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07-06-2009, 09:23 PM
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#1 | | Super Moderator
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| "Race" in College Admissions FAQ & Discussion 4
Ethnic Self-Identification Is Optional
MODERATOR'S NOTE: This thread about this perennially discussed issue is now replaced by a newer thread "Race" in College Admissions FAQ & Discussion 5
with more up-to-date information.
Students are often puzzled about how to respond to questions on college applications about race or ethnicity. The questions are required by a federal regulation, and a new version of that regulation just came into effect for the 2009-2010 application season. The regulation U.S. Department of Education; Office of the Secretary; Final Guidance on Maintaining, Collecting, and Reporting Racial and Ethnic Data to the U.S. Department of Education [OS]
makes clear that self-identifying ethnicity is optional for students in higher education. That self-identifying by ethnicity is optional has long been clear on the Common Application, https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/...rForms2010.pdf
which almost 400 colleges (for example Harvard, Carleton, and the University of Virginia) use as their main or sole application form. The latest version of the Common Application includes a section titled Demographics with a subsection printed on a gray background with the heading "Optional The items with a gray background are optional. No information you provide will be used in a discriminatory manner." That Common Application optional section includes the federally specified questions about ethnicity: Quote: |
Originally Posted by Common Application 2009-2010 1. Are you Hispanic/Latino?
O Yes, Hispanic or Latino (including Spain) O No
Please describe your background ________________________________________________
2. Regardless of your answer to the prior question, please select one or more of the
following ethnicities that best describe you:
O American Indian or Alaska Native (including all Original Peoples of the Americas)
Are you Enrolled? O Yes O No If yes, please enter Tribal Enrollment Number ________________
Please describe your background ________________________________________________
O Asian (including Indian subcontinent and Philippines)
Please describe your background ________________________________________________
O Black or African American (including Africa and Caribbean)
Please describe your background ________________________________________________
O Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (Original Peoples)
Please describe your background ________________________________________________
O White (including Middle Eastern)
Please describe your background ________________________________________________ | Self-identifying ethnicity has also always clearly been optional on the Universal College Application, https://www.universalcollegeapp.com/...pplication.pdf
which 77 colleges, including Harvard, accept. Other colleges use their own application forms, but all must ask an ethnicity question as specified by the new federal regulation. But that question is optional in any case.
The colleges have to ask for ethnicity data, and have to report them to the federal government, but students don't have to self-identify with any ethnic or racial category. Colleges are not required to use self-identified race or ethnicity as an admission factor. Some colleges do and some do not. (Some state colleges and universities are prohibited by state law in their states from considering race as an admission factor.) The questions are asked for federal reporting requirements but may or may not be a significant admission factor at some college you like. At all United States colleges, with a sole exception*, it is permissible to decline to answer the questions during the admission process.
Don't worry about it. Self-identify or not as you wish. You are always free to self-identify with humankind as a whole by not self-identifying with any narrower subset of humankind. Recognize that students from a variety of ethnic groups--including whatever group or groups you would identify with, if any--are admitted to each of your favorite colleges each year. On the other hand, admission to some colleges (e.g., Yale or Amherst) is just plain competitive, so lots of outstanding students self-identified with each ethnic group you can imagine (or not self-identified with any group) are not admitted each year. Do your best on your application, apply to a safety, and relax. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...y-college.html
*The sole exception to the general statement that self-identifying ethnicity is optional in the college admission process is a federally administered college for American Indians (Native Americans), SIPI - Admissions and Records
which is a unique example, even among tribal colleges, Tribal College List -- White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities
of a college that is truly for students of one ethnic group, as it is a college operated by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). But even other BIA colleges appear to accept students from a variety of ethnicities, and that is definitely true of and reported by other tribal colleges. College Search - Leech Lake Tribal College - LLTC - At a Glance College Search - Little Priest Tribal College - LPTC - At a Glance
(scroll down for federal reported ethnicity of students)
Last edited by tokenadult; 08-29-2009 at 01:02 PM.
Reason: announce opening of newer thread
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07-06-2009, 10:01 PM
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#2 | | Super Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: MN
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| Ethnic Categories Reported by Colleges Are Defined--Vaguely--by Federal Law
College reporting to the federal government is based on the U.S. Census bureau definitions for ethnic categories, which in turn are based on regulations from the Office of Management and Budget, because colleges are required to report by federal regulations, Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity
and you can look the definitions up on the Web. As the Census Bureau itself notes, Quote: |
Originally Posted by Census Bureau These categories are sociopolitical constructs and should not be interpreted as being scientific or anthropological in nature. | Black or African American persons, percent, 2000 Quote: |
Originally Posted by Census Bureau 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.
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. | Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2000 Quote: |
Originally Posted by Census Bureau 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.
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.
People who identify their origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race. | 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. Standard 1-5 - NCES Statistical Standards
You'll see that footnote 2 at the bottom of the NCES webpage says, Quote: |
Originally Posted by Department of Education 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
White
Black or African American
Asian
American Indian or Alaska Native
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
in that order. But in actual practice most colleges do not list the categories in that preferred order on their application forms, but rather in alphabetical order.
