Study finds that 'other' checked mostly by whites
Although a new study suggests that the majority of college applicants who define their ethnicity as "other" are actually white, Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg rejected the idea that this trend skewed Dartmouth College's minority enrollment. The study, released by the James Irvine Foundation, a California nonprofit grant-making institution, found that between 1991 and 2001, the number of students who defined themselves as "unknown" or "other" nearly doubled from 3.2 percent to 5.9 percent of the student body, and that most of them were white. This research was the first major project funded by the Campus Diversity Initiative, the Irvine Foundation's $29 million effort designed to help independent colleges and universities across the country address diversity issues on their campuses. CDI tested three private schools in California by having students who had defined themselves as "other" on their applications fill out a survey on their ethnicity after officially matriculating.