Being an URM

[iwantsuccess]

Hey all,

I was recently introduced into the roles of being an URM in the college admissions process. My question is, how much does it realistically help in the admission? Also, does having a “sad” life story plus being an URM help a lot? Lastly, does a North African Arab student qualify as one? I’m not trying to use it as a free ride in, of course, but I’m just curious of the realistic effects.

Thank you!

[gibby]

First off, an Under Represented Minority (URM) is term that applies to US Citizens who are African Americans, Mexican-Americans, Native Americans (American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians), Pacific Islanders, and mainland Puerto Ricans. **International students, no matter what ethnicity, do not qualify as URM’s for the purposes of college admissions. ** If you would like to read more about URM’s in college admissions, here’s a good paper about it: http://public.econ.duke.edu/~psarcidi/aa2.pdf

Secondly, years ago a student who was an Under Represented Minority (URM) would get a huge leg up in the college applications process. However, these days that doesn’t happen as much – or not to the extent that most people think. I wrote the below several years ago, and haven’t updated the information for the class of 2020, but my guess is the trend still stands.

If you look through the Harvard and Yale Class of 2019 Decision Threads and just focus on test scores, you’ll see that URM tests scores are just about the same as non-URM test scores. So, there seems to be very little bump from being a URM.

Harvard Class of 2019 SCEA Decision Thread http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1714730-official-harvard-university-2019-scea-decisions-only-p1.html

#11 - Female, Black, deferred with ACT 29

21 - Male, Hispanic, accepted with SAT of 2220 and ACT 35

29 - Female, African American, accepted with SAT 2240

30 - Female, African American, accepted with SAT 2130

39 - Male, African American, deferred with SAT 2230

40 - Female, African American, accepted with SAT 2400

44 - Female, African American, sibling, accepted with SAT 2140

47 - Male, African American, deferred with SAT 2010 and ACT 25

57 - Male, Hispanic, deferred with SAT 2220 and ACT 32

62 - Male, Black, accepted with ACT 32

63 - No gender listed, African American, accepted with ACT 32

Harvard Class of 2019 RD Decision Thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1752941-harvard-university-class-of-2019-rd-results-p1.html

#1 - Male, Hispanic, accepted with SAT 2300

3 - Male, Hispanic, accepted with ACT 33

6 - Male, Hispanic, waitlisted with ACT 35

7 - Male, Hispanic, rejected with SAT 2340

10 - Female, African American, accepted with SAT 2100

21 - Male, Hispanic,accepted with ACT 31

33 - Female, African American, accepted with SAT 2380

Yale Class of 2019 SCEA Decision Thread
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/1713050-yale-class-of-2019-scea-decisions-p1.html

#3 - Male, African American (Questbridge), deferred with SAT 1940 and ACT 35

15 - Male, Hispanic, deferred with SAT 2400

17 - Male, Hispanic, deferred with ACT 33

18 - Male, African American, accepted with SAT 2230

33 - Female, Cuban, accepted with SAT 2270 and ACT 33

34 - Male, African American, rejected with SAT 2030

35 - Female, Hispanic, deferred with SAT 1980

46 - Female, Mexican, accepted with SAT 2170

Yale Class of 2019 RD Decision Thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/1752938-yale-university-class-of-2019-rd-results.html

#9 - Male, Hispanic, rejected with SAT 2170

11 - Female, African American, rejected with SAT 2100

14 - Female, Latina, waitlisted with SAT 2200

20 - Male, Hispanic, rejected with SAT 2300

22 - Female, African American, accepted with SAT 2240 composite and ACT 35

23. Female, Hispanic, accepted with SAT 1910 (ranked 8th in her class of 465 students with an UW 3.9 GPA)

Based upon the College Confidential data from last year, my take: Harvard seems to attract more URM’s with top scores – and those students are rejected and accepted with about the same frequency as non-URM students. Yale seems to attract more URM’s with lower test scores (possibly because of Questbridge), but for the most part URM’s with low test scores are not being accepted. And just like Harvard, URM’s with top test scores are rejected.

[IN4655]

We can’t seriously take 32 data points from College Confidential and try to make any real judgmenets on the effects of URM can we? Especially when the acceptance rates are so low to begin with. When around 10-15% of people with 34+ test scores are accepted and 5% or so with 30-33 test scores are accepted, trying to make any real judgments with 32 data points seems a bit ridiculous.

And even if the scores are not that different between non URM’s and URM’s that still wouldn’t mean that there isn’t a huge advantage to URM’s. If the school only accepts 10% of 34+ ACT’s, but they raise that to 30% for URM’s by giving them additional points in other areas, then there still is a pretty large URM advantage.

