<p>DarklingSun,</p>
<p>The graduate school application process does not place as much emphasis on achieving diversity – admissions basically rest upon merit. However, there are often “unadvertised” opportunities in admissions for underrepresented groups. For example, many Graduate Schools (the overarching office at the university level) will offer each department (the level at which admissions are granted) an extra funded line for an underrepresented minority in that field, if that candidate meets all other requirements for admission. And as dobby indicated, “underrepresented minorities” vary greatly by field. </p>
<p>However, the income of your family of origin will usually not matter at all, since graduate students (rightly or wrongly) are usually considered by universities to be independent of their families in terms of financial status.</p>