<p>I understand if you are an under represented minority it may be to your advantage to check the appropriate box.. assuming your app. is good. But I'm curious if anyone, not being an URM, and not having checked that box, got any negative feedback or was subject to further inquiries. Does it really matter?</p>
<p>We'd rather not check the box. It's wholly optional on the Common Application, as it should be on all college applications, especially for state colleges. Our "interracial" children don't fit the usual categories well anyhow.</p>
<p>No proof, but it may harm, not help, if you're Asian - parental names and places of education may give ethnicity away, anyhow. </p>
<p>Aside- It doesn't seem fair that some students can claim legacy status, others are disadvantaged, but there is no place for parents who worked hard and became advantaged thru public schools to be able to let their offspring with excellent academic credentials benefit from elite private schools.</p>
<p>
[quote]
but there is no place for parents who worked hard
[/quote]
If the parents have an intact marriage, haven't spent time in jail, worked hard to further themselves without the advantage of priviledged access to elite schools, were frugal and saved for their kids' college education, it all counts against them! It does seem a bit unjust.</p>
<p>I read here about a young lady who lied and checked the "American Indian" box to get a leg up in the admissions process. If taken to task she was going to claim to be only part American Indian and reference a great, great, grandmother. Who checks this stuff? I guess she would be a URM admit if she pulled it off.</p>
<p>I don't get the legacy points. Why should the fact the your parent/s went to a particular school get you points in that school's app. process?</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>Why should the fact the your parent/s went to a particular school get you points in that school's app. process?<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>It's called money. Nearly all private schools that rely heavily on continuing alumni donations have some sort of legacy program to maintain connections and good relations between the school and its alumni.</p>
<p>And then there are the kids/grandkids of someone who has a building named after them at the college due to huge donations. The bar is lowered considerably for these uber-legacy kids. But, IMO, if these are private institutions, then I don't see a great problem with this (even though it can be frustrating and seem unfair to some). They need to generate revenue somehow.</p>
<p>I am half hispanic from my mother's side. My son, the applicant, does not look hispanic at all, although he speaks the language and has an affinity for Latin American culture. I'd like him to check the mixed heritage box, (part Caucasian, part Cuban), because my mother suffered terrible discrimination growing up in America, the painful effect of which she inadvertently passed on to us. I feel it's time for pay-back. But my son isn't sure it's ethical if he is mixed heritage and doesn't look hispanic. I researched the internet for a definition of "mixed ethnicity" and found only that an Hispanic scholastic foundation requires at least one-quarter hispanic. Applications ask you to put down the ethnic group that you "identify" yourself as. So, if you are mixed heritage and look caucasian, but feel your hispanic roots, then what is fair? Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Parents are always telling us to grow up, so right back at you! How do you think DS and DD get financial aid at so many colleges? Courtesy of those who have gone before and created the endowment! Private colleges could have continued to be the preserves of the rich, yet they are not. It's just silly to think they don't need to give legacy preference to keep things going. </p>
<p>Kids who have rel parents who work hard and set them on the right track have an enormous advantage. I've just been teaching in China where many families believe a daughter over 5 should be working instead of learning. </p>
<p>It is linear. Kids with caring parents have a way greater chance at doing everything better. </p>
<p>As a Californian I see the woe is me complaining of so many who can go to CaL or UCLA but were rejected at ivies and top LACs. What a problem! </p>
<p>Everyone won't get a Ferrari and everyone won't go to Harvard. So??????</p>
<p>mothermay,</p>
<p>"Time for pay-back"???</p>
<p>My husband's grandparents were illiterate Russian peasant immigrants. During the depression his grandparents and the rest of the Russian miners in their southern IL community were dragged out of bed and forced onto trains because they were taking the jobs of locals. During the fracas, grandmother was treated roughly, grandfather intervened and a local ended up dead. Grandfather spent a long time in jail. Needless to say, his children suffered some pain. My husband would not have dreamed of claiming special status because his grandparents were ill-treated by some in their new country. (They weren't being treated any better in Europe.) The point is, this country is full of people who are only a few generations off the boat. Many of them have stories to tell--but they don't. I can't even believe you think your son should get some special break because his grandmother didn't have a middle class upbringing.</p>
