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I'm filling out paperwork for financial aid for tuition. It asks what ethnicity the kids are. They're 1/4 Mexican. I have to choose between Hispanic and Caucasian. It can't be both - though they are both. What little circle would you fill in if you were in this situation? (Just to be clear, I'm not asking for your ethnicity. I don't know what to fill out for my children and want advice.)

I would go with "Other", if it's an option. If you have to choose, I guess Caucasian, since it's 3/4? I always thought it was a irrelevant question, though I realize we may run into a similar issue with Li'l Z in the future.

Yeah, I have to do reports on demographics at my college. I wish they'd allow people to mark more than one box.

Financial aid? Mexican.

Dave said:

Yeah, I have to do reports on demographics at my college. I wish they'd allow people to mark more than one box.

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I agree. It would be so much easier.

GasBandit said:

Financial aid? Mexican.

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That's what I decided to go with. It isn't federal or state funds. It's through a private school. I'm hoping that since the Hispanic/Latino population is small here that it gives us better chances for $$$.

The US very much still goes by "one drop rule".

If you think it'll help (via minority aid or whatever), I'd put "Hispanic". It's not bending the truth.

Man, even asking that is illegal for most services/institutions/companies over here. I admit, it'd be ok for some specific types of polling, but for financial aid? Hah.

Bubble181 said:

Man, even asking that is illegal for most services/institutions/companies over here. I admit, it'd be ok for some specific types of polling, but for financial aid? Hah.

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Yeah, but you probably have that evil socialized college. Here we have to fight & scrape for money to go to school. That or crippling debt. Sometimes both.

Dave said:

Yeah, but you probably have that evil socialized college. Here we have to fight & scrape for money to go to school. That or crippling debt. Sometimes both.

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Or work while you are in school part time and full-time in the summer (some jobs reimburse tuition), get good grades and get scholarships, Pell grants, go to a cheaper school, don't get a degree that is worthless, etc, etc.


My kids are 1/2 asian and 1/2 caucasian. I pick 'other' if it's an option. Otherwise, I go with Asian, just b/c of the system.

I have an English last name, but it does have a Spanish meaning... but I could not bring myself to lie for financial aid.

Dave said:

Yeah, but you probably have that evil socialized college. Here we have to fight & scrape for money to go to school. That or crippling debt. Sometimes both.

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Sure, but even so. Any form we have to give, for, say, social services or rent support or whatever, the very first step in the administrative process is stripping out the name and replacing it with an ID number to prevent any bias towards ethnicity or color. Well, away from ethnicity, really, but you get the point.

Bubble181 said:

Sure, but even so. Any form we have to give, for, say, social services or rent support or whatever, the very first step in the administrative process is stripping out the name and replacing it with an ID number to prevent any bias towards ethnicity or color. Well, away from ethnicity, really, but you get the point.

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Affirmative action is still considered acceptable by many in the US, so as long as we are allowed to bias anything towards a group or ethnicity, then these forms will still continue to include that information.

Sadly these are undoubtedly used for negative biasing as well. Some schools/groups/etc are very careful in how they use that information, others aren't.

It's caused a lot of anger and unhappiness, even among those groups it's meant to help.

And more than a few supreme court cases.

Tinwhistler said:

The US very much still goes by "one drop rule".

If you think it'll help (via minority aid or whatever), I'd put "Hispanic". It's not bending the truth.

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I had a class on this and was told that all it takes to be hispanic is to say that you're hispanic. There is no real definition for the term so they never question it.

drawn_inward said:

Or work while you are in school part time and full-time in the summer (some jobs reimburse tuition), get good grades and get scholarships, Pell grants, go to a cheaper school, don't get a degree that is worthless, etc, etc.


My kids are 1/2 asian and 1/2 caucasian. I pick 'other' if it's an option. Otherwise, I go with Asian, just b/c of the system.

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"Other" was on the form, but they had African-American, Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic, Native American, and Other. They didn't even include Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander...in Hawaii! So, "other" was meant for them.