<p>Hi guys</p>
<p>Is this diversity stuff true? I mean I heard some colleges will accept with lower stats student just to have diversity. So what are that colleges that want diversity ? Does anyone know?</p>
<p>And my cousin got to top LAC school with 40k scholarship with average stats and weak extracurricals just because they never had a student from my country.</p>
<p>@Autumn21
You are misunderstanding the diversity issue. Just because someone with below average stat comes from underrepresented area, it doesn’t mean he or she has better chances than other people.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter where you are from; You still need to do very well in school, have good SAT/ACT and test scores, and great ECs. Sure, there are some kids who have below average SAT score, but those kids usually have excellent talent/award/ECs</p>
<p>How do you define “weak extracurricular” and " average stats"?? </p>
<p>SAT 1650, gpa 4.0, toefl 95. </p>
<p>EXc: member of debate club, math club , piano player.</p>
<p>Breakdown of SAT? Course Loads? extenuating circumstances? </p>
<p>Example: abusive parents, dysfunctional family, self-supporting, illness, homelessness etc. </p>
<p>It is quite possible that your cousin suffered from circumstances that you are not aware of, and/or he/she didn’t tell you everything, and he/she is not obliged to. </p>
<p>Any awards?? How long was she/she involved in debate/math club and how committed was your cousin in piano? What school was it?</p>
<p>@paul2752 honestly, i don’t know anything about her personal life. we don’t talk that much. But maybe something like that </p>
<p>what does breakdown of SAT mean?</p>
<p>Reading, math, writing section score…and her school, please??</p>
<p>i’m sorry, i don’t know exactly subscores. Smith college</p>
<p>I think there’s some truth to the “diversity stuff,” but you have to understand that diversity can mean a lot of different things. There’s ethnic and racial diversity, economic diversity, educational diversity, gender preference diversity, family background diversity, geographic diversity and – most pertinent to internationals-- life experience diversity.</p>
<p>Official diversity percentages – the ones that breakdown the racial composition of the student body – are based on US students only. The colleges lump all internationals into one percentage (sometimes excluding Canada and, as I’ve recently learned, sometimes excluding undocumented immigrants). </p>
<p>Across all international admits, the colleges also seek a balance of the same diversity factors. The objective is to put together an international cohort that covers a wide range of backgrounds and life experiences. </p>
<p>In order to do this, they will often forgive relatively lower scores and grades in favor of desirable demographics, as long as they are assured that the student will be able to do the academic work. </p>
<p>The idea is that students from cultures that are unlike America will contribute valuable perspectives thus contributing depth of experience both in and out of the classroom.</p>
<p>All international applicants compete with other international applicants, so the trick is to find colleges that attract fewer international applicants. These are generally colleges and universities that have one or more of these characteristics: They are not globally recognized names, they are not located in or near major cities, they are located the Midwest or South. </p>