<p>College admissions offices refer to the U.S. Census bureau definitions for ethnic categories, which are based on regulations from the Office of Management and Budget, because they required to report by federal regulations, </p>
<p>Revisions</a> to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity </p>
<p>and you can look the definitions up on the Web. </p>
<p>Black</a> or African American persons, percent, 2000 </p>
<p>"White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as 'White' or report entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Near Easterner, Arab, or Polish.</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>Persons</a> of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2000 </p>
<p>"Hispanics or Latinos are those people who classified themselves in one of the specific Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino categories listed on the Census 2000 questionnaire -'Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano,' 'Puerto Rican', or 'Cuban' -as well as those who indicate that they are 'other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino.' Persons who indicated that they are 'other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino' include those whose origins are from Spain, the Spanish-speaking countries of Central or South America, the Dominican Republic or people identifying themselves generally as Spanish, Spanish-American, Hispanic, Hispano, Latino, and so on.</p>
<p>"Origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States.</p>
<p>"People who identify their origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race." </p>
<p>The federal Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has posted guidance to colleges about how they are to ask about student ethnicity and race according to the federally defined categories. </p>
<p>Standard</a> 1-5 - NCES Statistical Standards </p>
<p>You'll see that footnote 2 at the bottom of the NCES webpage says, </p>
<p>"The categories are presented in order of numerical frequency in the population, rather than alphabetically. Previous research studies have found that following alphabetical order in the question categories creates difficulties. That is, having "American Indian or Alaska Native" as the first category results in substantial over reporting of this category." So the preferred order for listing racial categories to gather data for federal reporting is to first ask about Hispanic ethnicity, as defined by federal law and self-identified by the student, and then to ask about "race," again as defined by federal law and self-identified by the student, with the preferred order of listing race categories being </p>
<p>White</p>
<p>Black or African American</p>
<p>Asian</p>
<p>American Indian or Alaska Native</p>
<p>Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander</p>
<p>in that order. But in actual practice most colleges do not list the categories in that preferred order on their application forms. </p>
<p>The Department of Education has more recently updated its guidance to colleges on how to ask ethnicity and race questions </p>
<p><a href="http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/pdf/E7-20613.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/pdf/E7-20613.pdf</a> </p>
<p>and has requested colleges change their forms by the high school class of 2010 application year to ask a two-part question, first inquiring about Hispanic ethnicity and then about race, for each student. The student will still be free to decline to answer either part of the question. </p>
<p>"Unlike elementary and secondary institutions, generally, postsecondary institutions and Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) grantees use self-identification only and do not use observer identification. As discussed elsewhere in this notice, postsecondary institutions and RSA grantees will also be permitted to continue to include a 'race and ethnicity unknown' category when reporting data to the Department. This category is being continued in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) because the National Center for Education Statistics experience has shown that (1) a substantial number of college students have refused to identify a race and (2) there is often not a convenient mechanism for college administrators to use observer identification." </p>
<p>See the National Center for Education Statistics Race/Ethnicity FAQ </p>
<p>IPEDS</a> Survey Material: View F.A.Qs Race/Athnicity </p>
<p>and the Association for Institutional Research Race/Ethnicity Information webpage </p>
<p>Race/Ethnicity</a> Information </p>
<p>and its subpages for more information about the current and planned practices of colleges as they prepare to implement the new federal regulations for high school class of 2010 applicants to college. </p>
<p>Students of higher education (and applicants to schools of postsecondary education) are treated as adults, and are explicitly permitted to decline to identify their ethnic or racial category.</p>