Am i African-American?

[sybbie719]

<p>Remember that colleges are becoming more savvy and are starting to ask the second level question. Especially if on is is a permanent resident schools are starting to ask your original country of citizenship (amherst and a few other schools have already started asking the question).</p>

<p>Because there has also been much talk about more black URMs being the children of recent carribean and african immigrants vs, being the children of decendants of african americans with roots in the in the U.S. (because these really are the URMs in the college process). So checking the box may get you over the hurdle but it is also going to be looked at in context of everything else you bring to the table.</p>

<p>Michelle Hernandez, addresses the topic this way;</p>

<p>

you should get some URM help, but not as much as you might if you came from the ghetto etc… In effect, as I mention in the book, the conversation comes up, “how red is your tag” or “how black.” In other words, how culturally black are you or how culturally Native american are you? Given two native american students, one who lives on a reservation and has many cultural ties and one who went to prep school who claims a 1/4 or 1/8 tie but has no activities related to being native american, the first student wins! Of course if it’s a low year for minority admissions, they may reach out to more, but my feeling is you’ll get some break, but not a huge one.

</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=702946#post702946[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=702946#post702946&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>So if you are checking the box you need to be prepared to show “how black” you are.</p>