Common app essay and identity

[Anonymous]

DD is URM at small NY private and we hired private counselor as well. Writing is her strength and one of her essays talks about her identity but really ties with what she wants to do. Editors loved her essay and no one said anything about not mentioning race

BUT DH and I had already decided that if DDs scores were not within 50 percent of university, we would not want her mentioning identity. It is an awful environment but I think minority applicants are going to be subject to stricter scrutiny. DD has high stats, rigor, leadership so I think it is fine in her situation but I think each minority applicant needs to make a careful assessment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:We are checking race box after we did not for prior child. Transparency is what they want …

The race boxes don't matter. The application review portal used by AOs does not display the boxes.

The universities have additional race box they use for demographics, reported…

I don’t trust anything. Period

+1

We were expressly told by counselor to leave it blank (on common app and school app) in 2024. If they don’t need it, can’t use it then why have a box at all ?!?!!!!

The race box is used by the university's institutional research office to report data required by the Department of Education.* It is not allowed to be used by the admissions office following the US Supreme Court opinion in the SFFA case.

*required by the Department of Education for enrolled students and published in the college's Common Data Set.

Exactly. That other poster is informed. Who exactly do you think is reviewing this data with a microscope thus coming cycle? I’ll give you a hint: he’s orange. So- they don’t want to submit anything ambiguous. Check the box this year- where past years it was none of their business so no box mattered

My unhooked kid didn’t check any boxes and was admitted everywhere unhooked RD. This year I’m also suggesting my Senior check it

You're Asian?

It's sad that Asians felt they had to hide their race before this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is odd and confusing. My son has read his friends essays from this past cycle (class of 2025) and their essays talked very openly about their race and ethnicity. These kids are at Ivies - so it was definitely ok last year to talk about your race. I'm also on Application Nation, and Sara Harberson is dead set against it, which makes me wonder if I'm missing something.

DC also read class 29 friends essay, can confirm race is the main theme in the main essay, and in at Ivies.
AN's advice is very confusing. In what context she said that?
It didn't sound rational at all.
Did she have insider information?
Did she talk to her AO friends?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is odd and confusing. My son has read his friends essays from this past cycle (class of 2025) and their essays talked very openly about their race and ethnicity. These kids are at Ivies - so it was definitely ok last year to talk about your race. I'm also on Application Nation, and Sara Harberson is dead set against it, which makes me wonder if I'm missing something.

DC also read class 29 friends essay, can confirm race is the main theme in the main essay, and in at Ivies.
AN's advice is very confusing. In what context she said that?
It didn't sound rational at all.
Did she have insider information?
Did she talk to her AO friends?

PP shared that she's been out of the field for 10 years. She doesn't seem to mention friends at the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is odd and confusing. My son has read his friends essays from this past cycle (class of 2025) and their essays talked very openly about their race and ethnicity. These kids are at Ivies - so it was definitely ok last year to talk about your race. I'm also on Application Nation, and Sara Harberson is dead set against it, which makes me wonder if I'm missing something.

DC also read class 29 friends essay, can confirm race is the main theme in the main essay, and in at Ivies.
AN's advice is very confusing. In what context she said that?
It didn't sound rational at all.
Did she have insider information?
Did she talk to her AO friends?

Huh. Every kid I know that is at an Ivy from last year- including my own, is white.

Are all these kids minorities—I find this fishy—like posters are trying to allude Trump is right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this makes zero sense to me.

Stephen millier's minions are not reading essays or looking at activities sections.

They are simple minded.

They are interested in seeing
White - avg GPA. avg SAT
Black - avg GPA .. avg SAT

and if the black admits have SATs lower than whites, they'll say it's anti-white somehow.

colleges will LOVE kids who signal black or hispanic race in essay or affinity membership AND deliver a 1530.

that's my feeling.

I agree, if you are one of the ~3000 URM with 1500+ SAT then it might help. You represent DEI insurance to avoid scrutiny in case in case there is a racial disparity in test scores.

The AOs have to unlearn some instincts they have when they see URM with even halfway decent stats. The bar has to be raised significantly and 2022 auto accept URM are now mostly auto rejects.

[Anonymous]

DD is a URM. Her stats are nowhere viable for a top college, but I do hope she finds a way to mention her ethnicity in her personal statement, without making it the main theme. She is gunning for universities where her SAT is withing the median, but her GPA is a little lower, due to health issues. Do you think this is a good strategy?

She might mention something about her first language not being English, or about visiting her grandma in her home country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is odd and confusing. My son has read his friends essays from this past cycle (class of 2025) and their essays talked very openly about their race and ethnicity. These kids are at Ivies - so it was definitely ok last year to talk about your race. I'm also on Application Nation, and Sara Harberson is dead set against it, which makes me wonder if I'm missing something.

DC also read class 29 friends essay, can confirm race is the main theme in the main essay, and in at Ivies.
AN's advice is very confusing. In what context she said that?
It didn't sound rational at all.
Did she have insider information?
Did she talk to her AO friends?

Huh. Every kid I know that is at an Ivy from last year- including my own, is white.

Are all these kids minorities—I find this fishy—like posters are trying to allude Trump is right.

Exactly!!! And who is reading each other’s essays??? Two sons through the process and they never read a friend’s essay or shared theirs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing where AN may have it right is if a student is applying TO or has scores that are below the middle 50% of a university. I posted earlier that my kid openly spoke about ethnicity in her essays, but she has a 35 ACT, strong rigor, and top 10% of class. I don't think the talk about ethnicity will hurt her in the least, and if anything, it might help.

