<p>And how you have succeeded! <em>bounce</em> mm, I like Laura.</p>
<p>Since some minority students seem to want it, I don't see anything wrong in principle with including a box that says "Please don't consider my {race, gender} in evaluating my applyication." Perhaps it could go next to the Defy Ben Golub box.</p>
<p>Being a baby economist, however, has apparently taught me something about thinking through others' incentives. (In this case, MIT's.) First, this kind of box would entail admitting at least the possibility that race and gender play a role. Surely, that isn't so fun. (Though, if MIT does it in filings with the obscure and secret Supreme Court, it can't be that bad.)</p>
<p>A more serious problem is that people would quickly ask about the differences in admit rates between people who do and don't check that box. Those numbers might be meaningless, but people might still ask to look at meaningless numbers. MIT would have three ways to react</p>
<p>(1) We won't tell you. ("Did you hit your sister?" -- "No." -- "Did you bite your sister" -- "No." -- "Did you scratch your sister?" -- "I refuse to answer.")</p>
<p>(2) Treat the box-checkers the same as the not-box-checkers of the given minority group, since minority status is often so very, very easy to guess. (But that would be disrespectful of applicants' wishes, and I'm sure MIT wouldn't go anywhere near doing that.)</p>
<p>(3) Release the numbers and prepare to curl up in a very small, tight ball because Ben Golub and other infidels will twist them into seditious nonsense.</p>
<p>You can see that none of these options is particularly attractive, and if MIT hired me to make the decision and then live with the consequences, I'd rather marry sakky than say yes to the box.</p>