The Department of Education has more recently updated its guidance to colleges on how to ask ethnicity and race questions U.S. Department of Education; Office of the Secretary; Final Guidance on Maintaining, Collecting, and Reporting Racial and Ethnic Data to the U.S. Department of Education [OS]
or http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedReg...-4/101907c.pdf
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. Quote: |
Originally Posted by Department of Education 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. | See the National Center for Education Statistics Race/Ethnicity FAQ IPEDS Survey Material: View F.A.Qs Race/Athnicity
and the Association for Institutional Research Race/Ethnicity Information webpage Race/Ethnicity Information
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.
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.
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07-06-2009, 10:28 PM
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#3 | | Super Moderator
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| You Can Decline to Self-Identify with Any "Race" or Ethnic Group
It would be dishonest, and possibly grounds for revoking an offer of admission, to self-report according to a category that doesn't fit you at all. On the other hand, all of the categories named in federal law are based on self-identification and colleges have no means to double-check every student's self-identifying.
I find it interesting, and full of good hope for this country's future, that more and more college applicants are declining to self-report their ethnicity to colleges, News: None of the Above - Inside Higher Ed
which is everyone's right under law and something that someone of any ethnic self-identification might choose to do. People can decide this issue for themselves, but I like to emphasize in my own life, as a member of a "biracial" family, the common humanity my children, my wife, and I share with all our neighbors and compatriots.
The latest version of the Minorities in Higher Education Report http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cf...ontentID=23716
has a lot of detailed numbers (all based on reports colleges make to the federal government) about the growth in college enrollment in all the reported ethnic groups, and the growth of the group "race unknown."
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07-06-2009, 10:31 PM
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#4 | | Super Moderator
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| Many Colleges Admit Many Students Who Don't Self-Report Ethnicity
Here are some selective colleges with high percentages of students reported as "race unknown." These figures are based on Item B2, enrollment by racial/ethnic category, reported in the Common Data Set reports for each college (which in turn is based on IPEDS reporting to the federal government).
FALL 2008 ENTERING CLASS
32 percent 1st-year, 26 percent undergrad at Bryn Mawr http://www.brynmawr.edu/institutiona...S2008_2009.pdf
29 percent 1st-year, 24 percent undergrad at Scripps College Scripps College : Common Data Set
24 percent 1st-year at Colby College College Search - Colby College - At a Glance
23 percent 1st-year, 16 percent undergrad at William and Mary http://web.wm.edu/ir/CDS/cds0809.xls
22 percent 1st-year, 14 percent undergrad at Yale http://www.yale.edu/oir/cds.pdf
22 percent 1st-year, 18 percent undergrad at Reed College Reed College 2008-09 Common Data Set SecB
22 percent 1st-year, 21 percent undergrad at Amherst College https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/9...ersistence.pdf
20 percent 1st-year, 15 percent undergrad at Vanderbilt CDS B
20 percent 1st-year at University of Rochester College Search - University of Rochester - U of R - At a Glance
18 percent 1st-year at Penn College Search - University of Pennsylvania - Penn - At a Glance
18 percent 1st-year, 15 percent undergrad at Case Western Reserve http://www.case.edu/president/cir/20...s/enroll08.pdf
17 percent 1st-year, 14 percent undergrad at Brown http://www.brown.edu/Administration/...llment2008.pdf
16 percent 1st-year at Carnegie Mellon College Search - Carnegie Mellon University - At a Glance
16 percent 1st-year, 15 percent undergrad at Cornell http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/100...mode=bookmarks
16 percent 1st-year at Tufts University College Search - Tufts University - At a Glance
16 percent 1st-year, 11 percent undergrad at University of Richmond http://oir.richmond.edu/CommonDataSets/CDS0809_B.pdf
15 percent 1st-year at Harvard College Search - Harvard College - At a Glance
15 percent 1st-year at Chicago College Search - University of Chicago - At a Glance
14 percent 1st-year at Pomona College Search - Pomona College - At a Glance
14 percent 1st-year, 8 percent undergrad at Wesleyan University http://www.wesleyan.edu/ir/cds/cds2008-09.pdf
13 percent 1st-year, 7 percent undergrad at Stanford Stanford University: Common Data Set 2008-2009
13 percent 1st-year at Cooper Union College Search - Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art - Cooper - At a Glance | |
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07-06-2009, 10:34 PM
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#5 | | Super Moderator
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Here are some other selective colleges with moderately high percentages of students reported as "race unknown." These figures are based on Item B2, enrollment by racial/ethnic category, reported in the Common Data Set reports for each college (which in turn is based on IPEDS reporting to the federal government).
