<p>Does harvard follow affirmitive action. For example do urm compete with eachother? For a spot. Latino w Latino African ameri w African amer ? Does being a urm actually help in admissions? Harvard class is 10.9% Latino while whites are like 60% so is it harder or easier for Latinos?
Thanks</p>
<p>Bump 10Char</p>
<p>Justice Powell’s opinion in the Bakke case some 30 years ago discussed Harvard’s admissions policy extensively, and I don’t think the policy has changed significantly since then.</p>
<p>Don’t bump a thread within two hours.</p>
<p>Harvard, and most other top colleges and universities, take race into account as part of their admissions process. They don’t have quotas, nor do they only compare members of one race to themselves. It is true that under-represented minorities have some advantages in admissions, because schools build their classes for diversity, but a student who is truly underqualified for the school will not be accepted to it over another one.</p>
<p>It’s unclear if URM are in a group all of their own, but being a URM can help quite a bit. Native American are obviously the least populous ethnic group, especially in college, but at the same time most of these “native americans” are in actuality white people whom you would never guess otherwise, but are 1/16th or so of a native-american tribe. One girl whom went to my school got into Stanford lat year, and she just signed up for a tribe or something…and she got a hefty scholarship because of it. God I ****ing hate people like that.</p>
<p>Anywho, yes, being a URM can help alot, mostly if you are qualified. No prestigious college wants to be known as the “whitey” or “asian”, or “whitey asian” college, so being a qualified URM can help significantly. And even then, in alot of cases you can be underqualified in some areas (a black kid from Massachusetts got into MIT with a 4.00 GPA and an 1850 SAT).</p>
<p>Harvard does practice affirmitive action. All private universities can practice it, and most do.</p>
<p>Ok thanks . Yea sorry for bumping? I’m new and I always see that sooooo…</p>
<p>Yes, URM status helps a lot. No, they do not have competing quotas. Yes, it is much easier for a latino to gain admission to Harvard than it is for a white student. The lower % of latino students is due to the lower number of qualified latino applicants, which in turn is one of the reasons that it is easier for average-qualified latinos to gain admission.</p>
<p>perfectPerfect answers thank you a lot. Yea poseiden I know what you mean. It ****es me off when somelast named Garcia girl who is as white as can be has no idea about the culture or the language about Latinos and are only considered Latino because her great granda was Cuban. That should not count. To be considered a urm, IMO especially. Latino, you need to be fluent know about culture etc. What that native amer girl did is typical insecure. Kids who take advantage of the system.</p>
<p>URM will help to a certain degree. You won’t be accepted over another person who has 100 points higher SAT subscores than you. You also won’t be accepted over another person if their GPA is like .25 higher than you. (In these scenarios, the given is that the ECs are similar). I read somewhere that URM students are slightly lower but not significantly. The part where URM status will help is when you and another person are competing for one spot and you have similar stats or stats that are slightly (not significantly) just slightly lower, you could potentially beat that person. But don’t count on your URM status to get you admitted.</p>
<p>Cdz512: I beg to differ. Last year, we had an African American Girl with a 2000 SAT and 5.3 Weighted GPA accepted at Princeton while an Indian with a 5.9 and a 2350 was waitlisted. URM status can, in many cases, overcome huge GPA and SAT disparities.</p>
<p>And did they have similar ECs? I mean there are various factors that make me wonder if our statement is true there.
- The other person was Indian, an over represented minority group.
- We’re ECs of the two students were the same? I really don’t think so.
- I wonder if the ECs of the Indian was like a stereotypical Asian or students that are similar to Asians (in academics and ECs that is). Harvard has the rights to reject a Asian because they bring will bring no diversity. What I mean is that Harvard will rejects Asians because there are many that pretty much have the same interest, ECs, GPA and test score. If Harvard were to accept a whole bunch of Asians that are math loving, science loving students, then the humanities department would be endanger. They don’t rejected them based on their ethnicity, but instead they reject them because they don’t have anything impressive they can bring to Harvard.</p>
<p>So essentially you have to ask: did the Indian have any impressive ECs that would have separated himself from other Asians and other people that are similar in stats with Asians? Did they (the African American girl and the Indian) have the same ECs? </p>
<p>Also can you deflate those weighted GPA and give me the unweighted GPA?</p>
<p>cdz512: The girl who was accepted had around a 3.7 ish UW, while the Waitlist was val of the class with around a 3.94 UW. Both had significant extra-curriculars, although the girl was a gifted dancer and the guy had traveled to Africa to do research which was eventually published. Yes, he was strong in math and science but it was not the focus of his application. The disparity in course rigor cannot be ignored, either: Honors calc. v Calc BC, Hon. English v. both AP English classes, 1 AP science vs. 3 AP science, etc. While it is possible that a talented dancer could be highly valued at a school like Princeton, the data indicates the presence of comparatively relaxed academic standards for URMs in college admissions.</p>
<p>Also someone with an 1850 SAT and a 4.00 GPA whom was black got into MIT…1850 is well below MIT’s SAT standard.</p>
<p>Exactly, 10 char</p>