<p>to piggyback on ellmenope,</p>
<p>While your son may check off the hispanic box, being hispanic of cuban descent would not necessarily make your son an underrepresented minority in comparison to someone of Puerto Rican or Mexican descent as both of groups are underrepresented at most colleges.</p>
<p>Sybbie is darned right. </p>
<p>Basically, you have to go with what you truly feel would be the right thing to do when you check the ethnicity box. </p>
<p>Having the Mormons do your family tree in hopes of something nifty popping up should not apply. What should apply is solely what the student identifies with and nothing more. </p>
<p>I know folks from where I used to live in South Florida who are Haitian and feel more American than Haitian and just put African American on the little check off boxes for grad school and the like. </p>
<p>Just do what you truly feel is right and have that be it.</p>
<p>Shucks, man, my late mother was Colombian and I always put that down because it is what I am. It is what I am with regards to how I live my life and it is what I am whenever I look in the mirror, you know? It is just that simple.</p>
<p>Re: midmo's post #11
I agree with you. Along with many, many others, my European immigrant grandparents suffered in their new country. But alas, no one cares and we never even considered that we needed to be repaid for their hardships.</p>
<p>Re: ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad post #4
I totally agree with you, too. There are no breaks for the children and grandchildren of hard-working immigrants (mentioned above) who dragged themselves up from their humble roots to achieve some middle class comfort. It doesn't seem fair to me.</p>
<p>There are more and more applicants each year who decline to check the box, and they still get into great colleges. I think it would be good for American society to get out of the business of Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Rwanda, and other strife-torn countries that try to classify every citizen by ethnic group.</p>
<p>How about checking the Multiracial box and then listing down all the countries of origin? So in the case of the Caucasian with a Cuban grandmother, he/she can check off Multiracial and list down Irish, German and Cuban.</p>
<p>I have asked this question a number of times (including school's college counselor). But most will say to classify yourself according to how you feel.
My son is so confused but thinks he wants to check the Multiracial Box,listing down all the countries of origin.
I am from an obscure Southeast Asian Muslim country with relatives in Panama, my husband a Filipino whose grandfather is from Spain(hmmm not Hispanic,right?). Our last name is very Irish like McDonald.</p>
<p>So if my son leaves the ethinicity unchecked, with a name like John McDonald, they may think he is white. He also do not want to be classified as Asian (other than the obvious disadvantage) since he feels he is more of a mix of different ethnicities and does not speak either one of the Asian languages. And yes, mother's name does sound Asian but not father's name.</p>
<p>Btw, since Russia is part of the Asian continent, would Russians be considered Asians?</p>
<p>The concept of race as used by the Census Bureau reflects self-identification by people according to the race or races with which they most closely identify. These categories are sociopolitical constructs and should not be interpreted as being scientific or anthropological in nature. Furthermore, the race categories include both racial and national-origin groups.</p>
<p>The racial classifications used by the Census Bureau adhere to the October 30,1997, Federal Register Notice entitled,"Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity" issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).</p>
<p>White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "White" or report entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Near Easterner, Arab, or Polish.</p>
<p>**Black or African American. **A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "Black, African Am., or Negro," or provide written entries such as African American, Afro American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian.</p>
<p>*American Indian and Alaska Native. * a person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment.</p>
<p>**Asian. **A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam. It includes "Asian Indian," "Chinese," "Filipino," "Korean," "Japanese," "Vietnamese," and "Other Asian."</p>
<p>Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands. It includes people who indicate their race as "Native Hawaiian," "Guamanian or Chamorro," "Samoan," and "Other Pacific Islander."</p>
<p>Some other race. Includes all other responses not included in the "White", "Black or African American", "American Indian and Alaska Native", "Asian" and "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander" race categories described above. Respondents providing write-in entries such as multiracial, mixed, interracial, Wesort, or a Hispanic/Latino group (for example, Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban) in the "Some other race" category are included here. </p>
