"Race" in College Admission FAQ & Discussion 6

<p>shame they don’t have a “don’t know” box</p>

<p>^</p>

<p>Declining to answer seems to me a near perfect substitute.</p>

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<p>As the reply immediately above (as I type this) says, besides the two forced choices for the Hispanic ethnicity question (“yes” or “no”), you can also decline to answer the question at all. It’s up to you. It’s dishonest to answer affirmatively contrary to the facts, but you are the person who is in the best position to report the facts about your ethnicity.</p>

<p>ethnicity: parents are from Iran am i minority?</p>

<p>Legacy: my dad went to Columbia</p>

<p>4.0 GPA</p>

<p>top 10% of class</p>

<p>Sat: first time Math- 660 Writing-620 Critical Reading-680
second time Math- 750 Writing- 650 Critical reading- 650</p>

<p>taking 2 ap’s as a junior Ap US History and Ap Physics C
SAT II: dont know yet</p>

<p>No athletic Teams
extracaricullars: debate 10th grade, college bowl, mock trial and model UN as a junior</p>

<p>No Community Service or tutoring</p>

<p>Any chance for me to get in</p>

<p>I want to know if Iranian is a minority too, my dad is a immigrant from there.</p>

<p>Is a Bi-Racial URM</p>

<p>Black+Asian a minority?</p>

<p>also hijacking, is iranian + taiwan a minority?</p>

<p>“Black+Asian a minority?”</p>

<p>Yes.</p>

<p>“also hijacking, is iranian + taiwan a minority?”</p>

<p>No.</p>

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<p>What do you mean? That is, [what</a> do you mean by “URM”](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063506871-post12.html]what”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063506871-post12.html) ? That was the term I saw in your thread title before the thread was merged into this FAQ thread. Of course people with both immediately traceable “black” and immediately traceable “Asian” ancestry are a minority of the population in the United States, and probably in most countries, but it’s not clear whether or not they are “overrepresented” or “underrepresented” among enrolled students at colleges. What is the comparison population? </p>

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<p>Same answer, and same follow-up question. Such persons are plainly a minority of the population in the United States, but how would one tell if colleges regard such persons as “overrepresented” or “underrepresented”?</p>

<p>tokenadult, I believe, given the context of the posts, the posters were asking whether those groups were conferred the typical admissions advantage associated with racially and ethnically based affirmative action.</p>

<p>^ And I believe the answer is that colleges don’t publish enough information to allow a definite, general yes or no answer to that question.</p>

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<p>There is no doubt that Iranians make up only a minority of the persons in the United States, or in the world. On the other hand, Iranians are categorized as “white” in the federal “race” classifications used for college reporting, as are Middle Eastern people in general. And it is not at all apparent that Iranian-Americans are underrepresented in United States higher education attendance. </p>

<p>See FAQ section 3, [post</a> #11](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063506857-post11.html]post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063506857-post11.html) in this thread, for more information. Colleges do not make clear at all whether or not they are looking for more “biracial” or more Iranian or more of whatever kind of applicants, and how much “race” categorization really influences an applicant’s chances. The best way to find out what your chances are is to apply. </p>

<p>Good luck in your applications.</p>

<p>“^ And I believe the answer is that colleges don’t publish enough information to allow a definite, general yes or no answer to that question.”</p>

<p>Indeed. However, there is sufficient informal information to answer it to an extent sufficient for most, albeit short of definite.</p>

<p>Okay, so, question. I am biracial, white/black. I have always, and when we were young my mom has always, identified as solely African American. I will continue to do this, but what are your feelings on this? I believe, until recently, checking multiple boxes was not an option.</p>

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<p>The new federal regulations </p>

<p>[U.S&lt;/a&gt;. Department of Education; Office of the Secretary; Final Guidance on Maintaining, Collecting, and Reporting Racial and Ethnic Data to the U.S. Department of Education [OS]](<a href=“http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.html]U.S”>http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.html) </p>

<p>that make “select one or more” (or its synonym “choose one or more”) the recommended heading for the “race” categories on a federally mandated questionnaire in the college data-gathering process indeed only went into effect for this application cycle. So you would have seen, as late as last application season, application forms that didn’t allow a choice of “race” categories. But now any applicant can choose as few (or as many) race categories as fit that applicant. It’s up to you to decide what to do. Some applicants will happily mark all categories that fit. Some applicants will mark the one category that fits best. Some applicants, for a variety of reasons, will mark no categories at all. The federal regulations I’ve just linked to have a lot of detail about how colleges report out to the federal government the different responses that they will see on the questionnaires. But please note that how colleges use ethnicity and race information in the admissions process, if at all, is a separate issue from how they report student responses to the federal government for Department of Education IPEDS reporting (which also becomes the basis for Common Data Set reporting to Common Data Set information consumers.) What you mark on the questionnaire from could make anything from no difference at all to a substantial difference for your chances of admission to the college, and each college tends not to make clear what is personally expedient for you to do. Most applicants I know mark each form the same way for each college that they apply to, and let the colleges sort out what it all means. </p>

<p>Good luck in your applications. </p>

<p>P.S. Despite claims to the contrary by at least one CC participant, which I checked later, so far I haven’t seen any college application form from the 2009-2010 application cycle that doesn’t offer the choice to choose more than one race category in the optional ethnicity and race questionnaire. On all forms that I have observed, the colleges are following the federal regulations by asking first a yes/no question on Hispanic ethnicity and then a “choose one or more” question on race, and most colleges (including all that use the Common Application) are making clear that both questions are optional.</p>

<p>@tokenadult</p>

<p>I think in that case, I may have to pull out an application becuase they have sufficient information to reclassify me. This is unfortunate, but I feel that it must be done.</p>

<p>Hi, Mamooie312, just so that I understand you correctly, are you saying that you do NOT wish to submit information with your application that would tend to identify you as “Hispanic,” because you don’t think that categorization fits your personal circumstances?</p>

<p>Yes, I don’t think it fits me. </p>

<p>The problem is, I wrote an essay on learning Spanish as a second language while having Spanish ancestry. Ths gives them ample evidence to “reclassify” me or say that I am lying.</p>

<p>In addition, I have answer “no” for the past decade or so on all my school/job forms.</p>

<p>Do you think that I should email the admissions office about it?</p>

<p>Fluency in Spanish is not a litmus test for being hispanic. My kids have taken Spanish because a lot of what goes on with the relatives is Spanglish. The relatives never had formal education in Spanish so their grammar can be erratic. To us, a formalized system of learning Spanish was an educational priority.</p>

<p>The point raised by twomules is correct: there is no language proficiency level assumed by the federal definition of “Hispanic.” </p>

<p>[Persons</a> of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2000](<a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68188.htm]Persons”>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68188.htm) </p>

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<p>The definition takes into account self-designation, and some people self-designate as Hispanic on the same basic facts that would prompt other people not to self-designate as Hispanic.</p>