Where’s the integrity of college adcoms for discounting a student’s achievements on basis of racial discrimination?
This takes the cake.
So you change your name to an Iberian peninsula name. You go to your ivy interview. You’re face to face with your interviewer and then what?
Thats the beauty of “hispanic”; it can be any race.
I actually have a Spaniard cousin who married an asian gal, and they have biracial kids that look more asian than white. Kids have the father’s spanish last name.
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Footbol as in futbol
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Sorry - being too glib - it was the combination of American Football and Futbol. :o)
What stunt did the kid pull? I changed my daughter’s totally Chinese name to a totally Irish name. She had no say in it.
^ Ditto. We adopted our S from Korea when he was 4 months old. His surname is Italian and he is Jewish. He checked Asian on Common App. I seriously doubt any of his interviewers even batted an eye.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/07/living/feat-mindy-kaling-brother-affirmative-action/
“(CNN)—Actress Mindy Kaling’s brother says that he posed as a black man years ago to get into medical school and that the experience opened his eyes to what he calls the hypocrisy of affirmative action. …”
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It’s not to gain an advantage but to reduce a perceived disadvantage.
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Tomato, tomahto. 
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Where’s the integrity of college adcoms for discounting a student’s achievements on basis of racial discrimination?
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True, but I don’t believe deception is the way to deal with this. Is it worth saying you’re something else than what you are? It is not worth it to me.
No big deal!!! My parents are immigrants. I had a long unpronounceable last name . I hated it. I wish they changed it. Kept my married name after the divorce because it has two syllables and it is of English origin . Easier all the way around .
Newsflash: If a student doesn’t stereotype himself/herself – such as the infamous “BWRK’s” – Bright, Well-Rounded (read White) Kids of about a decade ago, then there is nothing to fear or go to extremes over. One of the Asian students I was counseling rejected a STEM major --although she was thoroughly capable in that department and chose one such area as a secondary listed major-- but chose instead a humanities subject as her first major. Although she did some activities that one might call “typical” for an Asian student, she was more different than similar in the particular passions and attitudes she was known for among adults who recommended her. She is intellectually exceptional, not just “academically high-achieving.”
Newsflash Two: Except for technical schools, no student or his parents in the USA should rationally expect US colleges to fill 90% of its freshman seats with STEM majors. Ain’t gonna happen. Deal with reality. The colleges want all of their departments populated. If you’re White or Asian and you’re a STEM major competing with other STEM majors from a heavily STEM geographical region with academic profiles and e.c.'s quite similar to yours, it’s not your personal origins that are the problem. Figure it out.
I can see the point of having an “Americanized” first name. If you don’t have one, that may suggest to some people that you are less assimilated, and that could be a negative in many settings. I doubt if the last name has much power any more in that respect. As for selective colleges, changing a kid’s last name to hide his Asian ethnicity probably wouldn’t work if the college really wanted to limit the number of Asians. All the college would have to do is Google applicants–there are pictures online of virtually all reasonably competitive applicants to highly selective colleges.
Modern Family reference:
Somehow, I don’t think that Lily Tucker-Pritchett’s name was chosen with college admissions in mind. Although if Cameron and Mitchell do adopt a second child, it could make for an interesting storyline.
^They did use the gay parent hook when applying to private day schools for her, though. But weren’t they outgunned by the mixed race lesbian couple
I think they should skip the name change and have the kid focus on hockey, drumming, and permaculture to beat the Asian stereotypes.
Maybe give him a nice Polish name and give him an accordion?
On most college supplemental applications they ask for full names of both parents and where each went to school.
It’s usually pretty obvious what the racial makeup of students are even if the race identity box is left blank.
Better to be proud of your racial and ethnic heritage instead of trying to hide it.
If there is no discrimination against ORMs, why are people against color blind admission? Did the “perceived” (and not real) disadvantage and the need to fill non-STEM departments result in CA schools having no impact when they went color blind? If not, what’s the big deal with the name change; if yes, then there’s a tangible benefit much like a family with Ivy ambitions a hundred years ago decided to name their son John Smith rather than Jonathan Goldstein.