"Race" in College Admissions FAQ & Discussion 3

tokenadult · March 8, 2009, 7:22pm

Colleges in the Barron’s category of “most selective” that have fairly high percentages of enrolled students reported to the federal government (and to Common Data Set organizations) as “race/ethnicity unknown”:

32 percent 1st-year, 26 percent undergrad at Bryn Mawr

<a href=“http://www.brynmawr.edu/institutionalresearch/documents/CDS2008_2009.pdf[/url]”>http://www.brynmawr.edu/institutionalresearch/documents/CDS2008_2009.pdf</a>

29 percent 1st-year, 24 percent undergrad at Scripps College

[Scripps</a> College : Common Data Set](<a href=“http://www.scrippscollege.edu/about/common-data-set.php]Scripps”>http://www.scrippscollege.edu/about/common-data-set.php)

23 percent 1st-year, 16 percent undergrad at William and Mary

22 percent 1st-year, 14 percent undergrad at Yale

22 percent 1st-year, 18 percent undergrad at Reed College

[Reed</a> College 2008-09 Common Data Set SecB](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/cds/cds0809/cdssecb200809.html]Reed”>Reed College 2008-09 Common Data Set SecB - Institutional Research - Reed College)

22 percent 1st-year, 21 percent undergrad at Amherst College

<a href=“https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/98052/original/2008%20Enrollment%20and%20Persistence.pdf[/url]”>https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/98052/original/2008%20Enrollment%20and%20Persistence.pdf</a>

20 percent 1st-year, 15 percent undergrad at Vanderbilt

[CDS</a> B](<a href=“http://virg.vanderbilt.edu/virgweb/CDSB.aspx?year=2008]CDS”>http://virg.vanderbilt.edu/virgweb/CDSB.aspx?year=2008)

20 percent 1st-year at University of Rochester

[College</a> Search - University of Rochester - U of R - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

18 percent 1st-year at Penn

[College</a> Search - University of Pennsylvania - Penn - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

18 percent 1st-year, 15 percent undergrad at Case Western Reserve

<a href=“http://www.case.edu/president/cir/200809cds/enroll08.pdf[/url]”>http://www.case.edu/president/cir/200809cds/enroll08.pdf</a>

17 percent 1st-year, 14 percent undergrad at Brown

<a href=“Office of Institutional Research | Brown University”>Office of Institutional Research | Brown University;

16 percent 1st-year at Carnegie Mellon

[College</a> Search - Carnegie Mellon University - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

16 percent 1st-year, 15 percent undergrad at Cornell

<a href=“http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000420.pdf#pagemode=bookmarks[/url]”>http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000420.pdf#pagemode=bookmarks</a>

16 percent 1st-year at Tufts University

[College</a> Search - Tufts University - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

16 percent 1st-year, 11 percent undergrad at University of Richmond

<a href=“Institutional Effectiveness - University of Richmond”>Institutional Effectiveness - University of Richmond;

15 percent 1st-year at Harvard

[College</a> Search - Harvard College - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

15 percent 1st-year at Chicago

[College</a> Search - University of Chicago - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

14 percent 1st-year at Pomona

[College</a> Search - Pomona College - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

14 percent 1st-year, 8 percent undergrad at Wesleyan University

<a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/ir/cds/cds2008-09.pdf[/url]”>http://www.wesleyan.edu/ir/cds/cds2008-09.pdf</a>

13 percent 1st-year, 7 percent undergrad at Stanford

[Stanford</a> University: Common Data Set 2008-2009](<a href=“http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cds/index.html#enrollment]Stanford”>http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cds/index.html#enrollment)

13 percent 1st-year at Cooper Union

[College</a> Search - Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art - Cooper - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

12 percent 1st-year at University of Miami

[College</a> Search - University of Miami - UM - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

11 percent 1st-year at Washington U in St. Louis

[College</a> Search - Washington University in St. Louis - Washington U. - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

11 percent 1st-year at NYU

[College</a> Search - New York University - NYU - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

11 percent 1st-year at Lehigh

[College</a> Search - Lehigh University - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

11 percent 1st-year at Whitman

[College</a> Search - Whitman College - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

11 percent 1st-year, 8 percent undergrad at Hamilton College

<a href=“https://my.hamilton.edu/college/institutional_research/CDS2008_2009.pdf[/url]”>https://my.hamilton.edu/college/institutional_research/CDS2008_2009.pdf</a>

