<p>So I'm half white and half Asian (Filipino), and if I were to choose a race on college applications I would have to say Asian and white. Am I doing myself a disservice by identifying as Asian, and should I just not disclose my race?</p>
<p>It’s not a “bad thing”. Statistically the odds are against Asians, but you would not be doing yourself a disservice by identifying as Asian. What do you think about your identity? Is the Asian bit a strong part of it? The white part? Diversity is about much more than just race, and colleges realize this. Articulate what makes you unique, whether or not your biracial origin is a part of that, and that’s fine.</p>
<p>Is your name anglicized? If so, don’t disclose (unless your biracial identity will be important for your essay or such as the above poster suggested it might), they’ll likely assume you’re white.</p>
<p>Doesn’t that make you a Pacific Islander?</p>
<p>If you’re both asian and white, I’d put that unless you are uncomfortable with disclosing your race. No that would not put you at a disadvantage, as someone who is biracial is different than a person who is simply one race. However, it also depends what you are personally identify with, and that is more important than what you check on your college application. If they are both important to your heritage, check them both, but I wouldn’t check just one.</p>
<p>What state are you in? For most Ivies, I would not disclose. Just not indicate race.</p>
<p>It’s unspoken, but there does seem to be a soft quota on Asians at many of the private elite universities (LACs seem to get fewer Asians in general).</p>
<p>Also, Filipino is Pacific Islander.</p>
<p>If Asian representation is around 10% or so (15% or less), feel free to disclose. If it’s above that, I don’t think it would help you. May hurt.</p>
<p>I think Filipino is Asian, there was a thread on this earlier.</p>
<p>Definitions of “Asian” and “Pacific Islander” are contained in these documents.
<a href=“http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-11.pdf”>http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-11.pdf</a>
<a href=“http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-12.pdf”>http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-12.pdf</a></p>
<p>Idk man I say choose whatever makes you happy. Choose biracial, Asian, or white, it really doesn’t matter if you are a strong candidate. It’s sad that putting Asian would put you at a disadvantage, but until the world stops being so shallow…</p>
<p>Some schools count Filipino as hispanic. See if you can remotely justify it. Do any of your Filipino ancestors have a Spanish last name? Hispanic can be of ANY race.</p>
<p>Filipino is considered Asian at most schools.</p>
<p>The Spanish colonized the Philippines for 350
years</p>
<p><a href=“philippinecountry.com”>philippinecountry.com;
<p><a href=“Hispanic Culture Online * Cultura latina y española en un blog”>Hispanic Culture Online * Cultura latina y española en un blog;
<p>I would use Hispanic, actually, and get the racial credit boost. You are at a severe disadvantage being Asian, unless you apply to southern schools (like Vanderbilt) which don’t receive as many Asian applicants as the California or northeastern schools. Remember, the reasons why Asians are disadvantaged has to do with their culture – e.g., Asians see colleges as nothing more than “brands” to be displayed and, once in, they have no futher loyalty to the college and give virtually nothing back as alumni. After buying the handbag, why give more? A broad generalization to be sure, but this has held true for awhile now and – in stark contrast to Jews, who do give lots of money as alumni – Asians are seen as selfish “takers” and not givers. Thus, colleges are wary of giving seats to too many Asians, as this spells endowment trouble down the road.</p>
<p>^wow, that just happened. </p>
<p>how long have Asians even been prominent in college admissions? what if I bring up the stereotype of stingy Jews and then lessen it by using some other useless qualifier like generally? the reason for Asian discrimination is clearly to keep the numbers matching the population and not to shut out any other race, not to hurt all one or at most two generations of Asians who have been so ‘selfish’ as to not give their life savings to a college.</p>
<p>It’s not going to hurt you, IMO. It’s just not going to help you, as only URM status will help you. And at those schools and programs where being Asian makes you a URM, it could help you. </p>
<p>It’s not being Asian that makes it an issue at highly selective schools but that there is a profile so many Asians as well as other students fit that are in such high numbers that they can easily be stacked in the same huge category, and only so many of those kids are going to be taken. I see Eastern Europeans, Jewish, Indian students who all fit that description as well as kids of all races and backgrounds, and it is very frustrating to be rejected from top schools when you or yours is one those kids that look so perfect, and yet they are just one of a huge group. Enough with the strings playing, piano virtuosos. SO many apply that schools like Yale have to come up with a secondary orchestra to give them all opportunities to play. Only so many piano players are useful to a college no matter how good you are so only the top of the top get the credit for that wonderful talent. At a school like Harvard, who has had YoYo Ma, saying you are a great cellist is a yawn. May mean nothing. When there are so many with the same credentials, the school doesn’t have to go for those who have them, and look for other things in which they are lacking. </p>
