<p>Hi, I'm a french high-school junior planning to apply for a few american colleges, and I noticed that people here on College Confidential often say what is their race and/or religion when it comes to their application.
In my country, a college can't ask you anything about that : it's suppose to be an anti-racism prevention. But in the US, does it really matter? Can your application record be rejected because of the color of your skin, or your religion? Is there a "limit" of applicants for each race?</p>
<p>There is no limit and it is not the defining factor that determines your admission, but it is a factor nonetheless.</p>
<p>And how does it work? Will colleges prefer some races and reject some other?</p>
<p>African-Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanics and maybe some other ethnic groups get a somewhat significant leg up in admissions.</p>
<p>It depends on the college. Many give special consideration to applicants from historically disadvantaged ethnic groups. None that I know of openly exclude qualified applicants based on their race, although there are allegations that some do this surreptitiously. A few private colleges run by religious organizations do accept applicants only of their own faiths. </p>
<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using CC App</p>
<p>Religion tends not to matter, but race can. It’s never going to put you out of the running if you’re white or asian, but blacks, hispanics, and native americans (as well as women) get a boost in the admissions process because of affirmative action. there’s a lot of disagreement in the us over whether or not affirmative action is a good idea, but the idea of it is that our society persecuted minorities for so long that they no longer have a fair chance in the admissions process, so they get a boost to make up the difference. they also get a better chance just because those races tend to be ‘underrepresented’ in colleges, so colleges will sometimes admit URMs (underrepresented minorities) for the sake of racial diversity.</p>
<p>Depending on ones races it can get you a big boost. There is a an underlying tension on this board because it is known that URM can often have much lower stats and still get into colleges over their better prepared competition. We can not really prove it but we know of personal anecdotal evidence that points to this happening. </p>
<p>Becuase we are experiencing a bad economy this tension is increasing because of limited resources.</p>
<p>In the US effort to eliminate discrimination, it’s been decided that the actual tracking of the races applicants to college and to job listings in the general employment pool is a good measuring device.</p>
<p>The rationale is that without this reporting, a discriminatory business or school could easily hire/admit all of one particular race. By having this info available, it serves as a check against organizations – not as a tool to be used against applicants.</p>
<p>Being a French applicant, go ahead and indicate your ethnic background (European, African, Asian – whatever). It will allow your file readers to understand you a little more.</p>
<p>Race does matter, but it doesn’t hurt you. URM usually can get into places with slightly lower stats than non URM’s, but the difference is probably pretty small. It’s not like a Hispanic with a 1000 on the SAT will get into Harvard over a Caucasian with a 2300.</p>
<p>it matters in more selective schools. i think you just compete against people in your own race.</p>
<p>Race matters only if you are a US citizen or permanent US resident. Many colleges give a favorable factor in consideration for admission to certain minorities, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans. Internationals get no such consideration and thus for you it is a non-issue. Colleges generally do not ask for religion on the application. Exception may be highly religiously-oriented colleges and there are not many of those (even vast majority of colleges that are controlled by religious organizations are mostly non-secular and admit without asking for religion).</p>
<p>Thanks for all these answers.</p>