either. She is a typical “third culture kid” who goes to school with other “third culture kids.” When it comes to applications…she will probably check both boxes and see what happens.
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The purported discriminated class continues to be admitted in numbers that are manifold their representation in the US.
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Sorry xiggi - just need to pick a fight with this one.
How about NBA and MLB since we want to talk about demographic representation.
At any rate, I do not see the point of the lawsuit.
Let’s face it, if you want something in this country, you either have to buy it or go to the street.
I don’t see any rich Chinese/Indian making major contributions to political parties/universities.
Manning the barricades - ha - even less likely.
I
Whoa there on racial stereotypes in post #17. We raised a liberal 1/2 Indian, 1/2 European ancestry son who participated in the anti Walker sit ins at the state capitol building while he was a math major at Wisconsin. And forget the Asian Indian STEM stereotype- as his home grown mother I am a STEM person, his Indian father’s aunt has a master’s in English Lit (from India but she’s been in the US for many decades). She is smart but just doesn’t think with the same logic we do.
Also, any student considering diverse majors really should consider a good state flagship as there can be very good departments in a wide range of majors to intellectually challenge a student.
My daughter is half Filipina and half Caucasian and marks it as such on all applications. They let you pick more than one.
Also, I may be wrong, but isn’t noting ethnicity optional?