10 percent 1st-year, 11 percent undergrad at Swarthmore College

<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/administration/ir/cds2008.pdf[/url]”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/administration/ir/cds2008.pdf</a>

10 percent undergrad at Johns Hopkins University

[U-CAN:</a> Johns Hopkins University](<a href=“ucan-network.org”>ucan-network.org)

9 percent 1st-year, 8 percent undergrad at Columbia

[College</a> Search - Columbia University - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

<a href=“http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/abstract/2008-enrollment_ethnicity.htm[/url]”>http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/abstract/2008-enrollment_ethnicity.htm</a>

9 percent 1st-year, 7 percent undergrad at Virginia

[UVa</a> CDS: B. Enrollment](<a href=“http://www.web.virginia.edu/IAAS/data_catalog/institutional/cds/current/enrollment.htm]UVa”>http://www.web.virginia.edu/IAAS/data_catalog/institutional/cds/current/enrollment.htm)

9 percent 1st-year at Davidson College

[College</a> Search - Davidson College - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

8 percent 1st-year, 7 percent undergrad at Princeton

<a href=“http://registrar.princeton.edu/university_enrollment_sta/common_cds2008.pdf[/url]”>http://registrar.princeton.edu/university_enrollment_sta/common_cds2008.pdf</a>

7 percent 1st-year at Rice University

[College</a> Search - Rice University - Rice - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

7 percent 1st-year at Boston College

[College</a> Search - Boston College - BC - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

7 percent 1st-year at Berkeley

[College</a> Search - University of California: Berkeley - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

7 percent 1st-year at Northwestern University

[College</a> Search - Northwestern University - NU - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

7 percent 1st-year, 16 percent undergrad at Claremont McKenna College

[College</a> Search - Claremont McKenna College - CMC - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

[U-CAN:</a> Claremont McKenna College](<a href=“ucan-network.org”>ucan-network.org)

7 percent 1st-year, 7 percent undergrad at Emory University

<a href=“http://www.emory.edu/PROVOST/IPR/documents/factbookprofile/CDS_2008_2009.pdf[/url]”>http://www.emory.edu/PROVOST/IPR/documents/factbookprofile/CDS_2008_2009.pdf</a>

6 percent 1st-year at MIT

[College</a> Search - Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

6 percent 1st-year, 5 percent undergrad at Middlebury

<a href=“http://www.middlebury.edu/NR/rdonlyres/1DE1CC19-8DF2-4557-90DE-01B37B456F6E/0/CDS2008_2009.pdf[/url]”>http://www.middlebury.edu/NR/rdonlyres/1DE1CC19-8DF2-4557-90DE-01B37B456F6E/0/CDS2008_2009.pdf</a>

5 percent 1st-year, 5 percent undergrad at Dartmouth

<a href=“This Page Has Moved”>This Page Has Moved;

5 percent 1st-year, 5 percent undergrad at Duke

[College</a> Search - Duke University - Duke - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

[U-CAN:</a> Duke University](<a href=“ucan-network.org”>ucan-network.org)

smarteeangel101 · March 8, 2009, 7:37pm

is there no longer an ‘other’ box or something?

tokenadult · March 8, 2009, 8:08pm

Here are some other colleges of varying levels of selectivity with high numbers of students reported as “race/ethnicity unknown”:

99 percent 1st-year at Hillsdale College

[College</a> Search - Hillsdale College - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

95 percent 1st-year at Howard University

[College</a> Search - Howard University - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

86 percent 1st-year at Keystone College

[College</a> Search - Keystone College - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=3677)

82 percent 1st-year at McGill University

[College</a> Search - McGill University - McGill - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

80 percent 1st-year at Savannah College of Art and Design

[College</a> Search - Savannah College of Art and Design - SCAD - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

54 percent 1st-year at Wilmington University

[College</a> Search - Wilmington University - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

30 percent at Smith College

[College</a> Search - Smith College - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

29 percent 1st-year at Champlain College

[College</a> Search - Champlain College - CC - At a Glance](<a href=“http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=1387]College”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

28 percent 1st-year at Rhode Island School of Design

[College</a> Search - Rhode Island School of Design - RISD - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

26 percent 1st-year at George Mason

[College</a> Search - George Mason University - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

23 percent 1st-year at Boston University

[College</a> Search - Boston University - BU - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

23 percent 1st-year at Hartwick College

[College</a> Search - Hartwick College - The Wick - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

22 percent 1st-year at SUNY Stony Brook

[College</a> Search - State University of New York at Stony Brook - Stony Brook University - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

