<p>How much does it help? I'm Hispanic and am trying to gage how far of a reach I should be making. Of course it depends on the school--for example, I know the UC system already has a high percentage of Hispanics, so it wouldn't really help me there--but in general, at schools with the typical 3-10% Hispanic population, how much would it help me out?</p>
<p>
[quote]
The percentage of matriculating students who marked "race unknown" would be much more helpful if it went hand in hand with how many applicants marked "race unknown"--to see if it is used against the student or not.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It is important to note that most colleges do not even BEGIN to publish enough information about their admission processes to be sure what impact, if any, ethnic self-identification has on those processes. Litigation in a few cases over the past three decades has turned up some information, as have some scholarly studies based on confidential access to admission files. There is still much to learn about this issue.</p>
<p>depends on where you are trying to go. Think about it this way, if you are at or above the mean GPA/SAT's for a school, being a URM will almost certainly push you over the edge. If you are below the 25% mark for GPA/SAT, it could make you competitive, depending on you other activities. And of course, the less diverse the school, the bigger advantage you get.</p>
<p>My results this year as a URM
3.87uw
2050 SAT
Accepted- Penn, Bowdoin, Cornell, Minnesota
Waitlisted- Wash U, Brown</p>
<p>33 ACT
3.4-3.5 UW (I think...it's 4.15 weighted)
All honors and AP (5 APs total)
Great ECs</p>
<p>?</p>
<p>Tangies, are you Hispanic? Asian? African American?</p>
<p>MODERATOR'S NOTE TO "URM Status" THREAD: </p>
<p>I'll merge this, as usual, with the giant FAQ thread about ethnic self-identification in college applications. The short answer is that it is very difficult to figure out how much URM identification helps a college applicant.</p>
<p>im african american. I would say you have a good chance at ivies, given that you bring up you GPA as much as you can.
A friend of mine, also african american, was accepted at Duke, Wash U, BC, and NYU, with a 3.5uw and a 33 ACT, and he didnt really have too many ec's.
I mean don't expect to get in, but if you work hard this next year, write good essays and get good recs, I would say you have a good chance at top schools</p>
<p>Thanks tangies. Side note--where are you choosing for next year?</p>
<p>You know what? I am seriously fed up with all these racial things in the United States. I think that they exist because so many people accept it that way. When colleges ask me what race I am, I feel like telling them</p>
<p>" I am a human, the only race that I know of. I am a variation of the Human race and my skin color is black. What do you think? Will they reject me for saying that? I am seriously thinking about writing it. </p>
<p>Someone told me that it is just for statistic but I partially disagree. How do you explain that certain people get more chance to get into schools or to get scholarships because of their so called "race"? Why do you think some don't get some miss opportunities because they checked the "race box"? Why does it have to be about skin color and ethnic background? </p>
<p>I think that will hurt this society as much as some people will get advantages because they checked the good box while others will not have some chances because they belong to the wrong box. Some people use the racial thing in the US as an excuse for failure. For example Amwidkle wrote in the How to get into Harvard post: </p>
<pre><code> It is kind of annoying that Harvard (and Stanford, Columbia, and Princeton) accepted the one black applicant from my school, however, while they all turned down me and all the other smart people from my school with good stats. I wouldn't have attended, but my friends would have. I think it's time that colleges move away from racist affirmative action policies.
</code></pre>
<p>I know that you can leave the box empty but dont some people have doubt and say what if I check the box? What if there are some privileges for those who are in the same box than I?</p>
<p>We say everyone should be treated equally so why do we have to put a check in that little box to categorize us? Yes there are some difference between us, whether it is cultural, religious, geographical and yes the colleges want to make their campuses diverse but indeed, we are one. I am not naïve enough to think that this law will always be respected after all rules were written by human so they can be ereased or broken by them whenever the feel like. I know that this equity between humans is just ink on a piece of paper but I am still sickkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk of it.</p>
<p>I agree, i hate anything that has to do with race.</p>
<p>I'm fed of this affirmative action thread thing.</p>
<p>I'm fed up with everyone!!!!!!</p>
<p>i agreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee</p>
<p>Yes dominus. I feel uncomfortable with anything related to race too. I am black but I am neither African nor African American. In my country which is culturallyand racially diverse , there is not such a thing as checking a little box to say who you are. You rarely find some forms where you have to put your citizenship down if they are not governement forms. We don't care about where you come from, or about the tan of your skin. You want an education ? Get it! Get as much as you can. I know that I am supposed to do like the Roman do when I am in Rome but I am not mad at the American society. I am just mad at how people use "skin color" to treat others.</p>
<p>race is a sensitive issue. it's funny to me how we as a society and a democracy embrace the ideal of equality for all irregardless of race on the superficial surface, yet, underneath it all, race is a substantial factor in all thing we do whether consciously or subconsciously. With the racial/ethnic thing and affirmative action, college subtly acknowledge that race is a factor. to me it a sort of discrimination and segregation. </p>
<p>it is unfair and biased. but you can use it to your advantage.</p>
<p>What country do you live in Grand Antilles? Sounds like a Western European Democracy.</p>
<p>I don't mind the racial question, but what I hate is the classification into convenient oppressive labels. It's "Asian / Pacific Islander" -- some broad classification with no genetic integrity (e.g. many Indians are in fact closer to the whites than they are to say, the Thais) or something of the sort. It's my belief that those of a Southeast Asian background are quite different from those in Northeast Asia. Allow a hierarchy of more specific classification, at least.</p>
<p>Anyway, some of this is just required for government statistics purposes -- when AA is practiced I believe the practice is holistic (taking into account the entire application).</p>
<p>Bourne, ironically I am from one of the countries that the US has said to be the less" democratic" in the Americas. I am also from the poorest country on the American continent. Actually by the wesrtern world and European standard, My country has never been democratic since its creation. Well if Democracy is what America and the rest of the world say it is, I would say that I never know what is democracy. I only read it in book when I was doing greek history. But I like to say that democracy is subjective because I always felt that I am a free person in my country. It is maybe because I have always been under " dictatorship regime" so I am just use to dictators.</p>
<p>grande are you from mexico, or cuba?</p>