Is Race a Deciding Factor for College Admissions?

As Seniors in high school all around the country are receiving letters of admission or rejection to colleges, I can't help but think about how someones "race" plays a role in the decision.

We would like to think that race has absolutely no factor when applicants are being looked at by admission offices, but unfortunately that's not the case.

According to the New York Times, some highly selective schools, like Rice University, take race into account when looking at their applicants. Chris Muñoz, vice president for enrollment at Rice since 2006, says, “From an academic standpoint, the qualifying records, the test scores, how many AP courses, they may all look alike,  that’s when we might go and say, ‘This kid has a Spanish surname. Let’s see what he wrote about.’ Right or wrong, it can make a difference.” 

How much a "difference" does it actually make? Unfortunately, it's very unclear at Rice University and many other institutions. The one thing we can look at however is the numbers--they can't lie. Although its a small margin, multiracial applicants being admitted is 23%, while whites are being admitted at 19%. Four percent can really make a difference when looking at thousands of applicants. 

Do you think college admissions should take race into a factor when looking at applicants? 

How Biracial Americans Choose Their Identity

  After having an "online" discussion on An American Studies post by Mr. Bolos, a comment that Mr. O'Connor posted really got me thinking: how do biracial americans identify?" In 2010 A woman named Nikki Khana did a study that answered this exact question. In the study 40 people were asked, which race (black or white) they identified with--the results were quite surprising. 
    Khana said that, "we [found] that biracial respondents pass as black to fit in with black peers in adolescence (especially since many claim that whites reject them), to avoid a white stigmatized identity, and, in the post–civil rights era of affirmative action, to obtain advantages and opportunities sometimes available to them if they are black (e.g., educational and employment opportunities, college financial aid/scholarships)". To read more, click here. 

     A very prominent example of Khana's findings is president Barack Obama. He is biracial and identifies as black. Obama is the nation's first black president, which has been used greatly to his advantage, especially in his campaign. Many African Americans wanted to identify with a man of color. When many people think of Obama, they think of a "black" president. But why not also a white president? He is indeed as much white as black. To read more about Obama and race, click here. 
      If I were to guess about which is more commonly the identified race, I would have thought biracial americans would identify white. America has been faced with civil rights and segregation, so I would want to identify as white because there are still some racial stereotypes out there. One Yale research study concluded that, "Media have divided the working class and stereotyped young African-American males as gangsters or drug dealers." As a result, the media has crushed youths' prospects for future employment and advancement. The media has focused on the negative aspects of the black community. Some examples are,  engaging in drug use, criminal activity and welfare abuse. 
     What do you think? If you were biracial, who would you identify with? All comments are welcome