<p>Yes, you are.</p>
<p>“I know it’s not this simple, but it seems ironic that the descendants of the richer country, Spain, are deemed help-worthy, but those of the poorer country, Portugal, are not. But then Brazil is to Portugal as the U.S. is to the U.K.” - vossron</p>
<p>For that reason annd because I culturally consider myself to be Mediterranean (I am of Spanish ancestry yet I have adopted some Italian and Arabic culture) I have decided to answer “no” to the question.</p>
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<p>This may indeed be the general consensus, and it may be the commonplace practice of college admission committees. Colleges don’t release enough data to make clear how they use student ethnicity data, if at all, in the admission process. But note that the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case, 438 U.S. 265 (1978) </p>
<p>[REGENTS</a> OF UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA V. BAKKE, 438 U. S. 265 (1978) – US Supreme Court Cases from Justia & Oyez](<a href=“Regents of Univ. of California v. Bakke :: 438 U.S. 265 (1978) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center”>Regents of Univ. of California v. Bakke :: 438 U.S. 265 (1978) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center) </p>
<p>held that “the purpose of helping certain groups whom the faculty of the Davis Medical School perceived as victims of ‘societal discrimination’ does not justify a classification that imposes disadvantages upon persons like respondent, who bear no responsibility for whatever harm the beneficiaries of the special admissions program are thought to have suffered. To hold otherwise would be to convert a remedy heretofore reserved for violations of legal rights into a privilege that all institutions throughout the Nation could grant at their pleasure to whatever groups are perceived as victims of societal discrimination. That is a step we have never approved. Cf. Pasadena Cty Board of Education v. Spangler, 427 U. S. 424 (1976).”</p>
<p>I know you can put “other” in the checkbox, but later on in the commonapp, it asks for “parent’s birthplace”…So basically if you are an ORM with parents from Asia and you want to hide your ethnicity, you can’t?? :(</p>
<p>Correct. –</p>
<p>I think it’s just best to be forthright about it. Just mark ‘Asian’. I think the only person who might want to hide their ethnicity will be of Asian heritage, and </p>
<p>a. They might guess from your name, unless you have a white-sounding name or
b. They might guess it from your writing style or elements of yourself that you include in your essay</p>
<p>Yes they do have the option of not reporting ethnicity.</p>
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<p>That doesn’t keep a LOT of colleges from reporting a LOT of students as “race/ethnicity unknown” to the federal government. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063172559-post8.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063172559-post8.html</a> </p>
<p>Repeating the content of post #12 from near the beginning of this FAQ thread into which your question was merged: </p>
<p>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. 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. </p>
<p>From the Association for Institutional Research FAQ: </p>
<p>[FAQ</a> Race/Ethnicity Topics](<a href=“http://www.airweb.org/page.asp?page=1502]FAQ”>http://www.airweb.org/page.asp?page=1502) </p>
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<p>I was just wondering what race I would be considered.
Ethnically, my dad is Chinese (and he looks chinese), but he was born and raised (as were his parents) in Panama. My mom is white. I lived the first three years of my life in Panama, have a Panamanian citizenship and my sister was born there as well.</p>
<p>From this, am I allowed to write myself off as Hispanic? I already applied to Yale early so if I’m not allowed… oh well…</p>
<p>But will the admissions officers give me the URM boost?</p>
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<p>Do you also have United States citizenship (as I guess)? If so, you would plainly be able to indicate Hispanic ethnicity on those facts. It looks like “white” and “Asian” are both possible choices for the race category, but that can be left blank after you answer the Hispanic ethnicity question.</p>
<p>I think I finally get one of the reasons why the ability to leave race/ethnicity blank is important moving forward.</p>
<p>First off, adcoms, I think and hope, are not truly interested in an applicant’s race. They are interested in what that applicant’s race will do to their racial distribution on their websites, brochures, presentations, etc. If you leave race blank, you are not adding to the Asian category and thus you are not making the college lose its “diverse” image. Heck, your name could be Chin Lee; I don’t think adcoms are genuinely racist but rather have obligations to make the school look better.</p>
<p>That and the fact that not identifying with a race avoids the concept of pigeonholing make me support the idea of leaving the race box unchecked. I think I finally see why you’ve focused ardently on this aspect of race in college admissions, token (I hope I’m right to some degree? :))</p>
<p>“have obligations to make the school look better”</p>
<p>Yes, they know what makes their school attractive to the most desirable applicants.</p>
<p>If you had an Asian sounding name, but you didn’t put down any race, would the colleges automatically assume you’re Asian?</p>
<p>Is this a serious question?</p>
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<p>As previously answered in this FAQ thread, into which your frequently asked question has been merged, not necessarily. [Many</a> colleges admit many students who are “race unknown,”](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063172559-post8.html]Many”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063172559-post8.html) and [colleges</a> are not expected to guess](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063172622-post12.html]colleges”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063172622-post12.html) about student ethnicity. For the record, the family name of my children and of many children would be a very poor clue to their ethnicity. </p>
<p>Take a deep breath, and enjoy filling out your applications.</p>
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<p>The experience I had in childhood that I’ve related in a post here </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063187909-post61.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063187909-post61.html</a> </p>
<p>makes me eager to treat my neighbors and other fellow human beings as individuals, treating them as members of groups only insofar as they desire to be so treated. I try not to assume that my fellow human beings have anything in common with one another more specific than what we all have in common as human beings unless they tell me so.</p>
<p>Does being a minority give you an advantage towards gaining admissions?</p>
<p>I have heard this from many people</p>
<p>Native American, African American, or Hispanic: yes</p>
<p>Asian American: no</p>
<p>What sherpa said.</p>
<p>A girl I’m working with now is African American and she’s one of the brightest, most motivated person I have ever met. On the other hand, I know kids who, after talking with them for five minutes, think to myself “how the hell did they get in.” I’d later find out that they’re URMs. </p>
<p>Their scores are just unfairly low…</p>
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<p>I’m inclined to think “No” if you are relatively ORM (e.g. half-Asian, half-white), but to a lesser degree than if you were fully ORM as long as there are some URM/neutrals mixed in there. Contrarily, I’m inclined to think “Yes” if you are relatively URM (e.g. half-black, half-white), but to a lesser degree than if you were fully URM given that there are some ORM/neutrals mixed in there. If you fall into category 1 (e.g. half-Asian, half-white), at least there is a greater chance that your name hides the fact that you’re relatively ORM (e.g. you may be half-Asian, half-white but your name may be “Charlie Horse” instead of “Chin Ho”). Correct me if I’m wrong.</p>