<p>As glido said, then it’s up to the school or institution to change the definition if the goal is to get underprivileged children. Meanwhile, til that changes, I see no reason that a legitimately Hispanic child shouldn’t check the box, regardless of whether he lives in the barrio or in Beverly Hills, regardless of whether his parents are picking fruit or picking stocks. </p>
<p>I sure as heck expect the Obama children to check Afr-American, even though they are hardly underprivileged and are legacies at multiple Ivy League colleges.</p>
<p>You play the hand you’re dealt. In this instance, your kids have been dealt a hand that gives them advantages and opportunities they would not have without their partial Hispanic heritage.</p>
<p>Please check out the Hispanic Students forum here on CC, this question has been asked many times. See the ‘Am I Hispanic’ sticky thread as well as the Resources thread which contains lots of information about scholarships, summer programs, etc.:</p>
<p>I have ancestors who were forced out of Canada and ended up in the Louisiana territory when it was Spanish. Does that make me Canadian and Hispanic? </p>
<p>How far do we stretch this thing before it becomes more full of holes than full of substance?</p>
<p>If someone can legitimately claim 1/4 Hispanic by a grandparent who is from one of the listed countries, what’s the problem here? We’re not talking about making up stuff, we’re not talking about someone’s grandfather from China who happened to have lived in Ecuador for a few months.</p>
<p>I check that I’m a woman. I cannot think of any negative consequences for that beyond sexists not liking me for it and why do I care what someone like that thinks?</p>
<p>I would absolutely have my kids check the box and I’d make sure they understood that their heritage is something to be proud of.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, the OP states clearly that her’s children’s grandparents are NOT from one of the countries (in this case, Mexico) but that their great-great-grandparents are from what USED to be Mexico but has been part of the US for 150+ years.</p>
<p>Sure people are going to take advantage of this. As Americans we’re culturally programmed to take advantage of any little loophole we can. The system should be set up to sort out first gen from 3 generation. It’s rather silly. Each of my set of grandparents were immigrants (100%) not any kind of immigrant that qualifies for any boost, I’m 1/2 and 1/2 (50%) and since my H was in the same position our kids are 25%…they are 100 years and so far removed from anything remotely cultural it’s silly. My grandparents spoke the language in the home, our parents have/had moderate use of the language, my H and I have no language capabilities related to our grandparents. The kids probably don’t even know what they are 25% of… using 3rd or 4th generation as some sort of affimative action alone without other variables needing affirmative action is ridiculous.</p>
<p>UCLA brought in URM engineering freshman early for math refreshers. Son of a friend (1/4 Hispanic–one set of grandparents from El Salvador?) went to it.</p>
<p>RE: post 45 - Isn’t post 31 talking about exactly that? Someone whose 4 grandparents are from Germany, and they are able to check the Hispanic box because they were born in Chile?</p>
<p>RE: post 44, I think the URM thing is already more full of holes than substance. I think giving a preference for socio-economic need would be more meaningful.</p>
<p>I’m finding this thread incredibly interesting as my kids are biracial. My son only started checking “black” when he took the PSAT; before that he had no reason to define himself by race! When he started applying to schools I actually felt guilty about it since, he “appears” white - pale skin and blue eyes. But so many people encouraged us to take any advantage possible, and his father IS black. No, we should not give advantages to anyone based on appearance, but we all have to work within the system.
