If you’re Caucasian born in the US, no Hispanic in your blood that you know of but were adopted by a Hispanic family as a child, do you mark that you’re Hispanic or just white non Hispanic.
An African American child is adopted by a White family. That child is still African American. You would still be White, Non Hispanic.
But your situation could mean a difference in experiences, perspective,and more. I’d say the decision depends on how immersed you truly are, what you’ve been involved in and to what degree.
Respectfully, I completely disagree with @lookingforward for the purposes of marking White Hispanic/Nonhispanic. My daughter’s father is Guatemalan, I am African American. My daughter marked African American Hispanic on all her college applications. In regards to being enmeshed in the culture…a better place to represent the OP’s experiences/perspectives would be in an essay.
@4MyKidz Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race. You can be white and Hispanic or black and Hispanic or Asian and Hispanic or whatever. So it’s not the same as a black kid being adopted by a white family.
OP will make her own best decision. Hispanic is a category that can be self designated. I know possible mis-representation is a concern, and not just to people of color. But OP has time to learn more, consider, and decide. At this point, we do not know enough to answer with certainty, one way or the other. And this is not necessarily what the essay is meant to convey.
Not a perfect analogy. African American is a race; Hispanic is an ethnicity. One can be white Hispanic, black Hispanic, Asian Hispanic, or some type of swirl.
I would tend to agree.
Having said that, I wonder if the OP, with one post, is asking a question that pertains to her situation, or is simply asking hypothetically.
While I cannot be 100% certain of the OP’s motivations, questions like this one are asked because of the leg up (perceived/justified) the applicant believes their application will receive through the college admissions process. IMO, it is unethical to suggest that if you relate to it, then go ahead and check it.
I agree, and I also agree that usually when such a question is asked on this site, that the OP is looking for a backdoor strategy. However, one should give AO’s some credit; they did not just fall off the turnip truck. They do not consider URM in a vacuum, Every college, unless prohibited by law, is free to decide what bump, if any, being URM will apply to a particular applicant. They are also experienced enough to know that all URM’s are not the same. A URM applicant that lives in Beverly Hills with 2 parents as physicians is not in the same bucket as a URM growing up with a single mother working 3 jobs and living in affordable housing in Bed-Sty.
@bodangles Completely understand that, I chose to use my daughter as an example for why she chose to designate Hispanic.
Should a White student who grew up in a 99% Hispanic neighborhood, attended schools that are 99% Hispanic, who has experiences/perspectives and immersions into the culture…mark White Hispanic on their college applications? Yes, anyone can mark Hispanic, but is it ethical to do so?
That’s not the question. The question is should a white student who is part of a Hispanic family mark white and Hispanic? Not someone who knows people who are Hispanic. Not someone who goes to school with people who are Hispanic. Someone who was raised in the culture like a biological Hispanic child would have been.
I think that person has every right to mark Hispanic. If OP doesn’t identify that strongly with the culture, then sure, don’t mark it. But if it is part of their identity because their parents raised them in the culture, why not?
No, don’t assume adcoms automatically grant extra points when they see the box checked. Even with certain categories of Hispanic, they can look for the actual involvement and how the identity and perspective manifest.
OP didn’t say some vague new info showed her .0001 Hispanic. Or that it’s her neighbors who are Hispanic. She is apparently in a family and raised by that family.
But folks, she hasn’t said much at all. Let’s give her a chance to respond. No, she won’t qualify for Hispanic Scholar status, but that’s not what defines for adcoms.
The essay isn’t meant to explain something. It’s where, ideally- and depending on the tier of colleges- you show the attributes the school likes and wants, the thinking, action, and more.
Otoh, she could use Addl Info to explain something, in 2 or 3 lines. But at this point, we know zip about her.
Please read this, and then reread this. Since I’ve already expressed concern that the OP posted this question as click bait, any devolution of this thread into a debate will only serve to get this thread closed. Please stick to the question as asked.
For this OP, let’s wait to learn more.
Hi everyone sorry got busy & just saw all the responses, didn’t mean to leave you all hanging. I was actually asking more for curiosity than anything. I’m white, my husband is Honduran. He adopted my daughter when we got married & has raised her since she was 2. I ethically would not mark her as hispanic. I was filling out some forms, saw the option & was just curious if I could, even though I wouldn’t. Then I did a google search which lead me to this site 
Sorry again for taking so long. I didn’t know I’d get responses so quickly.
Skieurope, not click bait! Just a busy mom of 4 that hadn’t checked responses yet. Sorry about the confusion! I just posted a more detailed reply.
My DDs are Quarterriccan…one identifies as Hispanic, one doesn’t. They marked their college applications accordingly.
A reasonable “honest” answer to any race/ethnicity questions which do not give any more specific criteria would be that if the person either:
a. Self identifies as the race/ethnicity (not necessarily exclusively) in contexts other than college applications or other selection situations where it may be seen as a benefit or detriment in the selection process.
b. Is commonly identified by others as the race/ethnicity or a superficially similar appearing one.
Then indicating that race/ethnicity would be reasonably “honest” within the parameters of the question that are vague at the boundaries.
I disagree with you all. The definition of “Hispanic” is as follows:
“Hispanic or Latino” refers to
a person of Cuban, Mexican,
Puerto Rican, South or Central
American, or other Spanish
culture or origin regardless of race"
So it’s CULTURE or ORIGIN.
OP’s D is clearly not Hispanic by origin. But there is a question whether she is by culture. So the OP’s D has to honestly ask herself, what is her culture? Who does she identify with?
If she was raised in the Hispanic culture, and identifies herself as belonging to that culture, she can check the box on the Common App as Hispanic, and then in the next question with regard to race, check the box for White. I don’t think that is a scam, or meant to pull an unfair advantage if this is who that girl truly identifies herself as. It is then up to the AO to decide how they want to treat this person. IMO, if AOs are looking at creating a class holistically, they can decide whether this person adds any diversity to their class that they would like to see. IMO, if this person is immersed in the culture, then they bring this culture to campus with them, and that might be attractive to me as an AO, but if the person isn’t immersed, then they don’t really add anything extra and I’d view them like everyone else. About the Bed-Sty comment, I think an AO would be interested in a person from there for another reason - they are trying to create a socio-economic mixture also, so that kid could receive an advantage for that. And if the person is wealthy and is Hispanic and is not White, I might want that kid because of the color of their skin, just to have diversity that way.
Really, I think people should just report who they think they are, and let the AO’s sort it out for themselves as to if they want to give any advantage at all, and if so, how much. I don’t understand why the OP said that she “ethically would not mark her as hispanic”. If her D does not view herself as Hispanic, then it would be unethical to check it, but in this situation I could easily see the D viewing herself as Hispanic and it would be ethical and appropriate for her to mark it.
Sorry, I started writing before seeing @bopper and @ucbalumnus comments; I don’t disagree with them.