By Sarah Persico
STAFF WRITER

In a country where discrimination is so greatly looked down upon, there continues to be a “race” box on college applications.

America is known as the country that emancipated slavery and went through a war just to ensure that everyone would be treated equally. Yet there are still some situations where your college entrance scores won’t even be looked at.

On college tours, all you hear about is the diversity. Yes, diversity is good for the students attending the college, but what about the students who don’t get into the college because of their race?

Students should not be accepted into colleges based on ethnicity, but colleges continue to include an ethnicity box on applications to ensure diversity. Photo Credit: Hercampus.com

Many colleges need a certain amount of men, women, whites, Hispanic, African Americans, and so forth. But because of the requirements schools give themselves, some of the students who deserve to get into the school cannot go simply because of their race.

Students should get into to colleges based on their capabilities. If there is an excess of people of the same race in a school, then so be it. By getting rid of the race box on applications, students won’t be discriminated when being looked at by college admissions officers.

Many people say that people who come to America from other countries don’t have the same opportunities that Americans have. Although when you look at our country closely, you realize that a lot of people who live in the United States don’t have those opportunities.

People say that we need diversity in government and politics. Someone once told me “we don’t want all white businessmen running our country. We need that diversity.” But if “white businessmen” are smart enough to run the government, then you don’t need diversity. While everyone wants things to be done fairly, they also want them to be done correctly.

Two students may both have a job, take all the same classes, get the same grades, but which one will get into the college? Obviously it would not be the white student because colleges strive for diversity. Those two students are practically the same person, but one wasn’t born in America. Students shouldn’t get into schools based on what country they were born in either.

America is the melting pot. Nobody who lives in America is truly American. Everybody’s family has migrated here from another country. So what makes the students who just moved here any different from the ones who have lived her their whole lives? One may argue that the student who recently moved here has cultural aspects that other students can benefit from, but that person needs to realize that cultural traditions are passed down with families in America as well.

So why do we continue to keep the race box on college applications? Colleges should be looking for students with diversity, but not racial diversity. Instead, they should focus on characteristics of students. Students who do different activities or have different personalities can add a lot to another student’s college experience more than race can. If colleges do not accept students because of their race, then there shouldn’t be a problem if the box were removed.