<p>Now we just need to strengthen the supports to keep them there.
<a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/04/hispanic-college-enrollment-rate-surpasses-whites-for-the-first-time/">http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/04/hispanic-college-enrollment-rate-surpasses-whites-for-the-first-time/</a></p>
<p>However, beyond the headline:</p>
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<p>There are probably still plenty of issues with disparity in K-12 preparation and college search and selection going on.</p>
<p>off on their own is Asians look t the top of the chart.
also Hispanic is a bizarre term, it is not a race or ethnic background . so to set Hispanics as a separate group and who falls into that group makes for a very unattainable actual number. </p>
<p>No
The enrollment rate is higher. </p>
<p>Not the number of students. </p>
<p>Decades ago we lived briefly in Miami before moving to the NE. We found many of the Cuban Americans we got to know were far more driven and accomplished than the average guy we knew elsewhere in the country and we wouldn’t have been surprised to hear they did well. But then many of these folks could rightfully have been called “white” too, and if I’m interpreting Zobroward’s comment correctly, I feel the same way on the Hispanic classification. </p>
<p>I’m looking at that chart and seeing the jump post 2008 financial crisis, and thinking about recent articles that talk about student loans being used in part for living expenses. </p>
<p>Er…ah…, many people whom the government characterize as “Hispanic” ARE WHITE. Just ask them.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus,
There are definitely frustrating issues with guidance for some here in Texas. I was discussing the application process with a Hispanic friend. Her son just finished his junior year at a large public high school with a large low income, minority population. Their guidance department didn’t even discuss testing with their students. My friend did not know what the SAT was! </p>
<p>We discussed a list of questions for her son to ask of his guidance counselor. The counselor told the student that if any of their kids went to college at all it would be a community college and therefore, there was no need to push testing. Boy, did that make me angry!</p>
<p>My kids attend a terrific private school. We have our first college prep meeting in the 7th grade! Our GC agreed to advise my friend’s son at no charge. We are grateful but, what about the rest? Surely, some of those kids could attend somewhere on scholarship.</p>
<p>Pell grant and loan scams are rampant. Enrolled =! Graduating.</p>
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<p><em>raises hand</em> </p>
<p>Anyway, it’s encouraging news but I care far more about trying to get the dropout rate lower. </p>
<p>I could be wrong but I thought people characterize themselves when they check whatever boxes they check. I do agree that it’s a fuzzy term though. Is an Argentinian native of German descent “Hispanic”? Are black Cubans “Hispanic”? The term is used to capture geographical place of origin as well as cultural and genetic heritage so it gets really muddled.</p>
<p>What about Mexican intellectual, scholar and engineer Enrique Krauze, Mexican movie actor Kristoff Raczynski, or famous variety show host Mario Blumfeld a.k.a. Don Franciso? I think the point is that the U.S. government, policy advocates etc. stereotype the latino population. I would expect the children of the people I referred to here don’t neatly fit into the categories or stereotypes inherent in studies such as the one publicized here. </p>
<p>Yeah, the Pew Research study referenced above is about percentage rates, not numbers. Florida state universities are diverse with enrollments today of around 15-20% Hispanic/Latino (except FIU in Miami…much larger Hispanic/Latino enrollment), and 50%+ white non-Hispanic, around 10% black. Other race/ethnic balance-- mixed, Asian, non-resident alien, native-American, etc. Florida isn’t doing too well enrolling more blacks in state universities…especially black males.</p>
<p>Yes, a Mexican of German descent is Hispanic. It is not a racial category, but an ethnic category: <a href=“Difference Between Ethnicity and Race | Difference Between”>http://www.differencebetween.net/science/nature/difference-between-ethnicity-and-race/</a></p>
<p>That’s why the Census asks about race, and then ethnicity. There are white, black, and mestizo (mixed race) Hispanics.</p>
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<p>Yes, to both. </p>
<p>My mom is from Spain so she is Spanish/Hispanic but we don’t have an ounce of Spanish blood. She is Hungarian Roma and British. However, the way the census defines us, we are Hispanic.
I generally don’t put my race down when I don’t have to because I hate trying to explain to people how a blue eyed girl with an Irish O’Irish name can be Hispanic.
