Race on common app

[Anonymous]

The kids who get hosed are the ones whose parents went to no-name colleges. They don't get the legacy and/or halo effect of the top schools, but the schools can't add them to their oh-so-important "first generation" stats because they theoretically aren't. One would think that being the child of a parent who went to a no-name school and worked their way up to being very successful could be a positive, but unless they are very, very successful (like donate a building successful), it doesn't help at all.

I think the apps should have as few classifying questions as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left it blank.

Kid did very well in admissions.

You are not required to check the box.

Yes. But why an outdated question? To help families make decision when they are looking at the CDS?

There’s tons of outdated stuff on the common app, like where your parents were educated. Why should that matter? Yet the question remains. Skip it if you don’t want to answer.

Wrong advice. It’s more nuanced than that
Schools use that info in a way that benefits them.

Colleges want students who come from families who also attended highly selective universities. It is one of the metrics they use in landscape or slate as a predictive measure of, ease of graduation, ease of making payments and likelihood of alumni success. It’s also why certain colleges, in the top 20, ask for where siblings attended college. They are not just nosy. They want to see how focused on education your family is. How successful the siblings are.

Anecdotally, our private college counselor told us that if both parents attended highly selective universities for undergrad and graduate school, there is a higher correlation with admissions to T20. So even if your top stats kid has better “pure metrics” to peers from same high school, but your kids parents attended no name regional colleges, and the peers parents went to Wharton, there are bonus points allocated to the peer in the admissions process over your kid. Get smart on how slate and landscape work in the admissions process.

And if you or your spouse attended regional or not well-regarded colleges, consider omitting that education information entirely. If you attended highly selective universities absolutely include that information.

I found this comical. It's all just speculation there is no facts or evidence to back up anything you said here.
Your "private college counselor" is not worthy her fees. She got the causation completely wrong. Kids of successful parents got in T20 because those parents care about their kids education thus the student quality is higher, and because the kids carry parents genes, smarter kids. They didn't get in merely because parents attended highly selective schools, that's correlation not causation. The rest of it is just speculation.

Following that reasoning, parents attended selective colleges should omit education information because that put your kids at a disadvantage--That, they are so privileged yet perform just okay. Versus someone less privileged performed the same. You know which one to admit!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left it blank.

Kid did very well in admissions.

You are not required to check the box.

Yes. But why an outdated question? To help families make decision when they are looking at the CDS?

There’s tons of outdated stuff on the common app, like where your parents were educated. Why should that matter? Yet the question remains. Skip it if you don’t want to answer.

Wrong advice. It’s more nuanced than that
Schools use that info in a way that benefits them.

Colleges want students who come from families who also attended highly selective universities. It is one of the metrics they use in landscape or slate as a predictive measure of, ease of graduation, ease of making payments and likelihood of alumni success. It’s also why certain colleges, in the top 20, ask for where siblings attended college. They are not just nosy. They want to see how focused on education your family is. How successful the siblings are.

Anecdotally, our private college counselor told us that if both parents attended highly selective universities for undergrad and graduate school, there is a higher correlation with admissions to T20. So even if your top stats kid has better “pure metrics” to peers from same high school, but your kids parents attended no name regional colleges, and the peers parents went to Wharton, there are bonus points allocated to the peer in the admissions process over your kid. Get smart on how slate and landscape work in the admissions process.

And if you or your spouse attended regional or not well-regarded colleges, consider omitting that education information entirely. If you attended highly selective universities absolutely include that information.

They also ask about siblings for yield purposes. If all the siblings went the same place—they assume next one will too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We left it blank.

Kid did very well in admissions.

You are not required to check the box.

I had a 2024 - so did we.

Our HS counselor suggested to just leave it blank. It was the first year applying with the new SC ruling on AA.

We didn’t report it on the school specific app either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The kids who get hosed are the ones whose parents went to no-name colleges. They don't get the legacy and/or halo effect of the top schools, but the schools can't add them to their oh-so-important "first generation" stats because they theoretically aren't. One would think that being the child of a parent who went to a no-name school and worked their way up to being very successful could be a positive, but unless they are very, very successful (like donate a building successful), it doesn't help at all.

I think the apps should have as few classifying questions as possible.

Very much saw this happen this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left it blank.

Kid did very well in admissions.

You are not required to check the box.

Yes. But why an outdated question? To help families make decision when they are looking at the CDS?

There’s tons of outdated stuff on the common app, like where your parents were educated. Why should that matter? Yet the question remains. Skip it if you don’t want to answer.

Wrong advice. It’s more nuanced than that
Schools use that info in a way that benefits them.

Colleges want students who come from families who also attended highly selective universities. It is one of the metrics they use in landscape or slate as a predictive measure of, ease of graduation, ease of making payments and likelihood of alumni success. It’s also why certain colleges, in the top 20, ask for where siblings attended college. They are not just nosy. They want to see how focused on education your family is. How successful the siblings are.

