<p>I know being black does somewhat help in college admissions. My question is does being wealthy cancel out that factor( okay more upper middle class >250,000 a year) ? I live in a fairly wealthy area and go to top schools, so I was wondering if because of this factor colleges would disregard the fact that I'm black?</p>
<p>I'm also first gen. I was born in Africa</p>
<p>I think that if your stats are strong, it won’t be a factor. Schools are looking for high achieving black students regardless of ses. But if your stats are middling and you are hoping for a boost based on race, that may be a different story…</p>
<p>In one way it does. It significantly increases how much comes out of your family’s wallet. A family making $200K/yr is considered upper, upper middle but if they live in an expensive home, drives expensive cars and already have a kid in college, the EFC for each kid can be $40K/yr to attend an elite school when their income after taxes is really $135K. </p>
<p>Don’t weep for these folks but they have to pay their own way. Only the rich and the poor get government and charitable help.</p>
<p>I think it hurts, it seems that in their quest for diversity schools specifically look for the kid that either is financially disadvantaged(but attends a 50K a year prep school) or the kid that comes from a school that, because of special agreements, they matriculate kids every year that might not be as academically sound as a kid that can pay his own freight. I know my son has surprised more than a few recruiters who where hot on his heels and then when they see they back peddle with the wait, your parents are college graduates with multiple degrees, you’ve traveled, you’ve lived abroad, you have family members that also graduated from college and you have a family businesses with a succession plan and you have the scores/gpa/social service and athletic skill that we said were looking for, but you just aren’t the “kind of black person we are seeking.” What the hell does that mean Carleton? oooooops I meant Wash U. St. Louis, but that is ok…and please quit sending me stuff inviting me to visit your campus we think we’ll pass we’ve had too many oh so you just don’t fit our diversity profile moments.</p>
<p>@schoolhouse Interesting perspective, and I do agree with the observations in your first sentence, and I will add Questbridge, ect. to that mix. Sure, colleges love the 2 for 1 diversity student(URM AND financially disadvantaged) because it boosts their statistics in both categories. However, I still believe they are anxious to scoop up the high stat URM that is not disadvantaged. </p>
<p>You have had actual discussions with colleges about extending diversity advantages to your son? I am curious how that conversation gets started? And are you talking about athletic recruiting? How does diversity and SES even figure into that?</p>
<p>As far as not being selected for diversity visits, who knows how that selection process works, but if you indicate that you are highly educated and affluent it makes sense that the school’s resources would be better used buying a plane ticket for a kid that would never otherwise be able to visit their school. I don’t think there is any correlation between the diversity visit, and your S’s actual chances for acceptance however.</p>
<p>“Zachariah said even the University’s acceptance of more African-American or Hispanic students may not make Yale more approachable to low-income students because those students too tend to come from disproportionately wealthy backgrounds.”</p>
<p>I happened upon this relevant quote today.</p>
<p>Please do weep. It is tough for anyone to have to pay over half their income. </p>
<p>I’m one of them paying out the nose and every other orifice too.</p>
<p>I say don’t weep because I’ll rebound eventually - had my kids young so I will have 20 years of work left to recover - and my kids will benefit big time from such an education.</p>
<p>We weep for ourselves.</p>
<p>Attending a top school and coming from a family with resources is not a disadvantage. Take advantage of the resources available to you and strive for excellence. </p>
<p>Students get accepted into college based on their hard work. Don’t believe the trolls on CC that post about students being accepted into College based on race and not qualifications. It is called URM because we are struggling to get into school for a variety of reasons. However, being upper middle class is not one of them. </p>