<p>as far as i can tell, those specific considerations are much more important for undergrad. personal background in grad admissions seems like it only really matters if you are an underrepresented RACIAL minority or a gender minority (example: women in engineering, men in clinical psychology)</p>
<p>look to see if your undergrad university has something called mcnair scholars program. its a program for low income/first generation/racial minority students, with strong preference it seems going to the racial minority students.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ed.gov/programs/triomcnair/index.html[/url]”>http://www.ed.gov/programs/triomcnair/index.html</a></p>