So my dad immigrated from Egypt as an adult and is ethnically Egyptian. My mother is white and was born in the US. As a result, I am half Egyptian and half white, though my skin color is white and I do not look partially of African descent based on skin color at all (most people actually think I’m Jewish when they first meet me). On a college application, would I be able to put down African descent? If I did, would there be any possible repercussions if I were admitted because I don’t look black but marked African descent? Would being able to mark African descent give me URM status?
Ethnic and racial identification is self reported. If you consider yourself African, mark it. If you consider yourself white, mark it or mark mixed. You will also be asked if you are white but Hispanic or non-white Hispanic.
I agree with twoinanddone, you will be asked and according they will let you know.
It’s about race. Is your father a black-skinned African? Do you identify as African American? If both those answers are no, then do you really think you can legitimately claim to be African? These race questions are loaded and it’s a poor metric for determining college admissions, but it might be obvious when you have an interview or meet an AO that you don’t look like an African American. So be honest and check the box you honestly feel fits you best, or decline to state.
Generally Egypt (in fact most of North Africa) is considered not considered “African” for purposes of racial identification, and only people with sub-Saharan African ancestry are considered “of African descent.” The US government considers people of North African/Arab ancestry to be “White/Caucasian”, and many forms will specifically have information saying that “White/Caucasian” includes people of Arab and North African descent.
A high-school classmate of mine had a similar issue (parents were both from Egypt) and she had to check the “White/Caucasian” box.
Saying that you’re of African decent is technically true, but it would probably be considered a lie by most places. Would there be repercussions to that? I couldn’t say. But I don’t think that it’s worth the risk, ESPECIALLY with how sensitive people are to these kinds of issues.