21 percent 1st-year at Lynn University

[College</a> Search - Lynn University - LU - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

20 percent 1st-year at SUNY Binghamton

[College</a> Search - State University of New York at Binghamton - Binghamton University - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

19 percent 1st-year at Adelphi

[College</a> Search - Adelphi University - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

19 percent 1st-year at Fashion Institute of Technology

[College</a> Search - Fashion Institute of Technology - FIT - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

18 percent 1st-year at Eugene Lang College

[College</a> Search - Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts - Lang - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

17 percent 1st-year, 16 percent undergrad at American University

<a href=“http://www.american.edu/academic.depts/provost/oir/CommonDataSet_2008.pdf[/url]”>http://www.american.edu/academic.depts/provost/oir/CommonDataSet_2008.pdf</a>

17 percent 1st-year at Syracuse University

[College</a> Search - Syracuse University - SU - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

16 percent 1st-year at Marist College

[College</a> Search - Marist College - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

16 percent at Fisk University

[College</a> Search - Fisk University - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

14 percent 1st-year at McDaniel College

[College</a> Search - McDaniel College - The Hill - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

14 percent 1st-year at University of Scranton

[College</a> Search - University of Scranton - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

14 percent 1st-year at Franklin College

[College</a> Search - Franklin College - FC - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

14 percent at Embry/Riddle Worldwide Campus

[College</a> Search - Marist College - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

13 percent 1st-year at Tuskegee University

[College</a> Search - Tuskegee University - TU - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

11 percent 1st-year at Gettysburg College

[College</a> Search - Gettysburg College - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

9 percent 1st-year, 13 percent undergrad at Agnes Scott

<a href=“http://www.agnesscott.edu/Media/Website%20Resources/pdf/ir/cdsb.pdf[/url]”>http://www.agnesscott.edu/Media/Website%20Resources/pdf/ir/cdsb.pdf</a>

9 percent 1st-year at Grinnell College

[College</a> Search - Grinnell College - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

9 percent 1st-year at Albion College

[College</a> Search - Albion College - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

StitchInTime · March 9, 2009, 10:53am

<a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061854547-post21.html]#21[/url]”>quote</a> <a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061852339-post20.html]#20[/url]”>quote</a> [Remarks</a> as Prepared for Delivery by Attorney General Eric Holder at the Department of Justice African American History Month Program (2009-02-18)](<a href=“http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech-090218.html]Remarks”>http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech-090218.html)

[/quote]
It was cowardly and convenient for the Attorney General nominee to not share his admonition, contempt, and disdain for the people of the United States during his confirmation process.

[/quote]

[Attorney</a> general chided for language on race](<a href=“http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/08/america/08race.php]Attorney”>http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/08/america/08race.php):

tokenadult · March 9, 2009, 11:09am

^ Thanks for posting the response by the President to the Attorney General’s remarks.

2collegewego · March 10, 2009, 8:26pm

Tokenadult, You wrote “No college in the United States requires an applicant or student to self-identify with any race or ethnic group.” I haven’t had time to read all the pages of this thread but I think there’s one exception-- tribal colleges. I was looking at them because they have a very reasonable tuition but it does look to me like they’re restricted to native Americans who can prove it.

tokenadult · March 10, 2009, 8:28pm

After edit: As I checked some websites of various tribal colleges (there are three in Minnesota, and others elsewhere), I didn’t see any rigid requirement to identify ethnicity to attend the ones for which I could check that issue.

tokenadult · March 13, 2009, 1:02am

Further follow-up: I found one college operated by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs that appears to take steps to verify that all enrolled students are American Indians or Alaskan Natives. There may be just a few other colleges that rigidly apply such a rule; most tribal colleges are officially open to anyone who applies, and several report substantial numbers of students who self-identified as “white.”

Franciscog24 · March 13, 2009, 5:44pm

My violin teacher once told me about a previous student she had who’s stepfather was a hispanic and adopted her as his own child. Therefore, on her college applications she put down she was ‘hispanic’ (she took his last name), obviously she was caucasian, but I guess with adoption papers she could prove otherwise. Anyway, she ended up getting into Oxford University, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and UPenn. I know it sounds a bit cunning but it worked. Last summer at a college Q&A session, I was informed that if you have a last name that SOUNDS hispanic (ex. Garcia, Hernandez, etc.), but you’re either caucasian or asian (asians aren’t considered a minority in the college admissions process, except UCBerkeley because they removed affirmative action), then don’t put down your race. Of course don’t lie, but since it’s an optional section, don’t willingly put something down that would make you seem like “one of the many”.

