Are Southeast Asians an URM?

Applying to College
1

Are Southeast Asians (specially Laotians, Cambodians, Thai, Burmese, etc.) considered an URM?
I myself am of SEA origin (Cambodian) which is not known for academic scholarship such as Chinese, Koreans, etc.

Would putting “Southeast Asian” for my race help my chances vs putting “Asian”? Or would they combine those two together?

Thanks!

2

I don’t think they have a separated category for SE Asian. I don’t think it matter even if they do. You are just from the same area as Singapore, Pakistan, and India that they also send a lot of students to the US. Nevertheless, the nationality may help when applying to highly competitive schools that only accept 1-2 students per country. But that is beyond the race/ethnic question.

3

Just looked at the Common App the other day and am really happy to see it includes a section, “Which best describes your Asian background?” There is then a series of boxes with various ethnicities, and while Cambodian isn’t among them, there are two other boxes, including “Other Southeast Asian,” which you’d check, and then you’d write in Cambodian in the space provided.

I don’t know if it’d help your chances or not in any meaningful way – you’re still going in the “Asian” pool (and hence not URM) – but I do hope it’d be seen as a diversity factor. Anyway, I was glad to see they don’t force people into one big mongo undifferentiated “Asian” lump. (Because no, those areas and people from those ethnicities in the US are not the same, and for someone with a background from Cambodia to check the same box as kids whose families are from Pakistan, Singapore, Korea and Uzbekistan is beyond ridiculous. It’s about as useful as checking a box for Earth. But fortunately that’s not the case, yay.)

4

Thanks to our government for the ridiculous categories. They only make sense in Washington, DC. Asian may help you for holistic admissions in, say, a middle-USA LAC. IT will hurt you for Ivys. It won’t make any difference for UCs, UMich, UT and other race-blind schools… Look at the CDS for information.

5

@TooOld4School According to a study in 2006, being Asian actually hurts for UMich admission too.

6

@billcsho

You’re confusing South Asia (Pakistan, India) SE Asia (Singapore, Cambodia).

7

@GMTplus7 Your are right, but it still doesn’t matter. Neither one would be considered URM anyway.

8

True

9

No. While each college is free to use its own definition, one such definition is:

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