<p>So, if you leave ethnicity blank, are you just assumed to be a non-URM? At Harvard and also other schools, do adcoms try to figure out your race from your name, parents' country of origin, and other biographical info if you leave it blank?</p>
<p>Yes and yes. They certainly will read between the lines.</p>
<p>Real story:</p>
<p>A senior at my high school was asian, but his last name was Hispanic sounding. </p>
<p>I’m not sure if it was because of peer stress or parental pressure, but he decided to leave the ethnicity question blank and also submerge himself in typically Hispanic activities: He joined the Spanish Honor Society, where he served as treasurer for one year. He also took all the highest level Spanish classes he could, as well as the SAT II for Spanish. Lastly, he joined our school’s Latino club.</p>
<p>When it came to admissions season, the senior left the ethnicity question blank and declined his Harvard interview, but he did have strong statistics (GPA / ACT) on paper. He was rejected.</p>
<p>It is for this reason that I believe that college reps strongly look down on leaving it blank.</p>
<p>^^ I don’t think you can make a correlation between leaving the ethnicity question blank and being rejected or admitted. To counter your story, my daughter left the ethnicity section blank, and was admitted to Harvard. (Declining the interview, when one is offered though, may raise a red flag.)</p>
<p>Gibby, is your daughter a URM or ORM?</p>
<p>^^^ My daughter is ORM.</p>
<p>white or asian?</p>
<p>^^ White (5 characters)</p>
<p>
Your proof of this is? They cannot tally a student under an ethnic group other than “unreported” if they do not know for sure. They can’t assume a student is any particular ethnicity data-wise.</p>
<p>
They might have even assumed he was Hispanic. It doesn’t matter what the logical assumption is; unless they know through a student’s confirmation they can’t use it in their data.</p>
<p>Monstor344 is correct. For example, if a student named Ricardo Capusotto chooses to not identify with any of the racial categories on his application, he would be, for statistical purposes, designated to the “race/ethnicity unreported” category rather than assumed as a Latino applicant. And they certainly cannot make an inference for the sake of “improving” the racial diversity data. </p>
<p>Students that neglect to mention race on applications certainly do have success. I am caucasian and a member of this year’s incoming class and I chose to ignore the ethnicity portion of the application.</p>
<p>
Given that underrepresented minorities generally report their race and ethnicity (ethnicity is a separate question) for whatever admissions boost they may receive, I would say that someone who does not report tends to be considered to be White or South/Southeast Asian, groups not particularly favored by their race/ethnicity.</p>
<p>
Well, I don’t know of any evidence one way or another. I assume that if your last name is explicitly Asian or Italian or German, and you didn’t report race, an admissions officer might think you’re that race/ethnicity, but you’re already not getting an admissions boost, so there’s little difference. Anyway, as has been said, official statistics are based on official reporting, so it is what you report (or, rather, don’t).</p>