"Race" in College Admission FAQ & Discussion 8

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 5:49pm

Ethnic Self-Identification Is Optional for College Admission

MODERATOR'S NOTE: There is a newer version of this thread now, with updated information. This thread is closed. See the new thread

<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1366406-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-10-a.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1366406-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-10-a.html</a>

for the latest discussion of this topic.

Students are often puzzled about how to respond to questions on college applications about race or ethnicity. The questions are required by a federal regulation, and a new version of that regulation just came into effect for the 2009-2010 application season. The regulation

U.S</a>. 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]

makes clear that self-identifying ethnicity is OPTIONAL for students in higher education. Below are examples of current application forms.

The University of North Carolina uses an online form, and as the very first part of the online account creation process, it asks for demographic information, including

University of North Carolina admissions office]

Are you Hispanic or Latino? Yes No

Please select all that apply. This information is optional and will not be used in a discriminatory manner.
American Indian or Alaska Native Asian Black or African American
White Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

[/quote:

Similarly, the University of Minnesota has an online application form, and its question is like this: 

 [quote=University of Minnesota Office of Admissions] 

Optional Providing the information below is voluntary and will not be used in a discriminatory manner. These questions comply with the U.S. Department of Education's new standards for ethnic and racial data collection.

<pre><code>* Ethnicity: Are you Hispanic or Latino? Yes No

Race: Please select one or more that apply.

American Indian or Alaska Native

Asian

Black or African American

Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander

White </code></pre>

Other colleges use their own application forms, but all must ask an ethnicity question as specified by the new federal regulation. But that question is optional in any case by law, whether the college notes that the question is optional or not.

That self-identifying by ethnicity is optional has long been clear on the Common Application,

<a href="https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Docs/downloadforms/CombinedFirstYearForms2010.pdf%5B/url%5D">https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Docs/downloadforms/CombinedFirstYearForms2010.pdf</a>

which almost 400 colleges (for example Harvard, Carleton, and the University of Virginia) use as their main or sole application form. The latest version of the Common Application includes a section titled Demographics with a subsection printed on a gray background with the heading "Optional The items with a gray background are optional. No information you provide will be used in a discriminatory manner."

The Common Application optional section includes the federally specified questions about ethnicity:

Common Application 2009-2010:

Are you Hispanic/Latino? O Yes, Hispanic or Latino (including Spain) O No Please describe your background ________________________________________________

Regardless of your answer to the prior question, please select one or more of the following ethnicities that best describe you: O American Indian or Alaska Native (including all Original Peoples of the Americas) Are you Enrolled? O Yes O No If yes, please enter Tribal Enrollment Number ________________ Please describe your background ________________________________________________ O Asian (including Indian subcontinent and Philippines) Please describe your background ________________________________________________ O Black or African American (including Africa and Caribbean) Please describe your background ________________________________________________ O Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (Original Peoples) Please describe your background ________________________________________________ O White (including Middle Eastern) Please describe your background ________________________________________________

Self-identifying ethnicity has also always clearly been optional on the Universal College Application,

<a href="https://www.universalcollegeapp.com/Library/PrintPreview/Universal_College_Application.pdf%5B/url%5D">https://www.universalcollegeapp.com/Library/PrintPreview/Universal_College_Application.pdf</a>

which 77 colleges, including Harvard, accept.

Columbia University has its own application form,

<a href="http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/admissions/sites/admissions/files/webfm/firstyearapp.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/admissions/sites/admissions/files/webfm/firstyearapp.pdf</a>

including an optional section for ethnic self-identification:

Columbia asks additional optional questions to allow applicants to indicate affiliation with smaller groups that fit into the overall federally defined "race" categories, including asking for tribal affiliation and enrollment numbers for American Indian applicants.

MIT also has its own application form, which this year takes responses online but allows a .PDF download of how it looks as it is filled out. The online version of the form asks:

MIT online application:

Ethnicity (check all that apply): 

1) Are you Hispanic or Latino? Yes, Hispanic or Latino (Including Spain) No Which best describes your background? Central America Cuba Mexico Puerto Rico South America (Excluding Brazil) Spain Other 

2) Regardless of your answer to the previous question, please check one or more of the following groups in which you consider yourself to be a member: 

American Indian or Alaska Native (including all Original Peoples of the Americas) Which best describes your background? Alaska Native Chippewa Choctaw Cherokee Navajo Sioux Other 

<pre><code> Are you Registered? No Yes, please enter Registration number </code></pre>

Asian (including Indian subcontinent and Philippines) Which best describes your background? China India Japan Korea Pakistan Philippines Vietnam Other East Asian Other Indian Subcontinent Other Southeast Asian 

Black or African American (including Africa and Caribbean) Which best describes your background? African American African Caribbean Other 

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (Original Peoples) Which best describes your background? Guam Hawaii Samoa Other Pacific Islands (excluding Philippines) 

White (including Middle Eastern) Which best describes your background? Europe Middle East Other

but the .PDF view of the form does not show all the detailed subgroups, and adds "(optional)" after the section heading.

