<p>@EarthWithoutArt I AM a minority. If I put it on my application it would not be for an admission boost, I’d put it because that’s what I am. I am simply a mix of SEVERAL minorities and I was seeking advice on which ones I should put/ count the most</p>
<p>@Academic07 wouldn’t it make sense to go from greatest percentage to least, then? And personally, I tend to think anything below 1/4 is kind of silly to claim, but that’s just me. </p>
<p>" the African diaspora (yes, like Mr. Obama traces his lineage to) is taking “African-American” spots."</p>
<p>Ummm every African American traces his/her lineage to Africa. Hence the term…</p>
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<p>Your fictional classmate is an idiot. You might rewrite that part before your next trolly AA post.</p>
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<p>Here is a good study on this topic:</p>
<p><a href=“http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/Briggs_Theeffectofadmissionstestpreparation.pdf”>http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/Briggs_Theeffectofadmissionstestpreparation.pdf</a></p>
<p>The conclusion starts on page 15.</p>
<p>Two kids from my school applied to the same 3 Ivies, as well as various other elite universities. One of them was a hispanic student who had around a 2250 SAT and 34 ACT while the other was white with a 36 ACT and I think a low 2300’s SAT. They both had 4.0’s. In my opinion, the hispanic student had inferior EC’s because he was in mostly the same stuff as the white kid but less respectable leadership positions. The hispanic kid was accepted to two ivies while the white kid wasn’t accepted to any.
The hispanic kid actually chose not to go to an ivy because he thought it was unfair that his friend wasn’t accepted and he was. So my question is this.
Why do colleges choose inferior students who are minorities? Shouldn’t they pick applicants based on their accomplishments, not their race?</p>
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<p>ucbalumnus already made an excellent point in his reply to this: “It looks like you prefer your college to be majority or plurality white, not some other race. It would not be surprising if this were a common unstated preference among many students.”</p>
<p>Arguing that the reason for racial preferences is to make sure that top schools are majority / plurality white instead of majority / plurality Asian is by far the worst justification for racial preferences I have ever encountered. With all of its flaws, at least there is some semblance of a moral argument in stating that racial preferences recompense blacks for our nation’s historical sins. And as cheap and hollow as the “diversity” rationale is, it still on paper promises to be race neutral and benefit everyone.</p>
<p>What is the moral justification for ensuring that top schools be plurality / majority white? How does that benefit everyone?</p>
<p>@OHMomof2 If I’m not mistaken, doesn’t everyone trace their lineage to Africa? It may take Caucasians a few more generations, but everyone can trace their lineage there.</p>
<p>affirmative action takes away asian american’s seats and gives it to URM’s. Whites aren’t effected either way. there’s no rationale, the purported point of affirmative action is to help minorities overcome historical bariers, except as a minority group asians have also faced (and still face) this discrimination, except they’re the ones being hurt by affirmative action. affirmative action as it is is punishing asians for being high-achieving and helping URM’s for being academically poor on average. Essentially it’s the same as the actiosn taken by top colleges to keep jewish people out of their colleges in high numbers in the early 20th century; in fact, holistic admissions was started for this very purpose. It took the holocaust to change that (even then some of this discrimination carried on into the 1950’s), what will it take to end discrimination against Asians?</p>
<p>half the kids who get into top colleges as blacks are actually Africans… like the kid who got into all the ivy leagues is African. 3/4 of the high achieving blacks in my grade are Africans (nigerians I believe). Generally the african immigrants tend to be richer and of a higher socioeconomic status than african americans. They’re also living in a affluent suburb like me with the same opportunities, and 2/3 of them are definitley richer than I am. Explain what circumstances should make it easier for thme to get into top colleges than it would be for me? UC’s have it the right way in using socioeconomic indicators in place of race as a factor in admission. </p>
