How Much Of A Difference?

Student Lounge Hispanic Students
1

<p>I attend a very competitive public school where many students attend top tier undergraduate institutions. For example, 7 of our own went to Yale Early Decision! I, a junior currently, am a competitive student in the top 10% and have been told that I could get into schools such as Wake Forest or Vanderbilt relatively easily. This is without knowing that I am Hispanic, however. I would like to see how much my doors open when schools learn that I am Hispanic. I identify myself as Hispanic, but come from an affluent township where financial aid is rather rare. Hence, I, my parents, and my college counselors have all been asking the same question: Will being Hispanic make a large impact on where I am accepted? </p>

<p>My Credentials:</p>

<p>Academic:
SAT (1st Attempt)- 2170 (CR 610, W 770, M 790)
ACT (2nd Attempt)- 33
PSAT- 203 (enough to qualify to be an NHRP)
GPA- 4.8/5.3
Class Rank- Top 10% (although my school doesn't give out class rank, percents, or deciles)
Class Load- All high honors courses, will have taken 6 APs by next year's end</p>

<p>Leadership:
(Likely) Station Manager of school radio station with 200+ DJ's
(Hopefully) President of the male student body government</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activites:
Boys & Girls Club Volunteer
Albany Park Service Club Volunteer
Build-On Homeroom Representative
Tri-Ship Board Member (we fundraise for scholarships for those at our school in need of money to attend college)
Radio Board Member
Radio DJ
Bridge Builder (Aids sophomores' transition between campuses)
Youth Group Member
Parish Volunteer
Sunday School Teacher
Intramural Basketball (sophomore year champions)</p>

<p>Summer Stuff:
Panama School Trip
Notre Dame Summer Scholars Program
(Hopefully) Notre Dame Global Issues Seminar
(Hopefully) Notre Dame Latino Community Leadership Seminar
Camp CIT (won a very important Leadership award)
Camp Counselor
Intern at Catholic Charities Office of Latino Affairs</p>

<p>All in all, I think I have rock solid credentials that could stack up moderately well against all other elite university candidates. However, I am curious as to how much being Hispanic will help me. I am especially interested in Catholic and Jesuit universities such as Georgetown, Boston College, and my number one choice Notre Dame, where I am also a double legacy (Mom, Dad, Grandfather, plus some other family members). I am also very interested in Dartmouth, Penn, Tufts, and Wash U. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Please take a look at this thread for some pertinent discussion:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/931488-ivy-league-admissions-nhrps.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/931488-ivy-league-admissions-nhrps.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Bump… Please?</p>

4

<p>You’ll never know if you being Hispanic will help. For example, is the school one that is looking for such diversity? Or did it already accept enough Hispanic applicants to satisfy its diversity quest? </p>

<p>The same can be said for football athletes, theater actors, high jumpers, tuba players, females, Asians, handicapped applicants, etc. At some point, the school will have accepted “the mosaic” that it is seeking. </p>

<p>You’ll never know if or how much being Hispanic can help. Your academic profile and EC look strong. Strong profiles will be what gets you to be seriously considered. Being Hispanic may or may not tip the scales.</p>

5

<p>@student5000 My S is a Senior this year and just found out a couple of days ago about college acceptances. I hope his information might help you out. His academic credentials during his Junior year (SAT & ACT) were quite similiar to yours but with strengths in CR & W, slightly weaker in M. I don’t think that his ethnicity (MEX-Am) played any real factor when he was deferred EA from Georgetown. He simply had not met the academic threshold Georgetown was looking for in their EA applicants. He made the decision in November to re-take the SAT, studying like a madman and did a section test every day for three weeks before the Jan. SAT. He went up a total of 80 points for a superscore of 2320. Even with very focused, leadership oriented extracurricular activities, rigorous class schedule, improved SAT’s, 3 SAT II’s in the mid to upper-700’s, 8 AP’s with 1 (4) and 4(5’s) --3 (TBA) and a very high GPA, he was denied from Duke & UPENN, but admitted to Dartmouth, Columbia and to his #1 choice Georgetown SFS. </p>

<p>You’ll see from many of the CC treads that the applicant pool of very highly qualified Hispanic students in increasing by leaps and bounds. Many universities have done an excellent job of getting their message out to Hispanic students/community (about financial aid, etc.). It is very enticing to think that your ethnicity might give you that “hook” you need to be noticed (and it may…) but first and foremost you need to focus on those things you have control over. Start planning a solid summer activity, be sure your are in the most rigorous class schedule your school offers, start thinking about your college essays & checking out old essay prompts from the schools you are interested in and probably most importantly re-think taking either your SAT or ACT again.</p>

6

<p>Being hispanics makes a huge difference. I was just accepted to Emory University while my friend with better SAT’s and GPA got rejected. I have a 3.8 GPA Weighted and a 1210 SAT’s for reading and math which is all in lower percentile for Emory.</p>

7

<p>

</p>

<p>It depends on:</p>

<ol>
<li>The school.</li>
<li>The applicant’s accomplishments.</li>
<li>The applicant’s other qualities (eg. SES, country of origin, HS attended, overcoming adversity, association with the Hispanic community, etc.).</li>
</ol>

8

<p>Yeah that is true. I had everything you mentioned in that list. It made a HUGE difference for a school like Emory.</p>

9

<p>^^Congratulations on your accomplishments and enjoy Emory!</p>

10

<p>you are set.</p>