Should I put down Hispanic?

[skieurope]

so you’re saying that checking off both white and hispanic would cancel out any advantage I’d get from only checking off hispanic?

No, I’m saying that being white and Hispanic or Hispanic with no race probably will not give you any advantage. If you omit your race, colleges may just assume that you are white.

There are really two big takeaways that you need to consider:

1/ Colleges, where allowed by law (e.g. not California public colleges) can make their own determination as to what race/ethnicity may get a boost. One such definition is:

Under-represented minority

Currently includes African Americans, Mexican-Americans, Native Americans (American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians), Pacific Islanders, and mainland Puerto Ricans

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Medicine/diversity/urm_definition.html

2/ While you can certainly check of the Hispanic box, I’d question the wisdom of the first time doing it being on your college application if every other piece of paper that a college could potentially gets its hand on says you are non-Hispanic. AO’s may raise an eyebrow at your claim, or they may not, but do you really want to take that chance?