<p>put both. it can't hurt.</p>
<p>i thought there was a "other" blank spot. you should specify BOTH because you don't want to miss out on anyspecial opp.</p>
<p>I would check off both. The admissions officers are not going to say "Oh no, he's black and Hispanic! If only he was just black, then we could accept him."</p>
<p>Of course, the most advantageous possible ethnicity would be Native American.</p>
<p>My mother is Dominican and my father is african american, When I applied to my two choice I put "bi-racial" it was actually the only school that gave me that choice.</p>
<p>What country is your mom or her parents from? Bc if she is from the Dominican Republic, Cuba, or some other Carribean country then she might be mixed with black. Like my friend is Dominican but she looks like a light-skinned black person bc she is a mixture of African, Native American, and white (Spanish). If this is the case you should put mixed. If not then check both boxes. Be honest. Being ambiguous or one-sided is dishonest.</p>
<p>the uva study is likely somewhat of an anomaly. i'm the one who posted that study a while back, and recently reposted it on the uva forum.</p>
<p>a few things to keep in mind about the study. I believe at UVa if you check off a minority slot, you are placed into a separate category (like instate and oos). You are then admitted based on the qualifications within that pool. UVa has about 4% hispanic students, and so does virginia. While it may be "easier" to get in as a hispanic (say a 1350 SAT puts you in a very good position to be admitted vs. a 1500 SAT as a white student), you'll notice that the admittence rate is very close to the admittence rate for white students. That just tells us that hispanic students are slightly "weaker" than their white counterparts. However, they are not under represented--they arn't admitted at a higher rate than whites. So while a hispanic student may be overall slightly weaker than a white student, it doesn't really give them a better chance of admittence--because overall, all hispanic students are slightly weaker. A very strong hispanic student has a great chance because he is at the top of a weaker applicant pool.</p>
<p>Now the issue with black students is that UVa has a much lower % of black students then the state of virginia has. They are trying to increase their black enrollment--especially since its been decreasing over the last few years. In order to do this they have to accept a far far greater percentage of black students vs. the other demographics. This leads to the problem of vastly lowered standards. If you admit 70% of a pool which is already considered one of, if not the weakest pool of students, you'll see why those statistics of 3.3 GPA and 1100 SAT lead to a 80something% admittence chance for a black student.</p>
<p>What does this mean for everyone? look at the demographics for a school, and see what they're trying to get most of. If a school with a 30% admittence rate has 1000 freshman, 100 of which are black, and they only get 200 black applicants, its good to be black...they probably admitted more than 2/3s of them.</p>
<p>If a school has a 30% admittence rate, has 1000 freshman, 100 are black, and they get 600 black applicants, its probably still good to be black if you're an above average applicant (because black students are overall weaker), but more then likely its not going to be that big of a boost. the same applies for hispanic students.</p>
<p>This whole discussion is disgusting. I don't mean that as an insult to the OP, but it's indicative of how our college admissions system has become so geared towards race. We've stooped to the low of picking apart one's racial identity for admissions. It's completely absurd.</p>
<p>I would check off both. The admissions officers are not going to say "Oh no, he's black and Hispanic! If only he was just black, then we could accept him."</p>
<p>I dunno, given the almost self-parodying nature of "Diversity Officers" (where here, diversity means Native American>Black>Hispanic>White>Asian), I could very well see an adcom saying just that. Black racial purity might just trump a Black-Hispanic mix in their eyes.</p>
<p>there are less hispanics in colleges. go for hispanic if you must choose one. but really you should put multi-racial, but to be specific check off all 3 boxes so they know just how much of a minority you are :)</p>
<p>Yay for caribbean people!</p>
<p>Disregard the nonsense in this thread. Write whatever you want. You may be surprised how irrelevant your ethnicity will be compared to your qualifications and "appeal."</p>
<p>I agree with LakeWashington and bbecker (yay for caribbean people) and GAclassof2008. There are less hispanics in college. About blacks getting into college easier than hispanics, it doesn't sound right but whatever. I think you should disregard the nonsense in this thread about statistics and whatever it is. Write what you want. But since you are mixed, you might as well go with mixed. In reality, you are an american.</p>
<p>Check three boxes - Black, Hispanic, and Mixed.</p>
<p>questions like this make me hate affirmative action, and it's not your fault, it's the system's.</p>
<p>Haha, great idea fabrizio. That's what I'm going to do. I'm checking multiracial, asian, and hispanic. I think just checking "multiracial" does my interesting ethnicity zero justice...haha. But I digress..</p>
<p>"you'll see why those statistics of 3.3 GPA and 1100 SAT lead to a 80something% admittence chance for a black student."</p>
<p>are the standards really lowered that much for blacks at uva?</p>
<p>The standards are lowered at a lot of schools for minorities. Definitly check black because that will help you the most.</p>
<p>meow^ less hispanics go to college than any other race.</p>
<p>^where are you getting those numbers from?</p>
<p>check at that hispanic thread on this site..... also the internet shows it everywhere... type in google...</p>
<p>As Espenshade and Chung show, being Hispanic is worth about 160 SAT points.</p>
<p>And, no, their study was not refuted by Kidder.</p>