<p>Should white applicants report their ethnicity on the common app? by not reporting do adcoms know you're just trying to avoid being discriminated against by AA?</p>
<p>If you don't report anything (which is anyone's option) you won't get any advantage if a school is willing to extend extra consideration to certain ethnic groups. You'll be the "default" group. But if you're majority, you're ineligible anyways so it's no difference.</p>
<p>But you also should know that the schools are judging their applicants on many, many factors besides ethinicity: gender, regional of birth, socioeconomic reasons, veteran status, athletic tips, special arts or academic tips, legacy tips, etc.</p>
<p>AA isn't just such a simple issue w/college admissions, I think you'll agree.</p>
<p>I have a FAQ about this subject: </p>
<p>Self-reporting ethnicity is OPTIONAL on the Common Application, which is what many colleges (for example Harvard) use as their main or sole application form. Self-reporting ethnicity is also optional on the Universal Application, which various colleges, including Harvard, also accept. Every college in the United States is required by federal law to track voluntarily self-reported ethnic data on students. The colleges ask for this information, and have to report it to the federal government, but students don't have to report it. Harvard's U-CAN page</p>
<p>U-CAN:</a> Harvard University :: Page 1 </p>
<p>shows, based on that federally mandated data tracking, that 15 percent of its students are "race unknown," so evidently quite a few applicants to Harvard decline to self-report their ethnicity and yet are still admitted. MIT still has its own application form, and asks its own brand of the ethnicity question. Ethnicity questions are optional on the MIT application also, but the application notes that MIT has an "Affirmative Action Plan" plan, with the comment that MIT "guarantees equal opportunity in education to students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds."</p>
<p>Don't worry about it. Self-report or not as you wish. Recognize that students from a variety of ethnic groups--including whatever one you would claim for yourself--are admitted to each of your favorite colleges each year. On the other hand, admission to some colleges (e.g., Harvard) is just plain competitive, so lots of outstanding students of each ethnic group you can imagine are not admitted each year. Do your best on your application, apply to a safety, and relax.</p>
<p>College admissions offices refer to the U.S. Census bureau definitions for ethnic categories, because they required to report by federal regulations, and you can look the definitions up on the Web.</p>
<p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>Black</a> or African American persons, percent, 2000 </p>
<p>Is that clear?</p>
<p>so if i'm white it wouldn't be adventitious to not report my ethnicity?</p>
<p>It's an optional question.</p>