<p>I knew a young man who was from one of the SSRs who had a great applications, all of the numbers, was a great pianists, Nationals I believe in some competition that is considered up there, and he was turned down by HPY which really stunned his family. He had some great internships that the family had wrangled, and was top student in his school in a number of Olympiads. They were absolutely certain that his background had to have been an issue as two URMs with lower test scores, lower grades and not the sterling resume he possessed were accepted to schools that denied him and several Asian kids. That he and those Asian kids were accepted to a bunch of mighty fine schools did not make them feel any better as the parents truly felt that if anyone "deserved " to go to HPY from that high school, it would have been him and one of the Asian kids that were turned down. They were able to swallow that another kid (who was part Asian, by the way), whose parent was an alum and who was also a national level swimmer was accepted, and yet another who was on crew and whose father was an alum was accepted to Columbia, since they understood that the schools needed stellar athletes for their teams. But they did not get the diverstiy and URM deal one bit. </p>
<p>Last year, a top applicant, Indian (from India) was turned down by MIT; someone I knew. First in his class, went to all kinds of Math Olympiads, was really a top notch student and test taker. My son’s friend was accepted with much lower scores and not quite such stellar grades, though both students had taken the top of the top courses and came from like high private highschools. The assumption that the family of the declined student make was it had to be the Asian bias. But I had seen the other kids app (had even helped him with it) and I know that it was an eye catcher that the generic app that the young Indian student was not. Because the young man who was accpeted wanted to go to MIT to be a PIrate! He was interested in their Pirate program and brought that up which showed a side of him that MIT was seeking in students in addition to his interest in theoretical Physics which he could also discuss at length instead of Engineering for which MIT has so many applicants. </p>
<p>This is something that a lot of first generation families who come from systems that are all numbers oriented don’t get. That’ it’s not just the top test scores and grades–these schools get enough of such applicants that after a point they are looking for other things in a student to bring diversity in interests, personality as well as, yes, ethinicity to the campus, but that diversity is not directly addressed by giving strike points to Asians, By giving certain URM groups their own pools and selecting from them, does result in fewer spots for those who don’t make those pools, which means, yes Asian and anyone else not a URM, not in a special pool have a more difficult time, but NOT indicating your race, ethnicity, etc isn’t going to be what does this. It’s the fact that you cannot check off a URM type (honestly, of course), not that you are Asian. </p>
<p>@cptofthehouse
Please be quiet, maybe in some of those cases you mentioned it wasn’t Asian bias.
But evidence is clearly on my side when I say there’s evidence of Asian bias. Just see what happened at Berkeley and the UC system after they got rid of affirmative action.</p>
<p>If you have a name that can make you easily identifiable as Asian, it won’t matter what you put down on the application</p>
<p>Theanaconda, why should I be “quiet”? That’s not up to you.</p>
<p>I did say in my post, that any affirmative action, any policy that gives any group of people preferred status in admissions does result in fewer seats for everyone else. So, yes, when there was affirmative action with regard to URMs, there were some URMs that were accepted who may not have been without the AA, which left fewer seats for those who are white and Asian. That they were given this opportunity because of a non academic factor makes it logical to me, that fewer of them will graduate, given the direct relationship to academic stats and graduation rates. </p>
<p>After Prop206, the AA population of UCs, particularly Berkeley and LA went down. But more of those who are URMs and were accepted graduated. None of this is surprising to me.</p>
<p>The only Asian bias there is, occurs because there are mathematically fewer seats left for the general pool of admissions when there are more special pools in which there are few Asians. The URM pool by definition excludes Asian as well as Caucasians at most selective schools. NO one is looking at names or what is selected in the race/ethic section of the app, other than to put those eligible in URM pools of admissions. </p>
<p>As with all such discussions, people believe what they believe without much evidence one way or the other. The only point I would make to the OP is that he or she isn’t Asian, he or she is biracial. Personally, I suspect that a lot of colleges like biracial people, so I would indicate that.</p>
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<p>Not exactly. Applicants who indicate two or more race/ethnicity categories, at least one of which is in the college’s definition of URM, would get whatever the college’s URM preference is (if any), even if they also indicate Asian and/or white.</p>