<p>I would put Asian in case you can qualify for any scholarships etc even though it’s an overrepresented minority</p>
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<p>A circumstance I know well. </p>
<p>By next year, the federal regulation on colleges about how to design the forms will come into effect, and the typical college form SHOULD say, “Choose one or more” while listing the federally recognized race and ethnicity categories, with the ethnicity question (Hispanic or not) preceding the race question. But don’t count on every college to get it right. Any year, you can decline to check any category at all. Any year, you can describe your detailed personal background in an application essay, if you think that is relevant to your application. This year, you can check as many or as few boxes as you think fit your situation. </p>
<p>Being familiar with your situation is what makes me a big fan of getting the federal government out of the business of asking these Procrustean questions. For now, you get to decide what category fits you best on the possibly differing forms you see from different colleges. </p>
<p>Good luck in your applications.</p>
<p>How much does your ethnicity influence your admission chances???
And do people lie about their ethnicity? Im sure colleges can easily find out, but im also sure people pull it off…</p>
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<p>As you can see, I have merged your Frequently Asked Question into the FAQ thread on this issue. </p>
<p>The short answer is that no one is sure. I’m not aware of any college that publishes information about its admission process that would reveal how much student self-reported ethnicity influences admission chances. </p>
<p>As far as speculating that any one thing could guarantee a person’s admission to Harvard, I don’t think so. Each year Harvard offers admission to about 2,000 students, and about 1,600 of those students accept those offers of admission. (I know students who have turned down offers of admission to Harvard, preferring various other colleges.) But also each year Harvard declines to admit some SERIOUSLY amazing students, so in my view it’s always a good idea not to count on getting into Harvard. Apply to a safety college as well if you apply to Harvard. </p>
<p>The best way to live life is to live it honestly. It would be dishonest to indicate a personal ethnicity that you don’t participate in in real life. That kind of dishonesty can </p>
<p>a) result in a silent denial of admission, </p>
<p>b) revoking admission if it is discovered later, </p>
<p>c) rescinding a degree if it is discovered much later, </p>
<p>and </p>
<p>d) the disapproval of all persons of good character.</p>
<p>Ok, so I have been having a really tough time choosing which colleges to knock off my list. So, I was wondering if anyone could provide any incite on how much being half-Mexican will help on my application. Will it have a fairly large effect? Or will it barely be noticeable? Thanks.</p>
<p>According to most private schools, a small effect. According to what I’ve seen on CC and in life, a very significant one.</p>
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<p>This advice applies whatever your ethnicity: line up a sure-bet safety college that you like first of all (and apply to it early in a rolling admission process or in an early action round if you can) and then choose your favorites from among all other colleges that are harder to get into. There is no need to make thirty applications (for example) when you can only attend one college at a time. </p>
<p>About your basic question on whether a person who is of Mexican heritage may have an admission advantage in colleges in the United States these days, the generally rumored answer is yes, but few figures are published to show how much of an advantage that might be at different colleges. </p>
<p>Good luck in your applications.</p>
<p>On a couple of sites, I saw comments about colleges favoring the acceptance of blacks and Hispanics over that of whites and Asians. For example, a black or Latino gets a 33 ACT, then he/she would have a good chance at admission to Stanford or MIT. On the other hand, if a white or an Asian gets a 36 on the ACT, chance of admission is actually slimmer because there are plenty of 2400, 800s, 36 and 5.0 people around. But there are not a lot of highly accomplished minorities because of the disparity of wealth factor.</p>
<p>In fact, 80% of applicants to Ivy schools and such qualify for the SAT/ACT and stuff. So somehow, schools will have to shake that down to around 10%, while still maintaining diversity within their population.</p>
<p>I don’t want to be racist, but this issue seems to make sense to me. In my school, one of the greatest AZNs I’ve ever met got rejected by MIT and Harvard. Then, a friend who was black got accepted to MIT and Stanford. And he wasn’t known to be extremely distinguished in my school.</p>
<p>That’s affirmative action, buddy.</p>
<p>whats ur point?</p>
<p>maybe your racist. You don’t know the black guy, maybe is just humble. Maybe has crazy grades, and amazings EC’s you just don’t know about.</p>
<p>I have people who think I am not talented, smart, or a hard worker and they are always surprised to find out. It is because I am not a great show off, and it might also be due to how I look… (shaved head + hiphop streetwear + good fitness)</p>
<p>I know what you mean, it seems unfair yet an inevitable situation at the same time. You speak of only blacks and Latinos, do you know what admissions officers think of Native Americans? I’ve heard that there chances are even higher…?</p>
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<p>Exactly. A large portion of black and hispanic students never even begin to think of college, much less think of applying to schools like Harvard or Yale. Of course, I’m talking about only the truly disadvantaged ones, as I’m sure there are many well off urm’s who benefit from AA every year.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t blame the colleges for trying to maintain some semblance of diversity within their campuses - MIT doesn’t really want their campus full of male Asian math geeks who plays the piano/violin.</p>
<p>Most common topics on CC:
- Chance me please
- Affirmative action: fair/unfair
- Read my essay
- Postmark on deadline?
- should I submit more recs/supplements?
- what size envelope/postage?
- Can I lie on my app? Do they really check on my ECs?
- Is NHS important?</p>
<p>Groannnnn…</p>
<p>This has been discussed to death. I, like many people, would prefer if it was based on socioeconomic factors rather than race. Thus, disadvantaged people of any race would be favored, to adjust for their disadvantages when it comes to test prep and school, rather than affluent African Americans getting acceptance to top schools with a 1600 SAT (He got into UCLA, Berkeley, and Cornell, son of an well known divorce lawyer; he did not pass the bar at Boy’s State, though he spent more time than anyone else studying. He also took SAT Prep courses, which is where I know him from. I know anecdotal evidence is meaningless, but he was not a standout, and there were many more deserving candidates to those schools.)</p>
<p>Also, many abuse it, marking Hispanic because their grandfather was half-Spanish, and they have never spoken a word or have any relatives that are truly Hispanic.</p>
<p>Deserving students would get their chance based on economics, rather than something they cannot control, and may or may not have affected their life.</p>
<p>Race-based Affirmative Action buddy…what we really need is socio-economic, but until then, gotta play the game…</p>
<p>T26E4 so true lol… </p>
<p>Colleges are not racist against whites or those of Asian descent. </p>
<p>It’s just that certain minority groups get a leg up in the name of diversity, and I’m not going to get into that debate now… </p>
<p>Asians, contrary to popular belief, enjoy similar acceptance rates to whites. It’s just that whites have more recruited atheltes and legacies, giving them a slightly higher acceptance rate.</p>
<p>colleges are trying to even out the percentages of students per race, so to say. asians and caucasians are already a majority in colleges and although they may work hard and be from difficult backgrounds as well, hispanic and black students have a greater chance of admission. it simply comes down to that :/</p>
<p>Hi guys, this is my first post!</p>
<p>I have a dilemna… I’m black, but on all my testing (act/sat), i marked white b/c I have
grown up in an affluent community, and didn’t want to take any scholarships away from
someone who would actually need them. </p>
<p>BUT, on my common app I’m marking African American, and I’m wondering if admissions are now gonna think I just decided to ‘check the box’</p>
<p>Any clues?</p>