<p>You’re biracial. Neither indicating it or not will help or hurt you. It’s nothing you can game.</p>
<p>I don’t subscribe to the school of thought where high achieving asians bemoan the fact that some selective schools find them monolithic and that there appears to be limits to them in those institutions. Maybe I’m jaded because I was an Asian that got into one of those institutions but I’m also very confident of the my unique characteristics that got me accepted by every college applied.</p>
<p>I’m a mix of Caucasian, Vietnamese, and African American, but I’m not sure what I should apply as. My sister and mom tell me to apply as African American, but I’m not really sure why.</p>
<p>Basically, my question is, how will applying as a minority affect my acceptance in schools such as USC and Columbia?</p>
<p>It is widely believed that being a minority is a ‘hook’ in college admissions. I’m GRACK (Greek and Black), and I applied as Caucasian just so I could get accepted knowing that being a minority wasn’t any benefit to me, however, it depends on what you want to do.</p>
<p>The national test score average for minorities is lower, and thus standards tend to be a tad bit more lenient. For example, being a 3.0 minority applicant with AP Classes and a “regular” situation in comparison to a Caucasian or Asian applicant with similar conditions would tip the hat in your favor. </p>
<p>Public schools <em>have</em> to accept certain percentages to meet the state’s ethnic distribution. For example, if there are 12.5% African americans in Florida, the public schools try to at least reach that percentage in their school population. ( I pulled that number off the top of my head as an example, it is most likely not accurate)</p>
<p>Affirmative action is basically what it’s called, and truthfully, by applying as African American, you may gain a tiny advantage in admissions because of that. Although, what do you personally identify as? The problem is that many applications only allow you to select one option.</p>
<p>They’re telling you to apply as African American because minorities have been known to have an easier time getting into certain schools. So applying as African American would theoretically increase your chances of being admitted to USC and Columbia as opposed to an Asian or Caucasian.</p>
<p>Also, my advice is to apply as the race/ethnicity that you have more of. I’m 50% Hispanic (Dad is full Hispanic) and something like 48% Caucasian and 2% Native American (Mom is nearly full Caucasian, but also a little Iroquois) and I’m applying as Hispanic.</p>
<p>Dracos: I thought that affirmitave action was declared unconstitutional in Some UC Davis grad student (forgot his name) v. UC Board of Regents. Are there still some states that have it?</p>
<p>I’m 50% Caucasian (German, Irish, Scottish) on my dad’s side, and 25% Vietnamese/25% Black on my mom’s side. I spent a lot of time with my mom’s family growing up and though I may look white, I identify more with Black and Asian.</p>
<p>SOC2015, it is unconstitutional in theory, but it’s widely known that it does seem to give people that extra edge. What’s rarer, an African American with a 4.4+ GPA, and ACT 30+, or a Caucasian or Asian with those same stats? :P</p>
<p>Another factor to consider is that public schools do try to meet those percentages. If there’s 10x as many Caucasians applying to a school, then through shear numbers, it’s better to apply as African American or Hispanic if you are mixed because that will increase your chances. Public schools have to accept ethnic ratios relative to their state’s percentages. In that sense, yes, AA still exists and is widely used.</p>
<p>alextraordinary, tough call. I’d say apply as African American. When your mixed, people tend to call you African American anyway. Obama is half white, and black and what do people call him? Rarely do you hear people refer to Obama as a “biracial man”. It’s always “The first BLACK president”. See my point? </p>
<p>Like I said, I applied as White, even though I’m half black, just to prove that I can get into the schools that I wanted to get into without the “edge” of Affirmative action, or ethnic distribution preference. It’s ultimately up to you. Identity with what you identify with normally, or feel comfortable with.</p>
<p>YES APPLY AS AFRICAN AMERICAN. Having just finished the college application process myself, I believe that ultimately, you are competing not against the entire applicant pool at a certain college, but against the others of your same “race”. Asian and White are by far the most competitive.</p>
<p>collegehappy summed it up nicely. ;-)</p>
<p>Being African Amercian is treated as a favorable factor in admission at the overwhelming majority of colleges; it does not guarantee admission and it is, as stated, only one factor among others considered for admission. It also not unconsitutional since the United States Supreme Court has held the factor can be considered as part of the goal to achieve diversity. Being Vietnamese, German, Asian, numerous others is not “minority” status for the purpose of having that favorable factor considered. The big five for “minority” status are African American, Hispanic American, American Indian, Native Alaskans, and Native Hawaiins.</p>
