What should I put for race?

Atomicbomb22 · January 28, 2007, 4:05am

MODERATOR’S EDIT:

Thread closed (because it is old and the replies no longer have current information) with redirect to the current FAQ and discussion thread

<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1366406-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-10-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1366406-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-10-a.html</a>

where you are all welcome to discuss this issue and ask follow-up questions based on the latest laws and regulations.

I am pure Lebanese and I was wondering what I should put on my college application. I am not Muslim; I actually belong to a Maronite Catholic minority. I really do not consider myself white or Caucasian. Should I put myself as an ‘other’ or just put in Caucasian anyway.

b_r_um · January 28, 2007, 4:56am

I think you are considered Caucasian by the definition of the United States 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 German, Iranian, Irish, Italian, Iraqi, Near Easterner, Arab, or Polish.

Atomicbomb22 · January 28, 2007, 7:09am

thanks for you’re response…i guess i’m not so special after all

But I personally think that Arabs are ‘diverse’; you think if i put ‘other’ and say I’m lebanese it would be looked down upon.

b_r_um · January 28, 2007, 7:35am

I would simply check white. Putting down something else will not help or hurt you, but it will appear as “other” in college statistics and I hate that…

Or you could use the system to your advantage and check black if the tone of your skin is a little bit darker. After all, the question does not ask what your ethnicity is but what you would like to be identified with… And indicating black gives you an URM status ;)

abiste · January 28, 2007, 11:36am

I would recommend checking the “Other” box and in the space provided putting Lebanese. You are very culturally different from the other students who put down White (Europeans) and those who put down Asian (Chinese, Indians, Thai). I don’t believe it is presumptuous or looked down upon to put yourself down as other at all.

tokenadult · September 19, 2008, 11:44am

No college in the United States requires an applicant or student to self-identify with any race or ethnic group.

[Note on thread update. This thread got to be very long, and a new thread

<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/651345-race-college-admissions-faq-discussion-3-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/651345-race-college-admissions-faq-discussion-3-a.html</a>

with updated information has now been opened. You are welcome to visit that thread with your questions.]

Self-identifying ethnicity is OPTIONAL on the Common Application,

<a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/CommonApp2008.pdf[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/CommonApp2008.pdf</a>

which is what many colleges (for example Harvard and Carleton) use as their main or sole application form. Self-identifying ethnicity is also optional on the Universal Application, which various colleges, including Harvard, also accept. Every college in the United States is required by federal law to track requested ethnic data on students based on student self-identification. The colleges have to ask for these data, and have to report them to the federal government, but students don’t have to self-identify with any ethnic or racial category. Harvard’s Common Data Set reporting to College Board

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

shows, based on that federally required data tracking, that 13 percent of its students are “race unknown,” so evidently quite a few applicants to Harvard decline to self-identify with any ethnicity and yet are still admitted. MIT still has its own application form,

<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/admissions/pdf/MITpart1.pdf[/url]”>http://web.mit.edu/admissions/pdf/MITpart1.pdf</a>

and asks its own brand of the ethnicity question,

"OPTIONAL (U.S. citizens and permanent residents only)

In connection with its Affirmative Action Plan, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology guarantees equal opportunity in education
to students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. I consider myself to
belong to the following ethnic group(s) (check all that apply):"

About 6 percent of MIT’s enrolled class is reported as “race unknown.”

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

Columbia University has its own application form,

<a href=“http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/admissions/applications/pdf/firstyearapp.pdf[/url]”>http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/admissions/applications/pdf/firstyearapp.pdf</a>

which also makes clear that ethnic self-identification information is optional. Approximately 11 percent of enrolled students at Columbia are reported as “race unknown.”

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

The University of North Carolina is another college with its own application form,

<a href=“http://www.admissions.unc.edu/pdf/2009_firstyear_application.pdf[/url]”>http://www.admissions.unc.edu/pdf/2009_firstyear_application.pdf</a>

which says

“Ethnicity How would you describe yourself? Please check one.
(this information is optional and will not be used in a discriminatory manner.)”

Don’t worry about it. Self-identify or not as you wish. 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., Harvard) 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.

<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/493318-don-t-forget-apply-safety-college.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/493318-don-t-forget-apply-safety-college.html</a>

tokenadult · September 19, 2008, 11:50am

College admissions offices refer to the U.S. Census bureau definitions for ethnic categories, which are based on regulations from the Office of Management and Budget, because they required to report by federal regulations,

[Revisions</a> to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity](<a href=“http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/ombdir15.html]Revisions”>http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/ombdir15.html)

and you can look the definitions up on the Web.

