<p>Hi. I'm a Puerto Rican junior girl from Georgia looking to start the college application process. I have done research and have heard that being a minority might increase chances of admission into colleges. How accurate and to what extent would you say that this statement is true?</p>
<p>It’ll help but not by too much. Read the book A for Admissions (I reference it a ton). She gave an example where there were two identical applicants besides the SAT scores. One was white with a 750, 750, 750 across all three sections and the other was Hispanic with a 730, 730, 730 across all three sections. Their ECs and GPA and recs and everything were identical.</p>
<p>See the rest of the information in this thread and on the Hispanic Students forum for experiences/knowledge from actual Hispanic applicants and their parents.</p>
<p>If you want to know whether race or ethnicity is considered, look up the college at <a href=“http://www.collegedata.com”>http://www.collegedata.com</a> , go to its admissions tab, and then check whether it is considered in the list of criteria.</p>
<p>However, even if the schools you are interested do consider it, it would be wise to make your reach/match/safety assessments without considering it, because the magnitude of consideration tends to be hidden in holistic processes, and is often a lot smaller than most people think. The only exception would be if there were something like if you got NHRP and some school had an automatic scholarship or something for that.</p>
<p>@xFirefirex is exactly right. For most schools -especially top 20 schools- ethnicity will only become a factor if you have the stats that make you competitive. One factor that you do need to keep in mind is that -underrepresentation aside- a larger proportion of kids from minority backgrounds also have a compelling “story” that makes their essays stand out from the pack.</p>
<p>I’ve actually heard that some colleges split the applicants into two groups. Those whose ethnicities are too mainstream like white and asian (BORING) and the minorities. They will then view the two separately and pick the best from each bunch. So yes, the odds are in your favor – at least for the colleges that use this method.</p>
<p>All men are – supposedly – created equal. Bet you never saw that revision to the Declaration.</p>
<p>Even for schools that cannot legally consider race (e.g., public universities in CA, MI, etc.), you should still make reference to your hispanic roots, via your essay or via your ECs (mention hispanic clubs). The schools will still discreetly give u a bump up for being hispanic. </p>
<p>@T26E4 To respond to an earlier question of yours, the schools that I am mainly interested in include NYU, Boston College, William and Mary, UCLA, USC and Michigan Ann Arbor</p>
<p>@T26E4 You could probably look at some of my previous threads/posts to know more specifically about the schools I’m looking at and my credentials… if you want of course</p>