Can I check the Hispanic box?

[zootycoon]

My dad is hispanic, my mom is white. I am very proud of my hispanic heritage and am closer to my dad's side of the family. My hispanic grandparents helped raise me. The thing is, physically I took after my mom, I have blond hair and blue eyes but my last name is clearly hispanic which always confuses people, I get a lot of questions on it. I have always checked the hispanic box in the past for forms but then always put race as white. I do not consider myself URM or underadvantaged. I just want to make sure it would not be considered lying if I check the hispanic box in my AAMC application.

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[tdittyx2x3]

Well it's not possible for it to hurt you unless an interviewer questions it and it turns the interview sour...

which it won't because you'll have come in prepared with a nice honest way to talk about your pride for your heritage. You will make it a positive by showing this aspect of yourself. Use this as an advantage. In fact, the better more generalized advice is that all interviews are in your control and your job is to direct the dialogue toward your strengths.

 

[MrBurns10]

My dad is hispanic, my mom is white. I am very proud of my hispanic heritage and am closer to my dad's side of the family. My hispanic grandparents helped raise me. The thing is, physically I took after my mom, I have blond hair and blue eyes but my last name is clearly hispanic which always confuses people, I get a lot of questions on it. I have always checked the hispanic box in the past for forms but then always put race as white. I do not consider myself URM or underadvantaged. I just want to make sure it would not be considered lying if I check the hispanic box in my AAMC application.

You sound a lot like me (people alway say I'm the whitest Latina they've ever met). You are fine to put it down. As guju mentioned, it's an ethnicity, not a race and if you identify with it you should absolutely check the box.

 

[jwrigh69]

Well it's not possible for it to hurt you unless an interviewer questions it and it turns the interview sour...

which it won't because you'll have come in prepared with a nice honest way to talk about your pride for your heritage. You will make it a positive by showing this aspect of yourself. Use this as an advantage. In fact, the better more generalized advice is that all interviews are in your control and your job is to direct the dialogue toward your strengths.

I couldn't agree more with this response. It's something you can use to your advantage and you should. Even if you are questioned it adds strength to your app.

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

Of course you can check Hispanic. For AMCAS purposes, race or ethnicity is purely self-identification. You obviously have a strong Hispanic identification and you have every right to claim that on your application.

It's possible to carry ethnic identification too far, of course. Living in Oklahoma, I get a little irritated with people who want to claim a Native American identity when they have a 1/16,000 quantam by blood (I'm not exaggerating - it happens). I have roughly a 1/8 quantam and would have considerably more justification in claiming a Native American heritage - but, like you, I have my English mother's light blond hair. I also have my big-dose-of-Cherokee father's dark brown eyes. I've been told that the blond hair "looks fake" my entire life. Don't let that stop you!

 

[sarahg]

I'm not sure about the rules for med school in particular, so take this with a grain of salt, but when I was applying for college I was told that you had to be 1/16 of a race to claim it as a minority status. Also, the advantages given to URMs are more about supplying communities that have a shortage of doctors with doctors that are fluent in their culture (and language, in some cases) than rewarding people for being disadvantaged, and it seems like you're definitely connected to your Hispanic culture, so I wouldn't say that you're any less deserving of those advantages than anyone else.

Is there no way to check two boxes for race? It seems unfair if you have to choose one.

 

[MrBurns10]

I'm not sure about the rules for med school in particular, so take this with a grain of salt, but when I was applying for college I was told that you had to be 1/16 of a race to claim it as a minority status. Also, the advantages given to URMs are more about supplying communities that have a shortage of doctors with doctors that are fluent in their culture (and language, in some cases) than rewarding people for being disadvantaged, and it seems like you're definitely connected to your Hispanic culture, so I wouldn't say that you're any less deserving of those advantages than anyone else.

Well just a sidenote, unless things have changed in the last few years, I believe URM in relation to Hispanic is just Puerto Rican mainlander, Mexican, and I think Cuban. South American Latinos aren't URM.

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

Repeat: Reported race/ethnicity for AMCAS purposes is purely self-identification. The OP was talking about an issue of pride, not URM status.

 

[phantomx87]

Hey, I wouldn't worry about it and check the "Hispanic" box. I was born in the DR, speak Spanish as a first language, etc etc... And yet I am very fair skinned and look, for all intents and purposes, white.

My grandfather is French, so my mom and I are white. My family is pretty much split down the middle with regards to race (skin color). The upside is that I only burn once a summer and then get really dark!


The bottom line: If you are of Hispanic blood, and actually EMBRACE said heritage, then you are Hispanic. If you are like Jessica Alba and renounce your Hispanic heritage, then you're not Hispanic. Simple, no?

