<p>For example, my last name has absolutely no ethnic background, because it was changed when my parents came to America. How would they know I am not, lets say Native-American, if i put that for my ethnicity on my application?</p>
<p>—my bro is applying to colleges, and had this question.</p>
<p>i see…i see…but well im taking a sociology class right now…and the book claims that the word ethnicity has a variety of meanings and a few of them are basically what you identify yourself as, the culture that you take part in, and how your peers identify you…or something like that…what definition do colleges use?</p>
<p>Colleges ask for your race. Your racial background. The race of your ancestors. It has nothing to do with you thinking that you’re “Native American”. Unless your ancestors crossed the Bering Strait tens of thousands of years ago, you are not Native American.</p>
<p>There are many ways for the college to find out that you are lying. They could find out through the interview, through your counselor, or numerous other ways. And if they find out, and they will, you are screwed.</p>
<p>Other places your ethnicity is listed: HS transcript, SAT test results, ACT test results, PSAT test results. One would expect a consistent reporting of race, since it’s unlikely to change right before senior year.</p>
<p>Applying to colleges is not an anonymous process. It is not a numbers game. When you show up on campus to start classes you are eventually going to meet face to face the people who have read your application and have been impressed by it. You will meet the people who, based on what you wrote, decide that you should attend school there. At selective colleges, the admissions officers are real people who mingle with the students, hang around the campus, and you will actually meet them. They are often recent grads of the school. They will know your friends at school, your profs, etc. That’s how they can figure out you lied on the application, whether it’s about your race or ethnicity, or your passion for fire-eating and knife juggling, or whatever you choose to write about in your application.</p>
<p>sure put i know plenty of 1/2 hispanic kids who look caucasian so they would have no problem mingling with admission officers lol…so i guess theres no way to tell? xD</p>
<p>but i was thinking like if u apply for financial aid, they can check ethnicity by your social security number or something like that?</p>
<p>As a counselor I had many calls over the years from adcom curious about ethnicity. Probably the most questions were about kids who checked black or Hispanic but had not been identified as such on standardized tests.</p>
<p>^what is your stance on student’s leaving the ethnicity box blank? Will colleges go out of their way to determine your race or will they evaluate your app based only on merit without regard to race?</p>
<p>The title of this thread sounds awfully close to: “I’m Thinking About Lying About My Ethnic Background”.</p>
<p>Redroses response seems to be the most insightful, i.e., if you’re going to claim a certain ethnic background you need to be consistent throughout the process. You need to have been claiming a certain racial/ethnic background all along and one would assume that you would also want to claim the same background across all forms as well. </p>
<p>As for the idea that you may run into an adcom on campus who will unearth your “secret”, the numbers are on your side so I think you’re pretty safe on that front. During the info session at Penn they pointed out that adcom members go through 100-125 applications a day; the idea that they will seek you out or even remember you on any detailed level defies logic and the reasonable limits of human memory. So long as you don’t claim some sort of truly outrageous background that would spark interest - Ethnic Inuit raised in Mongolia who went on to become internationally renowned flaming chainsaw juggler - you should be OK.</p>
<p>The admissions system is based on a certain amount of trust and honor; because of the sheer number of applicants, colleges have to take a certain amount of information on faith. As a result a few people like Adam Wheeler, ([Parents</a> stepped in after alleged Harvard scammer applied to Yale - Local News Updates - MetroDesk - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/05/alleged_harvard.html]Parents”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/05/alleged_harvard.html)), can fool a Harvard or Yale and get away with it unless someone else steps in. While I’d rather not believe it, I’m sure there are more than a few people who fudge their leadership roles in ECs, inflate the importance of an obscure award or “massage” their ethnicity. The good news is that this ability to play fast and loose with the truth is excellent preparation for a career in Investment Banking, Law or Politics.</p>
<p>There are two related questions that are often asked:
Could I claim to be a URM and get away with it, even though I’m not? The answer is maybe, but it’s too risky. I think this question is usually asked as an idle fantasy. There are some people with a tenuous claim to URM (ie, great-great grandma was a Cherokee), and it’s legit to try to figure out where the line is.
Will I help my application if I don’t mark anything under ethnicity? This question is asked mostly by Asian students, who believe that they may be disadvantaged even as compared to white students. Personally, I don’t think that it is at all likely to help, even if the person’s ethnicity isn’t obvious from othere elements of the application.</p>
<p>Airfresh, unfortunately all selective colleges are socially engineered, no one is considered without the full picture of who they are. When kids don’t check the box the adcom have keen insight based on the school’s demographics.</p>
<p>Redroses—Adcom’s will know about the school’s demographics but that doesn’t mean they’ll know anything about one single person. In other words, adcom’s won’t know who i am just from my school’s demographics. Right?</p>