Legacy Q&A

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>Q1.
So everyone knows that if your parents or siblings
graduate from some school or other, your application
gets a closer look, but what if the family members
are your uncle and cousin? and this uncle graduated
second in his class--will that help a lot?</p>

<p>Q2.
I understand that all you are probably sick of
these "Asian" questions, but UC Berkeley does have a huge
Asian population, so I was wondering if applying as an Asian
will hurt my chances at all, or should i leave the bubble blank?
if i don't mark Asian, it's still a bit obvious, though, isn't it??</p>

2

<p>Public universities don’t look at what sort of legacy you have. Plus they don’t have time to check that sort of thing.</p>

<p>And UC admissions technically don’t use race/ethnicity in consideration of admission.</p>

3

<p>I think UCs still consider race one way or another in admissions even if they say they officially don’t. However, I think it matters more of where u come from and your background. An Asian who comes from a “ghetto” area and school will be considered as like any other ethnicity who also comes from a “ghetto” area.</p>

4

<p>What about an Asian who came from vietnam at the age of five and
“struggled” in america? would that help any?</p>

5

<p>Using that as your thesis will get you no points. In addition to the fact that’s it’s bad practice to write the typical immigrant story, you can’t even make the case that you struggled academically. What’s five years old? kindergarten? It may help if you incorporate it into a more personal thesis.</p>

6

<p>“However, I think it matters more of where u come from and your background. An Asian who comes from a ‘ghetto’ area and school will be considered as like any other ethnicity who also comes from a ‘ghetto’ area.”</p>

<p>This is correct; or at least it was in my case.</p>