 

[redlight]

Well just a sidenote, unless things have changed in the last few years, I believe URM in relation to Hispanic is just Puerto Rican mainlander, Mexican, and I think Cuban. South American Latinos aren't URM.

yeah, i was going to point this out.

 

[LizzyM]

There is no URM button. Schools do what they wish with the data. If they want to boost their "% minority" they'll count "everybody".

 

[melanoleuca]

My dad is hispanic, my mom is white. I am very proud of my hispanic heritage and am closer to my dad's side of the family. My hispanic grandparents helped raise me. The thing is, physically I took after my mom, I have blond hair and blue eyes but my last name is clearly hispanic which always confuses people, I get a lot of questions on it. I have always checked the hispanic box in the past for forms but then always put race as white. I do not consider myself URM or underadvantaged. I just want to make sure it would not be considered lying if I check the hispanic box in my AAMC application.

Everybody can check the Hispanic box if they want to. It's like a freebie. I did and I don't know my Cinqo de Mayo from my Sinko de Kitchen. How are they going to verify you aren't Hispanic after all? I mean, seriously, just pretend to embrace your Hispanic heritage and what are they going to do? It's not like it's hard to fake.

Oh, and everybody lies on their AMCAS application. Didn't you get the memo?

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

Everybody can check the Hispanic box if they want to. It's like a freebie. I did and I don't know my Cinqo de Mayo from my Sinko de Kitchen. How are they going to verify you aren't Hispanic after all? I mean, seriously, just pretend to embrace your Hispanic heritage and what are they going to do? It's not like it's hard to fake.

Oh, and everybody lies on their AMCAS application. Didn't you get the memo?

Why are you being so gratuitously cruel? I can use strong language on SDN when I feel strongly about something... but I think this thread was a sincere question from the OP. Why make it a put-down?

Don't mean to be a tight-a**, but if there was intended humor here, I missed understanding it.

 

[njbmd]

My dad is hispanic, my mom is white. I am very proud of my hispanic heritage and am closer to my dad's side of the family. My hispanic grandparents helped raise me. The thing is, physically I took after my mom, I have blond hair and blue eyes but my last name is clearly hispanic which always confuses people, I get a lot of questions on it. I have always checked the hispanic box in the past for forms but then always put race as white. I do not consider myself URM or underadvantaged. I just want to make sure it would not be considered lying if I check the hispanic box in my AAMC application.

The "boxes" are self designations. If you are hispanic then check or don't "check" anything that you want to. You know if you are lying or not and no one gives a hoot. It's your application.

 

[Maxx4]

I'd check the hispanic box. Hispanic is not a race but an ethnicity and encompasses african americans from the latin american countries, caucasians from such countries, and those with native american ancestry in them.

While I do think the OP should check the Hispanic box I don't believe the bolded is true for everyone. I think you mean Black not AA. Haitians are technically Latinos since Haiti is in Latin America but we wouldn't check the Hispanic box.

 

[dynezxice]

It will help you more than hurt you. You aren't technically lying, so what have you got to lose?

My dad is hispanic, my mom is white. I am very proud of my hispanic heritage and am closer to my dad's side of the family. My hispanic grandparents helped raise me. The thing is, physically I took after my mom, I have blond hair and blue eyes but my last name is clearly hispanic which always confuses people, I get a lot of questions on it. I have always checked the hispanic box in the past for forms but then always put race as white. I do not consider myself URM or underadvantaged. I just want to make sure it would not be considered lying if I check the hispanic box in my AAMC application.

I disagree. My Colombian friend was considered a URM. Whether you're from central or south america, you're still considered hispanic, just as Chinese and Indians are considered asians.

Well just a sidenote, unless things have changed in the last few years, I believe URM in relation to Hispanic is just Puerto Rican mainlander, Mexican, and I think Cuban. South American Latinos aren't URM.

 

[pietachok]

This issue always intrigues me. I'm a child of adoptees; I have no knowledge of my race/ethnicity other than guessing by appearance. Although I know I'm their biologic child, people ask me if I'm part asian all the time b/c of my eyes, and yet I'm a redhead. I've always checked "white/non-hispanic"...but people like the OP make me wonder ... and then think what schools would have done if I'd checked off a box that seemed incongruous to try and get some advantage...are they going to risk offending anybody by making you prove your ethnicity?

 

[LizzyM]

The "boxes" are self designations. If you are hispanic then check or don't "check" anything that you want to. You know if you are lying or not and no one gives a hoot. It's your application.

I agrre, but if an adcom thinks that an appliicant is trying to get an advantage by falsely claiming to belong to a URM group, it could result in a smackdown. I think that is the OP's fear. IMO, if the OP speaks Spanish and has a Hispanic last name, then that may assure the adcom that the OP would be likely to serve the Hispanic community.