There is a YouTuber (YesReneau, I believe) that had an edge in gaining admission to Harvard using affirmative action, because she listed herself as being African American on her application. A lot of people criticized her for this, because she appeared white and her dad is only like 1/4 black. That situation is all up to personal opinion, but I was just wondering how exactly affirmative action works and if it will still be in place when students start applying to college this fall. My mom is half Spaniard and half Native American, and my dad is half Irish and half African American. I was also invited to be a part of College Board’s National Hispanic Recognition Program for scoring in the top 2.5% of Hispanic PSAT takers in October of 2016. I usually classify myself as Hispanic (mainly because that’s what I look like the most). Would it be better if I marked myself as African American when I start my applications? Should I mark Hispanic or mixed? Or does it really even matter at all?
I’m half black so I guess I should have applied to Harvard because I would have gotten in, right?
:///////////////
This post is so incredibly offensive to me, I’m sorry. Affirmative action is not only for blacks, btw smh.
And what you are describing/intimating is not affirmative action. There is no way to determine whether that YouTuber “had an edge” because of her racial background.
I apologize, I didn’t mean to be offensive. That’s part of the reason I was asking how affirmative action works. But I do come from a very multicultural background, and I just wanted to know if it would help me during my college admissions. Obviously affirmative action is not just for blacks, which is why I was wondering what race I should apply as – realistically, I could apply as African American, Hispanic, White, or Native American, because I’m all of them equally. But I figure if I list myself as part of the NHRP, I should apply as Hispanic. As far as the introduction, that’s why I said it was up to personal opinion. Do I think someone who is primarily white should be able to gain admission by checking off the box next to African American? No, but that’s what she did, and she feels as though it is part of the reason she was accepted. I’m also not saying that students will get into Harvard just because they’re black. She also had great stats – but most people who are competitive for a school like Harvard have great stats. It just gave her a hook. As far as diversity goes, the lowest racial percentage present on the college campuses I’m looking into is usually African American, so if admissions officers are looking to bring in diversity, choosing African American would be a viable option for me.
You’re wondering whether describing yourself as an African American or Hispanic will assist you the most in admissions? I’d go out on a limb and say African American. Of course, if you aren’t one, that would be lying, and I think your interviewer would have some questions to ask about that…
This is not meant to be offensive in any way. From what I’ve read, it seems like, on average, affirmative action assists African Americans more. BUT, it really depends on the application pool that year. If by some reason half the qualified applicant pool were African American, that would hurt you not help.
Thank you, this was actually a helpful answer. And yes, I’m just as much African American as I am Hispanic, but my skin tone is light to medium and I always flat iron my hair, so I usually appear more Hispanic, or even Native American. It’s just difficult knowing what to choose when I have so many different races in my background, and I’m sure most mixed kids probably feel the same.
If you have tribal enrollment, I would go with that. Otherwise check as many boxes as you feel you qualify for.
You can check any or all that apply. (Native American status may require tribal enrollment documentation at some schools.)
Colleges that consider race or ethnicity typically do so within the realm of opaque holistic admissions reading, so you will not know how much of an effect it actually is at a given college (other than if the college says “not considered” in its common data set, section C7).
It is safest to make your reach/match/safety assessments without assuming any advantage for race or ethnicity. Better to have potential pleasant surprises (from assuming less than actually may exist) than potential unpleasant surprises (from assuming more than actually may exist).
I think you may be misunderstanding.
Being a URM doesn’t mean that you’d get in with inadequate stats.
Being a desirable URM (depending on the school, this may vary), might mean that a TOP desirable URM might have a 20% chance of getting in, rather than an 8% chance for a non-URM. The student still has to be a top student.
This came out in the premed forums. A black male with med-school-qualified stats was asking for advice in regards to his app list. He had a lot of reaches and matches on the list, but few “lower tier/unranked” med schools. After I suggested that he add a few of those lower med schools, I was promptly schooled on how this student would likely be interviewed/accepted at most of his reach med schools simply because they are desperately trying to recruit more male black med students. I guess there were concerns because some med school classes had NO black males. Females, yes, males, no. In the end, they were right…he was accepted to most/all of his reaches. Of course he was well-qualified. No free pass.
