White Hispanic?

Student Lounge Hispanic Students
1

For the common app, should I write white Hispanic?

A little background of my family:

All grandparents from maternal and paternal sides were born and raised in Spain.
Mother was born and raised in Brazil
Father was born and raised in Cuba
I was born and raised in America.

I speak Spanish, eat Spanish food every single day, but some would questions whether I look Hispanic (I know Hispanic is not a race, it’s an ethnicity, but what I mean is that I look “white”). The most likely reason for looking white is because in Spain, the majority of people are white.

So my question is, how should I identify myself on the common app with regards to ethnicity/race?

Thanks

2

Hispanic and white. Or just Hispanic if you need to pick one and that is the only option (since sometimes that is the case.)

Did you indicate Hispanic on the SAT?

A large percentage of people from South and Central America are white.

3

White Hispanic.

Hispanics can be any race - just look at the Pope. Saying that you are a white Hispanic, if that is what you are, will not raise any eyebrows at all.

4

Why does it matter? Will you be applying to schools in the South and Midwest that need that diversity?

My kids look white (well, 2/3 do) and are Mexican. Mark Hispanic then Caucasian because that’s what you are.

5

@“aunt bea” :

I’m only asking because it’s required on the common app… so yes… it does matter how I identify myself. I never said anything about diversity lol. but thanks, I will go ahead and mark white hispanic

6

For the Common App, that is not the case. The questions read:

7

@skieurope For the Common App you were able to mark both Hispanic and White as you’ve stated above. But some applications make you choose one or the other.

D is looking at grad schools. To apply for a hispanic mentorship/ scholarship program for MBA students she needs to choose either Hispanic or white. I would think they would know better. D is white–but her grandparents were from Argentina, Russia, Austria and Poland. So she would like to check both Hispanic and white. And if there were room to write in more info, she would be happy to write in more.

The issue is that when she writes in Hispanic and does not check white (because she can’t), she feels as if she is being misleading because it seems that they will assume that she is not white. And that somehow she is trying to identify more strongly as Hispanic vs. her other background which is not the case.