Legacy/minority confusion

<p>The</a> Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition</p>

<p>"Harvard's legacy students are becoming more diverse, reflecting the surge in minority enrollment in the 1970s. Still, only 7.6% of legacy applicants accepted last year were black, Hispanic or native American, compared with 17.8% of all successful applicants. "</p>

<p>Is it harder to get into Harvard as a URM if you are also legacy or is it easier?</p>

<p>If a development case (legacy, but a development case rather than a legacy by the fact their parents attended) also happens to be a URM, is that good or bad for admissions?</p>

<p>The lower % of URM legacies doesn’t reflect any bias towards that specific group, it means that less of these people are in existence. Most legacies are white because the top colleges were traditionally dominated by WASPs, so those alumni’s children/grandchildren are white as well.</p>

<p>You would get the “boost” for being a legacy/developmental case as well as the boost for being a URM. It’s a real nice combination ;).</p>

<p>Basically:</p>

<p>I’m half Chinese, half white/Maori. I made a discussion about whether Maori was a URM or not but seeing as there are only 3500 in the US, I think it is. I marked Maori on my apps as “other” for Pacific Islander.</p>

<p>My mother’s Chinese, my father is white/Maori.
My mother’s parents are both Chinese. Her mother attended Harvard, and my mother’s stepfather attended and his family’s tradition of attending would make me a development case due to donations, buildings (libraries, finals clubs, dorms, etc.), scholarships, etc. which are still a part of Harvard. </p>

<p>I didn’t know about any of this before around my junior year, so it’s not like I feel entitled/privileged, but I’m curious because I have other siblings that will apply and if this is a push, maybe they should know that there is a bit of a nudge for them.</p>

<p>I also don’t know if I approve of legacy/development cases, but that’s not for me to form an opinion on. I’m just really curious about all this.</p>

<p>I’m just curious if I would count as a URM as well as a dev. case, and whether that is good/bad? I guess it’s okay? I mean, it’s not something like an SAT score that I can arguably work to change.</p>

<p>Also, I’m not applying thinking that I’ll get in. I’m reasonable and know that they reject the vast majority of people that apply. I’m just asking because I got an interview assigned to me really, really fast, and I didn’t know if that meant anything, seeing as I didn’t send in additional materials or anything optional (because it really wouldn’t add to my application, not that I had a strong application <i didn’t=“” :(=“”>, just that I could not add more to it without cluttering it).</i></p><i didn’t=“” :(=“”>
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<p>No, Asians of any sort are not URM. URM refers to those underrepresented minorities in college-- for some reason they lump all Asians together and we become a collective overrepresented majority. Sad story.</p>

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<p>A URM is an under-represented minority. So 3500 Maorians(?) would make up .0011% of the US population of about 311 million. Given than Harvard accepted about 2100 students last year, if one Maorian is accepted, then the proportion of Maorians at Harvard would be about .048%, so I would say you would be an overrepresented minority if accepted</p>

<p>What is the boost for being legacy considered to be? I heard it was like 4/10 in 2003.</p>

<p>If you are from a serious donor family won’t need the URM boost, but the above responders are wrong. I believe you wd count as Pacific Islander which is an URM boost at highest level, grouped with Native Americans. The admission rate for legacies is around 40 percent, but they are a very competitive pool so not clear if that represents a significant boost.</p>

<p>Wait a second, you’re 1/4th Maori, but checked Pacific Islander on your application?</p>

<p>…</p>

<p>This is dishonest, just so you know.</p>

<p>No, it’s not dishonest. It’s true.</p>

<p>My mother is fully Chinese.
My father is half white, half maori.
I have New Zealand citizenship, I was born there, he is culturally Maori.</p>

<p>I’m thus 2/4 Chinese, 1/4 white, 1/4 maori. And yes, I know 2/4 = 1/2.</p>