75% Caucasion, 25% Hispanic -- What race am I?

entomom
Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:38:46 +0000

Will answering or not answering these questions help or hurt your chances for college admission?



Answering these questions is totally optional, not answering the questions will not affect your college admissions. However, answering that you are Hispanic can help in college admissions.

Being Hispanic is generally acknowledged as a hook in college admissions because many schools are looking for diversity. This advantage may be large or small, depending on other factors including, but not limited to: the individual school, the accomplishments of the student, demographics of the student, SES. I have never heard that marking Hispanic is in any way a disadvantage in college admissions.

Without further details, I can’t speculate about why your S didn’t seem to benefit from being Hispanic. Reflecting on the factors mentioned above: schools value diversity to differing degrees, and some public colleges cannot by law use race & ethnicity as an admissions factor; race & ethnicity generally cannot help a candidate gain acceptance to a school where they are not academically qualified (although some lee way can be given for SES and personal circumstances); schools often look for a students Hispanic background to show beyond checking the box, they look for signs of their cultural links in their academics, ECs, essay, etc.

My advice is always to answer honestly, if your D considers herself Hispanic, then she should mark her applications accordingly.

Please see the sticky threads at the top of this forum for a further discussion of ethnicity & race and many helpful resources for Hispanic students.

And finally, welcome to CC and the Hispanic Students forum!