As to the comment about the schools competing for URM, you are confusing this with underprivileged - NOT the same thing. You can be a wealthy minority but you are still underrepresented at the elite schools. Some seem desperate for qualified minority students, as demonstrated by all the mail we got from Cornell’s “Diversity Program.” Made me laugh!</p>
<p>“If the above definition is true than an Asian and non spanish European whoes parent were born in any of the country should qualify as Hispanic.”</p>
<p>“Born in” isn’t the same as “from.” John McCain isn’t of Panamian (?) descent, even though he was born there. If I were an expat to China and had a child when there, that wouldn’t make my child Chinese.</p>
<p>If that is true then the only people that can be described as Hispanic should be people who have some ancestor going back to Spain in Europe. Then OP children should not be considered Hispanic at all.</p>
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<p>May be the original ancestor were from non Spain European who settled in Mexico.</p>
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<p>In what way this case is different from the girls having four grandparents from Asia.</p>
<p>I think the whole concept of URM admissions don’t make sense and OP should check the box to take the benefit as I don’t think any genuine cases take the benefit to begin with.</p>
Why do you say that? The OP has an ancestor from Mexico so there’s a good chance that ancestor or predecessors to that ancestor were from Spain or native to Mexico which I assume also ‘counts’. </p>
<p>The whole thing is silly but if the colleges want to be so focused on attributes like this then I see no reason for people not to take whatever honest advantage of it they can as long as they have no personal reasons for not taking it - like the possible nagging thought of whether they’d have been accepted to the college without checking the box. For sure though, not checking the box will exclude people from getting ‘box specific’ scholarships.</p>
<p>See, to me (a Hispanic), a lot of this discussion is the difference between race and ethnicity. Race isn’t affected by where the person was born. You don’t ‘lose’ race. But, to me, the kid of immigrants, you do ‘lose’ ethnicity. My Spanish isn’t as good as my parents (immigrants) and my kids is worse than mine. They are H (they are also other categories of URM on their dad’s side) but their kids probably won’t be. The house my kids were born in was very, very different from mine-- with handmade clothes, ‘different’ foods, bilingualism and worrying about people in the homeland. And I am thankful for that. Welcome to America! It’s a wonderful land and that’s the melting pot.</p>
<p>So the way I understand the 1/4, it means 1/4 is Hispanic-- from one of those countries. There is no way the mother-in-law (the children’s grandmother) is old enough to have been in Texas when it was taken from Mexico. (So when you write, “The OP has an ancestor from Mexico” that’s not really the definition. The definition is at least 1/4 Hispanic, not 1/4 descended from Hispanics.) </p>
<p>So I see Obama’s grandkids as AA or some part AA, depending on who their dads are. I see the 1/4 Salvadoran in ellemenope’s post as rightfully being able to check the box. And I think that Asians who have lived in Latin America for generations (and they do exist) can rightfully be Asian and Hispanic. But, from the bottom of my heart, I don’t see how these kids are anything but American.</p>
<p>There is a good reason that in this country, all racial/ethnicity determinations are based solely on self-identification. How can anyone here, besides the OP, determine whether the OP’s MIL is or is not 100% Hispanic? Because if she is, then the grandkids are 1/4 Hispanic, period.</p>
<p>The way I hear it, the MIL grew up in Texas in a community that was ethnically and racially Mexican. Her ethnicity did not dilute over generations as 2CWG feels that hers did. She is/was 100% Hispanic. Her son and grandchildren have assimilated to the American culture, but they still are 50% and 25% Hispanic, respectively.</p>
<p>“racially Mexican” Here’s the thing-- there’s no such thing. That’s the point. And, frankly, the MIL isn’t saying the kids are, the dil is. But they both seem to think , erroneously, that being ‘white’ is inconsistent with being 'Hispanic" (based on what she wrote about her mil’s statements/ feelings). People don’t inherit being Hispanic and, honestly, it’s a bit offensive that so many people think of it that way. I mean, don’t my kids-- don’t her kids-- EVER get to just be American, like everyone else? (And I think trying to say my ethnicity is diluted while hers isn’t isn’t accurate. My kids actually DO speak Spanish, do go overseas regularly, etc. But they are still 1/4 H. Culture is different in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation. You can be the descendant of a conquistador or 1/32 Native American and not reach the definition. And, by the way, Tejano culture is absolutely not ‘Mexican’ any more than Cajun is French; both are, by now, their own fusion.)</p>
<p>I grew up in a neighborhood where a lot of people had grandparents who were Italian or Irish immigrants. It was apparently a big deal when some of the Irish young people started marrying the Italian young people. By the time I was born, the kids didn’t think it was a big deal. They didn’t feel like they were in different camps. They were just American. I sure hope that, someday, my decendants will get to be plain-ole American.</p>
<p>And I’m adding: I hope I didn’t offend anyone. I honestly do not bregudge anyone what they are or whatever check they get to place-- I just don’t think these kids are Hispanic.</p>