In applying for fellowships, is it better for 'majority' students to select "Prefer not to respond" in racial identification? I am a second-year graduate student in applied mathematics looking to apply for fellowships for this upcoming year. It also happens to be the case that I am a Caucasian male. Would it be more advantageous for me to select "Prefer not to respond" in applications that ask for my race and gender (especially applications that give preference to women and minority students), or is that generally considered to do more harm than good?
Technically, I see nothing wrong with not reporting your race/gender. However, I suspect that if a fellowship gives preference to a specific group, putting "prefer not to respond" puts you outside of that group by default. Therefore, it would make no difference if you were a Caucasian or unidentified, you would still not gain the selection benefit for minorities. Hence the net benefit would be zero.