The colleges have to ask for ethnicity data, and have to report them to the federal government, but students don't have to self-identify with any ethnic or racial category. Colleges are NOT required to use self-identified race or ethnicity as an admission factor. Some colleges do and some do not. (Some state colleges and universities are prohibited by state law in their states from considering race as an admission factor.) The questions are asked for federal reporting requirements but may or may not be a significant admission factor at some college you like. At ALL United States colleges, with a sole exception*, it is permissible to decline to answer the questions during the admission process.

High school transcript indication of student race/ethnicity is optional

<a href="http://www.pesc.org/library/docs/standards/High%20School%20Transcript/HighSchoolTranscriptImplementationGuideV1.0.2.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.pesc.org/library/docs/standards/High%20School%20Transcript/HighSchoolTranscriptImplementationGuideV1.0.2.pdf</a>

and may not be done at all in whole states of the United States.

Don't worry about it. Self-identify or not as you wish. You are always free to self-identify with humankind as a whole by not self-identifying with any narrower subset of humankind. Recognize that students from a variety of ethnic groups--including whatever group or groups you would identify with, if any--are admitted to each of your favorite colleges each year. On the other hand, admission to some colleges (e.g., Yale or Amherst) is just plain competitive, so lots of outstanding students self-identified with each ethnic group you can imagine (or not self-identified with any group) are not admitted each year. Do your best on your application, apply to a safety, and relax.

<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/493318-don-t-forget-apply-safety-college.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/493318-don-t-forget-apply-safety-college.html</a>

*The sole exception to the general statement that self-identifying ethnicity is optional in the college admission process is a federally administered college for American Indians (Native Americans),

SIPI</a> - Admissions and Records

which is a unique example, even among tribal colleges,

Tribal</a> College List -- White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities

of a college that is truly for students of one ethnic group, a college operated by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). But even other BIA colleges appear to accept students from a variety of ethnicities, and that is definitely true of and reported by other tribal colleges.

College</a> Search - Leech Lake Tribal College - LLTC - At a Glance

College</a> Search - Little Priest Tribal College - LPTC - At a Glance

(scroll down for federal reported ethnicity of students)

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 5:52pm

College reporting to the federal government is based on the U.S. Census bureau definitions for ethnicity and race categories, which in turn are based on regulations from the Office of Management and Budget, which were announced on 30 October 1997

[Revisions</a> to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity](<a href=“http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/ombdir15.html]Revisions”>http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/ombdir15.html)

to take effect no later than 1 January 2003 for data collection by all federal agencies.

The Department of Education has more recently updated its guidance to colleges on how to ask ethnicity and race questions

[U.S</a>. 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)

or

<a href=“http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.pdf</a>

and has requested colleges change their forms by the high school class of 2010 application year to ask a two-part question, first inquiring about Hispanic ethnicity and then about race, for each student. The student will still be free to decline to answer either part of the question.

United States Department of Education regulations:

Unlike elementary and secondary institutions, generally, postsecondary institutions and Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) grantees use self-identification only and do not use observer identification. As discussed elsewhere in this notice, postsecondary institutions and RSA grantees will also be permitted to continue to include a ‘race and ethnicity unknown’ category when reporting data to the Department. This category is being continued in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) because the National Center for Education Statistics experience has shown that (1) a substantial number of college students have refused to identify a race and (2) there is often not a convenient mechanism for college administrators to use observer identification.

You can look up the detailed category definitions on the website of the United States Bureau of the Census. As the Census Bureau itself notes,

[Black</a> or African American persons, percent, 2000](<a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm]Black”>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm)

Census Bureau:

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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. 

. . . . 

. . . . 

. . . . 

The concept of race is separate from the concept of Hispanic origin.

[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)

Census Bureau:

Hispanics or Latinos are those people who classified themselves in one of the specific Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino categories listed on the Census 2000 questionnaire -‘Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano,’ ‘Puerto Rican’, or ‘Cuban’ -as well as those who indicate that they are ‘other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino.’ Persons who indicated that they are ‘other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino’ include those whose origins are from Spain, the Spanish-speaking countries of Central or South America, the Dominican Republic or people identifying themselves generally as Spanish, Spanish-American, Hispanic, Hispano, Latino, and so on.

Origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person’s parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States.

People who identify their origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race.

The federal Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has posted guidance to colleges about how they are to ask about student ethnicity and race according to the federally defined categories.

[Standard</a> 1-5 - NCES Statistical Standards](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/statprog/2002/std1_5.asp]Standard”>Standard 1-5 - NCES Statistical Standards)

The instructions on the National Center for Education Statistics website provide details on how word ethnicity and race questionnaires and how colleges should report the various categories self-reported by students to the federal government.

See the National Center for Education Statistics Race/Ethnicity FAQ

<a href=“IPEDS Data Collection System”>IPEDS Data Collection System;

and the Association for Institutional Research Race/Ethnicity Information webpage

[Race/Ethnicity</a> Information](<a href=“http://www.airweb.org/page.asp?page=1500]Race/Ethnicity”>http://www.airweb.org/page.asp?page=1500)

and its subpages for more information about the current of colleges as they implement the new federal regulations for high school class of 2010 applicants to college.

Students of higher education (and applicants to schools of postsecondary education) are treated as adults, and are explicitly permitted to decline to identify their ethnic or racial category.

Note that the decennial census in the United States redefines “race” categories from time to time,

[Should</a> the Census Offer ‘Negro’ as an Identity Option? - TIME](<a href=“http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1955923,00.html]Should”>http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1955923,00.html)

and there is no consistency between the practice of the United States and that of any other country in this regard.

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 5:58pm

It would be dishonest, and possibly grounds for revoking an offer of admission, to self-report according to a category that doesn’t fit you at all. On the other hand, all of the categories named in federal law are based on self-identification and colleges have no means to double-check every student’s self-identifying.

More and more college applicants are declining to self-report their ethnicity to colleges,

[News:</a> None of the Above - Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/02/15/race2_15]News:”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/02/15/race2_15)

an issue explored by the linked article from several points of view. Declining to self-report is everyone’s right under law and something that someone of any ethnic self-identification might choose to do. People can decide this issue for themselves, but I like to emphasize in my own life, as a member of a “biracial” family, the common humanity my children, my wife, and I share with all our neighbors and compatriots. We prefer the category label “human” but accept the category label “postracial” in our household.

The latest version of the Minorities in Higher Education Report

<a href=“American Council on Education”>American Council on Education;

has a lot of detailed numbers (all based on reports colleges make to the federal government) about the growth in college enrollment in all the reported ethnic categories, and the growth of the reported category “race/ethnicity unknown.” The “race/ethnicity unknown” category has been the fastest-growing category by far in the reported years.

A federal government report

also aggregates data gathered from United States colleges about students are reported as “Race/ethnicity unknown.”

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 6:01pm

Here are some selective colleges with high percentages of students reported as “race unknown.” These figures are based on Item B2, enrollment by racial/ethnic category, reported in the Common Data Set reports for each college (which in turn is based on IPEDS reporting to the federal government).

FALL 2009 ENTERING CLASS

30 percent first-year, 25 percent undergrad at Scripps College

<a href=“http://www.scrippscollege.edu/about/pdf/CDS_2009-2010.pdf[/url]”>http://www.scrippscollege.edu/about/pdf/CDS_2009-2010.pdf</a>

28 percent first-year at Claremont McKenna College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

27 percent first-year at Colby College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

24 percent first-year, 21 percent undergraduate at Amherst College

<a href=“https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/169053/original/2009%20Enrollment%20and%20Persistence.pdf[/url]”>https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/169053/original/2009%20Enrollment%20and%20Persistence.pdf</a>

23 percent first-year at Brandeis University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

22 percent first-year, 24 percent undergrad at Bryn Mawr

<a href=“http://www.brynmawr.edu/institutionalresearch/documents/CDS2009_2010.pdf[/url]”>http://www.brynmawr.edu/institutionalresearch/documents/CDS2009_2010.pdf</a>

21 percent first-year at Yale University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

21 percent first-year, 20 percent undergrad at William and Mary

21 percent first-year at Lafayette College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

20 percent first-year at University of Chicago

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

20 percent first-year, 18 percent undergrad at Vanderbilt University

<a href=“http://virg.vanderbilt.edu/virgweb/CDSB.aspx[/url]”>http://virg.vanderbilt.edu/virgweb/CDSB.aspx</a>

20 percent first-year, 19 percent undergrad at Reed College

<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/cds/cds0910/cdssecb200910.html[/url]”>http://www.reed.edu/ir/cds/cds0910/cdssecb200910.html</a>

19 percent first-year at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

19 percent first-year at Smith College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

