<p>I'm black and a girl and people always say, "Oh, they're going to want you." (colleges).
So does being a minority really inflate your chances?
I know its against the law for admissions to be based on race, but that doesn't stop it from happening.</p>
<p>Thoughts? Opinions?</p>
<p>Y0 y34 r341 t71k y0u7 0wn1ng</p>
<p>being a URM is the equivalent of adding 200-300 points to your SATs, 0.3-0.4 on your unweighted GPA and having double legacy status</p>
<p>no, not really, no one knows how much it helps but it does, substantially</p>
<p>funny thing is what was said by DreamingofIvy seems quite true… haha.</p>
<p>From the ten months I’ve spent on College Confidential, I seem to have surmised that being a minority, itself, does not help.</p>
<p>Being a minority can entail with living in a low-income area because of a rather racist history that America (like any other country) has had. With things like slums and redlining, many minorities often are faced with a much greater adversity in all areas of life. From the eyes of college admissions officers, this shows development, adds character, and brings real diversity to the student body. With the landmark case of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke allowing race to be one of the factors in the admissions process, it would not surprise me if the colleges themselves are not a bit prejudiced and allow slightly lower standards for certain ethnic groups in order to increase diversity.</p>
<p>It is important to remember that correlation does not imply causation. Being black or Latino does not gain you acceptance to college, but rather hard work in the face of adversity that can be associated with the living environments of people from those groups - just as how hard work from any person, regardless of race or scenario, will gain results.</p>
<p>The best advice I can give to you is to let your true self shine on your application. If you happen to come from a low-income area or a rough family, don’t use it for pity points, and don’t play the race card. Instead, explain how those conditions have led you to become a better, stronger person.</p>
<p>And that’s all I have to say about URM being a factor in the college admissions process.</p>
<p>^ The problem with AA however, is that it is based more on race than on socioeconomic factors. An upper middle class URM with a family income of 150k+ a year still checks off his URM status when he applies, and receives whatever subjective benefits that come with it.</p>
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<p>The results that I have seen in actual results threads beg to differ. Plus, I will quote myself from my previous post - “it would not surprise me if the colleges themselves are not a bit prejudiced and allow slightly lower standards for certain ethnic groups in order to increase diversity.” It is a human flaw to stereotype, and I am sure that there are college admissions officers that assume that all minorities may have similar living conditions and give them a boost in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Let’s look at a quote from MITChris, an admissions officer at MIT, in response to claims that white/Asian MIT applicants “lost spots” to minorities with lower statuses.</p>
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<p>That last clause - “taking in to consideration every aspect of your story as an applicant” - strongly suggests that socioeconomic factors, which may be strongly correlated with race, are what cause URMs to be accepted to colleges with seemingly lower statistics. Schools want diversity, not in skin color but in applicant personalities.</p>
<p>I am a PR student and always have heard ‘colleges want you.’ what other people fail to realize is that you are being compared to the people in your area, if you happen to be in a very affluent area, then being a minority will not necessarily help. however, if you are an inner-city kid, who goes to a school that is not known for outstanding academics, colleges will note that. They will not hold your stats to the same level as a prestigious prep school, or even a public school in the nearby suburb, because you may not have had the same opportunities as others. Colleges know that resources available (quality of teachers, social pressure - if it counts, affording books/tests - I’ve spent well over $1000 taking AP exams, etc) may be significantly less for minorities. Not because of their skin color, but also because of their socio-economic status. They aren’t going to judge based solely on color, colleges understand the circumstances surrounding the student as well. However, hispanic scholarships (if not based on need) do not factor in the economic aspect. (to Jersey13)</p>
<p>But it does bother me EXTREMELY when people who are perhaps 15-20% hispanic/black check off that box, especially when they make degrading comments towards minorities often. Its so hypocritical!</p>
<p>I go to a suburban public school (ap and honors classes are almost 100% white students) so I frequently have this conversation.</p>
<p>and no use worrying about it now, only a few days until you find out from schools! :)</p>
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<p>That’s not true. Colleges are looking to build diversity, but they often do this artificially–ie through accepting full-pay URMs, not those URMs with Pursuit of Happyness-esque stories. Being a URM makes your chances of acceptances to a top-tier school 28% higher than the average white applicant; being poor doesn’t affect your chances one way or the other.</p>
<p>Being a minority (other than asian) absolutely helps. Colleges are allowed to consider race as a factor in admission, though they aren’t allowed to specifically use quotas. Still, as a previous poster said, being a URM is the equivalent of a third of a GPA point and 200 points on the SAT. This isn’t to say that URMs accepted are unqualified (after all, the range of scores at top schools is incredibly restricted), but they may very well be less qualified, at least in terms of numbers, than their white or asian counterparts. </p>
<p>You’re lucky, but you should by no means discount any acceptances that come your way.</p>
<p>are hispanics minorities?</p>
<p>Yes. </p>
<p>I think people here exaggerate the benefits of being a minority. It’s nowhere near as good as being upper-middle class, well-off with two college-educated parents. Affirmative action does give you a boost, but people on this site occasionally talk as if Ivy League schools are crammed full of blacks and Hispanics helped there by affirmative action.</p>
<p>glassesarechic, do you have a hard source for that data? Because as far as I have observed, colleges do not typically show much transparency in their general admissions practices, much less their affirmative action practices. I personally think Keasbey Nights’ thoughts seem to be a more reasonable analysis of this issue, but still, I do not know of any instances of colleges talking very openly about affirmative action. The policies probably vary from college to college and by individual cases.</p>