<p>I'm Native American, Asian, and Caucasian. Does this mix look more impressive than me checking... just one category such as Asian...?</p>
<p>Not necessarily. Colleges are not simply interested in your ethnic background; they're interested in your racial identity. If you're mixed but was raised as a Caucasian student, and pass as a Caucasian student, then your racial mix is not as 'interesting' as someone who investigates and lives their racial identity on a regular basis. With American Indian descent usually they want to see tribal affiliation.</p>
<p>Most Americans are mixed to certain extents -- I'm mixed Irish, American Indian, and African American, but the largest percentage of me is black; I've grown up black, identified as black, and so it would be disingenuous for me to put that I'm multiracial.</p>
<p>i think it's good to check all three :) sometimes it does come down to stats.. like the colleges wanna show that they accept minorities and are diverse you know?</p>
<p>There are two separate questions here: the first is what you should put down for your ethnicity. You should not claim to be Native American unless you have a strong claim to identification with that ethnicity (i.e., you are registered with a tribe, or you're at least half Native American, etc.).
The second question is whether being of mixed heritage makes you more interesting: well, it can but only if it really DOES make you more interesting, and that you'd need to explain in an essay.</p>