Fine, DrG. You chose not to ID as Hispanic. She, however, does.
Yeah, I wish I knew better.
I don’t think she fits the definition, but what box she marks should not affect her cultural identity in other contexts.
But Troy, for adcoms to consider her so strongly influenced by another culture that she identifies herself as part of their group and its essence, she has to do a lot more than have friends, travel and one parent lived in Spain. She is socially connected, she feels it, but she is not it. She goes home to her own family with its own identities and histories. Similarly, we’ve had kids claim they felt more Black, had friends, were accepted, etc, and posters tried to explain.
What some here are sensing may be that you are stretching. The more competitive the college, the more sensitive they are to “assumed identities.” Agree, she can write about this, but she needs to be savvy.
White South Africans who have lived in S Africa for 4 generations still aren’t black ethnically.
Colleges don’t give a rat’s patootie about the anthropological definition of ethnicity. It’s simply a numbers game they have to report to the US gov’t. You somehow think that a racially asian kid who doesn’t speak a lick of an asian language is suddenly a different race? Not.
How is she identified in her current school papers? As Hispanic?
Did u ever attain spanish citizenship?
Lots of kids do study abroad & live w a local family. My own kid did a study abroad peogram & lived w a local family. So what?
Next thing u know, parents who like to sip margaritas on Cinco de Mayo are going to insist their kids should by classified by colleges as hispanic.
I have two daughters, one white and one Chinese. When they were little, we went to Chinese culture school, camp, took language lessons. My white daughter was included in everything, and honestly was a lot better at the language than my Chinese daughter or me. We traveled to China, she held a panda, she can eat with chopsticks, she owned a lot of traditional Chinese clothing, toys, musical instruments. She’s not ethnically Chinese. She’s white. By the same token, her Chinese sister is not ethnically Irish although she has an Irish name, Irish relatives, took Irish dance.
What does she hope to accomplish by claiming to be Hispanic? I don’t think it would help her get into any college any more than being half Asian will. For such a small benefit, is it worth being questioned? Worth having to prove why she feels ethnically Hispanic? It may be worth it to her. Elizabeth Warren feels ethnically Native American but it caused her nothing but trouble to have to explain that. The NAACP woman feels ethnically black (although actually went as far as to make her appearance black) and again, nothing but trouble.
Before she checks off Hispanic, she needs to know that someone, someday will question her and she’ll need to explain, and that some people will disagree with her claiming to be Hispanic. If she’s okay with that, then she should do whatever she wants, but there may be no benefit to her except her own feelings. No bonus points for getting into schools, no extra money, it’s just a box on the app.
With all due respect to the OP, it strikes me as disingenuous when posters start questioning whether they can check off the box as an underrepresented minority identity for college apps. That a college benefits from having a more diverse class is undisputable. However, suddenly claiming an ethnic identity - which just so happens to be sought by selective colleges is very self-serving.
I don’t doubt that people may “feel” like part of the tribe that they grew up around, that’s completely understandable but that in no way changes their “ethnic identity.” You can change your citizenship, but not your genes. Plus, if the whole goal for colleges in reaching out to historically under represented minority students is to increase diversity in their classes, how would someone just claiming to “feel” ethnic add anything to that goal? I mean what’s next? Can someone who makes a lot of money but overspends and “feels” poor be considered lower SES to benefit their college app? I say go ahead and feel whatever you want to feel, but changing your ethnic identity to suit your purposes is insincere.
@TuckerTroy This question came up when your D took her PSAT, SAT or ACT. How did she identify then?
College Board administers the National Hispanic Scholarship Foundation. Based on PSAT scores, Hispanic students with top scores are designated scholars and are put on a list that college board sends to colleges. Some schools offer $ to those with this designation.
College Board defines Hispanic as someone 1/4 hispanic–one of their grandparents needs to be Hispanic by birth or citizenship. By their definition, Hispanics may be of any race or religion.
Using this criteria, your D is NOT Hispanic. My D scored high enough on the PSAT to be considered a scholar. But before her school would put in her application, we needed to show guidance my husband’s birth certificate which indicated his mother’s place of birth as Argentina.
I believe she identified herself as “Asian” on standardized tests. Caucasian on her transcript. Yes, the NHSF definition of what they consider Hispanic is very specific and unambiguous. And based on their definition, we are not Hispanic. However, I’m not sure if the Common App uses that same definition or that of the Census where ethnicity is based on origin OR cultural heritage.
