I’m half asian and half white. I don’t know whether I should leave the race section of my Common App blank, or check both boxes. I have a white last name, and my college counselor said that if I don’t fill out the section they will assume I’m white.
Will it hurt or improve my chances of getting into college if I check both? I read somewhere that if you check both colleges place you into the “other” category of their stats, which I think would improve my chances. After all, a college would rather have one more person in the “other” section of their pie chart that in the “white” or “asian” sections, right?
But I don’t know whether any of that is true. Can anyone provide any insight?
You need to file it under “it is what it is.” No college is going to tell you how different permutations of race factor into the admissions decision, unless race is legally not allowed to factor into the decision.
This will depend upon the college.
AOs will spend 10 minutes reading your application. Nobody cane say what they will “assume.” My own opinion is that the AO will assume you are not URM, but nothing beyond that.
So check one, check both, check none. It’s your call. But don’t make your choice on improving admissions chances as that’s just folly, IMO, as it will likely make no difference particularly if, based on your other posts, your are targeting colleges like Brown with a single digit acceptance rate
It depends on the school. Some schools (California publics) do not consider race. Some schools are looking for racial diversity so would welcome the Asian checkmark.
Honestly, I don’t think it matters all that much. My daughter is Chinese and took a long time deciding whether to check the box or not. I don’t think it mattered in the end.
Link discusses a Princeton study that found that “students who identify as Asian need to score 140 points higher on the SAT than whites to have the same chance of admission to private colleges.” Some claim this could be attributed to a multitude of different factors, but I’ll let you make that determination for yourself. I would personally tick “other” or “mixed” if applying for a private school in your situation. It might make no difference whatsoever, but it’s better to play the odds and hope for the best.
Whatever you do, make sure your application tells a consistent story. If you check only “white” and your essays/LoR’s/EC’s indicate cultural diversity (e.g. you write an essay about the challenges of growing up biracial), it may raise a question. The truth is usually the best answer.
The colleges and universities are obligated by the Dept.of Education to ask these questions. If asked by the Dept. of Ed., they need to be able to demonstrate that they are not discriminating against any specific group.
In contrast, you are under no obligation whatsoever to answer the questions. Check one box. Check none. Check as many as you feel like.