[Black</a> or African American persons, percent, 2000](<a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm]Black”>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm)

"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</a> of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2000](<a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68188.htm]Persons”>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68188.htm)

"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</a> 1-5 - NCES Statistical Standards](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/statprog/2002/std1_5.asp]Standard”>Standard 1-5 - NCES Statistical Standards)

You’ll see that footnote 2 at the bottom of the NCES webpage says,

“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.

The Department of Education has more recently updated its guidance to colleges on how to ask ethnicity and race questions

<a href=“http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/pdf/E7-20613.pdf[/url]”>http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/pdf/E7-20613.pdf</a>

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.

“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</a> Survey Material: View F.A.Qs Race/Athnicity](<a href=“IPEDS Data Collection System”>IPEDS Data Collection System)

and the Association for Institutional Research Race/Ethnicity Information webpage

[Race/Ethnicity</a> Information](<a href=“http://www.airweb.org/page.asp?page=1500]Race/Ethnicity”>http://www.airweb.org/page.asp?page=1500)

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.

tokenadult · September 19, 2008, 11:56am

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,

[None</a> of the Above :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education’s Source for News, Views and Jobs](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/02/15/race2_15]None”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/02/15/race2_15)

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

<a href=“American Council on Education”>American Council on Education;

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.”

tokenadult · September 19, 2008, 11:58am

Here are some selective colleges with high percentages of students reported as “race unknown.” Figures are from 2008 Common Data Set filings (showing both first-year and total undergraduate enrollment) where available, or from the College Board College QuickFinder application, also based on Common Data set information for first-year students, but possibly reporting 2007 data as of the date of this update.

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 at William and Mary

[College</a> Search - College of William and Mary - W&M - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

22 percent 1st-year at Yale

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

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)

20 percent 1st-year at Amherst College

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

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)

19 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)

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 at Brown

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

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 University

<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, 11 percent undergrad at University of Richmond

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

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, 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 at Harvard

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

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)

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)

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>

9 percent 1st-year at Columbia

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

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 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)

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;

And here are some other colleges:

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”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)

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)

41 percent 1st-year at Metropolitan Community College: Penn Valley

[College</a> Search - Metropolitan Community College: Penn Valley - 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=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>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)

23 percent 1st-year at Lansing Community College

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

22 percent 1st-year at American University

[College</a> Search - American University - AU - 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)

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)

9 percent 1st-year at Agnes Scott

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

tokenadult · September 19, 2008, 12:01pm

From the Association for Institutional Research FAQ:

[FAQ</a> Race/Ethnicity Topics](<a href=“http://www.airweb.org/page.asp?page=1502]FAQ”>http://www.airweb.org/page.asp?page=1502)

Bay · September 19, 2008, 12:26pm

It would be interesting to be able to see the percentage of students rejected who identify as “race unknown” versus those who self-identify.

tokenadult · September 19, 2008, 12:47pm

I’m not aware of any colleges that report figures in that manner.

I should make clear for onlookers, in view of the FAQ quoted in [post</a> #5](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061012043-post5.html]post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061012043-post5.html), that the only action a college sees in response to its questionnaires is a declining to self-identify with the ethnic categories on the college’s questionnaire. The college has no way to know if that is through deliberate intention or inadvertence, as the FAQ points out, and thus has little basis for treating the students among whom that nonresponse is observed in any categorical manner.

epiphany · September 19, 2008, 1:50pm

Correct. Thousands of students each year are admitted without self-identifying. Some of those applicants have ‘apparent’ identities (last name); others – with similar personal origins – do not. (Usually due to intermarriage, adoption, and more.) While it has been noted that the trend not to self-identify has increased recently, the information has been asked for about 30+ years, and each year many people choose to leave it blank. This is one reason among many that the supposed grand conspiracy against Asians does not ring true.

What is more transparent is one’s economic origins and personal advantages. The higher income groups are dominated by Caucasians, Asians (both East and South), and some Middle Easterners (esp. from Iran). If there is a ‘disadvantage,’ it is in identifying thus. So, unless you lie about your zipcode (difficult, with a return address), high school (impossible if you want your transcripts & recs sent), parental occupation/income (if asked), etc., expect to be held to a very high standard indeed, and to be competing on minutiae within your own income & regional groups.

StitchInTime · September 19, 2008, 2:40pm

<a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061012100-post6.html]#6[/url]”>quote</a> It would be interesting to be able to see the percentage of students rejected who identify as “race unknown” versus those who self-identify.

