Help on Self-Identifying Race Question

Applying to College
1

<p>I have a friend on vacation who asked me to help her out with this. She's unsure on what to put on the race section for Ivy-type schools and is afraid of a rescind.</p>

<p>Basically: she has a single-mother who is of Asian descent and gave birth to her from sperm from a sperm-bank. For the most part, she has been self-identifying as Asian (due to the Asian surname of her mother), but the mother is unsure on the race of the donor, and thinks it's either white, latino, or both. If so, my friend would be half Asian and either half Hispanic or half hispanic/white mix.</p>

<p>My friend already submitted to a couple Ivy type schools Early and was deferred. She's wondering if she should include Latino on her application to future schools to help in the admissions process. I told her that that seems disingenuous, but if she really was born from a hispanic donor, it's completely truthful. The problem is, the mother has no documentation of the racial make-up and doesn't remember.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any advice? If my friend put down Asian AND Hispanic, would there be any risk of a rescind if the college found out the donor was ONLY half white? Is this heritage (got her hispanic side from sperm-donor) something that should be elaborated on in the additional info section? Do colleges communicate and would therefore see that she put different races between the early and regular apps?</p>

<p>Sorry for the barrage of questions, it's just that her situation seems like something pretty unusual. My bet is to just to keep it the same — only Asian — but the deferrals breed insecurity so she won't take the advice.</p>

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<p>If she truly wants to know more about her genetics, she and her mom should contact the sperm bank in question, and find out if there is further information that can be provided about the biological father. Until she knows more, she should remember that Hispanic is not a racial identification, it is an ethnic/cultural one. Unless she has a sense of herself as being Latina, my advice would be that she shouldn’t check the Hispanic box. </p>

<p>More important however, you need to encourage her to keep her head screwed on straight during this whole process. If she provides any information that she is not 100% certain of, she will always wonder if that possible untruth worked against her or in favor of her. She wants to be able to know for the rest of her life that she handled things in a way that she can be proud of, whatever the results. Encourage her to sit down with her guidance counselor or another trusted adult and talk through the angst she is suffering from right now. Grasping at straws is not the way to get through this process.</p>

<p>Wishing both of you all the best.</p>