I'm the "zero sense" person and this I agree with. if your test scores aren't within 10-20 points of their 50% (ie won't "hurt" the college), do not include any race at all.

💯

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this makes zero sense to me.

Stephen millier's minions are not reading essays or looking at activities sections.

They are simple minded.

They are interested in seeing
White - avg GPA. avg SAT
Black - avg GPA .. avg SAT

and if the black admits have SATs lower than whites, they'll say it's anti-white somehow.

colleges will LOVE kids who signal black or hispanic race in essay or affinity membership AND deliver a 1530.

that's my feeling.

I agree, if you are one of the ~3000 URM with 1500+ SAT then it might help. You represent DEI insurance to avoid scrutiny in case in case there is a racial disparity in test scores.

The AOs have to unlearn some instincts they have when they see URM with even halfway decent stats. The bar has to be raised significantly and 2022 auto accept URM are now mostly auto rejects.

Anyone see this yesterday?
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/trumps-next-fight-with-universities-racial-proxies-in-admissions-c8677633

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is odd and confusing. My son has read his friends essays from this past cycle (class of 2025) and their essays talked very openly about their race and ethnicity. These kids are at Ivies - so it was definitely ok last year to talk about your race. I'm also on Application Nation, and Sara Harberson is dead set against it, which makes me wonder if I'm missing something.

DC also read class 29 friends essay, can confirm race is the main theme in the main essay, and in at Ivies.
AN's advice is very confusing. In what context she said that?
It didn't sound rational at all.
Did she have insider information?
Did she talk to her AO friends?

Huh. Every kid I know that is at an Ivy from last year- including my own, is white.

Are all these kids minorities—I find this fishy—like posters are trying to allude Trump is right.

Where are you at? West Virginia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this makes zero sense to me.

Stephen millier's minions are not reading essays or looking at activities sections.

They are simple minded.

They are interested in seeing
White - avg GPA. avg SAT
Black - avg GPA .. avg SAT

and if the black admits have SATs lower than whites, they'll say it's anti-white somehow.

colleges will LOVE kids who signal black or hispanic race in essay or affinity membership AND deliver a 1530.

that's my feeling.

I agree, if you are one of the ~3000 URM with 1500+ SAT then it might help. You represent DEI insurance to avoid scrutiny in case in case there is a racial disparity in test scores.

The AOs have to unlearn some instincts they have when they see URM with even halfway decent stats. The bar has to be raised significantly and 2022 auto accept URM are now mostly auto rejects.

Anyone see this yesterday?
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/trumps-next-fight-with-universities-racial-proxies-in-admissions-c8677633

This article basically explains the backdrop:

“ For conservatives and the administration, the current push represents a common-sense strategy to enforce and extend the Supreme Court’s
“ There’s an effort to say that it’s illegal to seek to have a diverse student body,””
“ In their recent resolutions with the administration on a number of issues, Columbia and Brown agreed to not use applicants’ personal statements to “introduce or justify discrimination.””
“ In the July Justice Department memo from Bondi, the Trump administration warned against “ostensibly neutral criteria that function as substitutes for explicit consideration of race.” For instance, it noted that “diversity statements,” or asking applicants about “cross-cultural skills” or “obstacles they have overcome,” could be illegal if used to advantage certain races. ”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is odd and confusing. My son has read his friends essays from this past cycle (class of 2025) and their essays talked very openly about their race and ethnicity. These kids are at Ivies - so it was definitely ok last year to talk about your race. I'm also on Application Nation, and Sara Harberson is dead set against it, which makes me wonder if I'm missing something.

DC also read class 29 friends essay, can confirm race is the main theme in the main essay, and in at Ivies.
AN's advice is very confusing. In what context she said that?
It didn't sound rational at all.
Did she have insider information?
Did she talk to her AO friends?

Huh. Every kid I know that is at an Ivy from last year- including my own, is white.

Are all these kids minorities—I find this fishy—like posters are trying to allude Trump is right.

Exactly!!! And who is reading each other’s essays??? Two sons through the process and they never read a friend’s essay or shared theirs.

Are you at a public school? At private school everybody reads each other‘s essays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as you have high stats, I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s an admit whether or not you write about it.

It could be a reason not to admit though? If TO? And biracial?

This year TO becomes highly controversial. The TO admit has to be super strong elsewhere this year.

They always had to be. No one is being admitted with low grades and without extraordinary accomplishments TO. At least not in T20 in our experience.

By extraordinary, do you mean URM?

lol, try harder. statistically it means athletics. by a factor of about x100.

Athletes had a larger preference than blacks but it wasn't x100. It wasn't even x2. But they admit more URM kids that recruited athletes.

Athletes with a 2 or higher academic rating got in 89% of the time
Blacks with a 2 or higher rating got in 57% of the time.
Whites and Asians with a 2 or higher rating got in 15% of the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is odd and confusing. My son has read his friends essays from this past cycle (class of 2025) and their essays talked very openly about their race and ethnicity. These kids are at Ivies - so it was definitely ok last year to talk about your race. I'm also on Application Nation, and Sara Harberson is dead set against it, which makes me wonder if I'm missing something.

DC also read class 29 friends essay, can confirm race is the main theme in the main essay, and in at Ivies.
AN's advice is very confusing. In what context she said that?
It didn't sound rational at all.
Did she have insider information?
Did she talk to her AO friends?

It makes sense to me. The environment is very different today and general counsel‘s offices are now involved in admissions decisions. Colleges do not have the autonomy they once had. Take race and ethnicity out of your applications so there is no question or judgment call that will need to be made in adcommittee.