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Not trying to bring up an affirmative action debate, but where does the general consensus that the only URM Hispanics are Puerto Ricans and Mexicans come from?

For instance: "By any measure, Latino lawyers are atypical: The latest U.S. census figures show that Latinos now account for 16 percent of the U.S. population, but only 4 percent of its lawyers."

Source: http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/arti ... successes/

^ under the "Reflecting on Racism" heading.

I've also gotten this fee-waiver e-mail from Emory:

"You should be proud, for you will soon become part of the small 6 percent of law students nationwide who identify as Hispanic or Latino/a"

I'm not trying to rationalize whether or not I will get some type of boost, but looking at those statistics it seems like Hispanics in general seem to be underrepresented in law school and in practice. I'm sure there are different types of Hispanics that vary statistically, of course, though.

slawww wrote:where does the general consensus that the only URM Hispanics are Puerto Ricans and Mexicans come from?

slawww wrote:it seems like Hispanics in general seem to be underrepresented in law school and in practice.

Seems like you answered your own question.

URM stands for "under-represented minority," not "minorities we think don't get enough attention." It's a statistical calculation of ethnic and racial populations which exist at a greater ratio in the general population than in law schools and the legal field.

TripTrip wrote:
URM stands for "under-represented minority," not "minorities we think don't get enough attention." It's a statistical calculation of ethnic and racial populations which exist at a greater ratio in the general population than in law schools and the legal field.

Exactly, which is why I ask why TLS seems to only classify Mexican and Puerto Rican as URM, since according to those statistics it seems as if all Hispanics are underrepresented in law.

I share your curiosity with regard to this question.

Check out my post:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 4&t=197653

You've already shed some light on the issue for me; I was unaware that only "6 percent of law students nationwide...identify as Hispanic or Latino/a."

Check out Mike Spivey's thread. He explains that the URM concept is school-specific - a minority may be considered a URM at one school but not at others.

ChampagnePapi wrote:Check out Mike Spivey's thread. He explains that the URM concept is school-specific - a minority may be considered a URM at one school but not at others.

Interesting perspective.

While that is true, I think statistically speaking, Hispanics in general, not just MA's and PR's are underrepresented.

I think (and I could be wrong):

Schools want to adhere their admissions policies to the law (and don't want them to get overturned). There's a fairly blurry line that distinguishes acceptable AA from unacceptable AA in the eyes of the Court. The Court okayed Michigan Law's policy, thus schools know that a policy like Michigan's is okay. They aren't entirely sure how much further they can go beyond that policy without being overturned. Michigan Law's policy favored 4 groups: African, Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Native Americans. In an effort to make their policies unchallengeable, they adhere as closely as they can to the policy they know is okay (Michigan Law's). They do that by, among other things, favoring those 4 groups and no others.