I also wish we’d do away with the term Hispanic and add Latino as a racial category. </p>
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<p>As a former regular employee of the Census Bureau, not just for the decennial census but for many other surveys the bureau runs, such as the monthly CPS which determines the labor statistics released on the first Friday of every month since the 1940s, I can testify that race and ethnicity are different questions, that it is made clear that “Hispanic” is NOT a race, and that the RESPONDENT chooses to indicate how they identify themselves, not “the government.” Census field staff accept whatever the individual chooses. (This goes for gender, as well, BTW.) People with Spanish surnames include just about every racial category one can imagine. </p>
<p>I once had a respondent who insisted that the race be recorded as “other - Greek,” even though I delicately pointed out that Greek is an ethnicity, not a race. :)</p>
<p>Consolation, I absolutely understand what you’ve said, but as you found out with your Greek customer, if you wanted to you could argue all day with a Dominican, Puerto Rican or Panamanian person about the same thing. I have had more than one animated conversation with folks with roots in those countries and they insist on using the term “race” when talking about their countrymen. And all I’ve gotten is blank stares when ask Caribbeans and South Americans why they don’t consider Philipinos to be “Hispanic” or “latin.” I know Phillipinos whom have significantly more Spaniard blood in their veins than a lot of Mexicans and South Americans I’ve met. There’s plenty of Spanish surname folks in the Phillipines.</p>
<p>As a former regular employee of the Census Bureau, not just for the decennial census but for many other surveys the bureau runs, such as the monthly CPS which determines the labor statistics released on the first Friday of every month since the 1940s, I can testify that…the RESPONDENT chooses to indicate how they identify themselves, not “the government.”</p>
<p>Well, theoretically speaking. In practice, though, the Census Bureau (and thus “the government”) defines the racial and ethnic categories and thus constrains people as to which category they are supposed to select. There’s an explicit explanation on the Census form for what you’re supposed to check when you get it. Although in theory you can check whatever you want, the power of suggestion and authority is very powerful psychologically, and a lot of people may be induced to select an identity they don’t necessarily agree with because that’s the way they are classified.</p>
<p>I’m a social science researcher who sometimes uses Census Bureau-collected data and sometimes uses surveys that were collected using the same racial/ethnic questions as the Census. When interacting with participants, we often get confused head-shaking from Latino/Hispanic participants. They often don’t consider their race to be “white” or “black” - they consider their race just “Hispanic”. And this is a recent change - as recent as 1990. </p>
<p>I’ve heard similar complaints from people with Arabic, Middle Eastern, or North African descent. I have a friend who is Palestinian who says that it’s weird to mark “white” on the Census form, because she doesn’t consider herself to be white and her treatment from others has certainly indicated that they don’t consider her to be white, either. I had an Algerian teacher who considered herself black but the Census would ask her to mark that she was white (not sure what she chose to do). The most common complaint I hear is that it doesn’t really reflect their experiences in the United States - they’re not really part of the overrepresented, advantaged class wrt to their race here, and some experience discrimination on the basis of their perceived race.</p>
<p>It depends to some degree on the survey. Not all surveys are exactly the same. I don’t have any manuals or forms to consult anymore, but I can tell you that the ACS (formerly the long form of the decennial) has completely open-ended questions about ethnic background/ancestry of every member of the household, to which multiple responses are expected. And when I say ethnic background, I am talking French, Irish, Swedish, Palestintian, Pakistani, Spanish, Columbian, Mexican, Dutch, Scottish: whatever people report. If people report Native American background they have a followup in which they can list the tribes/nations. There is no lumping together, nor a list to chose from. I, for example, could reply that I am Finnish, Irish, and Welsh, and the field rep would enter it all.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen the decennial form in 4 years, so I don’t recall precisely what it says, but I am almost certain that there is an “other” category that might work for your Algerian friend, if she doesn’t consider herself to be “white.” But if she really considers herself to be black, no one is preventing her from saying so. In any case, if she is filling out the form by herself she can say whatever she wishes, or leave it blank. If she is being interviewed, the same applies.</p>
<p>I understand what you are saying. Identity is complex, and people are subject to all kinds of influences, many self-imposed, but the question is literally something like “what do you consider your race to be.” The Census is not “asking” someone to mark themselves as white OR black.</p>
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<p>“Hispanic” category as it now stands is a farce. I can appreciate colleges wanting to help socio-economically disadvantaged indigenous-race latin americans. But the way all these random groups are lumped together today on the basis of ANY vague tie to Spain or latin america is unbelievably arbitrary. My white german cousin married into an aristocratic, well-to-do spaniard family, so now she has a spanish surname-- that makes her hispanic?</p>
<p>No surprise the enrollment of “hispanic” students is up, when simply checking that box can confer a substantial admissions premium. Colleges have no motivation to narrow the category or challenge anyone’s self-reporting. The more applicants who game the category, the better the college’s diversity numbers look.</p>