Before anyone judges me, just know that I have felt EXTREMELY guilty about this for the past 4 months.
Basically, my great-grandfather was a Dominican national (born and raised there), but his parents were 100% English (both born in London). My family was living in the DR because they owned a hotel. My g-gpa moved to Massachusetts and met his wife, and I was born some decades later. I was curious about race/ethnicity/etc when I was applying to colleges and looked up the definition of Hispanic and read that it has more to do with identity and heritage by culture not by race etc… So I put that Hispanic with white as my race, and my acceptance came two months after. I’ve seen similar threads like this with Italians/Europeans who were born in Argentina and claim to be Hispanic. Culturally, my family is super white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, and I really don’t have much connection to Hispanic culture other than a few relatives we still keep in touch with from DR who speak Spanish and are Hispanic. I’m literally white as snow (blond, blue eyes, I have to wear sunscreen even when it’s cloudy). I’m also extremely privileged; I have a ski house that we go to on the weekends.
I never wanted to take away an URM spot from people who really are URMs: people whose families faced prejudice and genuinely deserve a chance at an education. I was just caught up in the college admissions pandemonium (and this website lmao), and I only thought about getting accepted. The USA is so racially/ethnically divided currently, and I want to be an advocate of social change for minorities. Yet, here I am exploiting a minority group and their culture for my own benefit. I could defend my “Hispanic” ancestry through birth records, and I would probably never get expelled because it isn’t technically a lie. But, it’s the morality and the angle of my intentions that I feel guilty about. All I ever wanted was to get into a top college, but because I cheated the system, it doesn’t even feel like it was earned.
I’ve told some of my friends about this and they have different opinions. Some of them genuinely argue that I would be misrepresenting my family’s history by NOT including Hispanic as an option. This would therefore be dishonorable to my great grandfather. Others seem to think that it was just a selfish exaggeration.
I might just tell my school to get the guilt off my chest, but I don’t want to be expelled. HELP…
If this was the first time you ever identified as latino, you’re right, it was a sleazy move.
However, there is no way to know if you would have been accepted anyways. Being URM is not a golden ticket to life.
You didn’t lie. Stop feeling guilty. You were entitled to check that box because of your g-gpa. A Spanish speaking person of European decent from Argentina IS Hispanic.
It’s not your fault that colleges don’t do a better job of distinguishing between underrepresented minorities and underprivileged minorities. The fact is they don’t and never have. They use first-generation to make sure they get students who overachieved based on statistical expectations conditioned on parental education level. That’s a different category.
If it makes you feel any better, you probably beat out the child of a wealthy Latin American Oil mogul, who would be Hispanic, but certainly not underprivileged.
If holistic admissions wasn’t holistic enough to figure out or care about your background (and I’m pretty cynical about this), that’s on them, not on you. You didn’t actually lie.
And in any case, with a burgeoning Hispanic population (of various mixtures of races), I don’t think being Hispanic is as big an admissions boost as you think it is anyway.
And yes, there are tons of well-off suburban Hispanics checking the “Hispanic” box with no compunction (because, well, they are Hispanic).
Welcome to College Admissions. You won’t be the first to game the system or use whatever you can as leverage to get URM and first gen status.
Just venting:
I guess as a Mexican-American, whose family has experienced prejudice and was fortunate when my parents could afford heat, I should feel empathy, but honestly, I think its sad and pathetic. All of a sudden, there are “Hispanic” individuals finding their roots and crawling out of the woodwork for the purposes of trying to get a college seat. That’s the universities’ fault, not yours.
I think whatever label you put on yourself, has to be what you identify as your culture. Being several generations removed from the “hispanic” culture, I honestly don’t get why privileged individuals feel the need to try to “scam” the system. You feel guilty; those are your true feelings and no one can take those away. They didn’t admit you just because you claimed URM; other parts of your application had to combine with that to gain admission.
No, they are not going to “kick you out” so, you can stop worrying about that, since it appears to be your primary concern. (You probably weren’t admitted for your URM status, although I do think they need to send the URM stats to the feds.) Just remember not to look down your nose “at us” when you are no longer hispanic in 3 ½ years.
[My children applied to schools where URM status wasn’t considered, but if they had applied to those elite’s, I would have hoped that the core of their applications made them competitive, not their bloodlines.]
I was a first gen at a time when prep school kids had easier entry into the ivies. Now the tables have turned. Back then, it was important where your parents when to college and legacy mattered (and still does to some degree). But I was first gen and no one cared about that. Now first gen kids are getting into 17% of the class at elite colleges. Kids whose parents went to college in other countries are trying to claim first gen. All in all college admissions is a rat race, and the rules change almost every year on who has it “easier.” So many students using what they can to game the system.
@“aunt bea” I agree with you. Culturally, I am not Hispanic (though I am not opposed to discovering the culture of Dominican Republic and meeting more relatives in the future). But still, I feel like I’ll never be Hispanic in the truest meaning. That’s why I think I might just tell my college that I’m not actually a minority. I would rather have my integrity at this point.
I hope you also understand that you have given fodder to the people who are against having URM status matter. If too many people try to game the status, it is put at risk.
Recently there was a post by someone whose parent took a genetic test that showed Iberian peninsula genes and wanted to claim the status.
At least you know who your ancestor is and know some relatives.
If I were you I would stop talking about it to your friends and take it to the grave. Spend the summer down in the DR volunteering with an educational group.
@“Snowball City” :
“I hope you also understand that you have given fodder to the people who are against having URM status matter. If too many people try to game the status, it is put at risk.”
