Not specifying your ethnic background/race





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College Discussion Forums: College Admissions: 2002 - 2003 Archive: June 2003 Archive: Not specifying your ethnic background/race
By Midnightdanzer (Midnightdanzer) on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 06:52 pm: Edit

Is that being stupid???

Say :
1) i simply don't think it's worth answering, it bothers me to have to put some sort of label on myself
2) i'm a "melting pot" of different backgrounds (eg: i'm korean, austrian, french, spaniard)
3) it's not like any of my backgrounds are considered "under-represented" anyway

but becuase i know how much colleges put emphasis on things like that, is it not worth risking???

By Interesteddad (Interesteddad) on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 07:03 pm: Edit

Just on general principle, I would not check a racial/ethnic box on a college application, unless I were a member of a racial/ethnic group who receives favorable consideration in the college admissions process. Then, I'd check it in a New York minute. You do, after all, have to play the game by their rules.

The Asian/American category is an interesting dilemna. On the one hand, it counts in the colleges "diversity statistics". On the other hand, it may actually raise the bar for what they expect to see for test scores and the like.

I would have to do some research about the number of applicants at a particular school and make some judgement calls. For example, Vietnamese/Americans and Japanese/Americans may be judged quite differently in the admissions process (a perfect example of what bothers me about the current diversity methods used by the colleges).

By Covalentbond007 (Covalentbond007) on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 07:15 pm: Edit

A lot of kids are not declaring their race, much to the chagrin of the admission officers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63331-2003May31.html

By Midnightdanzer (Midnightdanzer) on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 08:44 pm: Edit

good article! thank you for that!

well i guess i'll play it by ear, when it comes time to filling those apps out!

By Ziplocky (Ziplocky) on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 10:17 pm: Edit

I, too, was thinking about this. I'm white. That's not something that's going to change.

I personally feel it's wrong to even ask that question on the application, even if it is optional.

I say, if you're white or asian, leave it blank. We're human. We're told from a very early age that we're no different then him or her or him or her because they look different.

Then why do they turn around and tell us we have to be better than them to get into same college?


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