Does Being A URM Really Matter In Admissions?

Applying to College
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<p>Okay so this has been really interesting me for a while. Specifically SAT and ACT wise. As for the SAT I came across collegeboard's percentile and statistics informationon its website, here is the link: <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/CR_M_%20W_PercentileRanksGenderEthnicGroups.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/CR_M_%20W_PercentileRanksGenderEthnicGroups.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>And based on looking at this chart I noticed that underrepresented minorities have different percentiles. For instance, if an African America receives a 1950 composite score on the SAT this places the scorer in the 98th percentile for his or her race. The 98th percentile for a white person would be a little over a 2200 composite score. </p>

<p>So my question is: Do colleges take this information into consideration when determining the acceptance of an underrepresented minority or URM? </p>

<p>I also found this on a website that I found quite interesting as well:</p>

<p>"The last factor used when placing your SAT scores into perspective is affirmative action. I know this is a highly debated topic that all of us have different viewpoints on. Whatever your opinion may be (for it or against it), it does happen in highly selective admissions committees and this applies to SAT scores as well. A 1950 SAT score for a white applicant may be way below average in the overall applicant pool, but for an under-represented minority (Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans) a score like this would place them close to the 99th percentile of URMs across the country. So does that mean if I’m white or Asian I have to get a 2300 SAT score if I want to have a shot at getting into a good college? ABSOLUTELY NOT!" </p>

<p><a href="http://qbguidebook.tumblr.com/SAT%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://qbguidebook.tumblr.com/SAT&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>There are so many studies about AA and race in college admissions that you’d be able to fill up a bookcase with new books/published research on those two topics every day.</p>

<p>The most reliable sources state that an asian needs an SAT score of 140 points more than whites and 350-500 points more than blacks to have an equal chance at top universities.</p>

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<p>However, many colleges do not consider race or ethnicity at all. You can see that in section C7 of their common data sets.</p>

<p>Examples include California and Florida public universities, and any open-admission community college. Many others admit a portion of their students purely on stats, so race or ethnicity does not matter if you are in that portion (e.g. auto-admit by class rank at Texas public universities).</p>

<p>Most people posting here (whether URMs hoping to get into reach colleges or non-URMs resenting the URM preference) appear to believe that the URM preference is larger than it actually is (sometimes believing that it exists at schools where there is none).</p>

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<p>MODERATOR NOTE: This is a FAQ, please:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Use the Search function for URM.</p></li>
<li><p>Read the Race FAQ sticky thread at the top of this forum, particularly the opening posts.</p></li>
<li><p>Continue the discussion on the sticky thread.</p></li>
</ol>