<p>I'm currently a Junior and curious as whether or not colleges will see me as a URM. I have always self-identified as White, Non-Hispanic. In school, SAT, PSAT, ACT I am registered as such. However, my mother was born in Cuba. I noticed on the Common App (looking at the one from last year), it asks for mother's birth place. How will a college determine URM status? I know that the self-identification of background and ethnic information is optional and I was just planning on not filling that out since it's too confusing with my background. Technically I am hispanic from my mother's side. What will colleges see? How do colleges determine it?</p>
<p>Is your mothers ethnicity Cuban ( was she raised as a hispanic ) or was she simply born there but not raised as hispanic? If she and you are ethnically Cuban or Cuban American then you should list this when taking PSAT and SAT. Just my opinion as a hispanic american.</p>
<p>OP, please read first post of the Definition sticky thread, and read any of the many variations on this question on that thread.</p>
<p>Hispanic is an ethnicity, Cuban is a nationality.</p>
<p>You are American (nationality) and white (race) and Hispanic (ethnicity). Because your mom is Cuban, you are Hispanic. It doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that. You don’t have to speak Spanish, eat black beans or dance merengue to be Hispanic. On the common app. you would mark white for race, check yes for Hispanic and specify country as Cuba.</p>
<p>If your PSATs are above the mid-190s, let your guidance counselor know that you qualify for the National Hispanic Scholar program.</p>
<p>^In addition to having a Hispanic background via their descendants, a candidate ‘self-identifies’ as Hispanic on college applications (this may not hold true for scholarships/programs). Ethnicity is a social concept, not a biological one like race:</p>
<p>[Concepts</a> of Diversity](<a href=“http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/med/research/csri/ethnicityhealth/aspects_diversity/concepts/]Concepts”>http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/med/research/csri/ethnicityhealth/aspects_diversity/concepts/)</p>
<p>So a person can have Hispanic heritage but not necessarily identify themself as Hispanic.</p>
<p>Depending on which CB Region the OP resides in, NHRP cutoffs range from the low 180s into the 190s.</p>
<p>The term Hispanic is made up and the federal govt tinkers with the definition for each census. But still, the criteria is country of origin – Spain or a Spanish-speaking country in Latin America. For NHRP and some scholarships they require a parent or grandparent’s country of origin.
I think it is difficult for some 17-year-olds to consider themselves Hispanic due to negative stereotypes. They may not identify with the racial or socioeconomic images they have of Hispanics. But whether someone appreciates their heritage or not, they’re Hispanic if their family is from a Spanish-speaking country. All they have to do to self-identify is check the Hispanic box.</p>
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<p>Yes, that’s why I stated:</p>
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<p>Yes, again for college admissions and some scholarships & programs. However NHRP considers students with a background from Brazil under their definition of Hispanic.</p>
<p>If you come from Cuban descent than you are Cuban but if your mom is from Cuban that just means she is from Cuba. Its like if an AA was born in Italy. He has AA roots but hes not Italian</p>
<p>So let me add this question to the mix- one of my son’s good friends has a father who is from Portugal. His friend listed Hispanic as his ethnicity. Is that legit? I think not, but granted, it is possible that he has Hispanic lineage, but I somehow thought that having a Portuguese background (either Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde Islands) is not the same thing. This friend has been accepted to Princeton and Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>@s4mglo, i would ask your college counselor, if you have one</p>
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<p>Students with a background from Brazil are sometimes considered Hispanic under the sensu lato Hispanic/Latino definition. However, I have never seen any college admissions/scholarships/programs that consider students with solely Portuguese descent as Hispanic.</p>