<p>Two or more races. People may have chosen to provide two or more races either by checking two or more race response check boxes, by providing multiple write-in responses, or by some combination of check boxes and write-in responses.</p>
<p>Comparability. The data on race in Census 2000 are not directly comparable to those collected in previous censuses. </p>
<p>The concept of race is separate from the concept of Hispanic origin. Percentages for the various race categories add to 100 percent, and should not be combined with the percent Hispanic. Tallies that show race categories for Hispanics and nonHispanics separately are also available.</p>
<p>
[quote]
These categories are sociopolitical constructs and should not be interpreted as being scientific or anthropological in nature.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yep. Both the categories and their designations differ in other countries of the world.</p>
<p>The race/ethnicity/gender boxes on college applications are used primarily for data collection, i.e. for the COMMON DATA SET and other statistical reports. </p>
<p>While URMs (which sometimes include white females, when colleges are trying to bridge the gender gap in math, science and technology) may gain some advantages when checking the appropriate box, they still have to usually be academically qualified in order to be accepted for college admission.</p>
<p>In the case of a college that is actively recruiting students of color, checking the appropriate box would definitely help a particular candidate.</p>
<p>"The race/ethnicity/gender boxes on college applications are used primarily for data collection, i.e. for the COMMON DATA SET and other statistical reports."</p>
<p>gsp: I won't dispute that you probably know more about this than I do, but the CDS that is available on the web for MIT and Carnegie Mellon does not seem to include any information related to race or ethnicity for applicants. The data on the web site refers only to those who enrolled (unless I missed a page). If the information is used primarily for tracking progress at eliminating disparities, as your statement implies, then there would be no need to solicit this information at the time of application.</p>
<p>If I'm wrong about this, let me know.</p>
<p>The race/ethnic data is actually collected by the federal government (I think the program name is IPED) for tracking how well colleges are serving recipients of student loans and grants. The data is aggregated by a private organization, the Education Trust, and available on the College Results Online site </p>
<p><a href="http://www.collegeresults.org/default.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeresults.org/default.htm</a> </p>
<p>which is a treasure trove of information about how colleges compare one to another. Look up your favorite college in the institution search </p>
<p><a href="http://www.collegeresults.org/search_basic.aspx%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeresults.org/search_basic.aspx</a> </p>
<p>and you'll see what I mean.</p>
<p>Check the following links for:</p>
<p>5 years of MIT Student Enrollment by Ethnicity
<a href="http://web.mit.edu/ir/pop/students/enrollment.html%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/ir/pop/students/enrollment.html</a></p>
<p>5 years of MIT Degrees Awarded by Ethnicity
<a href="http://web.mit.edu/ir/pop/students/degrees.html%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/ir/pop/students/degrees.html</a></p>
<p>Enrollment by School and Ethnicity
<a href="http://web.mit.edu/ir/pop/students/enrollment_by_school.html%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/ir/pop/students/enrollment_by_school.html</a></p>
<p>If you do the research, you can probably find other data for MIT, CMU or whatever school that you are interested in. I just don't have time to do this for you guys and gals right now...</p>
<p>Ok, so I was curious... Here is everything you ever wanted to know about the student population. This 58-page '.pdf' is part of the CMU Factbook for 2005-06:</p>
<p>Page 05 - FIRST-TIME FRESHMAN ENROLLMENT BY DEPARTMENT, RACE & GENDER</p>
<p>Page 06 - ENROLLED FIRST TIME FRESHMAN (Excluding Branch Campuses)
BY REGION & STATE OF PERMANENT RESIDENCE</p>
<p>Page 08 - HEADCOUNT ENROLLMENT BY CONTINENT & COUNTRY OF CITIZENSHIP</p>
<p>Page 18 - HEADCOUNT ENROLLMENT BY DEPARTMENT, RACE & GENDER</p>
<p>...and the data just goes on and on...
<a href="http://www.cmu.edu/ira/factbook/facts2006/Students.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.cmu.edu/ira/factbook/facts2006/Students.pdf</a></p>
<p>Factbook 2005-06 Table of Contents (14-page '.pdf')
<a href="http://www.cmu.edu/ira/factbook/facts2006/Introduction_pdf.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.cmu.edu/ira/factbook/facts2006/Introduction_pdf.pdf</a></p>
<p>I gotta figure out how to get paid for doing all of this research for you guys and gals...</p>