19 percent first-year at University of Rochester

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

18 percent first-year at Penn

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

18 percent first-year at Pomona College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

18 percent first-year at Duke University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

18 percent first-year at Boston University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

17 percent first-year at Boston College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

17 percent first-year, 13 percent undergrad at University of Richmond

<a href=“Institutional Effectiveness - University of Richmond”>Institutional Effectiveness - University of Richmond;

17 percent first-year at American University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

16 percent first-year at Cooper Union

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

15 percent first-year, 17 percent undergrad at Cornell University

<a href=“http://www.dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000435.pdf[/url]”>http://www.dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000435.pdf</a>

15 percent first-year, 15 percent undergrad at Brown University

<a href=“Office of Institutional Research | Brown University”>Office of Institutional Research | Brown University;

15 percent first-year, 10 percent undergrad at Hamilton College

<a href=“https://my.hamilton.edu/college/institutional_research/CDS2009_2010.pdf[/url]”>https://my.hamilton.edu/college/institutional_research/CDS2009_2010.pdf</a>

14 percent first-year at Harvard University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

14 percent first-year at Georgetown University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

14 percent first-year, 15 percent undergrad at Case Western Reserve University

<a href=“Institutional Research | Case Western Reserve University”>Institutional Research | Case Western Reserve University;

13 percent first-year at Harvey Mudd College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

13 percent first-year at New York University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

13 percent first-year at George Washington University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

12 percent first-year, 11 percent undergrad at Swarthmore College

<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/administration/ir/cds2009.pdf[/url]”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/administration/ir/cds2009.pdf</a>

12 percent first-year at Johns Hopkins University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

12 percent first-year at Emory University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

11 percent first-year, 9 percent undergrad at Wesleyan University

<a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/ir/cds/cds2009-10.pdf[/url]”>http://www.wesleyan.edu/ir/cds/cds2009-10.pdf</a>

11 percent first-year at Tufts University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

11 percent first-year at College of New Jersey

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

11 percent first-year at Tulane University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

10 first-year at Lehigh University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

9 percent first-year, 9 percent undergrad at Princeton University

<a href=“http://registrar.princeton.edu/university_enrollment_sta/common_cds2009.pdf[/url]”>http://registrar.princeton.edu/university_enrollment_sta/common_cds2009.pdf</a>

9 percent first-year at Columbia University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

9 percent first-year at Washington University in St. Louis

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

9 percent first-year at Whitman College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

9 percent first-year at Trinity College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

8 percent first-year at Rice University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

8 percent first-year at University of Virginia

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

8 percent first-year at United States Naval Academy

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

7 percent first-year, 8 percent undergrad at Stanford University

<a href=“Stanford Common Data Set | University Communications”>Stanford Common Data Set | University Communications;

7 percent first-year at Mount Holyoke College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

7 percent first-year at Middlebury College

<a href=“http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=850[/url]”>http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=850</a>

7 percent first-year at Davidson College

<a href=“http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=982[/url]”>http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=982</a>

7 percent first-year at University of Miami

<a href=“http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=3634[/url]”>http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=3634</a>

6 percent first-year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

<a href=“http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=4075[/url]”>http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=4075</a>

6 percent first-year at Dartmouth College

<a href=“http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=3300[/url]”>http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=3300</a>

6 percent first-year at University of California Berkeley

<a href=“http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=988[/url]”>http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=988</a>

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 6:05pm

99 percent first-year at Hillsdale College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

95 percent first-year at Howard University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

94 percent at City University of New York College of Staten Island

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

73 percent first-year at Montcalm Community College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

67 percent first-year at City College of San Francisco

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

65 percent first-year at Savannah College of Art and Design

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

59 percent first-year at Medaille College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

57 percent first-year at City University of New York Borough of Manhattan Community College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

49 percent first-year at Briarcliffe College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

46 percent first-year at Lincoln University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

34 percent first-year at Lynn University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

33 percent first-year at Texas Wesleyan University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

31 percent at University of Alaska Anchorage

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

29 percent first-year at New York Institute of Technology

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

29 percent first-year at Champlain College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

28 percent first-year at Rhode Island College of Design

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

28 percent first-year at Emerson College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

27 percent first-year at Long Island University C. W. Post Campus

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

27 percent first-year at University of the District of Columbia

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

27 percent first-year at Cabrini College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

26 percent first-year at Northeastern University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

26 percent at State University of New York at New Paltz

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

26 percent first-year at Mercer University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

26 percent first-year at University of Mary Washington

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

24 percent first-year at Johnson and Wales College North Miami

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

22 percent first-year at Suffolk University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

