<p>There sure are quite a few colleges that admit quite a few students who have not stated their ethnicity or race, including many students at the most highly desired colleges. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063172559-post8.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063172559-post8.html</a></p>
<p>Do I check in that I consider myself both from asia and africa?</p>
<p>sure, why not.</p>
<p>yeah race seems to be one topic that they really can’t screen you on. no one’s going to ask you to prove it, and technically you’re not lying, so go for it.</p>
<p>Did you check the AA box on the SAT and compete for the Achievement award? Are you listed by your school as AA? Do you live in an AA culture? Or is this just a cheap ploy that you think will give you a leg up?</p>
<p>Live in an AA culture? What’s that?</p>
<p>AA stands for affirmative action. Mixed race AA kids get a lot of flak sometimes. I know of kids who were 1/16 of a URM, checked the boxes for URM, and therefore reaped the benefits, even though they were pretty much white kids to the core and didn’t identify with their minority heritage. Oh well, whoever said things were fair?</p>
<p>Is there a well-defined rule or a “race percentage” by which you can claim URM minority status? BTW, I knew what AA meant, it’s just that I don’t think that you would have to live in a “black culture” to be considered black. Is that what hmom5 meant?
A friend of mine’s son checked the “Hispanic” box in his application although both of his parents are of purely European ancestry. The kid doesn’t even speak Spanish, and he was born in the U.S. Although my friend, the boy’s father, was born and raised in Mexico, I really do think his son was “using a cheap ploy that he thought would give him a leg up.”
Because I’ve seen it specified that a Hispanic can be of any race, I guess he was technically correct, although I still think it was wrong for him to use the system to his advantage. In asheroth’s case, however, I am not so sure. Maybe h/she can just write “1/8 black 7/8 asian” in the application?</p>
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<p>There’s a family in our neighborhood. The children are a small percentage Cuban. They look white, live in a “white world” (whatever that is…LOL), have 'white" first and last names, parents have a high 6 figure income, yet…Vandy gave them free-rides to help their Hispanic numbers. :roll eyes:</p>
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<p>I believe the poster is asking if the OP lived in an African American culture.</p>
<p>People are going to “check the box” for whatever gives them the best advantage. </p>
<p>In the case of the OP…Being Asian makes him a over-represented minority. Being black makes him a URM.</p>
<p>Maybe that will help him even things out a little. I don’t think it’s fair to have a harder time being accepted to schools because you’re asian.</p>
<p>Did you check the AA box on the SAT and compete for the Achievement award? Are you listed by your school as AA? Do you live in an AA culture? Or is this just a cheap ploy that you think will give you a leg up?</p>
<p>If I could have picked more than 1 race on the SAT, I would have.</p>
<p>However, I can’t therefore I just stated I was asian because I am mostly Asian.</p>
<p>Here they let you check all that apply. My grandfater on my mom’s side is from Libya.</p>
<p>What do you mean by “in an african american culture?”</p>
<p>Islam is prevalent in much of northern africa (my mother is muslim). It is also prevalent in a few asian countries (my grandmother on my momside was from India.) Also, my dad is 100% Indian</p>
<p>Therefore i’m 1/8 Black, 7/8 indian</p>
<p>I remember this topic coming up during our presidential election and the debate about President Obama’s ethnicity. In the discussions I read, the argument existed because it was President Obama’s great-great-grandparent that was black which made him 1/16 black.</p>
<p>Then came the debates on the significance of that percentage. I don’t believe that there is any legal rule regarding this but the arguments vary. One philosophy is the “one drop rule” which is exactly as it states. If the individual has any black blood then they are black. There are arguments about this which basically states that if you follow evolution of man, then everyone on the planet is black. Another author wrote about another rule. It did had with the ability to claim a race in some sort of legal standing. I am sorry that I don’t have that original document. But I do recall that the article stated that the minimum percentage to claim a particular race standing was 25%.</p>
<p>So my longwinded point is that I think that you can check off whatever race(s) you wish without any ethical concerns.</p>
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<p>I’m pretty sure Obama is half black.</p>
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<p>I never thought of it that way. I would never have the guts to check off as URM even if I could justify it with that point. </p>
<p>I think the only situation where someone could check off being a URM and have it investigated is if someone is Native American. Apparently someone has to be registered with their tribe and be at least 1/4 NA.</p>
<p>This is an abbreviated version of what I had read last year:
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<p>Please be aware that I am not looking to enter a new debate about President Obama’s ethnicity. My purpose for bringing it up was only to point out that this has been a recently debated topic and there is a lot of information/opinions that one can read.</p>
<p>For some history on this topic, I found this link/article interesting (history is NOT my strong suit):
[EURweb.com</a> - EUR NEWS SPECIAL: What makes a person legally ‘Black?’](<a href=“http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur44454.cfm]EURweb.com”>http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur44454.cfm)
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<p>This recent question has been merged with the main “‘Race’ in College Admission FAQ and Discussion 5” thread in the interest of pointing readers to the first several FAQ posts in this thread. </p>
<p>Here are the federal definitions, for review: </p>
<p>College reporting to the federal government is based on the U.S. Census bureau definitions for ethnic categories, which in turn are based on regulations from the Office of Management and Budget, because colleges are required to report by federal regulations, </p>
<p>[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) </p>
<p>and you can look the definitions up on the Web. As the Census Bureau itself notes, </p>
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<p>[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) </p>
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<p>The current federal regulation </p>
<p>[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) </p>
<p>on colleges gathering self-reported data from college applicants and enrolled college students allows students to “select one or more” race category, or to select none at all.</p>
<p>I am half Caucasian (White) and half Asian (Chinese). On many forms and documents, you can only choose one option, so I just check either White or Multi-Racial. For college apps, should I signify that I am White OR that I am Asian? Obviously choosing Asian will decrease my chances dramatically.</p>
<p>Don’t you have the right to choose what you want? Half black kids often just select “black”. My friend’s kids who are half Asian select “white” because they’ve lived in a “white world” so to speak. My cousins (half Hispanic) select “White” because they, too, feel that they live in a “white world” and don’t really feel connected to their Hispanic roots. My H’s co-worker’s kids are half Asian, half Hispanic. They put down Hispanic to help them get into elite privates. </p>
<p>Are you applying to private schools?</p>
<p>Since you can only choose one option, if you choose “multi-racial” does it tell you to indicate which racial mix you are? If not, why not pick that one?</p>
<p>I understand what you’re saying. Like I said earlier, I’m half Asian. However, I feel that I’ve lived a “white” life; I don’t feel connected at all to the Asian culture/roots.</p>
<p>The main reason I asked the question, though, is not to determine whether I am connected with my roots, but instead to analyze how this choice of ethnicity will affect my college application/acceptance.</p>
<p>Obviously, if signifying that I am Asian will dramatically reduce my chances of getting accepted to elite colleges, then it would be against my best interest to indicate that.</p>