FALL 2008 ENTERING CLASS
12 percent 1st-year at University of Miami College Search - University of Miami - UM - At a Glance
11 percent 1st-year at Washington U in St. Louis College Search - Washington University in St. Louis - Washington U. - At a Glance
11 percent 1st-year at NYU College Search - New York University - NYU - At a Glance
11 percent 1st-year at Lehigh College Search - Lehigh University - At a Glance
11 percent 1st-year at Whitman College Search - Whitman College - At a Glance
11 percent 1st-year, 8 percent undergrad at Hamilton College https://my.hamilton.edu/college/inst...S2008_2009.pdf
10 percent 1st-year, 11 percent undergrad at Swarthmore College http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/...ir/cds2008.pdf
10 percent undergrad at Johns Hopkins University U-CAN: Johns Hopkins University
9 percent 1st-year, 8 percent undergrad at Columbia College Search - Columbia University - At a Glance http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/abst..._ethnicity.htm
9 percent 1st-year, 7 percent undergrad at Virginia UVa CDS: B. Enrollment
9 percent 1st-year at Tulane University College Search - Tulane University - At a Glance
9 percent 1st-year at Davidson College College Search - Davidson College - At a Glance
8 percent 1st-year, 7 percent undergrad at Princeton http://registrar.princeton.edu/unive...on_cds2008.pdf
8 percent 1st-year at United States Naval Academy College Search - United States Naval Academy - Navy - At a Glance
7 percent 1st-year at Rice University College Search - Rice University - Rice - At a Glance
7 percent 1st-year at Boston College College Search - Boston College - BC - At a Glance
7 percent 1st-year at Berkeley College Search - University of California: Berkeley - At a Glance
7 percent 1st-year at Northwestern University College Search - Northwestern University - NU - At a Glance
7 percent 1st-year, 16 percent undergrad at Claremont McKenna College College Search - Claremont McKenna College - CMC - At a Glance U-CAN: Claremont McKenna College
7 percent 1st-year, 7 percent undergrad at Emory University http://www.emory.edu/PROVOST/IPR/doc..._2008_2009.pdf
6 percent 1st-year at MIT College Search - Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT - At a Glance
6 percent 1st-year, 5 percent undergrad at Middlebury http://www.middlebury.edu/NR/rdonlyr...S2008_2009.pdf
5 percent 1st-year, 5 percent undergrad at Dartmouth http://www.dartmouth.edu/~oir/pdfs/CDS2008_2009.pdf
5 percent 1st-year, 5 percent undergrad at Duke College Search - Duke University - Duke - At a Glance U-CAN: Duke University | |
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07-06-2009, 10:39 PM
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#6 | | Super Moderator
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07-06-2009, 10:41 PM
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#7 | | Super Moderator
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| Colleges Really, Truly Aren't Expected to Guess Student Ethnicity
From the Association for Institutional Research FAQ: FAQ Race/Ethnicity Topics Quote: |
Originally Posted by Association for Institutional Research Q: Can I require students/employees to complete the race/ethnicity questions?
A: No. You may only ask.
Q: How do I know if a student or employee refused to answer the questions or just overlooked them?
A: You don't.
Q: What is the level of effort needed to collect the new information?
A: Presenting the data collection form to students/employees is sufficient to ensure that individuals have had an opportunity to respond. Postsecondary institutions can report unknown when the respondent doesn’t reply—there is no need to use third-party observation to supply race/ethnicity. | | |
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07-07-2009, 11:32 AM
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#9 | | Member
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| Food for Thought: You may be categorized even if you choose not to do so
Via The National Center for Education Statistics, FAQ Race/Ethnicity: Quote: 27) If a student or staff does not self-identify their race and ethnicity, can we identify their race and ethnicity on their behalf (third-party identification)?
There is nothing in the guidance that would prevent an institution from employing third-party identification of race and ethnicity, but only as a last resort. The use of third-party identification is intended mostly for the use of race and ethnicity reporting at the primary and secondary levels where access to children may be limited. For postsecondary institutions, self-reporting of race and ethnicity by students and staff is considered to be the desired method.
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07-07-2009, 04:58 PM
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#10 | | Super Moderator
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07-08-2009, 12:43 AM
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#11 | | Junior Member
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 50
| I am half Black/half Korean...
If Black = URM
and Asian = ORM
What does that make me?
I'm asking this because I'd rather not get accepted to colleges by affirmative action alone and was wondering if my racial mixture would sort of..."balance out"? Anyways, I'd like to know your thoughts!
Last edited by optimisticgirl92; 07-08-2009 at 01:00 AM.
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07-08-2009, 12:44 AM
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#12 | | Member
Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: The Magic City (Miami, FL)
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I believe there's an option for biracial students...
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07-08-2009, 12:49 AM
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#13 | | Senior Member
Join Date: May 2009
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For your own sake, go with African-American.
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07-08-2009, 12:49 AM
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#14 | | Junior Member
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Yeah but I was born in Korea and so was my mom and she went to college there so I think it's sort of obvious that I'm Asian too...
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07-08-2009, 01:01 AM
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#15 | | Senior Member
Join Date: May 2009
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If you can list yourself as an underrepresented minority without problem, you really should seize that opportunity. It doesn't really matter what you look like; if you have that minority box checked off, you will have a significant admissions boost.
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