If my great-great grandparents were native American can I claim native on my college applications?
yes
Do you have an official tribal affiliation/registration?
If so, then by all means proudly state it.
Without tribal affiliation, although you can claim it, if you’re less than 1/16th,
you may not get any URM advantages in the admission process.
I am 1/16th and I qualify for my tribe, although I haven’t enrolled. My grandpa is a part of it.
I think once you claim it on your app, a field pops up asking for your registration number.
Most scholarships will require tribal registration. If it is just for the college or university statistics, you can check whatever boxes you feel like.
Which you can leave blank.
And it’s worth stating again: just because one checks the box does not mean the university will consider it in the admissions process.
If you have been consistently identifying with your Native American ancestry or at least kept in touch with aspects of Native American culture prior to the college application process, you should definitely and proudly go for it.
If not, as you say, it’s still possible for you to check the box since you have a certain percentage of Native American ancestry, but in my very personal opinion it seems a little iffy when people suddenly embrace a part of their heritage just to gain a minor boost in something like this.
What tribe are you claiming? Because for the vast majority of them you have to be at least 1/4 Blood Quantum to enroll. Each school is going to be different, but I can tell you I’m an enrolled NA (1/2) and my also NA friend worked in admissions at one of the top universities in the U.S. He told me enrollment may matter some places, but to many places it’s more about your cultural and community involvement. They don’t particularly even want Natives who only put down their enrollment number, but never mention how they are involved. Remember they are building a class and they want people who are a part of something and will bring that something to the school. For instance, my high school freshman is a powwow dancer and singer, is a student representative for Indian Ed, speaks/learns/teaches his Native langugae, and many other roles. That is what will make the difference for him, in addition to the grades and test scores.
You can “claim” whatever, but back it up in some honest way, or it won’t matter.
if ur registered
For various reasons, the colleges that will care most about an enrollment number or registration are those in areas with a high number of NA.
Koreanstudent and BTW are right that you should have some involvement or something more than vague knowledge, for a college to see the connection. But this doesn’t necessarily need to be something very specific. Around the country, this is harder in some areas than others.
You do not need 1/4 for many tribes, 1/16 is fine, for some, and less for others. It depends on their own standards.
I’d put it down, but not expect a major tip if this is just some distant family lore. And this is all different for admissions than it may be for some scholarships or awards.
It doesn’t sound like distant family lore if OP’s grandfather is registered. I’d mark it on the app and look into getting registered with the tribe too. It’s never too late to learn about your family background. Plenty of people with European backgrounds start on ancestry search site when they’re middle aged or older. You start when you start. Good luck, Northwestern2025.