<p>Does, say, being a black or hispanic male help your chances at getting in a college? </p>
<p>I ask this question because I heard that big time colleges love diversity, like for example international applicants, however do their want for diversity also include race as well? If a college is running low on demographics, could two applicants with nearly identical requirements have the difference between them come down to race? even ivy-league schools? perhaps they want to consider a student more because it helps the demographics of their schools?</p>
<p>it might be considered racist though. but i do know colleges look for diversity in terms of athletes for example. sorry if this question offends anyone, im just knew to the whole applying for college thing</p>
<p>YES! it helps a lot. Honestly the sat threshold for most schools for a minority is much lower then if u were not a minority. Its really sad to say but you are competing against other minorities. Colleges accept a certain # each year. Money and performance in school are often correlated like money and minorities. Most of the time minorities do not have the resources to do as well as other, but it does not mean they lack potential. If you hold promise as a minority colleges will look at you.</p>
<p>It will help you. Well, it depends; actually, I’ve heard being Asian can sometimes have a negative impact on your decision. BUT being black (That’s me! But I’m a girl…) or Hispanic often gives you a boost. Being Hispanic, though, usually gives a bigger boost in the process from what I’ve seen.</p>
<p>Being an Asian, I find the college admission process extremely racist (but understandable). Minorities (asians aren’t minorities in college haha) definitely have a lot better chance than Asians or whites in terms of admission. I read somewhere that being black basically lowers SAT requirements by 150 points compared to whites. It’s obviously different from college to college, but I would say that is fairly accurate when it comes to URMs.</p>
<p>YES. Like if you are Hispanics or African-Americans or Native Americans. Unfortunately, the race factor does play a role in college admissions Colleges do want a diverse community. Well, I guess that helps if you’re a minority!</p>
<p>No, colleges hate diversity. It makes them look bad.</p>
<p>Just Kidding! But yeah, it really does increase your chances, because you have something that the colleges want. A lot of people call this unfair for having an advantage in something you had no say in, but giving preferences to legacies, donors, or kids of faculty is just as unfair, if not more so.</p>
<p>@DevPatel
Actually I’m almost positive that being African American is slightly more advantageous than being Hispanic. I do know that the average SAT score of black students tends to be slightly lower than Hispanics. I’ve seen most African Americans receive bigger boosts in general too</p>
<p>@Neverend
I personally think affirmative action is becoming increasingly unfair (although I’m willing to take advantage of my Hispanic status lol). I’m not saying that it isn’t effective for the majority at the present time, but I can understand how a ‘smarter’ or harder working asian student can get shoved out, while a Hispanic can get majorly boosted. Or there are people that claim URM status when they are only 1/4, 1/8, or even 1/16 heritage. But there are indeed financial disparities that exist with these races/ethnicities as a whole, and colleges do want diversity. The debate could go on and both sides would have valid points</p>
<p>The OP also mentioned being male. It also helps to be male, except at STEM schools (MIT, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Rose Hulman, etc.). Generally (1) more females apply to college, and (2) their statistics tend to be on average better than males’ statistics. But co-ed colleges want to try to achieve something close to a gender balance, so boys have an edge – with slightly worse grades and test scores, they still will get in over some more qualified girls.</p>
<p>Yes if you’re black or Hispanic you can <em>generally</em> get in with worse stats because they are underrepresented at many schools, and also have lower mean test scores. Whites are at a disadvantage because they are overly represented colleges. Asians arguably have it the worst because their mean test scores are so high it makes any Asian without a high score look bad. Anyway I don’t know if it should be this way in admissions, but it is.</p>
Colleges do want a diverse community. Well, I guess that helps if you’re a minority!</p>