How much of a role does ethnicity play in college admissions? If it does, which ethnic groups have an advantage and which don’t?
Usually Hispanics and blacks benefit and Asians don’t.
Contrary to popular belief ethnicity does not play a large role in college admissions - the idea that underqualified URMs are admitted to top schools solely because of their URM status is a myth. From what I understand ethnicity is used as a “tiebreaker”. If there are two more or less equal applications (one URM and one not) for one spot then the URM will probably be chosen over the other.
Generally URMs include Hispanics, Africans, and Native Americans. Asians and East Indians are generally viewed as ORM (over represented minority).
Ethnicity plays a large role
Google a Common Data Set for one of your colleges and look at section C7.
Some schools are legally prohibited from using it at all.
Different for each school in terms of consideration and populations considered underrepresented. CDS and the school website are good places to start.
I agree with Saif. It hurts to be Asian because Asians tend to apply to top colleges at a disproportionate rate and have the highest average test scores of any race. With that said, URMs that get into HYPSM are definetly qualified. Those schools are the best of the best, so surely they have enough qualified URMs. It’s not like being a URM will mean an automatic acceptance. My personal opinion is for top schools you need something to stand out. For URMs, it will be their URM status. If you are white or Asian, you will just need something else to make yourself stand out.
See reply #4. Or look under the admissions tab on the college’s entry on collegedata.com .
Each college may differ.
On the other hand, being Asian can be helpful if applying to LACs, which tend to attract fewer Asian applicants.