underrepresented minority status

[Selectin-Man]

I've always been confused about how underrepresented minority status is determined.

Here is an example: A person's grandmother was born in Mexico and was an Mexican citizen, but all other grandparents were American citizens.

Can this person claim status as a Mexican-American or a hispanic? What if the person does not have "hispanic" origins, other than a grandparent with Mexican citizenship? I'm just curious what your opinions might be. I'm not saying this person is making a bad claim...I'm just wondering about it.

I know this sort of thing happens a lot in medical school and residency applications, and I'm just curious about its validity.

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[Tired Pigeon]

Mmm, good question -- I've wondered about this one myself. I knew someone in undergrad who was planning to (falsely) apply as an underrepresented minority. His reasoning was, "They can't prove I'm not part black." A pretty disgusting individual ...

No idea if he ever got in anywhere. Let's hope not.

 

[djmd]

I've always been confused about how underrepresented minority status is determined.

Here is an example: A person's grandmother was born in Mexico and was an Mexican citizen, but all other grandparents were American citizens.

Can this person claim status as a Mexican-American or a hispanic? What if the person does not have "hispanic" origins, other than a grandparent with Mexican citizenship? I'm just curious what your opinions might be. I'm not saying this person is making a bad claim...I'm just wondering about it.

I know this sort of thing happens a lot in medical school and residency applications, and I'm just curious about its validity.

Validity? No such thing, this is a political animal and so validity does not apply. Just whatever the government decided to set up (not that makes it bad or good, but removes the concept of validity)
Hispanic is a strange one to begin with.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanic
Hispanic is one of several terms of ethnicity employed to categorize any person, of any racial background, of any country and of any religion who has at least one ancestor from the people of Spain or Spanish-speaking Latin America, whether or not the person has Spanish ancestry.

 

[PathOne]

While there are several good arguments for quotas, they're almost invariably going to be abused by someone. Had a friend with a very Irish-sounding name (and appearance) who claimed URM-status due to some obscure native american ancestor. These things happen. However, to my knowledge, it's only really a problem in undergrad education. Once you get to Residency, most PD's would use common sense in trying to get a resident group which is fairly balanced, both in regard to gender and race. Also, arguably, once people have completed medical school, they're basically on an equal footing, so there's really no need for quotas.

Consequently, this question actually probably belongs in the premed forums, not in the path forum.

 

[yaah]

This thread could be moved, but I am just going to close it. There are innumerable threads on this subject, and they invariably degenerate into name calling, semantics, and general douchebaggery. Some are originally intended as honest questions, some are intended to be flame wars.

EIther way, if you want to ask this question please pose it in another forum on this site (like sociopolitical issues or general topics in healthcare or whatever). There are probably other threads going on related to this now so it's silly to move it.