Now that the college admissions process is over for this school year, I want to broach a topic that I’ve just been genuinely curious about. I’ve read that anybody can say they’re Hispanic even if they don’t have any Hispanic blood, and it generally seems like a pretty big advantage to put it on your application. Personally, I wouldn’t (and didn’t) do this because it seems blatantly unethical, but I know someone that is 1/8th Hispanic, marked himself as Hispanic (he’s actually Filipino, although he does have a Spanish last name), and proceeded to get into several Ivies even though his stats didn’t really measure up. He even said himself that he’s pretty sure he wouldn’t have got in without saying Hispanic on the application. Basically, my question is would admissions officers figure it out, and if not, should you do it if you think it will provide a significant advantage in the college admissions process?
There are already innumerable threads on this topic and the general consensus is that yes, it does give you an URM hook which is an advantage, but putting it down when you are not actually Hispanic leaves you with the risk of having your acceptance rescinded if/when the college finds out.
Heck, that’s nothing. At least Filipino kid had a spanish last name.
One of my friends is the mother of a blonde haired/blue-eyed kid that is whiter looking than Lindsay Lohan. This mom was bragging on Facebook that her 1/8 “black” kid is a National Achievement Finalist. I nearly fell off my seat.
My kids school started classifying him as Hispanic in 5 grade. It wasn’t worth fighting since his father is a hispanic immigrant. Now, it is a benefit for him to be listed as hispanic.
If you’re Hispanic, then mark the appropriate box. If you’re not 1/8th Hispanic(which I find is “pushing it”), then that’s where I personally have a problem.
That people have denoted our ethnicity/race/culture to a simple application booster, I don’t like. Even further, that some people who would not normally identify as Hispanic would do so just to weasel their way into schools, I find offensive.
Just my two cents.
It makes one wonder if there were no race/ethnicity questions at all on the college applications, would the results be completely different or not?
At the end of the day, it’s all up to you. The admission process is very unpredictable and, at some times, unfair for those that are ORM. You risk it all and if you can identify yourself as a Hispanic, then do it. Just don’t be surprised if they ask for a verification of some sort. Like stated before, when they find out, boy! GG to you!
Just take a look at the UC schools and UMich.
I don’t think that colleges will be maybe somehow innocently believe that every applicant who marks many boxes in the race/ethinicity area will have a boost. I mean, to me seems kind of quixotic and indeed I have a friend who did not have a latino last name and the college, which he was applying, requested some information about his ethnicity background. I still agree with the comments above, if one identifies itself within a specific group then why not, but at the end of the day it is a big risk to do. If the college,which one apply, finds and see that one did not say the truth about its ethnicity then one should confront the consequences, such as an acceptance rescind
@bordertexan and @GMTplus7 They can still make out from the name, slimy people 
and one of the officers at Berk did say that even though it does not matter as much, URM are still preffered, she referred to some ranking system on a scale of 1 to 5 and gave 2 examples where the (sigh) perfect asian kid was ranked 1.5 and a hispanic was ranked perfect 1 and was admitted with an overall worse application
What do you guys think about race-blind admissions like several colleges do with need-blind? This would seemingly get the truly top people, and according to this (http://tcf.org/work/education/detail/what-can-we-learn-from-states-that-ban-affirmative-action) article it shouldn’t lower diversity either.
If you’re 1/8 Hispanic and have a Hispanic last name, then you are Hispanic.
What exactly is the problem?
@Bored1997 My kids’ last name is Anglo, but their mom was born and raised in Latin America. Even then, not everyone there is a Garcia or Lopez. And for all of you obsessed with the URM magic bullet theory, its effectiveness starts running pretty thin beyond perhaps a slight advantage for a handful of kids at the Ivies and their ilk. My kid was accepted at schools like Case Western, Rochester, Pitt and Wisconsin which are pretty much in line with his 3.47 UW/1450 (CR+M)/7 APs. He was denied at Notre Dame, Rice, Tulane, Cornell and even our state flagship, UT-Austin due to the 7% rule. Seems like a fairly typical set of results to me, Hispanic or not.