<p>^ I agree that affirmative action isn’t a flawless process, but the point is to try to balance out racial diversity. It helps people, but also hurts a lot - in the Ivies, there’s much more diversity in terms of race than in socioeconomic background. Your family could have immigrated from Vietnam/the Philippines/etc with a few hundred dollars to your name but at the end of the day, you’re still part of a minority that is over-represented. And undoubtedly, it can be frustrating to think that someone like your neighbor who has had the same exact resources as you growing up would have an upper hand in college admissions because of something seemingly as simple as the race they were born with. This is perpetually a sensitive issue, but I assume that affirmative action functions somewhat along the notion that we still live in a society where “white privilege” exists, not necessarily in a blatantly racist manner, but that people are treated differently on the basis of their color, so affording opportunities for URMs serves to counter societal imbalance. Schools that employ affirmative action are ultimately striving to build culturally (and economically) diverse student bodies, but it is without a doubt easier to be compete for top schools with a higher household income. Honestly, I’m not totally comfortable with how race/ethnicity is defined by colleges. It should never be solely a judgement of physical appearance, because there isn’t a precise or appropriate way to categorize people, but at least these schools do try to take into account students’ unique environments and resources.</p>
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<p>But it’s NOT a judgement of physical appearance. It’s whatever box u want to check. There is no one in the admissions office holding a Pantone color chart to check what shade of beige you are. You could tick the multi-racial box and check white+black. Who is going to verify it?</p>
<p>Giving racial preferences to boost demographic URM numbers to report to USNWR, is a farce when blonde-haired, blue-eyed South Americans of german nazi descent are counted as hispanic. </p>
<p>Elizabeth Warren?</p>
<p>Miss Venezuela:
<a href=“http://www.globalbeauties.com/blog/2013/10/miss-venezuela-2014/”>http://www.globalbeauties.com/blog/2013/10/miss-venezuela-2014/</a></p>
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<p>Except, really, they don’t. theanaconda mentioned a student this past academic year who earned acceptances at pretty much all of “the top” private universities. I read that story, and the student - Kwasi Enin - had a very competitive resume.</p>
<p>But in terms of “environments and resources,” little distinguishes him from many other Asian American applicants. Enin’s parents are both college-educated immigrants. He grew up in a stable two-parent household that valued education. I don’t see how it makes sense to give substantial preferences to a child of two Ghananian immigrants but no preferences to a child of two Korean immigrants.</p>
<p>White privilege doesn’t explain affirmative action. By recent studies, 4/5 seats gone to URM’s would go to Asians (ORM’s) in race-blind admissions. See UC’s and Berkeley after they got rid of race as a factor, even keeping a lot of Socioeconomic factors in use (which I agree with using); way more Asians, about the same number of whites, less URM’s.
White privilege wouldn’t explain this, Asian privilege would and it’s implausible to suggest Asian privilege exists in a predominantly white society, there probably still is inherent racism against Asians as there is against blacks and Latinos (studies have shown it’s harder for equally qualified blacks to get interviews for jobs compared to whites, I presume the same holds true for other minorities (Latinos, Asians) as there are stereotypes against Asians (only book-smart, no creativity, etc).
What explains affirmative action is this: Asians are good so keep them out of colleges, help blacks and other URM’s get in for political purposes, what’s happening to Asians is the same as what was happening to Jews in the early 20th century and I wonder if we need an event the magnitude of the holocaust to change that.</p>
<p>So I have a slight dilemma here that I’m looking for help with…</p>
<p>I’m biracial. Dad is fully white, mom is mostly black, I believe one of her grandparents was white. I look very racially ambiguous. My skin tone is too light for me to be considered fully black and my features don’t point to either race (very dark brown hair and eyes, but I don’t have classic black features). Most people think I’m Middle Eastern or Latina when they first see me, and on one site that my school uses, it had me listed as Hispanic for some reason. I’m not sure if the school record actually has me down as Hispanic (if it does, it’s their own superficial guess, since I don’t have any Hispanic heritage to my knowledge). I live with my dad and he has sole custody, he will be accompanying me on all of my college visits, and he is fair-skinned and blue-eyed - even though I have some of his features, you would never guess he was my father unless you were told.</p>
<p>One of my brother just went through the college admission process and is going to CSU Fort Collins in the fall. He looks whiter than me, but still ambiguous - he has olive skin, hazel eyes, and curly black hair. I’m not sure whether he put black and white or just black on his apps. We have similar features, I have been told I look like the female version of him, despite our different colorings. If he could get away with putting just black - surely I could too.</p>