And if schools are going to use particular statuses rather than evaluating each applicant holistically (as they claim) or going by some objective measures, then they have to understand that they will be gamed.
It’s not the kids’ fault if colleges set up some pretty crazy incentives.
I am half Spanish and I didn’t check the box. I don’t “look” Hispanic as we think Hispanics look in this country, but neither do a lot of Spaniards, especially in places like Barcelona. I’ve had people in Europe guess that I was German until I opened my mouth. I’ve been pegged for a local in Rome and asked for directions. Others have thought I was French. No one knows what the hell I am. LOL. But I have a southern WASP mother, I’ve faced no discrimination and have no real connection to Hispanic culture, and it just seemed like that box wasn’t meant for me and it would be the wrong thing to do.
So I considered it somewhat of a defining moment for me because it was the first time I remember making what I considered an important decision all on my own that I felt was an indication of how I wanted to conduct my life from an ethical standpoint. Would I be willing to do or say anything to get ahead, or do what I thought was right?
Fortunately, I still got into my first choice, but honestly, I’m sure it made no difference. Checking the box won’t get you in. Logically, I know that. There’s a lot more that goes into college admissions than that, but in my head, I felt there would always be some lingering, nagging doubt I’d have to live with, or that if anyone knew, they’d say “you only got in because . . . . “
You made a different decision than I did. A lot of people do. There have been posts on here about how people use DNA tests to look for traces of URM ethnicities to justify checking the box with no guilt at all, and yes, the child of wealthy Latin American Oil mogul might do it too, but that doesn’t make it the right thing to do IMO.
In the grand scope, it doesn’t matter, so don’t let guilt eat you alive. You got in because you deserved to get in, but you can use this as a defining moment in how you want to conduct your life from this day forward. Will you be willing to do or say anything to get ahead, or will you stand tall? In that sense, this may be a great early life lesson that will turn out to benefit you AND others in the future when it really DOES matter, and those times will come up. Trust me.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
I edited the title, which I almost never do. However, it was too clickbait for my taste.
I do believe that colleges benefit from having students from all spectrums of our society. If a college is going to know that holistically, a latino student would need to spend their essay chances on describing their reality rather than what interests them intellectually. The URM status is a short cut that gets it out of the way. No one can claim that on a whole the latino, black, and NA experience is the same as the white, even when socio economic status is taken into account.
Same thing with asking about parents’ educational background - First generation students bring a set of life experiences that can be quite different. Do they need to spell that out for it to be seen holistically?
edited to add: as the OP illustrates, integrity still matters. Just because it could be gamed doesn’t mean that it is right.
This isn’t new.
The kid who won the Hispanic SAT scholar award the year one of my sons graduated was the grandchild or maybe great grandchild of people who left Germany and spent 6 months in Cuba before coming to the US. Another year, the kid who won was the son of a woman who had been born in Mexico but was adopted at birth by a white couple and raised as an American citizen.
Back in my day, I knew a kid who was raised Jewish and had never met his Hispanic dad. In HS, his mom changed his last name from hers to his. After college, to which he got a large scholarship, he changed his name back.
A girl I went to law school with had originally been at another school. She had checked off Aleut, even though she was NYC. When the school realized it, she was confronted. She claimed it was an error, returned all the money and switched to another school. Nobody at my school ever believed it was a mistake.
Isn’t this also the case of Elizabeth Warren who claims she is Native American?
I didn’t know there was a single “Hispanic” culture. The Cubans in Miami seem very different from the Mexicans who seem very different from the Argentinians who seem very different than the Puerto Ricans who seem very different than Dominicans who seem very different than Salvadorans. The Brazilians seem completely different than any of them and they are considered Hispanic too even though they speak Portuguese.
If the colleges really wanted to remedy past discrimination, they would have asked to explain how discrimination has factored into your life circumstance. That’s not what they did. They asked you to check a box without explaining the terms for how to check the box. The racial characteristics that the colleges are trying to collect are approximations. You did your homework, discovered that your g-gpa was from the Dominican Republic and that you qualify as Hispanic.
I think your guilt is misplaced. I’m not just saying that you shouldn’t “feel” guilty. I’m saying that you are NOT guilty. I disagree 100% with Aunt Bea, though I regret that she or anyone else has faced discrimination.
OP didn’t just “discover” their heritage. They’ve known about it and still have contact with family in the old country. I don’t believe they have any reason to feel guilty.
What’s the time limit for claiming family heritage? Is a student whose family comes from Italy seen as any less of an Italian even when their family hasn’t lived there in 150 years? What about the Irish who parade around in March but have no ancestors in recent memory who ever set foot in Ireland? Are they less Irish? People quibble over Hispanic origin because colleges seem to value it, but don’t seem to have an issue with other cultural identities. If the Irish and Italians can claim a cultural heritage based on the birthplace of their great-great grandparents, why can’t people of Hispanic origin do the same?
I have a friend whose parents are Italian but born in Chile, and she had no compunction about checking the Hispanic box (for herself and for her white-as-snow children) and she genuinely considers herself Hispanic. Another friend has a European mom who was born in Argentina and a German dad and also checked the Hispanic box. If I were you, I wouldn’t tell the school. Your grandpa was born in the Dominican Republic. Plus you still have relatives in the DR. I would let it go if you can. It’s not like they saw the Hispanic box checked and just let you in. They take other things into consideration.
Personally, I think she was wrong to claim it based on family stories.
@techmom99 Those stories are really disturbing but I am assuming they are outliers. In my part of the country the pressure to attend certain colleges is not that intense and I would doubt it is wide spread.