So the first question I have is how does she even know that? The answer is that she probably doesn’t - she’s assuming that that’s what helped her get in. No admissions officer is ever going to tell a student that she got in because of affirmative action. (At the very least, that’s potential for a lawsuit or at the very least bad publicity).
Affirmative action is a loose set of policies some institutions - colleges and universities, but also other places - use to help ensure some diversity within their ranks. Many institutions have realized that the systems surrounding the criteria used to judge college admissions systematically disadvantage people from some kinds of backgrounds. For example, children from poor rural schools (regardless of race) may have decreased access to extracurricular activities and AP or IB classes because of the difficulty in attracting high-quality teachers to teach there and coach. African American and Hispanic students historically score lower on the SAT, but studies have shown that those low scores are not indicative of overall lower intelligence or performance in those groups (in other words, black and Hispanic - and Native American - kids with scores as much as 200 points lower than white and Asian kids on average may achieve the same GPA in the same setting. The test simply isn’t a good indicator of potential in African American and Hispanic students.) Children with disabilities may have not had opportunities to achieve their true potential because of lack of resources to support them through K-12, but given the right setting may really excel.
So many colleges and universities specifically look more broadly at students from disadvantaged backgrounds, realizing that they can’t really fairly compare them by using the same rigid criteria they’d use for more privileged kids. For example, Susie from Exeter may have taken 4 AP classes but there are 20 offered at her school; Jamal from Central High maybe only took 3, but he took ALL three that were offered while working 30 hours a week at McDonald’s to help pay for his own expenses. Katie from rural Idaho may have only played varsity soccer as an EC but that required her to take a 2-hour bus ride twice a week to get to the suburban high school to do it. Nayati from New Mexico maybe scored a 1360 on the SAT but that puts him in the top 1% of Native American students and his grades and ECs indicate that he would thrive at X or Y university.
That’s what affirmative action is. It’s looking for the potential from a high level holistic sort of view, taking into account the systematic disadvantages that may make someone look “bad” on paper compared to students who had more privileges. In all cases the universities are selecting students they think will succeed at their schools; they are just looking for different kinds of indicators of potential success.
When you are filling out forms, you pick whichever identities you feel most comfortable with, regardless of how you look.
I think race is the last way we should divide ourselves/identify ourselves, But we don’t live in that world yet, so, things being as they are:
You should identify yourself officially the same way you identify yourself to others and in your mind: African-American, White, Native-American, Hispanic, or Mixed. If you don’t identify most strongly as any of your races, I think the most honest thing to do would be to choose Mixed.
If you try to game the system and choose the path of least racial resistance, it might catch up to you in an interview or in your essays. Just be honest and let the real you speak in your applications.
@juillet -
Do you have any links to these studies?
Usually, the latter in reporting is a catch-all term for everyone who indicates more than one category.
On the college app the question asks, How do you identify yourself? If you have always identified yourself as Hispanic then that’s what you put down. My children are biracial, black/white but identify very strongly as black.
All 3 of my kids vary in skin tone.
Since there’s no agreement on what intelligence is or how to measure it, I’m not sure how you can say studies show SATs aren’t indicative of intelligence. Such studies are often circular. If you choose to define intelligence in a way not correlated to SAT scores, then you can produce a study showing intelligence(by your definition) is not correlated to SAT scores.
I would check African American.
My Ds scores were at least as high if not higher than the scores at the 50-75% of all the schools that they applied to. So I have a hard time seeing so many posts about affirmative action. I think we all need to be able to accept that African Americans can actually score as high as whites and Asians.
Check AA. Every AA is mixed race to some degree anyway, so use the category that gives you the greatest advantage. You did not invent the system, you are not lying about it.
If you choose to write about your mixed heritage in one of your essays , check the appropriate boxes.
Not so sure about Affirmative Action but so many Hispanic people are also of mixed race! I seriously doubt you will be penalized for selecting two races because Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race. If you identify as Native and Black then mark them. For example, my dad is mestizo (Native and White) and my mom is a mixed Afro-Latina. I specifically choose Black AND White because I truly identify as mixed.
But I have been filling in those bubbles my entire life…it wasn’t something I conveniently started to do during high school.