<p>It asks for my race, religion, etc. Should I answer these OPTIONAL questions or just leave them blank? Could indidcating that I'm a certain race or religion hurt my chances at a certain college in any way?</p>
<p>Indicating your religion generally won’t influence admissions, but your race certainly can.</p>
<p>Try searching this topic as there have been many discussions about this on CC</p>
<p>If you are a URM (Hispanic, African American, or Native American), not indicating that on the Common Application will, in effect, hurt your chances.</p>
<p>if you are part something (like if i was indian(not native) but my grandmother was hispanic, then can i put hispanic and asian-or not? and will they verify this?</p>
<p>^ Yes, those of mixed race can select everything that applies.</p>
<p>What if I am Asian-American? Will it hurt my chances if I indicate it on the CommonApp?</p>
<p>^ Whether you indicate your race shouldn’t make much of a difference.</p>
<p>Ok, so I am 100% hispanic (Colombian), but after I check hispanic it asks me to check what I identify as. Does it make sense if I put I am hispanic and then white (European descent) or will this not make me look as hispanic? In other words, should I just put hispanic and leave the next part blank or put both?</p>
<p>IRFreak: There shouldnt be much of a problem there, in fact since “hispanic” is not a race you are definetely labeled into one or more groups shown below. Im mexican, so i checked the box for hispanic, then i check the box for white from european descent AND Native american because im a mix.</p>
<p>Remember hispanics can be black, white, of asian race and native americans, or mixed.</p>
<p>Saludos</p>
<p>Thank you so much! Good to see more Hispanics on cc!</p>
<p>soooo if youre Indian (from india), should you just leave it blank? will it help or hurt admission chances? would colleges automatically assume that youre an ORM if you leave it blank?</p>
<p>@Zoidberg93 - Keep in mind that names sometimes betray the applicant’s race. For instance, my last name is one of the most common Chinese last names in existence. Therefore, I didn’t seem much point in not indicating “Asian” in the demographics section; it’s obvious. Your recommendations might also, for whatever reason, mention your race.</p>
<p>From a fellow ORM - I do think being an ORM hurts a bit. I don’t, however, believe leaving it blank automatically shows that you are an ORM. After all, there are plenty of people, even URMs, who leave it blank as some sort of protest against perceived racism in college admissions.</p>
<p>Well my name does not sound very indian, and the only people that may be able to identify my last name as indian are other indian people…so unless the admissions officer is of south asian origin, i think im fine there. soooooo, if nothing else in my app (essays in particular) that gives away my ethnicity, i should go ahead and not include my race???</p>
<p>oh and my parents names’ definitely sound foreign, but they dont sound uniquely indian either</p>
<p>If you leave it blank, they will likely infer that you are an ORM. Even if you don’t indicate it anywhere on your app, if the school that you’re applying to has alumni interviews, then it will eventually become pretty clear.</p>
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<p>I don’t think so. I would be surprised if even a majority of non-respondents were Asian, let alone nearly all of them: while a higher percentage of Asian applicants probably omit the category, there are far more non-Asian applicants than Asian applicants.</p>
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<p>Interviewers are not asked to report the perceived race of the applicant.</p>
<p>yeah and all my schools’ interviews are optional. but i just realized that my parents alma maters give me away hahaha</p>
100% agree; My last name is Whiteley (I’m white, duh) and I even have a youtube account by my name so colleges would easily be able to search me. I feel that this is very possible for others as well.