Please Help, All half URM's out there

[goinoutofmymind]

HELP! Sorry if this has already been discussed, but I suck at searching this site. I'm half white, half puerto rican, and I submitted to amcas over a month ago. I put my ethnicity as puero rican on that part, but for race I declined to respond. All through grade school and college I've always put hispanic because the answer for white was always white (not-Hispanic). So I just didn't answer because none of them seemed to fit. Seriously, when I submitted to AMCAS, I didn't know how HUGE of a deal this URM thing is! I really didn't think that race/ethnicity would be THAT big of a deal. Now I've been reading up on it and I'm worried. Are they gonna look negatively on my declining to respond when they see I'm half white? Are they gonna think I'm just trying to mooch the URM thing? I know there's not much I can do to change it now, but I'm worried. Any thoughts???

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[TMP-SMX]

If you feel that you have been disadvantaged in some way because of your ethnicity then put it down. (Seems to me it's a little disingenuous to put it if you were raised in the upper middle class in an all white community)

The point is that you just have to be able to explain yourself and talk about your heritage. Just be honest.

 

[LizzyM]

HELP! Sorry if this has already been discussed, but I suck at searching this site. I'm half white, half puerto rican, and I submitted to amcas over a month ago. I put my ethnicity as puero rican on that part, but for race I declined to respond. All through grade school and college I've always put hispanic because the answer for white was always white (not-Hispanic). So I just didn't answer because none of them seemed to fit. Seriously, when I submitted to AMCAS, I didn't know how HUGE of a deal this URM thing is! I really didn't think that race/ethnicity would be THAT big of a deal. Now I've been reading up on it and I'm worried. Are they gonna look negatively on my declining to respond when they see I'm half white? Are they gonna think I'm just trying to mooch the URM thing? I know there's not much I can do to change it now, but I'm worried. Any thoughts???

Along with "White, non Hispanic" is "White, Hispanic". It is a category that the census bureau uses, etc. So you can be Puerto Rican and white. No biggie. In fact, my college roommate was white (dad's side) and Puerto Rican (mom's side).

No one is going to blink and the "decline to respond". Another thing... if one of your parents has a decidedly Hispanic name it will seem obvious, too, that you are not just blowing smoke.

 

[goinoutofmymind]

If you feel that you have been disadvantaged in some way because of your ethnicity then put it down. (Seems to me it's a little disingenuous to put it if you were raised in the upper middle class in an all white community)

The point is that you just have to be able to explain yourself and talk about your heritage. Just be honest.

I didn't put down disadvantaged status, because I'm definetely not. But it seems that you mean I shouldn't have put down puerto rican unless it has held me down in some way. Is this the way that adcoms will take it? I don't think that being a minority has to have anything to do with being disadvantaged. And luckily amcas as made these things two separate questions.

 

[TMP-SMX]

I didn't put down disadvantaged status, because I'm definetely not. But it seems that you mean I shouldn't have put down puerto rican unless it has held me down in some way. Is this the way that adcoms will take it? I don't think that being a minority has to have anything to do with being disadvantaged. And luckily amcas as made these things two separate questions.

Correct. They are unrelated. And you should say that you are a minority in the appropriate question.