<p>I am a Latina looking to apply to ivy league schools. How much of an advantage is it in the admissions process to be hispanic?</p>
<p>IMO, it depends on many factors, all Hispanics are not created equal. </p>
<p>It depends on the school you’re applying to. For instance, rural LACs tend to have a more difficult time getting URMs to attend and so being Latino will likely be more of advantage than at some of the other very selective schools.</p>
<p>It depends on which country your descendents come from. The groups that are truly underrepresented in the US are Mexicans-Americans and Puerto Ricans, and they will likely get a bigger bump.</p>
<p>It depends on SES/obstacles overcome. For instance, a low SES Latino from an underserved HS who has overcome obstacles to do well academically will likely be given a bigger bump than a middle class Latino from a suburban private school, particularly for things like test scores.</p>
<p>It depends on how much you identify with your Hispanic culture. This can show up many ways on your application, in your ECs, your essays, etc.</p>
<p>This is what I have gathered being through the process with my child and being on CC several years, but truthfully, I have never sat in on an adcom and heard their discussion of Latino candidates, so others may very well have different opinions.</p>
<p>thanks. that helps clear things up a bit :)</p>
<p>Addendum. While it may be a little cynical, there is a train of thought that any URM with high stats is a highly desirable candidate at any school. That’s because they are very likely going to be a successful student and there isn’t much chance that the student will not be able to achieve academically. However, I did see a Latino student who applied SCEA to Y this year who’s profile looked very good on paper, but he was denied. I was a little surprised that he wasn’t at least deferred to the RD round. So, there are still (at least for me) a lot of mysteries about how URM candidates are evaluated.</p>