Race and Ethnicity

A survey of admissions personnel suggested that two-fifths had said yes to applicants from minorities despite having lower grades and test scores than other applicants, on average. At the same time, rulings by the Supreme Court have prevented race from becoming an "overriding factor" in college admissions. A report suggested minority students have a better chance overall at selective colleges. In the case of multiracial students, they have a choice of which box to check since it may be perceived either as "gamesmanship" or reflecting one's racial makeup. Some Asian-Americans have felt uncomfortable describing themselves as Asian, or to reveal information about their ethnic background, on the supposition that college admissions departments discriminate against them because of their ethnicity and consider them incorrectly to be "boring academic robots", according to several reports. Typically, Asian applicants require a SAT score 140 points above that of a comparable white student, and considerably higher than that of a non-Asian minority, to have a similar chance of admission. Asians get a "raw deal" in Ivy admissions, according to Hernandez, and have to be much better students than the typical white applicant to be admitted. She wrote that it benefits an applicant to be African American, Latino, or Native American, since colleges can advertise their diversity as a result. The admissions practices of Harvard and Princeton were investigated for possible discrimination against Asian-American applicants by Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.