<p>Actually, private colleges also fall under legal constraints (just not the stringent constitutional constraints that state colleges fall under) and some of their actions may be subject to legal challenge. </p>
<p>[Department</a> of Education expands inquiry into Jian Li bias case - The Daily Princetonian](<a href=“http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/09/08/21307/]Department”>http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/09/08/21307/)</p>
<p>Yeah I’m applying to top schools and I didn’t check what my ethnicity is.</p>
<p>hopefully they’ll assume I’m black or hispanic and give me an extra advantage hehe jk.</p>
<p>but i seriously don’t see why Asian people would check that they are Asian that would just put them at a big disadvantage, you know?</p>
<p>Is it a good idea what I did?</p>
<p>can’t someone tell by the last name if your asian?</p>
<p>college admissions ppl can’t jsut assume that</p>
<p>The inquiry may have expanded, but it’s hard to see how this case is any different than Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, Goucher or Bennington favoring boys in admission. And in the case of Kenyon, there’s even a smoking gun, in the for of the adimssions director’s open letter of apology to girls.</p>
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<p>One crucial difference is that discrimination by race is more disfavored by law than discrimination by sex.</p>
<p>yes they can lol</p>
<p>if your last name is like Wang or Chan then i think it’s a dead giveaway</p>
<p>There is no assumption of your ethnicity based on your name. If you don’t check, you just are reported as unknown/not reported.</p>
<p>Actually I know a few black people with the last name Chan, Chang and Lee.</p>
<p>Wang Hong Hu Chan Chen Chin Chong Chang Ching Lim Dim Sim Kim Ping Pong Tong… It’s a rap song.</p>
<p>I feel like they would just assume the worst then. What is worse, though: white or asian?</p>
<p>I have an article at home (this is Thanksgiving weekend away) that my husband tore out of the newspaper about a month or so ago. The topic was what you should/should not do on your college aps. It specifically mentioned that NOT checking off your ethnicity. I am sorry that I do not remember the reason but my husband had brought it to my attention specifically because I had wondered if not checking it off could be beneficial.</p>
<p>This topic has been discussed exhaustively on CC. Search, and you will find a lot of threads and posts about this. The general consensus is that adcoms DO assume based on last name, and they DON’T assume that you are an URM (after all, why would they? URMs by definition make up a minority of their applicant pool).</p>
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<p>Wrong. I once worked in an office where the manager was a Mr. Wang. He was out of the office on a business trip when I started work there. When he came back to the office, I discovered he was a typical Minnesotan Norwegian-American. I have since encountered other Scandinavian people with Chinese-looking names. </p>
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<p>This is correct, despite several mistaken replies above. The number of students who are reported to the federal government, under mandatory reporting, as “race/ethnicity unknown” is quite high at some colleges. </p>
<p>See [post</a> #4](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061012037-post4.html]post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061012037-post4.html) of this FAQ thread. </p>
<p>(These numbers will be reported for a new school year after the turn of the calendar year. Some colleges will have higher numbers at the time of the next report, and some lower, but no college is in the business of guessing ethnicity if the student doesn’t self-report it.) </p>
<p>See [post</a> #5](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061012043-post5.html]post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061012043-post5.html) of this FAQ thread. </p>
<p>From the Association for Institutional Research FAQ: </p>
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<p>[FAQ</a> Race/Ethnicity Topics](<a href=“http://www.airweb.org/page.asp?page=1502]FAQ”>http://www.airweb.org/page.asp?page=1502)</p>
<p>I know this has been debated and talked about so much on CC. It seems like the general consensus is that it helps only to some extent, but I was looking in some of the acceptances threads from last year and it seems like it gives you a pretty significant boost. This is a topic that’s probably talked about too much already, but I’d like to hear some opinions. How much of a role does it play in college admissions? Do you think it’s “fair”? </p>
<p>Discuss :]</p>
<p>A lot.
Not fair.</p>
<p>agreed… but I do think there should be socio-economic AA. That actually makes sense.</p>
<p>At HYPSM, not a lot.</p>
<p>A URM needs top be an excellent student and have respectable SAT scores for his race to play toward his advantage.</p>
<p>^ unless you’re native american, then it matters ALOT</p>
<p>A lot - especially at HYPSM. If a URM applicant (particularly an African American or Native American one) has stats that are up-to-par with those of the stereotypical CC applicant (strong ECs, scores, and grades), then that applicant is far more likely to get in than a white or Asian applicant with equal stats. That’s fact.</p>