Study: ‘Other’ Box Misleading

Colleges’ statistics about diversity and racial proportions may be misleading, according to the results of a recent California study by the James Irvine Foundation’s Campus Diversity Initiative.

The exploratory analysis, a collaboration between the Foundation, Claremont Graduate University, and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), showed a strikingly different demographic picture of three college campuses after comparing the institutions’ enrollment statistics with data gathered from an independent national survey of students once they had matriculated.

The researchers found that the post-matriculation survey had a significantly lower percentage of respondents who declined to answer ethnicity questions.

On one campus, for example, the admissions data for one year showed only 42 percent of entering students as white—with a 32 percent “unknown” category—whereas the post-matriculation survey’s results had only 4 percent “unknown,” revealing that at least 57 percent of the student population was white, and potentially up to 70 percent.

Dr. Alma Clayton-Pedersen, vice president for education and institutional renewal at the AACU and co-principal investigator of the evaluation project, explained why the findings were important for the welfare of students entering college.

“Students will choose to go to a college based on their perception of the environment there,” she said. “It is not the only reason...but it is one and it is a particularly important one for students of color, especially in a predominantly white institution.”

Nancy O’Neill, director of programs for the office of education and institutional renewal at the AACU, added, “There are also white students who are looking for an ethnically or racially diverse environment.”

Clayton-Pedersen stressed that the project did not attempt to explore the motivations of the students who left their ethnicity unknown, although it does suggest some speculative reasons for students’ candor once they enrolled, including a fear of discrimination. The study also suggests that mixed-race students may not feel comfortable ticking only one box.

O’Neill suggested that student suspicions that their ethnicity would be held against them were in part due to a lack of clarity about why colleges wanted this information.

“We don’t communicate well to students at the institutional level why we’re interested in this information in the aggregate,” she said.

According to data from the Harvard Registrar’s Office, 9 percent of the roughly 6,500 students enrolled in fall 2004 categorized themselves as “unknown/other”, which, although less than the campuses used in the study, is substantially higher than the 5.9 percent national average.

Marlyn McGrath Lewis, director of admissions for Harvard College, wrote in an e-mail that at Harvard students who did not specify an ethnicity were not necessarily from one racial group, but included “those who just don’t like the terminology of the federal categories, those who find all categories alien/insufficient, and even folks who want more specificity in their identification group.”

Many students agreed that forms do not always include sufficient or accurate options.

“I ticked “other” on a bunch of those forms, because I’m of mixed race descent,” Allen A.T. Ewalt ’07 said. “Notably, though, not the common app. That one allowed you to tick multiple boxes.”

Seantanu C. Dongre ’06, who is half white and half Indian, agreed. “I identify with both cultures equally,” he said. “Some forms ask you to check all that apply, but don’t even include anything more specific than ‘Asian,’ so I end up checking ‘other’ anyway.”

However, other students said that they had more ideological reasons for their reluctance to commit to any one particular ethnic background.

Vivek A. Rudrapatna ’06 said that the belief that race is used as an admissions factor influenced his decision not to provide ethnic information on the medical school applications that he has been submitting this year.

“I’m of Indian ethnicity and we’re over-represented in the medical profession,” he said. “I wanted them to judge me on meritocratic grounds alone.”

On the other end of the scale, Charles J. Swanson ’08, who is “equal parts” white and African American, said he did not want to be the victim of positive discrimination.

“I didn’t want to get in just because I’m African American,” he said, “so I thought checking ‘other’ might be more appropriate in that respect as well.”

Clayton-Pedersen and O’Neill said that there were no plans for any follow-up research to the project, but rather expressed a hope that it would spur researchers and institutions all over the country to re-evaluate their data.

“It could be a catalyst for other institutions—like Harvard—to ask themselves these questions and try to find out the answers,” O’Neill said.

“If you have a skewed notion of who your students are you have false assumptions of what they’re putting into and getting from the environment,” Clayton-Pedersen said.

—Staff writer Alexandra C. Bell can be reached at acbell@fas.harvard.edu.