Anecdotally, our private college counselor told us that if both parents attended highly selective universities for undergrad and graduate school, there is a higher correlation with admissions to T20. So even if your top stats kid has better “pure metrics” to peers from same high school, but your kids parents attended no name regional colleges, and the peers parents went to Wharton, there are bonus points allocated to the peer in the admissions process over your kid. Get smart on how slate and landscape work in the admissions process.

And if you or your spouse attended regional or not well-regarded colleges, consider omitting that education information entirely. If you attended highly selective universities absolutely include that information.

I found this comical. It's all just speculation there is no facts or evidence to back up anything you said here.
Your "private college counselor" is not worthy her fees. She got the causation completely wrong. Kids of successful parents got in T20 because those parents care about their kids education thus the student quality is higher, and because the kids carry parents genes, smarter kids. They didn't get in merely because parents attended highly selective schools, that's correlation not causation. The rest of it is just speculation.

Following that reasoning, parents attended selective colleges should omit education information because that put your kids at a disadvantage--That, they are so privileged yet perform just okay. Versus someone less privileged performed the same. You know which one to admit!

It worked out really well for us (parents T10). Kids attending two different T10.

Think there’s some truth to it. More about gene pool probably than anything else

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They can still see your Asian last name. Unless you change your last name to something else, hiding race information on common app is futile.

What do they do with all the Lee's? Are they Bruce's or Bobby's? How about my Asian friend whose last name is Goldfarb? Good take though, sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The correct answer is Black/African American.
- Zohran Mamdani

Literally born in Africa.

Do you guys want him to check white.

Need better boxes!!

The box he ticked as African American was about ethnicity not about where he was born. Zohran knew that he was of Indian ethnicity but ticked African American because that would increase his chances of admission at Columbia five fold. Unfortunately for him in those days Columbia had ethics. It was equally unfortunate for Bowdoin too.

He also checked Asian and you guys have been saying for years that this hurts students. So which is it? Trying to hurt himself, trying to help himself or trying to explain a person who doesn’t fit the boxes?

If he hadn't checked Asian as well then I'd put him in the worm bucket with Mindy Kaling's brother. But he did. So it doesn't read "underhanded" to me. Plus, as I understand it, Indians from Indian scrutinize diaspora "Indians" closely. I used to work with a girl whose family was in the Caribbean for a hundred years. All of her friends and neighbors were black Caribbeans because that is who accepted her. For some people life is just complicated

When in doubt, choose 'other'?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Indian-American here. Half of my family, including a parent, came from the Indian diaspora in Africa. I wouldn’t have dreamed of identifying myself as anything other than Asian-American when applying to college or just American, which I am! Africa is an important and valued part of my family history. India is my cultural heritage. America is my core identity.

Did it help you with college admissions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They can still see your Asian last name. Unless you change your last name to something else, hiding race information on common app is futile.

What do they do with all the Lee's? Are they Bruce's or Bobby's? How about my Asian friend whose last name is Goldfarb? Good take though, sport.

Lee, SAT 1500, Bobby’s.

Lee, SAT 1580, tech immigrant’s. He is just not interesting.

It’s very difficult to hide your Asian ass. Just give up already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The correct answer is Black/African American.
- Zohran Mamdani

Literally born in Africa.

Do you guys want him to check white.

Need better boxes!!

The box he ticked as African American was about ethnicity not about where he was born. Zohran knew that he was of Indian ethnicity but ticked African American because that would increase his chances of admission at Columbia five fold. Unfortunately for him in those days Columbia had ethics. It was equally unfortunate for Bowdoin too.

Or what if his dad was already teaching at Columbia, maybe he didn't want to go there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does it matter anymore?

No.

There are most important things to worry about in the U.S.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The kids who get hosed are the ones whose parents went to no-name colleges. They don't get the legacy and/or halo effect of the top schools, but the schools can't add them to their oh-so-important "first generation" stats because they theoretically aren't. One would think that being the child of a parent who went to a no-name school and worked their way up to being very successful could be a positive, but unless they are very, very successful (like donate a building successful), it doesn't help at all.

I think the apps should have as few classifying questions as possible.

No. They just aren't first generation to college students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Indian-American here. Half of my family, including a parent, came from the Indian diaspora in Africa. I wouldn’t have dreamed of identifying myself as anything other than Asian-American when applying to college or just American, which I am! Africa is an important and valued part of my family history. India is my cultural heritage. America is my core identity.

Were you personally born in Africa, though?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The correct answer is Black/African American.
- Zohran Mamdani

Literally born in Africa.

Do you guys want him to check white.

Need better boxes!!

race is not nationality. does american automatically denote white to you?