<p>I'm (nearly) a senior in high school so of course the parents are going nuts over college apps and working on them over the summer, etc., and a topic that came up recently is ethnicity. This was mostly prompted by mail from 'National Hispanic University'. I've never put Hispanic on a standardized test form, mostly because I was uncertain if I count. My mom thinks the mail was prompted by the fact that my name is spelled the Portuguese way, which also happens to be the Spanish way. -shrug-</p>
<p>Anyways, I have zero interest in NHU (way too close to home, first of all), but it got me thinking about what I am allowed to declare on college applications. My mother is Azorean Portuguese and moved to America when she was young. She has said that if it says 'Hispanic (including Iberian peninsula)', then I'm allowed to claim Hispanic, as Iberian peninsula refers to both Spain and Portugal. However, the Common App currently only says 'Hispanic (including Spain)'. We've also joked that if such a category existed, I could claim 'Atlantic Islander', but alas there are all of 4 or 5 island groups out there anyways. </p>
<p>So what should I do? On my dad's side, all I can claim is white, so no additional support there. I'd really like to be able to demonstrate this part of my heritage, but unfortunately the Common App doesn't allow for any expansion upon 'White'. Thanks in advance for your help.</p>
<p>While there is some confusion about whether Portuguese via Brazil are Hispanic (NHRP includes them but the CA does not), direct descent from Portugal is not included in either NHRP requirements or the US Census definition, which is what is used for college admissions (see post #1 of the sticky thread about the definition of Hispanic).</p>
<p>Hispanic is an ethnicity and is completely separate from race, and Hispanics can be and are of any race(s).</p>
<p>You can expand upon your background in the Additional Information section of the CA.</p>
<p>^Actually, sometimes people DO need to ask because they have been given incorrect information by HS GCs, friends, family, etc.</p>
<p>Even though a student may identify themselves as Hispanic, they could have been told they are not considered Hispanic for college admission for many reasons, some the misconceptions we have heard here in the past are:</p>
<p>Last name is not Hispanic
Don’t look Hispanic
Are racially Asian or white, so cannot be Hispanic
Brazilians are not Hispanic (a gray area)</p>
<p>If you are referring to people wanting to claim they are Hispanic only for an advantage in college admissions when they really don’t identify as Hispanic, then you should be posting on this thread:</p>
<p>Here on the Hispanic Students forum our goal is to deal with the facts, data, primary source information, experience, etc. of Hispanics in college admissions, not inflammatory political and social issues of AA.</p>
<p>As I stated earlier, I’m sure your comments are more than welcome on the main College Admissions forum, there are a plethora of AA threads for you to post your opinions on and have meaningful discussions. </p>
<p>However, here we deal in the facts and in stressing that students be truthful in marking their race/ethnicity designations, just as they are on any part of their college application. </p>
<p>This is not the proper forum for disparaging a generalized group of applicants because they are perceived to be deliberately falsifying information, please take that to the above mentioned AA threads. As eloquently stated previously by a member:</p>
</p>