I’m currently a high-school junior in Canada who will be applying to the US next year, and wanted to know whether I count as URM if my family is of Kashmiri ethnicity. If so, which (sub)group will it fall under? Thanks in advance
No, you are not URM.
No-Kashmiri would be under South Asian and not
URM.
You might be (unfortunately) grouped under Asian category…
OP is a Canadian applicant, thus cannot be called “Asian American” or “Asian”.
Underrepresented minority:
African-American, Native-American, Pacific Islander, Mexican-American/hispanic-American.
Missing the biggest caveat of all: applicable for US citizens and permanent residents. Int’l applicants for most top colleges fall into an entirely separate bucket.
So the answer for the OP, as a South Asian from Canada, is a resounding “no.”
For other applicants, there is no check box on the application that says “Check here if you are URM.” You list your race/ethnicity (if you choose) and the college will use that info as it sees fit. Each college, where not prohibited by law, will decide what is URM and also decide how much of a bump, if any, this will give an application.
Thanks for the clarification. I was not aware that international applicants do not report race/ethnicity. I believe the best course of action now is to write about one’s ethnicity (if important) on the admissions essay. Another question, if I was unable to take IB or AP classes due to financial hardship, will that negatively impact my application (in the case that I have strong test scores)?
for some school southeast Asian get better treatment than Asian (Chinese , India), like it or not.
I doubt Harvard is one of them though. FYI SE Asian includes, among others, Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, Laotian. Kashmiri is considered South Asian.
No. Your application will be evaluated in context.
There can/do report it, if desired. It’s just the extreme disadvantage of being an international applicant, in most cases, outweighs any potential hook. Again, the college decides the importance, if any. So it really needs to be files under “it is what it is.”