<p>"Intelligence" not in the IQ sense, but as in the "very-hard-working" sense. It is very typical in East Asian culture to work very hard academically as opposed to the more laid back Western nations.</p>
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no. the ones who go thru preparatory classes a lot but only do OK (2100s) aren't very smart tho, are they, since it's not too hard to get 2400's if you just self study a little.</p>
<p>but those whose parents force them to go thru years and years of prep but still don't get at least 2300s...it's not that hard to do.
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</p>
<p>wow, what a stereotypically Asian response. if you concider scoring in the 99.88th percentile only "OK" you need to get a clue, frankly. To do well, you need to score in the 99.9976135 percentile.</p>
<p>Eh, I'm basically the underachiever Asian who hadn't heard of USAMO and can't play the piano. How screwed am I?</p>
<p>"Screwed" in what context? Being Asian does not mean you should give up on colleges, although you are slightly disadvantage whn it comes to admissions because Adcoms put the bar higher for Asians.</p>
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wow, what a stereotypically Asian response.
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taking prep classes andgetting a 2100?? NOTtaking classes and getting a 2100 is okay. but after taking prep classes? most ppl could get higher than that by just, i dunno, buying a book and reading it -_-</p>
<p>See the FAQ: </p>
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it is ridiculous. pretty much a subtle way for asians to rant about college admission =D
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<p>oh man, so true. this makes me laugh hahha</p>
<p>Well, I have something to say about this post. Not sure if it was addressed already but really, I think being asian CAN be a hook in certain circumstances. Let's say you're asian and applying to a college with little or no diversity---that will help you because you aren't caucasian. Lots of people think being asian will not help because the selective schools are already diverse. Just a few years ago, places like Colby, Bowdoin, and Kenyon were looking for diversity because there wasn't much. In schools in this kind of situation, it helps.</p>
<p>I know at my school, Whitman College was sending out notifications to qualified prospective Asian applicants (me included). Being asian is not really a hook for many colleges, but I really don't think race is such a big deal in admissions (even for real URMs). It's race, for gods sakes. Aren't we supposed to ignore that "significance" by now? Shouldn't the priority be more on the economically/socially disadvantaged than only the "racially" disadvantaged?</p>
<p>^oh being a URM is quite big</p>
<p>and how do you know that for a fact? I'm not trying to say that it gives no advantage, but it's not like HYPS etc. are going to be like, oh, you're Hispanic, you have a 1600/2400 SAT, 3.0 GPA, are a non-recruitable athlete, parents have a 250,000/yr income, have no president/leadership titles, no extenuating circumstances, and have 5 community service hours, we're going to accept you just because of your race.</p>
<p>They might accept someone who's hispanic with a 1900/2400 SAT, 3.5 GPA, 0 EFC, 3 leadership titles, 300+ volunteer service hours, and plenty of extenuating circumstances. This is generally the kind of applicant that gets the advantage, not that it is unfair. Just because you have a 2300 SAT and believe everyone else should also with "proper studying" doesn't mean that colleges believe the same thing. Once again, race isn't the only thing that they consider, and I just don't believe that it is quite big at all, for at least the schools that most of us CC'ers are applying to. If you know of an unspectacular candidate who gets accepted over you, just because they're an URM, let me know. Cause you cannot really judge who is "unspectacular or underqualified." There are always extenuating circumstances, just like rich people whose parents donate 50 mil. or whatever that give their kids a leg up in admissions. You can't say necessarily for a fact that they are underqualified solely because of that either.</p>
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If you know of an unspectacular candidate who gets accepted over you, just because they're an URM, let me know.
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how about this @ MIT
hispanic girl
2100 SAT's (650 math)
600 SAT2's
4.2 GPA/3.4 or something UW
ranked 30/500
No ECs, No awards, almost failed AP Chem junior year
parents paid for her to go volunteer in Kenya over the summer (pretty rich parents, probably $200,000+)</p>
<p>asian male
2380 SATs or something close, 800 math
800 SAT2's
4.5 GPA, 3.9 uw
ranked 4/500
president/captain of 3 clubs, captain of varsity sports team, allstate violinist
volunteering but at local places</p>
<p>girl gets picked?</p>
<p>I'm curious as to how simply being an URM helps your application. I am Hispanic, but have gone to the best prep schools all my life and am in no way disadvantaged. Does it really help that much?</p>
<p>i don't know why people are so concerned with other peoples admissions decisions. The school is building a class for YOU. if you don't like that class then i don't know why you'd be applying to that school in the first place (unless your some kind of prestige-freak, in which case you're applying for the wrong reason). No school is maliciously "out to get" asian students, despite popular belief that asians are the center of the admissions-universe.</p>
<p>Let the college build its class, find the class you like, apply there, and hope YOU get in and stop stressing about it. The process is so "unmeritocratic" that it's really not worth worrying about other people once you've put your all into it. </p>
<p>College is what you make of it and any university that takes you will be better because of it, as long as you're there for the right reasons. It's very sad the state of mind some of you have, its actually very immature. </p>
<p><em>gets off soap box</em></p>
<p>what about essays? what about recs? those matter too... you can't really judge the quality of those, as you aren't in the adcom's position. And haven't you heard that ivy league admissions is a crapshoot? It's not like 2100 isn't spectacular (umm... +95% percentile.. that's great for anyone, imo). Some things get overlooked, even for good candidates (sucks for the asian kid, but that's life. There's only about 2000 other colleges in the u.s. that would be dying to have him)... and do you know that hispanic girl personally? I'm not in the position to judge what's fair or not, but that's just me. Think whatever you want, just my opinion</p>
<p>helps out a TON, i.e. it will be the difference between acceptance and rejection</p>
<p>heh. It depends on about 60,000,000 factors, but it could help a little (i doubt it would help a lot, contrary to most CC'ers, but I could be just a skeptic). I would check the box if I were you, but don't think that your racial "advantage" means an automatic acceptance to HYPS etc.</p>
<p>No I definitely am not counting on it, I didn't even think about it until after I submitted my apps and started hearing so much on here about URM's getting priority, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>I don't think it helps to the extent that everyone typically thinks it does. It really depends on all other parts of your application. Being a URM certainly won't make up for a mediocre essay...but sometimes it does seem to make up for sub-par scores...Regardless, there are so many other bits of the application to take into account.</p>
<p>colleges will take into account the fact that you went to a great prep school and will expect you to perform better than hispanics that went to schools with fewer opportunities. AA will help you in the sense that it will allow schools to take your race into consideration when trying to create a diverse student body and since there are fewer hispanics applying to top schools you'll benefit more than whites and asians.</p>
<p>in summary, it won't help that much...</p>