<p>Minority status is not considered as a factor for admission to the UCs. That is because California has a law preventing minority status from being coinsidered as a factor in admission to its public univeristies (that law is inappliocable to private universities in California and those do consider minority status) . States are allowed to adopt such laws if they desire, i.e., doing so is also not unconsitutional. Note, however, that states which have rejected the use of minority status for admission have adopted other means to give some benefit to minorities in admission. For example, California guarantees admission to a UC (although not necessarily one of choice) to any resident high school student in the state that is in the top 4% of his graduating high school class regardless of SAT scores with the result that those in the top 4% of their inner city schools in economically depressed areas will get into a UC. Texas, another state that does not consider minority status for admission, does the same for the top 10% and guarantees admission to the state college of the student’s choice.</p>
<p>As to the percentage you have to be African American, Hispanic, etc., to be considered a minority, no college has adopted any specific cut-off percentage.</p>
<p>Dracos, FL banned affirmative action in 2000:</p>
<p>[Affirmative</a> Action Timeline — Infoplease.com](<a href=“http://www.infoplease.com/spot/affirmativetimeline1.html]Affirmative”>Timeline of Affirmative Action Milestones)</p>
<p>alex, the CA lets you mark as many races as apply, so why not just put down whatever reflects your heritage? No matter how many boxes you check, if one of them is AA, you will be considered as AA. For instance, my kids are half Hispanic and half Asian. They check the Hispanic box for ethnicity, and then both white and Asian for race. They are considered as Hispanic for college admissions purposes.</p>
<p>Wow.</p>
<p>/10char</p>
<p>LOL. That, Curiousbutterfly, is impossible and abhorrently unethical :).</p>
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<p>How do you plan on doing that? In most high schools, counselors schedule sessions with individual students to get to know them before the college admission process. You’ll have to approach your counselor for scheduling issues, and there may be numerous reasons why your counselor may be in contact with your teachers, etc. </p>
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<p>That would be an extraordinarily impressive feat. Besides, you’ll have college interviews, and the interview may mention your ethnicity in his or her report. </p>
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<p>I doubt it, especially if the only activity you pursue in your free time is playing video games ;). But for some reason I found your post absurdly hilarious. You made my day.</p>
<p>Hmmm, maybe you should hang out with that Luciferlied kid who posted the same type of question regarding EC’s and wondered if colleges would ever find out if he made them up.</p>
<p>Absolutely unethical. And video games are not an ec. Perhaps you should engage yourself and actually become a qualified candidate, rather than try to cheat your way in.</p>
<p>^lol. Way to take him seriously</p>
<p>Did you know there are plenty of people who consider themselves to be black – and have black ancestry - but who look white? The president of a black organization that I belonged to that was in a major black city had blond hair, pink skin and blue eyes, and was raised by parents who looked similar to her and considered themselves to be African American.</p>
<p>Such African Americans aren’t that unusual particularly in places like Louisiana where during slavery there was a lot race mixing (i.e. white men who had black mistresses).</p>
<p>What would happen is that unless someone chose to examine your birth certificate or said something to your parents that your parents disputed, people would assume you were black.</p>
<p>wow. Why would you want to do that? B/c you think reaping the benefits of AA will help you out? I think you shouldn’t do that…I think you’ll probably get into many places w/o it :)</p>
<p>@Northstarmom: That reminds me of Vanessa Williams…she’s only 1/4 mixed and she doesn’t even look black :/</p>
<p>Vanessa Williams looks black to me, but then I know people with two African American biological parents who look less “black” than she does.</p>
<p>^^^@Northstarmom: But in that case, the person has very legitimate reason to identify with African American ethnicity. I have a friend who considers herself Hispanic even though she does not look “Hispanic” the way most people associate with race, but she is of Hispanic ancestry and her entire family identifies with the ethnicity. In that case, calling herself Hispanic is perfectly logical. From the way the OP phrased the post, it is obviously that not only does he not look black but he also does not identify himself as African American in any way, which makes his plan to call himself black utterly absurd.</p>