<p>I've heard that minorities get +300 points (or something close to that) on their SATs and Whites and Asians get points subtracted. With that said, I have also heard colleges will set a number of minority students that they want to have. So, if a school wants to have atleast 8%-10% minority students, will the top 8%-10% of minority students get in. This disturbes me because a girl from my school last year got into a top 20 college when she had a low GPA for the school (3.3uw), dropped an AP class, and was out of the top 10% of the class, and had a 24 ACT.</p>
<p>First off, no school is legally allowed (poor Michigan got in trouble for it) to use a points system for AA. Second, the URM applicant pool is becoming increasingly competitive. Being an URM with modest scores and GPA won't cut it at HYP. Being white or Asian will not help you, but it will certainly not hurt you.</p>
<p>Most importantly, understand that private COLLEGES DON'T HAVE TO ADMIT URMS. They are not legally required to do so, and the advantage in admissions that it gives is largely overrated. A few years ago, Caltech had no black freshmen at all. Usually being an URM gives a boost in your favor, but it will certainly not make up for poor or mediocre performance in high school.</p>
<p>"Most importantly, understand that private COLLEGES DON'T HAVE TO ADMIT URMS."</p>
<p>Is that to say public, paticuallry in-state public schools of a minority applicant, WILL put more weight on being a minority?</p>
<p>The effect of affirmative action in general is quite overrated. Sure being a URM gives you an advantage, but the exaggerations I've heard such as a URM with a 1300+ can get in anywhere and other nonsense like that is just ridiculous. For instance, just today my school(Rice) published the admissions data for their interim decision. The acceptance rate for whites was 26% while that for blacks was 28%, being black/hispanic/amerindian is not a free pass to a university.</p>
<p>SMC- In general, yes. This does NOT hold true for the UC's, who banned AA, but in general public schools tend to be more AA-conscious. For example, hispanics make up only 2% of UNC's student body, so they recruit them heavily.</p>
<p>Some people are convinced there is an anti-Asian quota at certain top schools.</p>