Hello, I was reading an article about minorities earlier and it had a study from Princeton in 2009 referenced in it about how some ethnicities have to have higher scores to be on the same level as some minorities and this got me thinking, how much does being a minority in the application pool help out? BTW, I am a Native American just in case there are any specifics to Natives.
Can you give us a link to the article please?
It depends on the college, if it matters (at some colleges, it does not matter).
Note that some colleges or programs may effectively have two different Native American categories: NA without tribal documentation and NA with tribal documentation, where the latter is given greater consideration.
Like ubcalumnus wrote, it varies. To give an example, part of the entrance requirements for my son’s magnet high school is an IQ test and to be admitted, students have to have at least a 130 IQ. Unless the student is a minority, then the cutoff is 120.
Best guess is that the colleges that do give some preference for minorities (and not all do, some public schools for example are prohibited from doing that by law) have at least informal guidelines that show how far outside the criteria an application can be and still be considered. But it’s equally likely that most colleges - especially selective private colleges - will disclose exact figures.
Here is an example of a college were being Native American does not have any effect on admission, but gives eligibility for a tuition waiver:
Check a school’s Common Data Set (CDS) section C7 for “Racial/ethnic status” to see if it’s considered.
Academically strong Native Americans are highly valued by most colleges.
Top colleges will like you. Go for it.