You’ve probably seen the Golden Arches in almost every neighborhood, but behind the scenes, McDonald's has been quietly fighting a legal battle over who gets a piece of their $33 million scholarship fund. It’s a messy situation. For nearly 40 years, the McDonald’s HACER (Hispanic American Commitment to Educational Resources) National Scholarship was a lifeline for Hispanic high schoolers. It was simple: if you had at least one Latino parent, you could apply for up to $100,000.
But things just changed. Fast.
In early 2025, McDonald's officially settled a lawsuit that forced them to gut those heritage requirements. Now, you don’t actually have to be Latino to win a "Latino scholarship." It sounds weird, right? But in the current legal climate, it was basically the only way the company could keep the program alive without getting buried in court.
Why McDonald's Changes Latino Scholarship Program After Lawsuit
The catalyst for this shift wasn't a sudden change of heart by the board of directors. It was a lawsuit filed on January 12, 2025, by the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER). If that name sounds familiar, it’s because the group is led by Edward Blum. He’s the same conservative activist who successfully took down affirmative action at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.
Blum’s argument was straightforward: by requiring students to have a Latino parent, McDonald’s was discriminating against everyone else. The lawsuit pointed to a specific high school student in Arkansas with a 3.8 GPA who wanted to apply but couldn't because of her ethnicity.
Honestly, McDonald's didn't wait long to fold. By January 31, they announced a settlement.
They didn't admit they were "discriminating" in a moral sense. In fact, they explicitly said they disagreed with the claim. But they knew if they fought it, the whole program might have to pause. That would mean 3,000 students currently in the middle of their applications would be left hanging. So, they chose to "evolve" instead.
The New Rules of the Game
So, what does the HACER scholarship look like now? The old rule—the one requiring at least one Hispanic or Latino parent—is gone. It's been deleted from the eligibility page.
Instead of checking a box about your DNA, you now have to prove your impact.
The new criteria require applicants to "demonstrate their impact and contribution to the Hispanic/Latino community through their activities, leadership, and service." Basically, a student of any race—White, Black, Asian—can now win the money if they can prove they’ve spent their high school years working to better the lives of Latinos.
It's a shift from who you are to what you do.
The War on DEI and the Corporate Domino Effect
This isn't just a McDonald's story. It's a "the world is changing" story.
Since the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling on college admissions, there has been a massive bullseye on corporate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. McDonald's has been feeling the heat for a while. Just weeks before this scholarship lawsuit, they actually started scaling back other initiatives. They retired specific diversity goals for their senior leadership. They stopped forcing their suppliers to hit minority representation targets. They even changed the name of their "Diversity Team" to the "Global Inclusion Team."
It’s a linguistic dance.
They’re trying to keep the spirit of their outreach while scrubbing the legal "red flags" that activists like Blum are looking for. You’ve seen this happening at other giants too—Starbucks, Meta, and even the Hispanic Scholarship Fund have all faced similar pressure.
What This Means for 2026 Applicants
If you're a student or a parent looking at this, the deadline was actually pushed back to March 6 to give people time to adjust to the new rules.
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Here is the reality of the situation:
The competition just got wider. In the past, the pool was limited by heritage. Now, the pool is limited by merit and community involvement. While the scholarship still aims to support the Latino community, the legal "shield" of requiring a specific background is gone.
Practical Steps for Future Scholarship Seekers
If you were planning to apply for the HACER scholarship or similar programs, the strategy has to change. You can't rely on heritage alone anymore.
- Document Your Service Early: Since programs are shifting toward "community impact," you need receipts. Keep a log of every hour spent volunteering for organizations that serve the Latino community.
- Focus on the Narrative: Your personal statement used to be about your identity. Now, it needs to be about your utility. How have you used your leadership to solve problems within the community?
- Look for "Identity-Neutral" Language: When searching for scholarships in 2026, look for keywords like "underserved," "first-generation," or "community-focused." These are the terms companies are moving toward to avoid lawsuits.
- Diversify Your Applications: Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Corporate-funded scholarships are in a state of flux. Look into local community foundations or smaller non-profits that might have more flexibility than a massive public company like McDonald's.
The Golden Arches might look the same from the drive-thru, but the way they’re handing out checks is fundamentally different. This settlement is a landmark case because it shows that even the biggest brands are no longer willing to risk a long court battle to keep race-based criteria. Whether that's a win for "equality" or a loss for "representation" depends entirely on who you ask, but for the students applying today, the only thing that matters is how well they can tell their story under the new rules.
If you are a student currently working on a HACER application, your best move is to double-down on your "community impact" essay. Make sure you highlight specific leadership roles you’ve taken in Hispanic-focused clubs or initiatives, as this is now the primary metric the selection committee will use to justify an award in a post-lawsuit environment.