<p>mothermay:</p>
<p>As long as certain colleges are going to practice racial bias and as long as their applications are ambiguous, I suggest doing what you think would be to your advantage as long as you're honest according to your interpretation of the wording.</p>
<p>Regarding 'looking hispanic' - I'm not sure what this look is. The term 'hispanic' doesn't denote a race so there's no clearly defined 'look'. I've know many hispanics, including some Mexican citizens, who don't look any different than someone from any European country. I've traveled to several countries in South America where in some, Argentina for example, much of the population is of European non-Spanish descent yet they're still considered hispanic since they're from a Spanish-speaking country.</p>
<p>A suggestion...check more than one box when you can to give as accurate an answer as possible.</p>
<p>My d is half Hispanic. Where she could select more than one racial/ethnic group she did.... checking off Hispanic/Mexican American and Caucasian. Where she could only check one box, she selected Hispanic/Mexican American/Chicano and didn't feel bad about it because one of her essays revealed her mixed heritage. She is also more than meets the very diluted requirement to check the American Indian box, but she did NOT check this box. Our extended family is very close, her Mexican American heritage is very important to her and she wanted her application to reflect this fact. But, though she knows exactly which family members were Apache and several members of the family are affiliated, she is not affiliated with a tribe herself and therefore didn't feel it would be right to check that box.</p>
<p>btw...I agree with the previous post. People have strange ideas how Hispanics should look. My d, like my husband, is very fair-skinned with almost black hair and light hazel eyes. My sister's husband, who is also Hispanic, is much, much fairer than my blonde sister. My son who has the exact same heritage as my daughter, has light brown hair, blue eyes and much darker skin than my daughter.</p>
<p>There's enough consternation and ambiguity over the race checkboxes that it'd be nice if the colleges and the Common App would at least include a detailed appendix on how one should fill out the racial section and include the formulas (1/2, 1/16, 1/100, etc.). Another alternative would be for the colleges to just skip asking that question altogether.</p>
<p>I think it would be progress to get rid of those boxes altogether. My sister's kids are half-hispanic, are fairer than my kids and have no ties to that culture. My brother's kids are 1/8 American Indian, have blond hair and blue eyes and also have no ties to the culture. We are all in the same socio-economic bracket, so why should a distinction be made regarding ethnicity. It would be a step towards becoming a race-blind society.</p>
<p>
[quote]
So, if you are mixed heritage and look caucasian, but feel your hispanic roots, then what is fair? Any thoughts?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My personal reaction is that if a heritage is part of your current family life then it can be legitimately used. Colleges are much more loose in their interpretation.</p>
<p>My grandfather told me about American Indians in my family's past. His last name would certainly lead me to believe that there were. I know that you can become a card carrying member of certain tribes by proving a relationship (even a fairly distant one) but it is not part of my current family culture and I was not going to encourage my daughter to use it during her college process - even if we were legit. </p>
<p>Eventually I will explore that branch of my family and I look forward to seeing where it goes but should that blood line help get my kid into college? I don't think so - it wasn't part of her life.</p>
<p>Vango:
The UCs and CalStates don't take race into account for admissions which is the way I think it should be but some others don't agree. This has been discussed at length on previous threads so I won't belabor it here but I thought you'd be interested to know about the California public universities in case you didn't already.</p>
<p>Checking the Hispanic or Af-Am box is not a golden ticket as some think when it comes to college admissions. Just from watching the past 6 high school classes at our local hs run the college admissions gauntlet, being Hispanic or Af-Am isn't enough...add to that single-parent household and low socio-economic circumstances and top 10% of the class--now, you're talking. Middle class Af-Am or Hispanic from an intact family situation didn't seem to get much of a boost...It's all taken in context.</p>
<p>Thank you for your thoughtful and very helpful answers UCSD dad, IdMom, Vango, and Elleneast,</p>
<p>I'll pass them on to my son and let him decide. </p>
<p>MidMo -- it's vitriolic judgmental bursts like yours that makes it hard to even ask questions on web sites. And please don't reply.</p>
<p>ellemenope: Which is as it should be.</p>
<p>mm: sorry to ignore your request. Phrases like "time for pay-back" just bring out the worst in me. I don't tiptoe very well.</p>