<p>I'm a 17 year-old, half-Mexican, half-white, male from Texas about to apply to college. </p>
<p>From what I've heard, being male and being from a state like Texas gives me an advantage when applying to liberal arts colleges or colleges in the northeast. Is this true and if it is, how much of an advantage? I know that liberal arts colleges(and most colleges these days) usually have more woman then men, but how much can being a male help you in their admission process? How much does being Hispanic assist you when college admissions? Also how does being from a certain state assist you in college admissions?</p>
<p>I'm not planning on only using these factors in my college decisions. I'm just wondering how much of an advantage they would give me. The reason I brought this up is because a family friend who is a regional recruiter for tufts once said that though my stats were below their standards, I would be a good candidate.</p>
<p>It can give you an edge. About thiiiiiis much edge. Does that help? No one can quantify ‘how much’ for you. The Tufts recruiter is from the horse’s mouth, how would anyone here know better than him? We don’t make admissions decisions.</p>
<p>Make sure you are going to be comfortable being in the bottom of the academic pool at the college if that’s what you are going for. If you are a hard worker, and able to go for extra help when needed it should be fine.</p>
<p>I’m not necessarily going to apply to tufts, though I’m going to consider it because of my family’s relationship with the recruiter. I am considering two schools in that range, which I kind of consider my dream schools: Wesleyan U and UNC-CH. Both I hear are fairly diverse(partly why I like them) but for a school like wes, would being a male from Texas help since a lot of LACs have a larger population of girls than guys and since not many kids from Texas go to LACs?</p>
<p>IF you have the test scores, GPA, and recs that those schools desire (look at mid 50% percentile range), then being Hispanic from TX will give you a slight edge. </p>
<p>So, for Wesleyan, you will want a score of around 1400 on the 1600 scale to feel competitive. No matter what your personal profile, colleges need to be convinced (by your academic scores) that you can do college-level work and graduate.</p>
<p>Being from Alaska or South Dakota would be better ;)</p>
<p>Given the size of the population and the number of prep and magnet schools in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, & Austin, I’d wager that most very selective colleges have plenty of applicants from Texas.</p>
<p>UNC-Ch is a public university that is REQUIRED to take over 80% applicants from in-state. Your odds are very very low.
However for private universities in the northeast, where indeed fewer students from Texas apply than could and where HIspanics are under-represented, it’ll be a slight edge. Therefore, for Wesleyan it means a slight edge as long as you have all the stats.
You need to look at private schools outside your geographical range, being a little creative in the type of schools you look at (don’t stick to the “top 25 rankings” for example); for public schools you need to see if they have caps on how many OOS students they’d enroll. However OOS schools tend to be very expensive since, logically, financial aid is mostly used for in-state students. Private colleges don’t have any such restrictions and could be an interesting possibility for you.
in short, diversify your list with schools “like” Wesleyan but less selective and located anywhere except the Southwest.
It’ll be a better edge if you apply to schools like College of Charleston, Sarah Lawrence, Goucher, Lewis and Clark, where the ratio is really imbalanced.</p>
<p>I would guess being a Hispanic and a male might help you out more than being from Texas, anywhere in the US. Texas isn’t unusual.</p>
<p>Not that being a Hispanic male is either but the statistics the school might want to up would be the number of males and the number of Hispanics, not the number of Texans. Look at schools with a dearth of men. As you know, this won’t be the deciding factor.</p>
<p>I believe that diversity is a big factor in admissions. Colleges want to put together a balanced class by gender, geography, race, ethnic background, family income, family educational background, religion. Which are advantages, which are hooks, which are irrelevant depends entirely on the college. </p>
<p>If you want to take advantage of any of these factors, then you need to do some research. Not all colleges are lacking in applicants in all areas. For example, yes, some LACs have a greater percentage of females than males. Some parts of the country (rural areas, the midwest for example) have fewer high achieving Hispanics. And some colleges need to expand their geographic range.</p>
<p>Being from Texas and being half White, half Hispanic is part of who you are. Use your essays (indirectly by example) to enlarge on your life experience. Let the colleges know what drives you, what you’re interested in and how you will contribute to the campus community.</p>
<p>PS, I wouldn’t put Tufts or Wesleyan in the “lacking Hispanic applicant” category. Maybe Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Hamilton, Dartmouth, Carleton, Grinnell.</p>
<p>Half Mexican gives you the choice of being Hispanic. For admission, it depends on how many like-kind students apply. It could be good. it could be bad. For the elite schools, there’s no shortage of good Hispanic students so besides the low demographic thing you will also needs great boards & GPA. 2100+ 3.75+</p>
but the statistics the school might want to up would be the number of males and the number of Hispanics, not the number of Texans. Look at schools with a dearth of men. As you know, this won’t be the deciding factor.</p>