22 percent first-year at California University of Pennsylvania

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

22 percent first-year at Hartwick College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

22 percent at Concordia College (New York)

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

21 percent first-year at Providence College

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

21 percent first-year at Roger Williams University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

21 percent first-year at Bentley University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

20 percent first-year at Fairfield University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

20 percent first-year at Benedictine University

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 6:09pm

A lot of applicants wonder if colleges will guess their ethnicity from their family name, or from their parents’ birthplaces, or from something else that appears on the application form. (Such a guess would be a wild guess, and likely to be wrong, in my own children’s case.) But it should be clear that when Harvard has been reporting to the federal government for years that about one out of every seven enrolled students at Harvard is “race unknown” that Harvard isn’t bothering to do this. Harvard endeavors to admit almost every student who applies, as does Yale, but both colleges report that more than one eighth of the students enrolled are “race unknown” even after enrolling. Colleges don’t bother to guess what they don’t know. They aren’t required to, and they aren’t expected to, and they don’t make any particular inference about students who exercise their right not to self-report ethnicity.

Note that colleges are not permitted, by federal guidelines,

<a href=“IPEDS Data Collection System”>IPEDS Data Collection System;

to include a questionnaire checkbox such as “decline to state” or “refuse to answer.”

Further, colleges are not allowed to use national origin information to infer student race.

Other Frequently Asked Questions and answers in the guidelines make this point very clear.

National Center for Educational Statistics:

How do I know if a student or staff member refused to answer the race question, rather than just overlooking it? 

For postsecondary institutions, the Department has indicated that presenting the data collection form to the respondent is sufficient to ensure that individuals have had the opportunity to respond to the race and ethnicity questions. It is not necessary to prompt the respondent to complete one or both questions if they have been left unanswered. (For elementary and secondary institutions, the criteria for this are more stringent, since they are not allowed to report race and ethnicity unknown.) 

22) How do I deal with nonresponse? 

Under the guidance, IPEDS continues to allow the reporting of Race and ethnicity unknown.

From the Association for Institutional Research FAQ:

[FAQ</a> Race/Ethnicity Topics](<a href=“http://www.airweb.org/page.asp?page=1502]FAQ”>http://www.airweb.org/page.asp?page=1502)

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 6:10pm

United States Supreme Court cases on race as a factor in admission to state universities illustrate what some colleges have done over the years.

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke 438 U.S. 265 (1978)

[Bakke</a> Regents California - Google Scholar](<a href=“Google Scholar”>Google Scholar)

ruled on the admission practices of the University of California Davis medical school in the 1970s. The holding of the 5-4 divided court was that Bakke’s constitutional rights had been violated by the UC Davis practice of having places in the class reserved for minority applicants and ordered Bakke’s admission, while the 5-4 dictum (by a different combination of justices) written by Justice Lewis Powell suggested that future cases might find other patterns of consideration of race in higher education admission at state universities to be constitutionally permissible.

Two subsequent cases, decided by the Supreme Court on the same day, define current standards of constitutional review of college admission practices.

Grutter v. Bollinger 539 U.S. 306 (2003)

[Grutter</a> Bollinger - Google Scholar](<a href=“Google Scholar”>Google Scholar)

Gratz v. Bollinger 539 U.S. 244 (2003)

[Gratz</a> Bollinger - Google Scholar](<a href=“Google Scholar”>Google Scholar)

Many parents and students mistakenly believe that

when considering race as an admission factor. That is not a correct statement of the law. Indeed, a dictum in the Bakke case suggested that any practice illegal for state universities under the fourteenth amendment (the ground of decision in Bakke) would be equally illegal under federal civil rights statutes applicable to all colleges that receive federal funds (which are essentially all colleges in the United States, with exceedingly few exceptions).

The Civil Rights Office of the federal Department of Education is the regulator of college practices in admission as regards “race.” In 2003, the office published an interesting study of various models of college admission policies,

[RACE-NEUTRAL</a> APPROACHES IN EDUCATION:](<a href=“http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/edlite-raceneutralreport.html]RACE-NEUTRAL”>RACE-NEUTRAL APPROACHES IN EDUCATION:)

including some “race neutral” policies. That office also investigates complaints of violation of equal protection under civil rights law. Here is the link for how to report violations of federal civil rights laws in education:

[How</a> to File a Discrimination Complaint with the Office for Civil Rights](<a href=“http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/howto.html]How”>File a Complaint: Discrimination Form | U.S. Department of Education)

A news report about one federal Department of Education Office of Civil Rights inquiry can be found in the Daily Princetonian newspaper:

[Department</a> of Education expands inquiry into Jian Li bias case - The Daily Princetonian](<a href=“http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/09/08/21307/]Department”>http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/09/08/21307/)

The New York Times reported in March 2010 about new compliance reviews planned by the department.