Steven89 · March 13, 2009, 6:57pm

To answer the original question, I am “Hispanic” (not in the actual sense but in the sense of what it means in today’s world) and I choose not to answer the question of “race and ethnicity” when I apply for scholarships or schools because I don’t want what I feel to be a handout.

Yes, I know of acquaintances who aren’t “white” gaining acceptance into schools with less than recommended averages and SAT scores. It’s the norm, and sadly, it’s what colleges have to do. Certain colleges need to say that they’re diverse so they look for people who they can put into their schools to boost a false fact. I feel like sports scholarships are this way too. If you’re a school and you know that a certain sport attracts a certain race by default, there’s no doubt you’re going to offer that scholarship in the hopes that you’ll make the school a more diverse place and utilize the students to boost another part of the school. I still feel, though, that the priority of the student overrides that of the school; if the student wants to get into the school and it’ll be a good opportunity for them regardless of what race they are, they should go for it.

I’m a human. I don’t deserve to be treated worse because the color of my skin dictates that I’m not superior, NOR do I deserve to be treated better because in the past, my ancestors weren’t on par with those who felt superior.

tokenadult · March 14, 2009, 3:40pm

Yes, in the next application year the forms will not make clear that ethnicity questions are optional (by the new federal regulation, which takes effect that year), but it will still be each student’s choice whether to answer the question or not at all.

tokenadult · March 16, 2009, 12:33am

Just a reminder that you can ask colleges questions about their policies at their regional information meetings or at college fairs.

<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/650085-spring-2009-college-fairs-info-sessions.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/650085-spring-2009-college-fairs-info-sessions.html</a>

tokenadult · March 16, 2009, 9:25am

See [post</a> #101](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061954430-post101.html]post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061954430-post101.html) and [post</a> #103](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061954838-post103.html]post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061954838-post103.html) of this thread for a lot of current information about how many students are admitted to colleges without self-identifying with any race or ethnicity.

tokenadult · March 16, 2009, 6:45pm

By the way, what have college representatives told you recently about their admission policies in regard to “race”?

toughquestions · March 16, 2009, 7:42pm

Steven89: FYI: my daughter has gotten 1 total free ride offer (tuition plus room and board and fees),two tuition plus half of room and board and two full tuition scholarships for checking the “hispanic” box. She was one point short of the score (in her state, where it is exceptionally high) on the PSAT to qualify as a National Merit Scholar. She did qualify as a national Hispanic Scholar by virtue of her score and that is why all the money rolled in.
I hope your parents are proud of your principled stand.

blueliner2112 · March 17, 2009, 12:04am

I check “prefer not to respond” on the race section of an application.

The school called my house today asking for my race, my mother answered, I was unavailable, she says she answered and they hung up on her after she did.

Thankfully I wasn’t seriously considering the school, they were in the running a little bit, now they’re completely out. Let’s just say the phone call rubbed me the wrong way.

Are they legally allowed to ask that question if I didn’t want to respond on my app after I have been accepted?

belevitt · March 17, 2009, 12:17am

I imagine they can ask. This isn’t a job interview and they can choose to offer you admission if you are minority even if they wouldn’t offer it to you if you are white. The whole thing seems a bit unfair to me and I remember the ire that the law school at the University of Michigan raised when it was discovered that their admissions policies were intentionally not ‘color blind’. This phone call inquiring about your race seems really awkward and I can definitely understand why it would turn you off of a school.

Ari7 · March 17, 2009, 12:19am

Thats WEIRD. That would definitely rub me the wrong way. They don’t need to know that

happymomof1 · March 17, 2009, 7:40am

They may suspect that you have a particular race/ethnic background because of your name, address, HS, etc. and may have scholarship money dedicated for someone with that background.

They may have a nervous statistician on staff who is trying to make sure that their “count” is accurate. All educational institutions that receive federal funding are required by law to collect information about gender, race, ethnicity, etc. It used to be all self-reported, but this may have changed. Not long ago, I read an article about the pressure put on the public schools in some states for the school staff to report the race/ethnicity for students who have not self-reported.

molliegym · March 17, 2009, 8:55am

I’m pretty sure they’re not legally allowed to require you to tell them your race. If you are a URM, it’s true that it is generally of your benefit to tell them your race, but you don’t have to.

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