<p>*Should</p>
<p>To make things terse, I do not believe in affirmative action and I certainly don't want to be on the short end of its stick. Please, no arguing in this thread.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>My name sounds Asian, but are admission officers allowed to determine the race of an applicant just from name? </p></li>
<li><p>If I don't report my race, will I be at a disadvantage?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>What is your race?</p>
<p>East Asian.</p>
<p>If you don’t report your race and it is evident from your name, then it may seem as if you are hiding it just because you believe it will help you in college admissions. They might not care much, but then again, there might be some admissions officers who would look down on this attempt to game the system.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t. It doesn’t matter what your actual race is and whether or not they can interpret what race you are - the adcoms only care about race when they factor it to determine the racial breakdown of their students. If you don’t list it you officially go down as unreported, whereas if you list it (assuming you are Asian) you are added to the Asian count.</p>
<p>
Highly doubtful and I would think an adcom would respect one’s right to not provide his/her race without drawing conclusions from it.</p>
<p>I expect that it will have no effect on your chances.</p>
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</p>
<p>I highly doubt that.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/927219-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-8-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/927219-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-8-a.html</a></p>
<p>See especially posts # 1 thru 6</p>
<p>
It is a possibility. Not likely, but that is why I used the word “might”. There isn’t a lot to gain by not reporting race, and college admissions officers would be able to tell from the name. So any perceived advantage is gone there. However, the college is then unable to officially state the race of that student, for demographics and the like. It doesn’t seem like a particularly useful thing to do.</p>
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</p>
<p>I don’t see it as a realistic possibility. How is it an attempt to game the system, as you described it?</p>
<p>
It is possible. Whether it is “realistic” or not is subjective.</p>
<p>
By the OP’s admission, the only reason he is considering this is because he feels that it would be the best way to avoid affirmative action and any biases he believes go with it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes…</p>
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</p>
<p>That’s still not “gaming” the system; applicants are fully allowed to not report race.</p>
<p>
Yes, and I believe the general consensus is that there is little difference between doing so and not. However, I believe that many admissions officers would realize why the applicant with an East Asian name chose not to report race. As I said, I also don’t think that admissions officers would care. I did, however, recognize the possibility that an admissions officer who recognized the applicant’s motivation for this might be annoyed that the applicant (1) thought the school was discriminatory, (2) wanted to be identified with a different group to increase admissions chances, and (3) is obviously East Asian, but made it so the school cannot include this student in demographics reports.</p>
<p>Again, I do not think it would really matter, but I recognize that an admissions officer could see what’s going on. I don’t think reporting or not reporting is going to make or break an applicant.</p>
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</p>
<p>But what is going on could not be considered an attempt to game the system or anything similar. As for your three points: (1) most colleges are indeed racially discriminatory; (2) the applicant is omitting the category, not lying; (3) there is nothing wrong with being East Asian but not sharing it (why would that hurt an applicant’s chance?).</p>
<p>I continue to fail to see how omitting the category could be detrimental to one’s chances.</p>
<p>
You’re right, “gaming the system” was not an adequate way to express what I was thinking. As for the points, (1) I didn’t say whether they were or were not, I just said an admissions officer may not like that a student thinks their college is. (2) I again did not say that. What I said was that it would seem like an attempt to increase chances in a manner with not identifying with the group they would usually be identified with. It is obviously not lying. (3) You misunderstood this, I believe. I was just saying that a college would probably prefer that they were able to officially report demographics information including all students, as opposed to having a slice say “refused/chose not to answer”.</p>
<p>
Never my point. My point was that it would not significantly improve an applicant’s chances.</p>
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</p>
<p>Hmm, that was certainly not the impression that I got from what you wrote. Now that I understand you, I agree; in fact, I think that it would have no effect.</p>
<p>
Ah, sorry about that. Yeah, I just went back and read my first comment, and I see how it could give a different impression. And the only reason why I would encourage reporting race would be for the college demographics reports and to take pride in one’s heritage. As for actual admissions, I can’t really see how it would help/hurt to do one or the other.</p>
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</p>
<p>Unless, of course, a URM decides to omit the category.</p>
<p>
Yes, there is that. I was thinking of White or Asian applicants, who are generally the ones to ask these questions. But if an African-American, Hispanic, or Native American student either did not know about the implications of affirmative action, still feared negative discrimination, or didn’t want it to factor into their admission decision, then I suppose this could happen. In that case, you are right, that would have an effect.</p>
<p>OP: you seem set on making a point. Why then, did you post this “should I or shouldn’t I” when your decision seems already made.</p>
<p>Aren’t you just wanting to make an anti-affirmative action statement?</p>