Biracial help

[Squiggy]

Hi all,

Quick question: If someone was half Filipino and half Mexican and looked hispanic, could they put down hispanic on their app?

How much would this help for their application? Do they need to speak Spanish or something?

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[hithere3387]

Hi all,

Quick question: If someone was half Filipino and half Mexican and looked hispanic, could they put down hispanic on their app?

How much would this help for their application? Do they need to speak Spanish or something?

Don't quote me on this, but I believe that when those questions are written, they expect people to answer as to how they self-identify...and not necessarily what their genetic "race" is.

 

[docwise]

Hi all,

Quick question: If someone was half Filipino and half Mexican and looked hispanic, could they put down hispanic on their app?

How much would this help for their application? Do they need to speak Spanish or something?

I'm biracial, hispanic and african american (learned Spanish all throughout high school, college and study abroad). On my app I put down both ethnicities and that I speak Spanish. I say just do what you feel comfortable with/identify most with because either way, you're not lying. Nobody questioned my ethnicity on the interview trail anyway, when I obviously don't look Latina.

 

[njbmd]

Ethnic designations are self-designations. If you feel that you are a particular ethnicity,then indicate that ethnicity. If you are looking to get some kind of perceived "boost" for designating a particular ethnic group, you are likely not going to see it. No medical school is going to accept you if you are not otherwise qualified just because you make an ethnic designation.

The biggest myth about getting into medical school is that if you designate that you are underrepresented in medicine, you are automatically in. Call yourself anything that you want but in the end, your application has to stand up with the rest of them.

 

[mdbound1987]

Ethnic designations are self-designations. If you feel that you are a particular ethnicity,then indicate that ethnicity. If you are looking to get some kind of perceived "boost" for designating a particular ethnic group, you are likely not going to see it. No medical school is going to accept you if you are not otherwise qualified just because you make an ethnic designation.

The biggest myth about getting into medical school is that if you designate that you are underrepresented in medicine, you are automatically in. Call yourself anything that you want but in the end, your application has to stand up with the rest of them.

I completely agree with this statement, but let's be real...if OP says he/she is Hispanic because of his/her Mexican half instead of Asian due to his/her Filipino half, the standard for admission will go down. I am not condoning marking an ethnicity that you do not identify with, yet can still get away with it due to genetics, but the average mcat score and gpa of an Asian person who matriculates is higher than that of Hispanics. I do agree though that despite this fact, marking Hispanic makes no guarantees; you must still have a strong application to be admitted.

 

[njbmd]

I completely agree with this statement, but let's be real...if OP says he/she is Hispanic because of his/her Mexican half instead of Asian due to his/her Filipino half, the standard for admission will go down. I am not condoning marking an ethnicity that you do not identify with, yet can still get away with it due to genetics, but the average mcat score and gpa of an Asian person who matriculates is higher than that of Hispanics. I do agree though that despite this fact, marking Hispanic makes no guarantees; you must still have a strong application to be admitted.

There is no "standard" for various ethnic groups. That's been gone for awhile. Everyone goes in the same group and competitiveness is within the pool of all applicants and not within specific groups.

It's easy for some groups who are overrepresented in medicine to blame people of other underrepresented ethnic groups but the this is not the case. You get in or don't get in based on the competitiveness of your entire application and not just MCAT scores and uGPAs. They are a part of the application but not the entire application. They are also the easiest things to tabulate when it comes to the AAMC.

Medical school is not a reward for doing well on the MCAT or having a high uGPA. You need to have other things in that application. Since I have gone through hundreds from applicants of all ethnicities, I can tell you that Asians/whites do not have a "lock" on having the most competitive applications.

 

[DoctaJay]

My school has never had more than 6% of their class being black..never. There are many schools that are like this...shooting for a certain percentage of minorities. There identifying yourself as a minority on your application puts you in a smaller pool for less spots. Whether some schools decide to lower their standards is on them, but regardless of that, if the school is like mine, then you are certainly competing for a smaller # of spots than your non-minority fellow applicants.

So to the OP, identify yourself however YOU feel you should be identified as, and let the admissions committee do with it what they want.