<p>Anyway, so no one is disagreeing with the topic creator, but some people said that each college has a different definition for URMs. </p>
<p>Does anyone know if Bengali people are considered URM at Brown (dream school)? I think they are probably considered URM at small liberal arts schools, but what about the ivies?</p>
<p>^ It’s correct to say that colleges are by no means clear which category matters and by how much. The world-famous colleges (and plenty of less famous colleges) receive applications from all over the world, and from American citizens and permanent residents of every which possible country of origin. </p>
<p>Based on thread length (number of replies), time since last posting, and season of the year, I’m thinking of posting the next iteration of this thread pretty soon. What corrections, additions, clarifications, or other new material would you like to see posted in the FAQ posts that make up the beginning of this thread. Do you still have questions about race and ethnicity in the college admission process that haven’t been answered here? Your suggestions are greatly appreciated. </p>
<p>Good luck to all of you from class of 2010 who are still narrowing down your choices of colleges to attend this fall, and good luck to the students in future class who will be applying next year or in later years.</p>
<p>Not sure if this has been addressed, but I’m too lazy to look through this entire thread:</p>
<p>This was a recent debate topic, so a few things I’ve learned from the facts:
-Being black is the equivalent of 200 extra SAT points and .33 of a GPA point (versus white).
-Being asian is the equivalent of 150 fewer SAT points (versus whites).</p>
<p>Of course, these are averages, and not necessarily useful in individual cases. It is a holistic process, and institutions have needs that extend beyond race. Still, these are some pretty startling numbers.</p>
<p>A question I’d like to see addressed in the future: Would you (regardless of your own race) be happy attending an institution with no affirmative action, even if this was at the sacrifice of diversity? As much as I hate the theory of affirmative action (racial awareness to transcend racial awareness sounds like a pile of bollock, despite it’s truth), I’ve found myself turning my nose at schools without at least 40% non-white (of course, even those numbers can be skewed by internationals and white kids not reporting race).</p>
<p>Yes. I applied to four schools as a high school senior, and the percentage of white freshmen at those schools ranged from a low of 56% to a high of 83%. I don’t think “diversity” was on my list of relevant factors in choosing where to apply and where to attend for either undergrad or grad school.</p>
<p>^ ^ On my part, I’d like to see more socioeconomic diversity at some of the usual suspects than actually happens. Some colleges step up more than others to make it possible for applicants of all family incomes levels actually to enroll.</p>
<p>You might have an Asian-sounding name in any case, so it doesn’t matter. I am of the belief that you should be <em>proud</em> of your ethnicity, no matter what it is.</p>
<p>I’m kind of in the same boat. I’m Asian, but my whole name sounds German, actually, so I was thinking about leaving the ethnicity section blank when I did my apps.</p>
<p>No one knows for sure. Some top schools, however, report a high percentage of students who refuse to self-identify their racial classification. If you check College Board as well as tokenadult’s opening posts, you see that it’s 14% at Harvard, 15% at Cornell, 18% at Duke, and 21% at Yale.</p>
<p>^ ^ ^ I can be proud of being part of humankind and hence glad to omit mentioning any narrower ethnic group. </p>
<p>^ By the way, I would describe a person who leaves the optional questions blank as one who omitted the answers rather than as a person who “refused” to answer. At some colleges, it’s not clear whether personal beliefs or inadvertence are the greater source of ethnicity and race questions being left unanswered. The questions are optional–that is the law of the land. Some colleges admit few students whom they do not report to the federal government as belong to one federally defined category or another, perhaps because most applicants to those colleges answer the questions, while [other</a> colleges admit quite a few such students](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064033868-post6.html]other”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064033868-post6.html), again with no information being readily available to the public about how many applicants did or did not answer the optional questions on the application forms. (The federal government must have a theoretical capacity to compare how many applicants self-report ethnicity to how many non-self-reporting applicants are admitted at each college, but I’ve not heard of any public report on such data.)</p>
<p>"Your suggestions are greatly appreciated. "</p>
<p>tokenadult, if you are going to post the “race is equal to SAT points” stuff, I think it should include a link to the original data. I also think it’s useful to note the different goals of “diversity” as opposed to just the “level playing field” theory.</p>