There’s one section of every college application that seems to brand a label on students. Those little check boxes listing ethnicities, which attempt to summarize you in one word: White. African-American. Hispanic. Asian. Don’t let them.
Most students feel the pressure to be diverse, so at which generation do we draw the line? Great-grandparents? Great-great grandparents?
On the other hand, some students might feel pressure to be less diverse, fearing that their race will pin them against stereotypes.
Within the last year, “the number of applicants who identify themselves as multiracial has mushroomed,” since students can now pick from a slew of new racial and ethnic boxes, according to the New York Times article, “On College Forms, a Question of Race, or Races, Can Perplex.”
Some students are taking advantage of this. “You know kids are gaming the system every way they possibly can, from private counselors who write essays to massaging their statistics,” said Scott White, a college counselor in a New Jersey high school, quoted in the same Times article.
Then there’s taking it to the extreme: at least four Rice applicants last spring checked every ethnicity box offered (“On College Forms”).
Admissions counselors cannot be expected to fact check every applicant.
However, they can offer a writing supplement that can see how strongly a student identifies with the race put down.
“For example, in its customized supplement to the Common Application, Rice asks an essay question about ‘the unique life experiences and cultural traditions’ that a student might bring.”
Two of those four applicants made it known to Rice in their essays that, beyond their blood, they fully embraced each ethnicity checked.
Then there’s the other end of the spectrum.
Instead of digging through family records to find that distant Native American relative, kids are hiding some parts of their prominent ethnicity.
This method is widely seen among mixed-race kids with an Asian parent. “The whole Tiger Mom stereotype is grounded in truth,” said Tao Tao Holmes, a half-Chinese, half-American Yale sophomore, quoted in USA Today’s article, “Some Asians’ college strategy: Don’t check ‘Asian’.”
Born in Florida to a mother who immigrated from Taiwan and a father of Norwegian descent, Olmstead only checked one ethnicity box: white. She’s not alone.
“An unknown number of students are responding to this concern by declining to identify themselves as Asian on their applications” because they are grouped with the other stereotypical Asians described by Holmes and Olmstead.
But Harvard freshman Jodi Balfe felt the guilt of denying a part of herself to colleges and checked the “Asian” box, “against the advice of her high school guidance counselor, teachers and friends.”
And that’s what really at stake here. Yourself. Colleges want to know you. Don’t let those boxes define who you are. You shouldn’t check them for a chance at a scholarship or leave them blank to save yourself from stereotypes.
Be proud of your background, no matter how homogenous it may seem.
And if you identify strongly with your heredity, however mixed and regardless of your name, it will show through on your application.