[gibby]

^^ I agree that you really can’t make any real judgments from my 32 data points from CC. However, every year The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education posts an interesting chart about African American acceptance rates at various colleges vs. the overall acceptance rate: https://www.jbhe.com/2016/01/black-first-year-students-at-leading-research-universities/

Depending upon the college, being a URM can boost an applicant’s chances, but by how much depends on the school. For example, at Cornell, the African American acceptance rate was 17% vs the overall acceptance rate of 15%. At the University of Chicago the African American acceptance rate was 10% vs the overall acceptance rate of 8%. However, at Northwestern, the African American acceptance rate was 23% vs the overall acceptance rate of 13%. So a URM’s milage will vary depending on the school.

[IN4655]

@gibby From that source it seems that it helps significantly for about half, not so much for the other half. I don’t think we can just blankety look at the acceptance rates and say that since they are similar there is no significant help. Affirmative Action was put into place for a reason. URM’s make up a much larger percentage of the lower class socioeconomic’s than they do the overall US population, and there is a definite correlation between the social class that a student comes from and the chances that that applicant has to get into a top university, meaning that overall the average non-URM applicant probably has a superior application to the URM for these schools. That would explain why some schools that claim to have banned Affirmative Action, a good example from the link you provided is Cal Berkley, have an overall lower acceptance rates for URM’s than non’URM’s. While the acceptance rates between URM’s and non-URM’s may be similar for some schools, that still does not mean that there wasn’t some sort of significant boost to the URM applicants.

I personally would implement a affirmative action program to help the lower socioeconomic classes rather than the current affirmative action programs in place.

[snarlatron]

In any case I don’t think that people of North African or Middle Eastern ancestry are considered URMs.

[iwantsuccess]

@snarlatron really? Why is that? They are a significant minority, barely any of them

[snarlatron]

I don’t know; look it up. Colleges do not usually consider them URMs because they are not underrepresented based on their presence the population. As well the U.S. census considers them “white,” right or wrong.

[iwantsuccess]

@snarlatron I don’t know. Though I feel speaking of your heritage as a North African Arab on your application would do something wouldn’t it?

[gibby]

^^ http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1838521-north-africans-white.html

[iwantsuccess]

@gibby but would speaking of the North African heritage, as if separate from white, help on a college application?

[gibby]

^^ I’m assuming you are an international student, is that correct?

[snarlatron]

African American, Puerto Rican, Native American and Mexican American are generally considered URMs in US College, Grad and Professional school admissions.

[iwantsuccess]

@gibby no, I live in the United States to immigrant parents from North Africa.

[gibby]

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/02/14/tion-distorts-affirmative-action-policy-academic.html

“When affirmative action started, 99 percent of the blacks in the country were native-born. The assumption was that you’d be helping black descendants of slavery and segregation,”

. . the influx of non-whites from places such as the Caribbean, Africa and Latin America has complicated the use of preferences in higher education.

“We never really had a conversation about whether blacks [that were not native born] should benefit, or whether multi-racials should be considered black,” Brown said. These groups, he claims, “don’t have the same connection to history of oppression and racism in the U.S.”

That cuts right to the heart of your argument. An interesting paper on the topic: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1048&context=jctp

Since the 2004 “Harvard incident” greater attention has been given to Black immigrants in higher education due to data illustrating that the educational achievement for some Black immigrant groups surpass that of all other immigrant groups as well as that of native-born Blacks and in some instances, native-born Whites (In Educational Attainment, 2003; Rong & Brown, 2001; Stepkick & Stepkick, 2003).

[skieurope]

Though I feel speaking of your heritage as a North African Arab on your application would do something wouldn’t it?

Building upon what @gibby said about each college deciding how much, if any, a boost being URM plays in the admissions process, colleges are free to define URM any way they please. File that under “It is what it is.” While North African Arab might make for an interesting point in your essay, it is not a hook, and it is not URM.

[iwantsuccess]

@skieurope I find that funny. There are very few of them who apply anyway

[coolcheesebagel]

I don’t know if you qualify for URM. But to answer your next question, URM does help. How much, who knows? It depends on the situation. Depends on the context of the student and everything surrounding the student. It also depends on the school.

[bubblepop12444]

URM is if you are Black or Mexican descent (if you checked the AA box or Hispanic box.) If not, you will be statistically evaluated as a white Student. URM does help in cases of affirmative action, which is specifically geared towards the socioeconomic and racial implications of US society to ‘level the playing field.’ Hope this helps/clears things up.

[HRSMom]

There are other hooks though you might possess. Again, not super impactful, but 1st gen US, first gen to go to college?

Under US census rules, you would likely be Caucasian, tho.