If a few dozen “undeserving” URM students get admitted to top schools for the sake of diversity, they are still strong students and are still outnumbered by even less deserving legacies, athletes, and celebrity children at these places. Way too much energy is wasted by the Glenn Beck crowd whining about unsubstantiated anecdotal stories about “a kid from my HS” who got into Stanford with a 24 ACT. Many of these kids come from disadvantaged backgrounds and their accomplishments, to me, are way more impressive than those of some prep school kid raised without a care in the world.
@ClassicRockerDad I never said there was a problem with him doing it; I just said I wouldn’t do it personally, and I’m happy with my decision after I got into my top choice even after playing admissions on “hard mode.” In his case I’m sure it’s justifiable to call him Hispanic, but even he doesn’t consider himself Hispanic in real life. I was just wondering if people should do it to get an advantage. For example, if someone is full Indian or full White, they could technically say their Hispanic too.
Also, @sltxdad I totally agree that people who overcome adversity deserve credit. However, what do you have to say about URMs who have plenty of money? Wouldn’t that lend itself to making socioeconomic factors a more important important component towards increasing diversity?
The National Hispanic Recognition Program says you have to be 25% Hispanic to qualify…so I use that as the limit.
@sltxdad have you ever considered maybe colleges want both rich white Asian AND black students. It seems absurd but think about rich white people get into these colleges a lot more than poor or middle class whites and nobody questions them, what’s wrong with rich black kids? And let me be frank rich white people do have a boost in elite admissions. Colleges look at what parents do irregardless of the whole need blind thing. I’m not saying give rich black kids a definite boost, but if colleges want that diversity can we object? Must everybody be poor to contribute to the conversation?
@BSMDorBust I’d like to point out that money does not equal freedom from discrimination. Hispanics and blacks aren’t afforded the same opportunities. They are not nearly represented as much white people in business or government or as much as white people and asians in higher education.
In regards to the collegiate environment, URMs have been disenfranchised, and every boost they get as a consequence of such is well-deserved. When blacks and latinxs look at the student body at top-tier schools, they don’t see themselves in it, which is incredibly discouraging. Things like affirmative action help correct that to a degree. While socioeconomic factors are important in considering an individual’s level of adversity, it is by no means somehow more important than one’s ethnicity. They are two fully independent characteristics.
And I’d also like to add that it is INCREDIBLY repulsive and appalling for someone to claim an ancestry and the discriminations associated with it without ever experiencing such a life for themselves. All to get into college? Quite possibly one of the most degrading things one could do to the culture of respective URMs.
I would argue that many colleges, Ivies specifically, are moving away from giving a big bump to URMs. Not saying there is a benefit but not as much as many folks here on College Confidential claim it to be. I’ve seen many more examples of recruited athletes, legacies, and development cases get a bump than URMs lately, at least in the first hand accounts I know. The schools do care about attracting socioeconomic diversity, hence the increased interest in 1st generation students over the past few years and the growth and success of the Questbridge program.
@giraffeinatree Is it possible that the reason URMs aren’t represented as much is because they are usually less qualified? Not saying they are, it’s really just conjecture, but Asians do seem to have higher stats. Do you have anything that says they are discriminated against solely because of their race? In addition, why should privileged Hispanic people get the same boost? A big reason for affirmative action is to make up for a loss in opportunities and rich URMs would seemingly have access to the same top high schools, extracurriculars, resources, etc. You only mentioned discrimination in the job world, but what about in high school? Would a rich white or Asian person really have an advantage over a rich URM? Also, I totally agree that misrepresenting yourself is repulsive, but I’m not really wondering about the ethics behind it. The point of this thread was to see if people should put Hispanic purely with the goal of college admissions in mind, considering that anybody can technically call themselves Hispanic since it isn’t based on your ancestry.