Anonymous wrote:This is not a problem owned by the student. It's owned by the college.

A binary variable: Hispanic or not.

We have contacted admissions offices, and we have been assured that having a grandparent from Central America is sufficient to check the Hispanic box.

We are perfectly willing to supply any further info the school needs to consider in their decision.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless there is an in person interview, the schools won't know you before the admission decision.

A lot of schools are getting savvy and compare your declared ethnicity with your student activities and social media. A person who says they are Latina, belonged to the Hispanic Student Alliance, interned at CASA de Maryland, and has at least some SM posts about being Latina is more credible than the one who claims a Mexican grandmother, but has no prior connections to the Hispanic community. When I taught HS, we saw some white families attempt to suddenly claim Native American ancestry so we counter-balanced by creating after school clubs and documentable community connections for our Native, AA, and Latinx students.

Sorry, but no. My kid, who is 100% Latina, raised by two Colombians (aka my husband and I, who immigrated here as young adults) should not have to join certain clubs or post about being Colombia/Latina on Facebook (WTF would that even entail?!) just to "prove" she is, in fact, Latina to some admissions committees. That's just absurd.

Anonymous wrote:This is not a problem owned by the student. It's owned by the college.

A binary variable: Hispanic or not.

We have contacted admissions offices, and we have been assured that having a grandparent from Central America is sufficient to check the Hispanic box.

We are perfectly willing to supply any further info the school needs to consider in their decision.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless there is an in person interview, the schools won't know you before the admission decision.

A lot of schools are getting savvy and compare your declared ethnicity with your student activities and social media. A person who says they are Latina, belonged to the Hispanic Student Alliance, interned at CASA de Maryland, and has at least some SM posts about being Latina is more credible than the one who claims a Mexican grandmother, but has no prior connections to the Hispanic community. When I taught HS, we saw some white families attempt to suddenly claim Native American ancestry so we counter-balanced by creating after school clubs and documentable community connections for our Native, AA, and Latinx students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother in law is from Spain so my children are Hispanic and white.
I can confirm that it does help with college admissions and scholarships.
S went on several diversity programs.

There is a certain hypocrisy and irony in someone using a white Spanish grandmother for AA purposes when Spain was by far the biggest and most brutal colonial power in the New World, whose legacy resulted in heavily racially stratified societies.....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother in law is from Spain so my children are Hispanic and white.
I can confirm that it does help with college admissions and scholarships.
S went on several diversity programs.

There is a certain hypocrisy and irony in someone using a white Spanish grandmother for AA purposes when Spain was by far the biggest and most brutal colonial power in the New World, whose legacy resulted in heavily racially stratified societies.....

Anonymous wrote:My mother in law is from Spain so my children are Hispanic and white.
I can confirm that it does help with college admissions and scholarships.
S went on several diversity programs.

Anonymous wrote:Unless there is an in person interview, the schools won't know you before the admission decision.

Anonymous wrote:So a rich white kid from a wealthy white family in Argentina or Chile or Uruguay (which are among the "whitest" countries in the world, ironically), can claim to be Hispanic and gain AA benefits?

Anonymous wrote:The U.S. Census Bureau defines the ethnonym Hispanic or Latino to refer to "a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race"

As it is I suspect the admissions panels are pretty good at spotting the difference between a white Hispanic and non-white Hispanic. I doubt a white applicant whose parents came to America from Spain or Argentina is going to get much of a boost, if any.