[Officials</a> Step Up Enforcement of Rights Laws in Education - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/education/08educ.html]Officials”>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/education/08educ.html)

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 6:12pm

I’m a baby boomer, which is another way of saying that I’m a good bit older than most people who post on College Confidential. I distinctly remember the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated–the most memorable day of early childhood for many people in my generation–and I remember the “long hot summer” and other events of the 1960s civil rights movement.

One early memory I have is of a second grade classmate (I still remember his name, which alas is just common enough that it is hard to Google him up) who moved back to Minnesota with his northern “white” parents after spending his early years in Alabama. He told me frightening stories about Ku Klux Klan violence to black people (the polite term in those days was “Negroes”), including killing babies, and I was very upset to hear about that kind of terrorism happening in the United States. He made me aware of a society in which people didn’t all treat one another with decency and human compassion, unlike the only kind of society I was initially aware of from growing up where I did. So I followed subsequent news about the civil rights movement, including the activities of Martin Luther King, Jr. up to his assassination, with great interest.

It happens that I had a fifth-grade teacher, a typically pale, tall, and blonde Norwegian-American, who was a civil rights activist and who spent her summers in the south as a freedom rider. She used to tell our class about how she had to modify her car (by removing the dome light and adding a locking gas cap) so that Klan snipers couldn’t shoot her as she opened her car door at night or put foreign substances into her gas tank. She has been a civil rights activist all her life, and when I Googled her a few years ago and regained acquaintance with her, I was not at all surprised to find that she is a member of the civil rights commission of the town where I grew up.

One day in fifth grade we had a guest speaker in our class, a young man who was then studying at St. Olaf College through the A Better Chance (ABC) affirmative action program. (To me, the term “affirmative action” still means active recruitment of underrepresented minority students, as it did in those days, and I have always thought that such programs are a very good idea, as some people have family connections to selective colleges, but many other people don’t.) During that school year (1968-1969), there was a current controversy in the United States about whether the term “Negro” or “Afro-American” or “black” was most polite. So a girl in my class asked our visitor, “What do you want to be called, ‘black’ or ‘Afro-American’?” His answer was, “I’d rather be called Henry.” Henry’s answer to my classmate’s innocent question really got me thinking.

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 6:15pm

The answer to this question is always the same, by the United States federal definitions.

[Black</a> or African American persons, percent, 2000](<a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm]Black”>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm)

"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.

“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.”

Here’s a simple rule of thumb: if no one in South Africa would have called you “black” or “coloured,” especially during the days of apartheid,

[Apartheid</a> – Africana](<a href=“http://www.africanaencyclopedia.com/apartheid/apartheid.html]Apartheid”>Apartheid in South Africa: What Really Happened and How Did It End?)

you have no basis in America for calling yourself “African American,” the official synonym of which is “black.” A person who checks “Black or African American” is asserting that he or she has “origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.” Not all people who live on the continent of Africa have origins in a black racial group, and that is the official definition–you are only “African American” if you are black. If you call yourself white, and your friends do too, it doesn’t matter where your parents were born, or what countries they lived in. You also have the choice of not indicating any ethnicity or race at all. What a college does with what it sees on your form varies from college to college.

Good luck in your applications, and good luck to everyone else applying in the coming application season.

By the federal definitions,

[Black</a> or African American persons, percent, 2000](<a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm]Black”>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm)

Somali students who grew up in the United States are definitely black, and the terms “black” and “African American” are synonyms in the federal definitions of “race” categories. The same applies to young people whose parents came from other tropical African countries where black people live. (North African people are categorized as white by the federal definitions.) You also have the choice of not indicating any ethnicity or race at all. What a college does with what it sees on your form varies from college to college.

Good luck in your applications, and good luck to everyone else applying in the coming application season.

See

[News:</a> The Immigrant Factor - Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/02/01/black]News:”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/02/01/black)

for news and commentary on college applicants of recent African descent.

For this year’s (2009-2010) admission season, all college application forms are required by federal regulation to have an optional ethnicity question that is in two parts, first asking about Hispanic ethnicity (yes or no) and then asking about the federal defined “race” categories, with the instruction “select one or more” (or some language very similar to that) meaning that you can choose one or more category. (You can choose no category at all by not answering the question.) You also have the choice of not indicating any ethnicity or race at all. What a college does with what it sees on your form varies from college to college.

Good luck in your applications, and good luck to everyone else applying in the coming application season.

