<p>Lucky you. I think Afro-Asians look very striking and beautiful.</p>
<p>I’d just identify as black for your college applications. Don’t even sweat affirmative action. You’re technically a URM, why not just take advantage of it? If your surname happens to be Asian then list both. Otherwise, just list black.</p>
<p>You’re definitely a URM. I don’t see how having a black parent and an Asian one is any different from having a white parent in place of the Asian. If you were mixed white and black, you’d just be considered a light skinned black person right?</p>
<p>Noo, my dad is Black so my last name is a common American last name lol.</p>
<p>Really? I always thought it was kind of different because the mixed black/white kids that I know are typically influenced by only the black side of their family whereas I am influenced by my black side and lots of Korean culture from my mom.</p>
<p>And no I am not light-skinned lol. I am like medium brown and have an Asian face except my eyes are big but also almond shaped. And my hair is longg and looks like an Asian’s persons hair when it’s straight. But I am definitely judged as African-American though. Most people just classify me as Black, but can tell that I am mixed with something else. </p>
<p>But even if I don’t check off a race, I have an EC that involves being in a commitee for an African-American summit + (hopefully) National Achievement…would the adcom keep this in mind even if I don’t declare a race?</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=Common App Help Desk] Ethnicity question has changed to meet Department of Education reporting requirements.
Answers to the ethnicity question are not required for submission. If you choose to answer this question, you may provide whatever answer you feel best applies to you or any groups of which you feel you are a part. You can answer all or none of the questions.
<p>And yeah, if your resume says “National Achievement Scholar” and “African-American summit,” of course the adcoms will read, “She’s Black.” That’s ok. See above, be proud of your accomplishments, and (if you wish) use your advantages to do great things.</p>
<p>If your colleges allow you to check more than one box, you can check both, if that is what you would be most comfortable with.</p>
<p>Multiracial folks identify in a variety of ways. There’s no one right answer to this.</p>
<p>People with black ancestry, including people who are mixed black and something else (as many black-identified people are), are generally underrepresented at top colleges. For people who are mixed Asian and something else, I suspect that it depends on what the “something else” is, but I don’t actually know.</p>
<p>Rest assured that if a top college accepts you, you did not get in by “affirmative action alone”.</p>
<p>I think if you are bi or multiracial, you can choose how to identify. That means you can select one, the other, both, or multiracial (biracial isn’t usually an option). I’m actually part black and part white. My mother always used to select “other” and put African American / Caucasian, but she was told she was not allowed to do that (obviously, before they changed the forms to allow for this kind of thing). So when I was young we started selected “Black or African American”. I’ve always identified as such.</p>
<p>Several of the answers above are wrong, or at least out of date. 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.) </p>
<p>Good luck in your applications. It looks like another moderator merged a separate question into the main FAQ and discussion thread on this issue, and the first few posts of this merged thread are designed to provide correct answers to these frequently asked questions and to link out to authoritative federal regulations.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses! I will most likely declare “Black” since that is pretty much what I’ve always done…but I was interested to see how being mixed with an URM/ORM race would affect me on college admissions.</p>
<p>Any other thoughts?</p>
<p>Oh and… yes I know who Hines is! I’m actually familiar with a lot of blasian celebrities :)</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>^ If they did, they still wouldn’t always know what the student’s ethnicity is, and there is no federal regulation requiring them to guess, and much evidence to suggest they don’t always guess. Parents’ names and birthplaces generally are asked for on college application forms.</p>
<p>^ I’ve always wondered: if my race/ethnicity will play a central role in ESSAYS, ought I “out” myself on official documentation as well? (ORM here, but the essay should be fairly unique.)</p>