On the Common App, I put that I was Hispanic and Cuban.
So my mother was adopted, and she is between half and full Cuban, making me between a quarter and a half. Since learning that I was Cuban, I have identified with it as much as any other part of me.
I meet any standard of Hispanic heritage or origin, but if a college asked for verification in a form of a document, I’m not sure if I could prove my origin (my mother said she does not know where the documentation is). Could I get burned for misrepresenting my ethnicity?
Being Hispanic is Ethnicity and not Race, so you don’t need DNA test. You said you have identified with it. How did you do it? Any Hispanic organizations, church, friends group, social media, etc, etc? Any effort to learn its heritage and language even for a little? They can prove that you have identified your Hispanic ethnicity.
But you don’t have to prove your Hispanic origin. Colleges don’t ask for that. The only race they ask that from is Native Americans and that because there are federal-tribal agreements that mean that many Native Americans have tribal registration and cards. I’m black and there’s no “black card” that I have to pull out when I apply for jobs or programs, nor do I need to join an African Methodist Episcopal church or discuss my love for hip hop and R&B or join a “I Promise, I Really Am Black Y’all” Facebook group *
In all seriousness, there’s no one way to be Hispanic. Lots of Hispanic folks don’t speak Spanish and don’t know the history of their country of origin. (Most Black people don’t speak an African language or even know what country they originate from.) This is the honor system, folks - if you say that you’re Cuban the college will assume that you are telling the truth. Demanding some kind of paper verification would be super racist.
*To be 100% transparent…I’m being tongue in cheek, because the very idea is hilarious to me.
Ok. I read on a separate thread where someone said, after being admitted to UChicago,my top choice, he had to provide a birth certificate of one of his relatives to prove his 25% identity. And so I got freaked out.
If you are concerned that a specific college or scholarship program has a more specific definition or requirements, check its web site and/or ask it directly.
I don’t see how that would help, because many birth certificates do not have race on them. Mine - the copy I got from the Department of Vital Records - does not have my race on it.
Even when they do have race, a lot of times that is the race as assumed and recorded by the nurse filling out the birth certificate - not the one specified by the parent(s) at the time of birth. This happens all the time. My original hospital birth certificate may have had my race on it, I don’t know. And what happens if your parent is missing - or if the woman who birthed you is a surrogate? Or you were conceived with a sperm donor?
In 99% of cases, the university will not ask for any kind of record to prove that you are a specific race or ethnicity (unless you are a Native American or Alaska Native), because this is nigh impossible to definitively “prove.” I am not sure about this UChicago story, but I would verify.
If you are 50% Latinx, your mother or father’s place of birth likely will be on your birth certificate, which you should be ready to supply as proof.
To prove the minimum of 25% Latinx that the College Board (for example) requires to qualify for a national Hispanic minority scholar recognition, you need to supply evidence of your grandparent’s ethnicity. That may be on your parent’s bc or you may have to supply a grandparent’s bc.
@skieurope I did not say “colleges” I said “many ask.” Meaning, an applicant should be prepared to supply proof in any dimension when offering the Latinx profile.
@IvyGrad09 The OP asked specifically for colleges, so your answer should have related to the question. Your lack of an antecedent therefore made your response confusing at best.
You had not mentioned that in this thread previously, so please do not accuse me of “doubting [your] honesty” on a statement that you never made here. I don’t have the type of memory that remembers every user’s posts on other threads.
More likely, it’s the fact that I did not apply to UChicago. If that’s the case for them, then thank you for letting me know as neither I, nor other users here, had never heard that before. If the OP is targeting UChicago, then perhaps s/he should ask them directly, as the plural of anecdote is not data. But as I said, few colleges will ask, so one out of 2600 4-year American colleges still means that the odds are the OP will not be asked.
That said, if asked, other posters have identified ways to show.
@juillet, that is one of your career highlight posts…wish I could both ‘like’ & ‘helpful’ & ‘rofl’ it
OP, anybody aspiring to UChicago should know better than to read take one post on the internet and panic! I know bunches of hispanic kids who have not had to ‘prove’ their ethnicity (so now you have a random sample of 2 data points from the internet…).
And just to put the cat amongst the pigeons, don’t forget the US citizens born abroad in latin american countries (so they are not genetically, ethnically or culturally of that heritage) who are, by birth, legitimately 100% from that country. Do they count as hispanic? Does it matter if they move to the US as toddlers or teenagers?
Aside from Native American / Alaska Native and (this is important) students qualifying for / getting specific scholarships there is no reason for proof: the admissions ‘bump’ just isn’t that big, and college admissions teams don’t have the time, resources, or inclination to argue with every applicant if they are “really” the ethnicity that they say they are. It will mostly matter when the adcomm is down to 17 places left with 50 roughly comparably qualified applicants still in the running and are looking for distinguishing features to allocate those last places.*
My place of birth is not on my children’s birth certificate (just my name and age at time of birth) nor are my parents’ places of birth on mine from a different state.
@IvyGrad09 it’s not this thread point, but the logical question would be, what were you asked to verify and for what specific purpose? You may not know why. If it was for a particular scholarship, that fund may require some evidence. But that’s all.
And what HSRP requires is not the criteria colleges use. Colleges follow the general Census/DoL wording. No matter how many times “someone” confuses the HSRP organization and college admissions.
For Native American, only some colleges look for the enrollment number, usually publics in states with high NA populations.
As for Cuban, if you identify as Hispanic and have been, if you do have some relationship with that culture, fine. I’d be curious how, if your mother was adopted as a young child.
You’ve got to grasp that holistic colleges don’t live and die based on a check box. They keep reading, see how this is reflected.
“Americans have tribal registration and cards. I’m black and there’s no “black card” that I have to pull out when I apply for jobs or programs, nor do I need to join an African Methodist Episcopal church or discuss my love for hip hop and R&B or join a “I Promise, I Really Am Black Y’all” Facebook group *”
lol, I wouldn’t mind joining your facebook group, if you started one!
Seriously, is it just for URMs that it’s being asked, that does sound racist - i.e. a college adcom stating, 'hey we may have a real Hispanic here to add diversity to the campus, fake Hispanics are bad for the campus". It does sound bad though, I know a lot of white and Asians in the bay area, and don’t think any were asked to provide proof.
If the bay area is in California, then most college bound students are heading to state schools that do not use race/ethnicity in admission, so there is no incentive to be dishonest and no reason for the schools to question their honestly here.
@evergreen5 Yes, the College Counselor confirmed ethnicity per College Board’s direction, which was by checking birth certificate.
As I stated, I don’t know about all birth certificates, but many (including mine) have parents’ birth place listed. To prove 25% takes a parent of one’s parent verified.
My daughter has a US birth certificate that lists me as her mother. Just says my name and age at time of birth. Even if it states where I was born, how would that prove her ethnicity? I was born in Mass, my mother was born in Mass, and yet my child is Chinese. She could very well be ethnically Hispanic if I was in fact Hispanic and raised her that way. In fact she’s ethnically American - likes country music, likes Mexican food, likes to dress in surfer clothing.
My other daughter also has a US birth certificate that says she was born in Denver. Denver has a large Hispanic population. You can’t tell by looking at it if she is Hispanic or not, you can just tell she was born on a certain date and time. That’s it.
I don’t see how anything can be confirmed by a birth certificate.
*
