<p>Keilexandra: thats actually what I’m worried of. i’m more of a math/english Indian. but they really can’t assume anything cuz there are tons of people born in India from foreign countries with white, black, etc parents. </p>
<p>tokenadult: thanks for the reassurance. i just hope the admissions officers don’t just guess my ethnicity and base it off of that…</p>
<p>MITpwnsnoobs69: thats exactly my philosophy especially being an Asian (which is def NOT favorable).</p>
<p>personally i don’t agree with people trying to hide their race to avoid some type of stereotype or stigma. do it because it’s unfair and unjust and irrelevant, not because you think it will help you.</p>
<p>i’m doing it because of both reasons, its a stereotype AND its unfair. every applicant has something different to offer, so their accomplishments should be looked at not their ethnicity.</p>
<p>^exactly, that’s the point. unfortunately race does factor into admissions decisions especially at elite universities, it’s a well known fact. to me there are much more effective ways to diversify a student body and much more relevant information to look at than just ethnicity.</p>
<p>I’ve browsed through a bunch of old threads and this is very confusing.
I’m a Romanian citizen an American perm resident and I was wondering if I would be considered a URM? Given that Romanians are considered white…</p>
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<p>I’ve not heard of any college that regards Romanian-Americans as underrepresented minority students, and I wouldn’t expect that, because Romanians classify as “white” by the federal ethnicity definitions. </p>
<p>There are some colleges that are very fond of admitting Romanian persons (that is, persons educated in Romania) who are strong math competitors. They will take strong math competitors of other ethnicities too if they can find them. </p>
<p>Good luck in your applications.</p>
<p>An AP story shows how complicated ethnic group definitions are in America. </p>
<p>[The</a> Associated Press: Obama’s true colors: Black, white … or neither?](<a href=“http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jOBz9sF_F87Lsf3qhCMBSdOGtFQQD951VFE00]The”>http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jOBz9sF_F87Lsf3qhCMBSdOGtFQQD951VFE00) </p>
<p>“We are in a transitional period” regarding these labels, McWhorter said. “I think that in only 20 years, the notion that there are white people and there are black people and anyone in between has some explaining to do and an identity to come up with, that will all seem very old-fashioned.”</p>
<p>I’ll bring this thread into view now that a lot of students are receiving early action round decisions. </p>
<p>Good luck to all of you applying this year.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure even if you don’t report race, but have an easily distinguishable last name associated with a particular race, such as an Asian last name, they will know and judge you based on that…right?</p>
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<p>Wrong, I think, based on the fact that there isn’t ANY family name that is a completely reliable guide to ethnicity (the Census Bureau has actually done research on this) and based on the fact that [colleges</a> report admitting many “race unknown” students](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061012037-post4.html]colleges”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061012037-post4.html). </p>
<p>Good luck in your applications.</p>
<p>AA sucks. Minorities from families with the same or more income have a way GREATER chance of getting into top colleges. I have seen a Hispanic kid with a 26 on the ACT and below 1800 on the SAT get into Stanford and he wasn’t an athlete or musician. I have seen an African American who attended the top private school in her state get into Penn with a 28 ACT. That’s a joke.</p>
<p>Why isn’t AA implemented in sports? Obviously, Asians are non existent in the NFL and NBA. Lets put some Asians in the NBA and NFL just to make it fair, even though they are not as good as other athletes. It is BS.</p>
<p>comparing a student body with sports is not the same thing. People recruit for sports because they want to win. Of course if there were some really good asian bball players they might get recruited but in general there aren’t very many asian athletes. On the other hand, colleges want to say they have very good diversity so they don’t mind accepting another 5 hispanics or blacks that have lower test scores than 5 white students who would’ve taken those spots.</p>
<p>Tokenadult, is “race unknown” the same as purposely not putting down your race. I’m considering not putting down my race (Chinese) because 1. I’m not a URM and 2. I support the idea that race should not have a role in college admissions. if i put “race unknown” am I telling colleges that I don’t know my race?</p>
<p>The forms typically have checkboxes. By next year, by federal regulation, the forms will have to have the same main choices in the same order. If a student doesn’t check any of the boxes, that is the case that becomes reported as “race/ethnicity unknown.” (In other words, there is no checkbox with that wording. It’s not marking any checkbox at all that becomes reported that way.) It is very commonplace for students not to mark any of the checkboxes when applying for college. Maybe there are more and more post-racial students in the United States, which I think would be a good thing for society in general.</p>
<p>i understand why blacks and native americans do because of slavery and forced indian removal and wars but why mexicans? is it because america invaded mexico and the mexicans lost california?</p>
<p>All race/ethnic/nationality based AA is a crock. AA should be given only on a socioeconomic basis.</p>
<p>I gotta admit I laughed when I saw the title.</p>
<p>But I don’t know the answer to your question.</p>
<p>Because they’re underrepresented in colleges but overrepresented in the US population, and colleges want to have student populations that more closely reflect the American population profile in ethnicities.</p>
<p>I am totally against aa, but in the case that it is given, rex212 has it right; otherwise, it defeats the purpose. How is it fair to all those applicants who just downright have more merit and are more worthy of an education at a certain school that someone gets in over them just to try to better represent the US population profile. (or because of social wrongs so long ago that the applicant’s parents never experienced it) I can somewhat see a point in what advocates of aa say concerning socioeconomic status, but there is no way to holistically, quantitatively, accurately, and fairly judge that enough to say that person a with a certain socioeconomic standing should get in based on that socioeconomic standing. It just isn’t fair.</p>
<p>Seriously?</p>
<p>AA isn’t just some “let’s-make-up-for-the-racism-of-years-past” good-karma crap. It’s about addressing TODAY’S racism and hopefully eliminating tomorrow’s racism by giving opportunities to people of races/ethnicities/nationalities that otherwise wouldn’t have the chance.</p>
<p>While I agree class-based AA would be better, the reasoning behind giving Latinos the benefits of AA is pretty clear.</p>