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 6:17pm

By the federal definitions,

[Black</a> or African American persons, percent, 2000](<a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm]Black”>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm)

you are Asian.

“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.’”

You also have the choice of not indicating any ethnicity or race at all. What a college does with what it sees on your form varies from college to college.

Good luck in your applications, and good luck to everyone else applying in the coming application season.

The mixed responses you have received are correct if they agree with the federal definition, which is that people from India (or Pakistan) are Asian. That’s the current federal definition. I can remember the time when people from that part of the world were officially deemed “white.” The definitions are arbitrary. They may not be a good idea, but they are the law.

You can, of course, decline to answer the race question on a college application, in which case your race will be officially reported by colleges to the federal government as “race unreported.”

The federal definition of “Asian” (one “race” category for domestic students) definitely includes students of Filipino heritage. The “Pacific Islander” category includes people from Hawaii or from Guam, but it excludes people from Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan, or Indonesia (all of which are countries located on Pacific islands).

[Black</a> or African American persons, percent, 2000](<a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm]Black”>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm)

I have not seen any evidence for claims one way or the other that colleges usually distinguish people from the Philippines for more favorable admission consideration than that given to other “Asian” applicants. Colleges each make up their own policies in this regard, but I’m not aware of any college that is on record as having such a policy. Filipino people I know locally have very lofty college ambitions and in general Filipino-Americans probably apply to college in large numbers around the country.

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 6:23pm

The answer to this frequently asked question makes up the first few posts in this FAQ thread.

You have and everyone has the legal right to leave the form blank ( [post</a> #1](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064853283-post1.html]post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064853283-post1.html) ).

The recent national trend has been for an increasing number of college applicants to decline to self-identify any ethnic group ( [post</a> #3](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064853364-post3.html]post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064853364-post3.html) ).

Many colleges admit many students each year for whom they do not know of any ethnic affiliation ( [post</a> #4](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064853385-post4.html]post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064853385-post4.html) ).

You don’t need to worry about this. If you choose not to self-report any race or ethnicity, for whatever reason you have, the college won’t hold that against you, because for all the college knows you are just a student who is very aware of your legal rights and chooses to exercise those rights. See

[post</a> #6](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064853429-post6.html]post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064853429-post6.html)

for evidence that colleges don’t care about a blank response, because they can’t infer anything from it, and aren’t required to do anything about it.

The Census Bureau has done a study of the most common family names in the United States and what “race” or ethnicity is reported by people with those last names. A lot of family names are characteristic of (that is, highly correlated with) one federally defined “race” group or another, or of Hispanic ethnicity, but there are always exceptions. Wang is a family name in Norway as well as in China. “Leroy Johnson” could be a black man or a white man. And so on. People marry people of other “races,” and adopt children from other “races,” and thus family names are not an unerring guide to anyone’s “race,” especially if you look closely at the federal definitions.

What you decide about how to fill out your application form is up to you. But notice that many [great</a> colleges report lots of applicants as "race/ethnicity unknown](<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064853385-post4.html]great">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064853385-post4.html)," so not every admission committee guesses about every applicant.

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 6:25pm

The definition of Hispanic ethnicity used by the federal government

[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)

"Hispanics or Latinos are those people who classified themselves in one of the specific Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino categories listed on the Census 2000 questionnaire -‘Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano,’ ‘Puerto Rican’, or ‘Cuban’ -as well as those who indicate that they are ‘other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino.’ Persons who indicated that they are ‘other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino’ include those whose origins are from Spain, the Spanish-speaking countries of Central or South America, the Dominican Republic or people identifying themselves generally as Spanish, Spanish-American, Hispanic, Hispano, Latino, and so on.

"Origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person’s parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States.

“People who identify their origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race.”

makes clear that a great variety of people of varying ancestry or “heritage” or “country of birth” can categorize themselves as Hispanic. You have the choice to indicate Hispanic ethnicity, by that definition, and to indicate white “race” after indicating Hispanic ethnicity. (The forms used in this application season first ask a Hispanic ethnicity yes-no question, and then suggest “select one or more” for the “race” question.) You also have the choice of not indicating any ethnicity or race at all. What a college does with what it sees on your form varies from college to college.

It’s always a good idea to let a college know about any diversity factor you might bring to a new enrolled class at the college. It’s unclear how weighty different kinds of ethnic heritages are in college admission decisions at which colleges.

Good luck in your applications, and good luck to everyone else applying in the coming application season.

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 6:27pm

You are white by the federal definitions,

[Black</a> or African American persons, percent, 2000](<a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm]Black”>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm)

as are various people of Middle Eastern origin.

“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.”

