<p>I'm looking for advice on this: My son is bi-racial and on forms where he has to check off what race he is he usually leaves it blank, if optional. On forms which don't say optional he says he checks off whichever race he feels like at the moment. (Asian/Caucasian). What do you think he should do on college admissions forms, some of which say "optional" and some don't?</p>
<p>If he checks the box as an asian/caucasian student it does not give him any boost because neither category are underrepresented at most "selective" schools (however, depending on where he is looking to attend, he could be under represented as an asian) you could look at the schools common data sets to see where he stands. </p>
<p>At the same time if he checks no box it does not hurt him because he is categorized as declined to report (no harm, no foul).</p>
<p>MominNYC, this year Brandeis appears to be providing significant merit aid to Asian students. Who knows if they will do the same next year, but this is one college for which checking the Asian box may help.</p>
<p>i'd suggest he checks the asian box. im asian myself and although i think affirmative action is ridiculous...it may just give him the edge. i dont knwo though. all i knwo is that im playing it up...the fact that i was adopted from south korea. haha hopefully one day race wont even matter, but for now, you know those schools have quotas to fill.</p>
<p>Asians are URMs at many colleges, but none of the really elite ones. There are colleges where it would hurt him to mark the box.</p>
<p>The question is completely optional and the number of people not marking it is increasing. This is a concern to special interest minority groups since it is making it harder to create meaning statistics for tracking affirmative action. JBHE has written on it.</p>
<p>Does he have an Asian last name? If yes, than all of this is probably moot. Many believe Asians are the group that have the hardest time getting into top colleges. As a group, threy score higher on SATs than any other group. Because of cultural values, many Asians have worked extremely hard in high school and have a lot to show. Therefore, as a group, they are highly qualified candidates. Also, we have many Asians applying directly from Asia who also compete against Asian Americans. But the colleges hold the number of Asians steady.</p>
<p>All of this is to say that at top colleges I would put cauc. At a tier 2 or 3 school in the South, I'd put Asian.</p>
<p>I agree with suze. It isn't fair but a lot of the super-elite colleges don't want to have the asian population go above 20%, which is where it would be based upon merit.</p>