<p>Hey guys as title says: </p>
<p>Since my family has a reasonably large income, (about 400k) will that cancel my URM status? (I'm half-black)</p>
<p>By the way i'm posting this in Yale because I think i'm going to do SCEA here.</p>
<p>I would be very surprised if it does 
They are doing this for diversity.</p>
<p>nope, not really. though if there’s someone with your stats coming from inner city public school and you’re coming from say exeter, they might have a slight advantage over you. or perhaps you’d both get in.</p>
<p>It doesn’t cancel URM status, but you will be considered with other URM candidates who have had similar academic opportunities.</p>
<p>Interesting question. I’m pretty sure that half Latino is not considered the same as full Latino, especially if your family’s income is high. But I’m not sure if the same applies to being half black. In theory it should be no different, but I really don’t know.</p>
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<p>No, I don’t think so.</p>
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<p>What makes you “pretty sure”? I haven’t seen any indication that this is true.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen, I don’t think so. And $400K is hardly “reasonably large.”</p>
<p>The elite schools face significant political pressure to meet a quota of underrepresented minorities. The competition among these schools for the best of these applicants is high, and these applicants are very limited in number.</p>
<p>If you’re competitive for Yale SCEA, even if you aren’t admitted, other top schools will clamor for you.</p>
<p>I agree with christiansoldier–an annual family income of 400k is “obscenely large.”</p>
<p>Entomom, to answer your question: the experience of seeing several (5) qualified children of one Latino parent and one Anglo parent get rejected at schools where the Latino parent had been admitted. That is, the kids were legacies AND half-Latino, but they grew up in the States and were not low-income, and they didn’t seem to get treated as URMs. It’s also quite possible that race played a role, because most of them are white Latinos.</p>
<p>Sorry, got cut off.</p>
<p>Regarding race: remember that Latinos come in every shade and color; “Latino” is an ethnicity, not a race.</p>
<p>I should reiterate that what I said in my prior posts is only my impression, and I don’t have any hard data or reliable sources to back me up. Still, if these kids had been treated as URMs, I’m inclined to believe that the outcomes would have been different.</p>
<p>I think that schools are savvy and can cull out the real URMs. As the U.S. has become increasingly multicultural, more applicants are able describe themselves as “half-this, half-that,” and many may be angling for URM status. To my eye, colleges seem interested primarily in: (1) students who have experienced real hardship because of their background/SES, (2) those who’d be the first in their families to attend university, and (3) those who’d otherwise add to the diversity of the freshman class (e.g., geographically). So, for example, a half-Latino, half-black kid who grew up in the projects would certainly be treated as a URM. An affluent white Latino kid raised in Puerto Rico would add to geographic diversity and would “count” toward the school’s URM stats, so she’d probably receive an advantage. But a white, half-Latino kid who grew up in the Northeast without economic disadvantage might not be considered a minority… but why should he?</p>
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<p>Understood, if you look on the Hispanic students forum, you’ll see that I’ve been reciting this line and verse ad nauseam. For example:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/641650-hispanic-latino-defined-aka-am-i-hispanic.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/641650-hispanic-latino-defined-aka-am-i-hispanic.html</a></p>
<p>I guess I look at it slightly differently. I don’t see that affluent URMs (Hispanic or otherwise) lose their standing as a URM, but rather they are judged on a different scale than URMs who are low SES, disadvantaged, have overcome adversity, etc. The latter may get a bump in test scores or leniency in grades or another part of their application. This is unlikely for affluent URMs who have had many academic opportunities. But from what I’ve seen, a high achieving URM, no matter what their economic background, is highly valued by selective schools because they both bring diversity and are very likely to succeed. I have often seen such candidates accepted by most if not all of the highly selective schools they apply to.</p>
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<p>Because Hispanic identity is not automatically tied to either poverty or race. There’s much more on a college application that would indicate association with one’s Hispanic culture than a check in a box: ECs, essays, volunteering, etc. I too:</p>
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<p>But I believe that their tools are less blunt than simply income level and race.</p>
<p>No, it won’t cancel out your URM status. But in my personal opinion, cases like yours is 70% of the reason I remain opposed to the current state of affirmative action admissions.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, no.</p>
<p>Entomom,</p>
<p>So how is a white, affluent, HALF Latino kid who grows up with economic advantages and attends a private school in the Northeast different from a half-anything-else kid with the same characteristics? A young person who is half-Norwegian might be very identified with his Norwegian ancestry and become very involved in Norwegian-centered activities, but he is not an under-represented minority. </p>
<p>In the end, the more that you divorce Latino background from the hardships of low socioeconomic status and racial prejudice - which, sadly, is still rampant - the less the reason to consider the applicant a URM. This is what admissions officers seem to be doing (again, to my own eye), and I can’t say that I fault them for it.</p>
<p>“Cancel your URM status?” The phrasing alone is problematic.</p>
<p>The fact that you are an affluent biracial applicant gives you your own allure. The school is looking for diversity of all sorts, to the extent that they look for diversity even within ethnic/racial groups. Not all Latinos at Yale are Mexican, nor are all the black students poor, inner city kids. Like for everyone, as long as you can sell yourself correctly to the school, you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>I have reservations about furthering this conversation because it is obvious that we have very different experiences and opinions about this subject, which is perfectly reasonable given the complexity of the issue and the lack of available data about URM admissions. But I will try to answer your questions from my POV:</p>
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<p>The former candidate, while having all of the attributes you assign them, could have demonstrated via their essay, ECs or volunteer efforts, their interest in giving back to the Hispanic community with which they identify. Perhaps they want to teach in an underserved school, or be a physician in a rural community. Truthfully, while not a URM, if the student with Norwegian ancestry demonstrated similar interest in working with impoverished or underserved communities they would likely also be a very attractive candidate. </p>
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<p>I agree that SES is a factor in how adcoms evaluate URM applicants–see my other posts on this thread and, for example, my post on this past thread: </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/931488-ivy-league-admissions-nhrps.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/931488-ivy-league-admissions-nhrps.html</a></p>
<p>However, I reiterate what I said in my last post, I don’t think SES (or race) is an EXCLUSIVE factor, but rather is taken into consideration along with other information in the application.</p>