The reason this came up in the first place was due to one of her essays where she makes reference to her Spanish “family.” I guess she could add an explanation, but that would disrupt the tempo of the essay as she takes off on a tangent to explain her identity. If she leaves at is, my feeling is that the reader may wonder why she didn’t select Hispanic on her App. So I thought that an explanation in the Additional Comments section might help. Hence, my question to the masses…
What I’d really like her to do is to leave the whole demographic section blank, but that may limit her options in today’s uber competitive admissions environment (even with the perceived Asian bias at some schools).
I am half asian - half white, and was on the end of a lot of real discrimination (not pathetic microagressions) over the years (both as a hispanic - which I an not) and an asian (usually when I wore glasses or when someone actually had been informed about my asian mother).
In spite of the bias in admissions against asians, I would not claim “hispanic”. If it comes out later in college she could take a lot of heat . I would encourage her to leave the race area blank unless she definitely has an “asian” sounding last name in which case I would mark both races or biracial, if that’s an option.
Owning your bi-racial heritage and the associated experiences can provide some interesting essay material to distinguish your self and that’s something to think about. I have seen this benefit several students in regards to admissions.
@twoinanddone - may I ask you how each one of kids checked off the ethnicity box?
If a Spanish family adopted an Asian kid, should that kid check off “Hispanic” like his/her siblings in the family or “Asian?”
There are a lot of Chinese in Argentina. Would they be considered Asian or Hispanic?
It is always puzzling to me as what Common App is trying to track or identify?
I get you want to game the system and the system is terrible. the same student is rewarded or punished based on race, ethnicity and gender etc…(being Asian or white is not a plus)
you would not be the first to do something like that but I would not. that stretch is so over the top .
it is true the term Hispanic has no relation to race or ethnicity it is a language grouping. but in America we tend to think of “Hispanics” as people who look like George Zimmerman and not like Christina Aguilera .
I hope someday schools especially the elitist school like the ivies stop using a multi tiered system in admissions but, if you want to attend these type of schools this is their mentality and you want into their world, so I say
DO NOT DO IT!
oldfort, Hispanic has zero to do with race or ethnicity but almost everybody in America uses the term wrong. a black person from Dominican republic , a mestizo from Honduras and a white person from Argentina or Cuba have nothing in common but the fact that during colonial times Spain had conquered those countries and immigrants and slaves moved into those areas. some of those places have very large native populations or slightly mixed native/European (mestizo) populations like in central America.
we do not say a white person from England, a black person from Jamaica and an American Indian from Georgia are all the same race or ethnicity because of common language(English).so why people incorrectly do that with Hispanic all the time is bizarre.
Maybe adcoms should be color blind.
I thought Hispanic was based primarily on surname or birth location, not having lived in a country or neighborhood. Also, Hispanic in college apps is not typically European (Spain) but is Central or South American. In terms of applications or scholarship, the issue is that people from those areas or with those names more likely are immigrants or first generation and ESL. I would absolutely say no, she is not Hispanic.
@twoinanddone - may I ask you how each one of kids checked off the ethnicity box?
If a Spanish family adopted an Asian kid, should that kid check off “Hispanic” like his/her siblings in the family or “Asian?”
There are a lot of Chinese in Argentina. Would they be considered Asian or Hispanic?
It is always puzzling to me as what Common App is trying to track or identify?
What about the late Alberto Fujimori, former president of Peru?
I believe that’s why the census defines “ethnicity” as based on origin OR cultural heritage.
In which case Fujimori’s race would be Asian (by birth) and his ethnicity Hispanic (by cultural heritage).
"Maybe adcoms should be color blind. " one would think this would be ideal ethically and morally.
the only school that takes great pride in doing that which is counter to how most colleges operate and also refuses federal money so the federal government can not claw around in their school is
Hillsdale College http://www.hillsdale.edu/ (and maybe one other school I think grove city college… I maybe wrong on that one)
OP wrote: “My DD is struggling with the whole race/ethnicity issue for college apps. Sad because she’s never really had to think about it until now.” But she has had to think about it before now, and we know she likely “identified herself as “Asian” on standardized tests. Caucasian on her transcript.” So why is she now struggling with that designation? I suspect the struggle is because she wants to do something she knows she shouldn’t.
Her essay about her Spanish “family” sounds great and could speak to how closely she identifies with the Hispanic culture in a more honest way.