“t won’t matter if I don’t come from a low-income central American family.” I think you missed a few posts. Poor is not what determines Hispanic.
But as far as this being “America centric,” we pointed out our govt definition includes Spanish. Perhaps your complaint is that the colleges seek a Hispanic identity, those experiences, whatever they are, not simply a Spanish grandparent.
You said you don’t feel Spanish.
Ok, Thanks!!
Awesome on your accomplishments. I hope you continue your math studies wherever you wind up (even if you don’t wind up majoring in it). I have a conjecture that your contest experience will be a big plus for you going forward. Not for the math itself, because what you’ll study is going to be quite different from what is in the AMS contests, but because of the resilience and even the sense of humor (ability to laugh at your and your friends’ mistakes) the contests give you.
Best of luck.
International applicants to US universities are typically at a disadvantage for admission and financial aid compared to US citizens and permanent residents. So it is not to your advantage to conceal being a US permanent resident when applying to US universities.
Thanks so much for your help and kind words!
@lookingforward - I don’t know what point you are trying to make but I don’t feel German or French either - in Europe, as I said, we don’t define ourselves by our ethnic identities, it’s considered as rude and racist, especially in Germany where only neo-nazis claim to be “ethnically German”
So it’s not a question I’ve pondered in my life before, but according to American colleges I need to be ethnically something - and in this case French, German and Spanish, it’s in my gene, whether I identify with it or not - and in my case, I cannot, before I’ve not been raised to identify myself ethnically.
I hope you could be able to consider my cultural difference - I don’t mean to lie by any means!
The UC Berkeley chancellor just sent out a note, and included in the note was a goal in the next 10 years for UCB to have at least 25% Hispanic enrollment. So absolutely mark yourself as Hispanic.
@lookingforward : this applicant doesn’t feel Spanish…because she’s Catalan. It reflects the current political situation in Spain and paradoxically it’s “very Spanish”. Also interesting background for colleges since she’s Spanish AND a minority in Spain. Being Catalan Spanish (in addition to German) would bring an interesting perspective to class discussions.
That being said, @payton75, you complete the information as requested and you let the college decide whether or matters to them or not.
@payton75 Sounds like you have an answer for your original question that you feel is right and the best one for your college admittance. Not all of us agree but that’s the nature of posting in a forum…
I don’t care what she puts down. The Common App will ask about (US) citizenship status and then other citizenships. Here she answers truthfully. Separately, she’s free to put whatever she wants in the ethnicity box.
Adcoms will sort out whether she brings a Hispanic perspective. It’s in their hands. And no, if nothing suggests she’s culturally Spanish (or Catalan,) then marking Hispanic is no tip. There really is no automatic “credit.”
I understand the Catalan tensions. But OP has to decide. She said, “I don’t really consider myself Spanish, I consider myself more of a global European Union citizen.” She feels that, in Europe, “there is no emphasis on who you are racially so I never felt “Hispanic” or “Celtic” or anything.” But of course plenty of Europeans are aware of their ethnic and/or cultural heritages. (It’s been the subject of disputes for centuries.)
She gets to decide what to check for ethnicity. Adcoms will decide if it meets their needs/wants.
Assumes facts not in evidence. OP said she spent time in Barcelona; that does not make her catalana. And I was not going to get pedantic, but since she made an error in fact, I feel the need to correct. 
Actually, except for recent immigrants, almost everyone in Catalonia speaks Spanish (and I’ll say Spanish as opposed to Castellano since most readers here are in the U.S.). Only about 80% of the Spanish speakers in Catalonia speak Catalan. Which language they speak amongst themselves depends upon the situation/group of people/place, etc. It would be extremely rare for someone from BCN to address an outsider in Catalan.
On a related topic, speaking Spanish does not make one Hispanic, and one can be Hispanic without speaking Spanish. Case in point: JLo. Nobody would deny she’s Latina, but have you heard her Spanish? Proficient is not the adjective I’d use.
My point was that people from Catalonia who speak Catalan may say they’re “not Spanish, but European” for identity/political reasons but they’re Spanish (and Catalan and European).
The perspective on ethnicity issue, as mentioned by OP, is real. The “ethnicity” question would be illegal and offensive in Europe. You can also see the spat between the French ambassador and Trevor Noah after Trevor Noah called out (awkwardly perhaps) the players’ African-ness, and the ambassador replied “there may be African Americans there are no African French”.
In the European viewpoint, pointing out a person’s ethnicity makes one a racist, since nationality is not tied to one’s color. Many Europeans I know initially refuse to fill that box out because they find it offensive; it takes some explaining for them to get the American perspective on it. It’s a huge cultural difference.
So OP never thought of her heritage in that way because doing so would have meant something entirely different than in the Us. It doesn’t mean that heritage isn’t real.
That being said, as skieurope said, it’s not long to be a magic trick. It may be a tip or it may not. Everything else needs to be topnotch.
OP opened that she is 1/4 “Spanish.” We can’t really have this both ways, Spanish and not Spanish. She also made some assumptions about Hispanic being a lower socioeconomic status and then whether the Spanish language is spoken.
Of course there are ethnic identities in Europe.
For the Common App ethnicity question, OP gets to decide how to fill that out. She can prefer not to answer. Or not apply to US colleges that ask the question, if it’s an uncomfortable issue in Europe. But with a green card, I’d assume she’s living here now, has resources to help her make these decisions. And can google.
She can look at the Common App and see how it is phrased. And decide.
I understand what you are saying @MYOS1634 , and not that I disagree, but a couple of things from my PoV as a European:
• The OP is now a resident of the United States of America, so any vestiges of European discomfort she has about answering a question on ethnicity should have dissipated, but…
• If said discomfort still exists, the answer is simple: don’t check any boxes since they are not compulsory.
• And while I still think you are reading too much into her statements, I would say that if a hypothetical student is waving the flag of Catalonia (with her German passport) while stating she’s Spanish (and therefore Latina), then, in my mind, this hypothetical person is trying to work both sides of the fence.
I go back to my earlier statement that based on the OP’s body of posts, I think she is trying to develop a strategy of throwing crap against the wall to see what sticks. I think this strategy is folly and every AO will see right through it.