[/quote]

This is a very interesting line of inquiry…A request has been put into the [url=<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/]NCES[/url”>http://nces.ed.gov/]NCES[/url</a>] for access to data that would help with this analysis. Any response will be posted here.

tokenadult · September 19, 2008, 3:30pm

Other things being equal, can a student with limited means look as good in the college admission process as a well-off student? I frequently see threads in various forums that remind me just how much more wealthy some high school students who post here on CC are than others. Today in 2008, are colleges taking into account what level of extracurricular involvement, challenging courses, and “balance” are possible for low-income students, as compared to high-income students?

Here are some links about the issue. The overall picture in the past decade has been that high-ability, low-income students are at a clear disadvantage in the college admission process compared to low-ability, high-income students. (The links below are in approximate chronological order of publication, from oldest to newest.) Is anything changing recently about this?

[BW</a> Online | July 7, 2003 | Needed: Affirmative Action for the Poor](<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?)

<a href=“http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ffp0621.pdf[/url]”>Error;

<a href=“http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ff0615S.pdf[/url]”>Error;

<a href=“http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Education/carnrose.pdf[/url]”>http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Education/carnrose.pdf</a>

<a href=“http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Education/kahlenberg-affaction.pdf[/url]”>http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Education/kahlenberg-affaction.pdf</a>

[A</a> Thumb on the Scale (May-June 2005)](<a href=“http://harvardmagazine.com/2005/05/a-thumb-on-the-scale.html]A”>http://harvardmagazine.com/2005/05/a-thumb-on-the-scale.html)

[The</a> Best Class Money Can Buy](<a href=“http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200511/financial-aid-leveraging/4]The”>http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200511/financial-aid-leveraging/4)

[The</a> Harvard Crimson :: News :: Recruiting a New Elite](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510012]The”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510012)

[Cost</a> Remains a Key Obstacle to College Access](<a href=“http://www.equaleducation.org/commentary.asp?opedid=1240]Cost”>http://www.equaleducation.org/commentary.asp?opedid=1240)

<a href=“http://www.jackkentcookefoundation.org/jkcf_web/Documents/_JKC_Achievementrap_edit%20(2)%20for%20website%20-%202-21-08.pdf[/url]”>http://www.jackkentcookefoundation.org/jkcf_web/Documents/_JKC_Achievementrap_edit%20(2)%20for%20website%20-%202-21-08.pdf</a>

[Reason</a> Magazine - Legacies of Injustice](<a href=“http://www.reason.com/news/show/123910.html]Reason”>Legacies of Injustice)

tsdad · September 19, 2008, 4:11pm

Chronice of Higher Education, January 13, 2006
By ELIZABETH F. FARRELL

Colleges may be mistakenly classifying white students as being racially “unknown,” according to a report released last week.

The report, “‘Unknown’ Students on College Campuses: An Exploratory Analysis,” was issued as part of the James Irvine Foundation’s Campus Diversity Initiative, an effort by the nonprofit group in San Francisco to help California’s underrepresented students succeed in college.

According to the report’s authors, their findings suggest that colleges are admitting fewer minority students than previously thought. By comparing demographic data submitted by students before they were admitted to college with data compiled after the students were accepted, the researchers found that many students who identified themselves as “unknown” for their racial or ethnic classification were either white or multiracial.

The study’s main conclusion is that colleges need to collect more-precise data on the racial and ethnic backgrounds of their students.

The report’s authors wrote: “Over the course of several decades . . . we have encountered many people who assume that most, if not all, students in the unknown category are multiracial. This study directly challenges that assumption and primes the field for further research in this area.”

A full copy of the report is available on the foundation’s Web site (<a href=“http://www.irvine.org/publications/by_topic/education.shtml)%5B/url%5D.%5B/quote%5D”>http://www.irvine.org/publications/by_topic/education.shtml).

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It doesn’t appear that the above link works. See a press release here: [Press</a> Room | Press Releases | Campus Diversity Initiative](<a href=“http://www.aacu.org/press_room/press_releases/2006/CDI.cfm]Press”>http://www.aacu.org/press_room/press_releases/2006/CDI.cfm)

tokenadult · September 19, 2008, 4:19pm

Thanks, tsdad, that’s something many of us have been wondering about.

It would be interesting to do further study of this issue.

ansar · September 19, 2008, 9:42pm

I always see people going “ZOMG, YOURE SO IN CAUSE YOURE BLACK!!1!111ONE”

On the other hand, I don’t see much of a reaction for being a Hispanic. Is being Hispanic not good as being black? :(

hpa10 · September 19, 2008, 10:13pm

^It definitely helps.

tokenadult · September 19, 2008, 10:43pm

One difficulty with answering such questions is that very few colleges publish enough data to show clearly how much it helps admission chances, if at all, to be identified with one or another ethnic group. There are many anecdotal accounts about this issue, but the anecdotes may not be currently true for the colleges where they were witnessed, and may not be true for other colleges.

What should I put for race?

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