Hello,
I am planning to submit my Common App shortly and am applying to top schools. I have mostly finished the application, but one question keeps bothering me: how to ethnically identify myself. For most of my life, I have considered myself to be White, but I think I have a real claim to also being Hispanic. My understanding is that my grandfather has some Hispanic ancestry going way back, and I speak Spanish very well (learned in school) and have really embraced the culture and language when exposed to it. I’m not seeking to game the system, but I do believe that I have a legitimate claim to being Hispanic (and White).
Any thoughts as to how I should identify myself? Will Admissions question the legitimacy of my Hispanic ethnicity? Any chance they would investigate me to verify my ethnic identification? Is being Hispanic even advantageous in admission to top schools?
Thank you very much in advance.
What does your birth certificate say? Your school records? How do your parents identify themselves? How did you identify yourself before October of your senior year of high school?
Well, I believe my parents have identified themselves as White in the past. With regards to me, I have never been required to identify myself ethnically.
I’d just say white if it’s how your parents identify themselves. Unless you’ve had Hispanic culture that you’ve identified with THROUGHOUT your life, I wouldn’t mention it.
@siliconvalleymom, Not all birth certificates list races. My children’s birth certificates don’t.
@hsgraduate2017,Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race, so you can be both. Does your grandfather consider himself Hispanic? My family’s ethnic roots are all over Europe, but even though they’ve been in the US for many generations the family still identifies with those ethnicities. How far back is “way back” and how old were you when you learned your grandfather’s family had Hispanic ancestors? From your post it sounds like a recent thing.
What percentage of your heritage would you say is cut and dry Hispanic?
Everywhere I’ve seen people try to quantify this the cutoff for legitimacy is either 50% or 25%.
@hsgraduate2017 How did you identify yourself on the SAT or ACT? Or did you leave those optional questions blank? You do not want to create a discrepancy.
I have to say that it seems odd that you are struggling with answering a simple question. You state that “my grandfather has some hispanic ancestry going way back” . College board, for purposes of National Hispanic Scholar requires a student to be one-quarter hispanic. It sounds like your grandfather is not 100% hispanic so you are not, under the college board guidelines hispanic. Would you feel comfortable and able to speak to your hispanic heritage if you were asked to? Keep in mind that if you check that box, once you submit your application to a school they will forward your contact information to the team that handles diversity recruitment efforts. Be sure you are on solid ground before you check a box.
Also, speaking spanish very well (learned in school) and embracing the culture do not make it your ethnicity. 
My son speaks Chinese and Japanese and embraces the east asian cultures. Doesn’t make him Chinese or Japanese though.
The Original Poster does not appear to be confusing the 2, and has never used “race” on this thread.
Agreed. While I believe that if one has long identified as Latin@/Hispanic, one can say that s/he is so. However, personally, I don’t think the the very first time you claim Latin@ ethnicity is on the college app.
Also agreed.
Others may argue, and certainly scholarships will and do set their own parameters for what percentage qualifies for their scholarships, but IMO, there is no “cut and dry” percentage.