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I think the whole purpose of top schools looking at ethnicity is because they want diversity. They are certainly not looking forward to rejecting the 2400 asian to accept the 1800 AA, but sometimes standards might be set lower towards a group of ppl merely cuz they're "not as good in general" (no offense)
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<p>This is what lies at the root of why students think they can take advantage of racial designations on college applications. Although there are general trends between different "racial populations" in scholarship and achievement, 1.) this is due to a number of historical factors that have been in play since the early 20th century, and 2.) when looking at the individual, as admissions officers do, they must take into account the candidate's personal background and achievements before they consider things like minority which are much much less imperative. After all, what does "minority" status really mean if the "minority" candidate has just as good an education and has similar wealth and upbringing to his white and Asian counterparts? Now if the candidate was living in a depressed area with a sub-par school district in a working-class family bordering on poverty, its fair to say that person needs a boost in the admissions process because clearly that person will be lacking important academic privileges.
However, do people here honestly think that a minority candidate who lives in upper-middle class professional family, goes to a prestigious magnet school, and does charity work in Croatia every summer is going to have the scales tipped in his or her favor over an equivalent white or Asian candidate with similar grades and board scores? I say no, not really. There is just too many factors in play to have that candidate's being a "minority" automatically trump the others. </p>
<p>College's are being fair as ever when selecting their future classes. What isn't fair, what REALLY isn't fair, are people trying to take advantage of the admissions process in various ways. It is the myths and fears of the candidates, not the error of the colleges, that have caused this hysteria in my opinion, and it has to stop.</p>
<p>Ha! She knows she's not "African-American" AKA Black in America. People have a lot of strong feelings about race in the College Admissions game, and some believe being a minority will give you the magic key to all America's top colleges. As if. When has being White ever killed someone's chances? Really, aren't a great deal of colleges mostly White? Even those top schools. Let's be honest, a minority student with lower scores didn't take anyone's spot, even in an Ivy. It's much more likely that one of the students in the majority did. Colleges do that for diversity. Believe me, you can learn a lot from someone different from you, and I hope whatever college I end up at has a lot of different people to learn from.Would someone really want to be at a school with a racially homogeneous population as long as they all had the same scores?</p>
<p>It would be more ambiguous for someone from, say, Mali. (Mali has been under Arab influence sometime in the Middle Ages), but it has a sub-Saharan native population.</p>
<p>esp. since dark skin and dark hair are dominant traits</p>
<p>The color of your hair and skin is not always a strict part of racial designation, especially among African-Americans who although generalized as "dark-skinned", quite a few African-Americans have very light skin, some lighter than mestizo Latin Americans, South Asians, and others.</p>
<p>"African American" is such a bogus category. A person can be AA without being black and, conversely, a person can be black without being AA. Why is this even relevant to college admissions?</p>
<p>If your born in S. Africa, you are considered an international student.
And I heard that race doesn't matter as much when you're an international, unless your from somewhere exotic like Timor Leste or something. (Sorry if you are from Timor Leste.)</p>
<p>the person in question is probably either a citizen or a permanent resident of the US, kyobo--she put African-American because she was born in S. Africa. just because she wasn't born in the states doesn't automatically make her an international student...</p>
<p>Even if she was in south africa she wouldn't be considered African, she'd be european.</p>
<p>They want ethnicity not national origin. A white person who was born in Japan because his parents work and live there is not Japanese he's white.</p>
<p>If she is a resident or a citizen, then I don't see problem. She's white.
But, I don't think that she's a citizen or resident because she is wondering whether she is African.</p>
<p>just like tyler said, jsut because you are born in African doesnt make you African. But if you are a citizen to an African country and white, then I think African is legit. right enderkin?</p>
<p>If they ask a dumb question, they deserve a dumb answer. If they wanted an accurate answer they would have provided complete instructions covering every possibility. Since it is a self-reported (and voluntary/optional) answer, the answerer ought to be able to put down what they feel is right. If the person had been of Italian descent and been an American and had answered "Italian-American" that would have been right, but "African-American" is a special code word which apparently covers peoples who are dark skinned but haven't ever been to or descended from anyone from Africa... for example you could be Jamaican, etc. When in doubt, just leave it blank.</p>
<p>Well, legally if you are an African of European, Asian, or Arab origin and you put down "African-American" in the United States you are comitting fraud as you don't meet the legal requirements for this category.</p>
<p>The official racial category is "Black or African American" and it refers to people descended from Black indigenous Africans. It would also include Afro Caribbean people, and most "Negroes" or "Blacks" in the United States or elsewhere. In South Africa, it would include those known traditionally as "Bantu/Black" and "Cape Coloured." It wouldn't include those known in South Africa as "White," who were traditionally European, Korean, or Chinese, or "Asian" which are people usually from the Indian subcontinent. It would also exclude North Africans, who are actually included in the census definition for "White."</p>
<p>A better name for this category would probably be "of Indigenous Sub-Saharan African origin."</p>
<p>People traditionally considered to be "mulattoes," "quadroons," "octoroons," etc. were traditionally considered to be black in the states. That is no longer the case. These people are multiracial.</p>
<p>On a side note, I have an interesting background to offer in this discussion as well. My mother is of White and a significant Cherokee background as well (1/4 I believe) but it is unverifiable because she was adopted and it's incredibly difficult to gain access to adoption records in Oklahoma. My biological father is Spanish Colombian, and I do not believe he has much Mestizo/Indian blood, but I've never met him. Racially I consider myself to be White--because I cannot officially verify the Cherokee or Mestizo--and ethnically I consider myself to be Hispanic. Is it wrong to simply choose to answer the "ethnicity" part of a "race/ethnicity" question and list myself as Hispanic?</p>
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do people here honestly think that a minority candidate who lives in upper-middle class professional family, goes to a prestigious magnet school, and does charity work in Croatia every summer is going to have the scales tipped in his or her favor over an equivalent white or Asian candidate with similar grades and board scores?
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<p>Sadly, yes! The reason colleges do this is to boost their diversity stats - number of blacks in the student body, number of minority student groups, etc.... Where I go to school, most of the blacks I meet are better off financially than my family is, and I am white.</p>
<p>when you go to college most of the PEOPLE you'll meet are going to be better off financially then you, black people included. You can't just single them out because its convenient. If they only boosted poor black people then you would be complaining that they aren't competent enough to be in the same school as you.</p>
<p>theloneranger, imo, I think it'd be fine to list Hispanic (you are technically 1/2). It is like me, I'm half asian and plenty of times I just put down "asian" when there is only one choice. But if it is under "select all that apply," it is best/most truthful to put down both Hispanic and White.</p>
<p>The only relevant judge of the rightness or wrongness of this is the school she's applying to. Judging by post 22, schools would view this as being wrong. It's incredibly cheesy (to say the least) that a White South African would lie to claim the benefit of racial preferences for admission. If she were found out, only a desperate school would admit her.</p>
<p>hey everyone, im the guy who started this post. to add to the fact, she does have american citizenship... im not sure how this will all play out, but when it does i will let everybody know... if you have any questions just pm me.</p>
<p>Now that the common application now asks for your place of birth and your high school records (permanent records from K-12) does list your ethnicity there will be flags when the 2 don't match.</p>