Senior Megan Parry marked “white” as her ethnicity on her college applications this year, even though her mother has Latino roots.

Since her mother was adopted from Bolivia and brought to America at the age of 18, the ethnicity on her birth certificate was changed during the process of her adoption. Instead of stating that she was half white and half Bolivian, her birth certificate now only states that she is white. Parry chose not to select “Latino” on her application under the assumption that she would have to re-access her mother’s original birth certificate to prove Latino ethnicity.

“[Colleges] really try to attract [Latino] people and it really makes a difference versus just putting ‘white female’. I strongly believe that on your college applications, there should be no box for race,” Parry said. “You’re never going to break through the stereotyping … if they are judging you based on your race.”

An anonymous junior is starting to feel the pressure as well. Since she is applying to colleges next year, she’s begun thinking about whether she should select white or Asian or both, since she is of mixed race.

“I’m not sure right now but I’ve heard that marking white would give me the most advantage, so if they only allowed me to mark one ethnicity then I would mark white. But, if they allowed more than one, then I would mark white and Asian,” she said.

Affirmative action

Acccording to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “‘affirmative action’ means positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and business from which they have been historically excluded. When those steps involve preferential selection or selection on the basis of race, gender, or ethnicity ó affirmative action generates intense controversy.” In other words, affirmative action serves to make sure public businesses and schools stay ethnically diverse.

However, the part that brings the most controversy, is “when those steps involve preferential selection or selection on the basis of race, gender or ethnicity.”

This issue goes past just college admissions. In an AP report by National Public Radio, Kara Miller, a former Yale admissions officer, noted that Asian-Americans were held to a higher standard when admissions officers looked over their SAT scores.

“Asian kids know that when [admissions officers] look at the average SAT for the school, they need to add 50 or 100 to it,” Miller said on the show. “If you’re Asian, thatís what youíll need to get in [to college].”

Senior Pin-hsi Chen feels that this preferential selection is unfair. He wouldn’t go so far as to outright change his ethnicity since he is purely Asian, but he feels that others may use this selection to their advantage.

“[It’s possible that people could consider changing ethnicities because it] would give someone a higher chance if they didnít really care [about integrity],” Chen said. “If you have the abilities [to get in to a college], ethnicity doesn’t matter because we’re all different.”

In a survey conducted by El Estoque with 515 respondents, 17 percent of respondents knew someone who had changed their ethnicity on their application due to their knowledge of affirmative action. However only six percent of seniors confessed that they had changed their ethnicity.

Senior Zachary Ota faced a different issue entirely. Since he is half Japanese and half Persian, Ota belives that he could be seen as half Asian and half white or just Asian entirely. He could put either of these options and still be telling the truth.

“For the  apps that let me choose multiple ethnicities I put half Asian and half white because my dadís Japanese and my momís Persian, so that’s sort of white,” Ota said. “For the ones that only let me put one ethnicity, I put Asian  because Japan and Iran are both a sort of Asian.”

Prop 209

According to Californiaís Proposition 209, which was passed in 1996, affirmative action is illegal in public colleges. However, Proposition 209 does not apply to private colleges.

University of California Berkeley media specialist Dan Mogoluf thinks that the ethnicity issue in colleges goes well beyond just affirmative action, since there are many factors to look in to when it comes to diversity.

“There are those who are concerned that some elite universities [underrepresent] minorities,” Mogoluf said. “A lot of [the problems] are [caused by] pipeline issues [which means] the kind of schools that [minorities] come from are socially or economically disadvantaged … [which] may be hindering their opportunities to attend better universities, thus impacting the diversity of the student body.”

Sophomore Alexis Page, who is half African American and half Japanese, thinks that because African Americans are a minoritiy in colleges, she would probably only select African American if she was only allowed to select one ethnicity.

However, affirmative action wonít help someone from an underrepresented ethnic minority with an unqualified application beat out someone from an ethnic majority with a qualified application. Miriam Taba, Career Center liason,  says that colleges tend to look at their application as a whole more than just whether or not they are part of an ethnic majority or minority.

“Colleges want a good mix of students … [but] all colleges are looking at them holistically,” Taba said.  “The most important part is their transcript, what types of classes [theyíre taking], and patterns of improvement. [Regardless of ethnicity] all students are measured by the same scale.”

A broader definition for diversity

Even while attempting to diversify, however, many colleges contend that race and ethnicity are not in any way the only markers of diversity.

“When we [at UC Berkeley] talk about diversity, the thing that makes this university so great is that there is diversity in educational interests, departments, knowledge and experience,” Mogoluf said. “There’s [also] diversity in terms of geographical origins. All of those things are part of what makes a great university a great university.”

As for the anonymous junior, she feels that in the end, marking both races would give her the most advantage since being mixed would make her the “minority of minorities”.

“I feel like being half white and half Asian gives me an advantage because I could be seen as white or Asian or even both  which makes me even more different,” she said.  “So I would be the minority in comparison to any race so I would mark white and Asian.”

In addition, Taba also mentions that colleges are always looking for something different every year. Sometimes, it may be tuba players, if many of their tuba players are seniors who are graduating. Other times it may be students from an ethnic minority, if many of their students who are from ethnic minorities are also graduating that year.

“Since there’s nothing students can do about [their ethnicity], they should instead focus on figuring out who they are,” Taba said.