You also have the choice of not indicating any ethnicity or race at all. What a college does with what it sees on your form varies from college to college.

Good luck in your applications, and good luck to everyone else applying in the coming application season.

You are white by the federal definitions,

[Black</a> or African American persons, percent, 2000](<a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm]Black”>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm)

as are various people of Middle Eastern origin.

“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.”

You also have the choice of not indicating any ethnicity or race at all. What a college does with what it sees on your form varies from college to college.

Good luck in your applications, and good luck to everyone else applying in the coming application season.

Since the beginning of federal law on the subject. There has never been a separate “Middle Eastern” category (even though some people in some eras have asked for one) and Middle Eastern people have long been construed as just as white as Icelanders, Italians, Greeks, Latvians, and Irish people for purposes of any law in the United States that distinguished white people from other people.

One consequence of this is that there was much more immigration to the United States in the 1920s by Arab people than by Chinese or Japanese people (who were banned from immigration to the United States). There have been various social consequences of this after arrival as well.

This may not make sense to you, but it is the law.

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 6:28pm

I’d like to ask a serious question, because in the midst of discussion of college admission policies there are from time to time references to “underrepresented” groups without explaining how “underrepresentation” is demonstrated.

If a medium-size privately operated national research university takes applicants from all over the country, and indeed all over the world, but has a plurality of its applicants living within 500 miles of the university (a fairly common pattern), should the university

a) balance “representation” by the world population of all college-age young people?

b) balance “representation” by the national population of all college-age young people?

c) balance “representation” by the regional population–within a specified distance from the college–of all college-age young people?

d) balance “representation” by the world population of all college-age young people who have completed secondary education?

e) balance “representation” by the national population of all college-age young people who have completed secondary education?

f) balance “representation” by the regional population of all college-age young people who have completed secondary education?

g) balance “representation” by the world population of all college-age young people who are as academically qualified–determined by that college’s rules–as the least qualified admitted students from the year before?

h) balance “representation” by the national population of all college-age young people who are as academically qualified–determined by that college’s rules–as the least qualified admitted students from the year before?

i) balance “representation” by the regional population of all college-age young people who are as academically qualified–determined by that college’s rules–as the least qualified admitted students from the year before?

j) balance “representation” by the actual group composition of that college’s applicant pool that year?

k) simply admit students based on the college’s judgment of academic and personal qualifications, as long as its admission procedures admit some representatives of every major ethnic group officially recognized in the United States?

There are quite a few possible standards here, with different possible results, and it’s not usually clear to me which standard participants in the discussion are appealing to when they call one group or another “underrepresented.” Underrepresented by how much? Which students actually apply to which colleges?

navyarf · May 11, 2010, 7:44pm

Race is a social construct, therefore, you should put any race you want to construct for yourself on the application. The students at “Howard University” are both black and white, all at the same time. If you walk onto the campus of Howard University, you must crimethink, because the students you see, are not black. They are “race unknown”. Race is stupid.

Honesto · May 11, 2010, 7:52pm

No, it’s not. Races are different groups of people who share similar ancestral ties and who share hereditary characteristics as well as a common culture. The idea that one can simply lie about their racial heritage and deny their cultural and hereditary origin is preposterous.

rayna3 · May 11, 2010, 8:16pm

I have a quick question:

I am of Asian (Korean) descent, but I was adopted to a Caucasian Jewish family in America. So that makes me Jewish Korean-American.

I identify with being all three, however technically my ethnicity in Asian, although I was raised by Caucasian parents. I had very little contact with my own background until recently.

So the short of it:
Should I put down Asian? Would it change at all because I was raised in a non Asian household?

Thank you!

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 8:25pm

What hereditary characteristics and common culture do you share with your “race” (what is that, by the way?) that you do not share with people of other races?

tokenadult · May 11, 2010, 8:34pm

Well, that’s the problem with the federal definitions. I can read the definitions, without being 100 percent sure what the best fit is for your circumstances. Insofar as most of the definitions (but not ALL of them) refer to ancestry primarily, it appears that the “expected” answer in your case is “Asian.” (In any event, the college forms don’t include a category “Jewish,” so that is not asked about directly.) But, yes, I hear you on the issue that sometimes one’s cultural background is discordant from one’s genetic ancestral background. It’s not entirely clear whether ancestry or culture is really what the categories are about. As the Census Bureau notes,

[Black</a> or African American persons, percent, 2000](<a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm]Black”>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm)

Good luck on your applications.

rayna3 · May 11, 2010, 8:41pm

Thank you so much!

I identify with being Asian-American
I suppose… I’d check off “Other” or explain my situation in some sentence… :P

Thanks again!

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