"Optional" ethnicity box

<p>In what situations, if any, would an Asian student be benefited by leaving her ethnicity off of a college application?</p>

<p>Most every situation. An Asian wont benefit as much as an AA or Hispanic but its certainly better than boxing white or nothing</p>

<p>I can't imagine it being any worse to not mark a race than identifying yourself as Asian. I doubt they would be allowed to jump to any conclusions, since they can't be 100% of your race.</p>

<p>My mom is syrian... can i box asian? or is asian reserved for well.... you know --_--</p>

<p>rofl my bad</p>

<p>Well, you can leave it off, but say if you and your parents have distinctly Chinese names and both your parents were born in China, it's pretty obvious that you're Chinese. I mean seriously, how many non-Chinese people have Chinese-sounding last names and parents born in China?</p>

<p>"An Asian wont benefit as much as an AA or Hispanic but its certainly better than boxing white or nothing"</p>

<p>I thought Asians were more disadvantaged than whites. Something I read once explained the effect of race on admissions by comparing it to SAT points: whites got +0 points, Hispanics/African-Americans got +200 or something (don't remember the exact number, but it was a lot), and Asians got -50.</p>

<p>Yeah that is my dilemma, my last name is obviously Asian, I'm an assistant teacher for a Korean school, my first language is Korean, my best language is Korean, I was published in a Korean anthology. I just don't feel like autonomously labelling myself into something disadvantageous. Bleh.</p>

<p>If I were you I'd just check it off anyway. There's really no point in hiding it if it's totally obvious. I've read in books that if you don't check anything it can't be used against you and admissions officers aren't supposed to make assumptions, but if you have that many things screaming "I'm Korean" I don't think not checking the box will help. Admissions officers will know you're Korean anyway because it's just too unlikely that someone with your background isn't Korean.</p>

<p>If your taking math/science aps and getting 800's on the math SAT and 800's on sci/math SAT II's theyll probably assume your asian</p>

<p>" If your taking math/science aps and getting 800's on the math SAT and 800's on sci/math SAT II's theyll probably assume your asian"</p>

<p>Haha, QFT</p>

<p>So if your last name is not Asian-sounding, then is it better not to check any racial category?
Or, if you are a humanities-oriented person, is it better to check Asian, if you are indeed Asian?</p>

<p>
[quote]
An affirmative action study by Princeton sociologists in 2005 attempted to break down and compare the effects of the practice among racial and special groups. The data from the study represent admissions disadvantage and advantage in terms of SAT points (on the old 1600-point scale):</p>

<p>Blacks: +230
Hispanics: +185
Asians: -50

[/quote]

Recruited athletes: +200
Legacies (children of alumni): +160</p>