<p>Then that person's chance of being approved sky rockets even with an okay GPA and a few EC's.</p>
<p>I don't think so. One of my sons had a mediocre gpa, high SAT, nationally-ranked rare EC and was rejected by Columbia.</p>
<p>I think that even with URMs, places like Harvard want to make sure that students have the motivation to academically succeed and also have something to offer the campus other than high scores and their race. Probably a URM with a 2150 or so new SAT plus an excellent gpa and strong ECs would have a better chance of getting into to Harvard than the type of candidate whom you described.</p>
<p>Places like Harvard get qualified applicants from every race.</p>
<p>Yes, candlize is right. Harvard gets URMs that are really highly qualified with fantastic GPAs and great test scores and great ECs that they don't exactly have to go out of their way to recruit minorities.</p>
<p>On a completely different note: sorry, candlize, I was so busy this week I wasn't able to talk to you... perhaps after my expos paper is over. ack.</p>