<p>I believe I put down black AND white when I took the ACT. When given the option, I usually check off “Other”. Should I put just black or black and white on the Common app? I need every hook I can get, so be honest - Would it be disadvantageous to identify myself as both black and white on the Common App? And will the one site at my school identifying me as Hispanic cause any problems? I notified my GC of it but I’m not sure if she actually took any action over it.</p>
<p>@codexsplanade I can’t speak about advantages and disadvantages, or about your school identifying you as Hispanic (though, you should really talk to your GC again about this issue). I will say that you should check whichever boxes you feel apply. Keep in mind that your checks don’t have to be consistent (you can answer differently than you did on the ACT). Also, keep in mind that how you look does not play into race at all. I’m Greek and Turkish, but I look Swedish for some reason. Because I believe that “white” doesn’t accurately describe my culture and ethnicity, I check “other.” If I write Caucasian, people assume Western European (even though that’s not what it means), which I am not. I don’t want to be viewed that way and I don’t want my heritage and culture to seem synonymous with more traditional and maybe over-represented Western European, so I say “other.”</p>
<p>So much of what you check depends on how you view yourself. Go with your gut instinct. Best of luck.</p>
<p>@codex,</p>
<p>Check the black box; then read “The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College”
By Jacques Steinberg</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0142003085?pc_redir=1403286244&robot_redir=1”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0142003085?pc_redir=1403286244&robot_redir=1</a></p>
<p>The most aggressively recruited student that season, Julianna Bates, was a half Brazlian black/ half white girl. The colleges were all tripping over themselves to get her.</p>
<p>Here we go again, 50 pages of vitriol about race in admissions that I do not want to care about reading, I know the drill, same old same old…Sh…stuff…</p>
<p>I will state what I always do, until you walk in another’s shoes… I would love to see any of your pasty face white kids live one week as a black person (even a rich one) and see what its like to have a cop stop you because the car you drive is “too nice for you” or following you around the Coach Store because you might be shoplifting (even though you carry your fathers Platinum AMEX- and asked “what’s your father’s name?”), stop you for walking the street OF YOUR OWN NEIGHBORHOOD because its a nice affluent area, or cross the street to avoid you or chase you and gun you down because you are black and wear a hoodie… and then tell me there is no injustice… and these students (even in your affluent schools) have pressures just because of the color of their skin and you cannot even imagine what they will have to overcome in this world…</p>
<p>My wife’s is black and her brother is a prominent orthopedic surgeon in Philadelphia, just a few weeks ago we were in Devon PA at the Devon horse show showing my horses. We went out to get dinner and a drink in his Mercedes S Class we were stopped TWICE by cops one who said umm yeah he didn’t put his turn signal on to change lanes ( he didn’t but when was the last time YOU got pulled over for that?), the other said that there was a report of a similar car stolen in Philly… It happens all the time he said, especially when he enters a rough part of Philly doing his Dr missionary work in his expensive car. yeah rich does not make it stop.</p>
<p>If URMs were selectively taken to ANY school over a PFW ( pasty face white) why are they only 8% of the classes at the Ivy leagues yet represent 30% of the population as a whole??? What Really happened here is there is 92% of a stellar class of whites ( and Asians? ) your kid could not beat out for a spot… poor them…let’s pity them that not only were there 92% of kids that they wanted more than your kid, it’s that they also took 8% more blacks they thought were better, you should get out the cross and start burning it now</p>
<p>I have mixed children, what about the reverse reverse discrimination they get when they are at the top of their class at a prestigious school and get passed over for admittance and people say “oh well they must have gotten bad grades scores whatever that made that happen” My best friend is a Hispanic from Puerto Rico and her husband works as a Manager at McDonald’s ( never graduated High School) her daughter had better stats than all of your kids here and did not get into her mother’s Alma Mater (UVA)</p>
<p>Get over it, your kids are more privileged just because of the color of their skin, more so than any URM anywhere and NOT NEARLY AS TALENTED AS ALL THE OTHER WHITES WHO DID GET IN…</p>
<p>///end thread FOREVER PLEASE, it makes me want to vomit…</p>
<p>You are justifying racial preferences for wealthy blacks and Hispanics because they are racially profiled when they shop at high-end stores and drive luxury automobiles? What a joke.</p>
<p>Fabrizio, when is the last time you were pulled over for a traffic stop because the police assumed you were driving a stolen car because the color of your skin? Didn’t think so.</p>