<p>I seem to remember reading on CC that while Chinese are not considered URM in US, Vietnamese are. What about people from Laos? </p>
<p>We were reading the form we got from WashU and saw the question for ?country of family?s origin?. My wife is from Laos. If we put down Laos, does it give D an edge, providing everything being equal?</p>
<p>all i can say is...i'm speechless</p>
<p>Don't play this game. Ethnicity is not something to play. If you are Laotian then put Laotian. But it does not mean a lot if you are a rich Laotian settling in the US for quite a while.</p>
<p>Sheesh. </p>
<p>Put down Laos if she is Laotian. But tiny edges like these really don't matter all that much. More like pinpricks.</p>
<p>
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I seem to remember reading on CC that while Chinese are not considered URM in US, Vietnamese are. What about people from Laos?
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</p>
<p>That'll teach you not to believe everything you read on CC. There's no magic definition of URM. It's a numbers game. Whether ethnicity is a plus or a minus depends on the specific school, how many of that ethnicity they want, and how many they get. If they get more than they want, then your ethnicity won't help. If they don't get as many as they want, then it will.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My wife is from Laos. If we put down Laos, does it give D an edge, providing everything being equal?
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</p>
<p>If your daughter's mother is Laotian, then your daughter is Asian American, if she choses to self-designate on the college application forms.</p>
<p>I have not researched UWash, so I can't tell you "how many they want versus how many they get". You would have to research the school looking for admissions articles to try to get a sense of that.</p>
<p>My hunch is that indicating "Asian American" with Laos as the country would not hurt your daughter's chances there and could be a mild boost. The Asian American enrollment at UWash (10%) is lower than at most of the top East Coast schools, so it is unlikely that they are resistant to enrolling more Asian Americans. [Note: with only 3% Latino, UWash clearly would be a good bet for a qualified Latino applicant!]</p>
<p>At my daughter's school, the acceptance rate for Asian American applicants is 50% higher than the overall acceptance rate, so it would be very difficult to conclude that checking the Asian American box is hurting applicants' chances. But, each school is different.</p>
<p>Big Thank you to interesteddad.</p>
<p>So we are Asian Americans from Laos. I bet the % of Laos in US population is way lower than % of Chinese.</p>
<p>laserbrother:</p>
<p>Recent Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian immigrants sometimes do get a "tip" at elite colleges. It's not so much for reasons of ethnicity, but rather for reasons that have to do with first-generation college, low-income, etc. as colleges do try to maintain some socio-economic diversity and look for students who have excelled without the benefits of a silver-spoon background.</p>
<p>Of course, this "tip" may or may not apply to a specific applicant of southeast Asian background. The same kind of "socio-economic tip" could also apply to a white applicant from rural Appalachia.</p>
<p>Agree with interesteddad.</p>
<p>Right or wrong, I believe the lay of the land in a number of highly selective schools is that Asian American applicants can be an over-represented minority. Like it or not, right or wrong, Laotian ethnicity is less likely to fall into the over-represented category. IMHO.</p>
<p>My d is a 1/2 Hispanic NMF with national awards. She was deferred and then rejected by one Ivy and waitlisted at WUSTL. (She declined the waitlist at WUSTL.) She was accepted at another Ivy, accepted with honors programs and merit money at UNC-CH and UT-Austin and Texas A&M and a handful of others (UF, Tulane, etc...). </p>
<p>I tend to agree...the minority hook thing is pretty unpredictable and colleges look past URM status to what lies behind it. I think because our family is financially comfortable and because my husband and I are college educated, her urm 'hook' was quite diluted. </p>
<p>But that being said, I believe we did have a Vietnamese student here on CC last year who got into every Ivy plus a handful of highly selectives. If remember correctly he was a NM Commended (TX) and his creative writing was pretty good. But I think the real tip was that he was the first in his family to attend college and his family was not affluent and had endured hardship.</p>
<p>"Whether ethnicity is a plus or a minus depends on the specific school, how many of that ethnicity they want, and how many they get. If they get more than they want, then your ethnicity won't help. If they don't get as many as they want, then it will."</p>
<p>Gee and I thought it was unconstitutional to have ethnic caps on enrollment. If it isn't then maybe we ought to cap Jewish enrollment at say 5% at our better schools. That sure would open up a lot of slots for everybody else. I wonder how long it would take to get that case to the Supreme Court? </p>
<p>But yeah as long as their eyes slant I guess it ought to be OK to cap them. Who gets to decide what the magic number is? And this fudging on your ethnicity needs to go too. Down in South Africa they used to have a government office that assigned you to the correct race. I understand those folks are out of work now. Maybe US universities could hire some of them to assure themselves the correct mix. I mean I wouldn't want to see them have too many Laotians or too few Papuans.</p>
<p>interesteddad this isn't aimed at you. I believe what you say is exactly what goes on. It is just that it disgusts me.</p>
<p>"Down in South Africa they used to have a government office that assigned you to the correct race. "</p>
<p>Not to hijack, but this statement jogged a memory...
What is required to be officially a certain minority? Half? Quarter?
A friend of my son's put down he was African American because one of his grandparents is. Are there "rules" about it? Who's going to check? I don't get all this strategizing.</p>
<p>There aren't rules hence the need to strategize. All of these things, race, religion, sexual orientation, heck even gender now are self-defined.</p>
<p>Yeah i'd take advantage of everything that you can and emphasis your strengths.</p>
<p>Yeah, people getting upset at the OP for wanting to give his daughter an edge are silly. Anyone else would do the same if their ethnicity was favored. In any case, to the OP: put down Laotian if you want.</p>
<p>"fudgemaster"</p>
<p>"murkywater"</p>
<p>perfect.</p>
<p>drb, I'm confused. What?</p>
<p>What is that saying again?</p>
<p>Hate the game, don't hate the player.</p>
<p>My son is half Asian and half Caucasian. He applied to eleven schools, about half of which did not use the Common App. Designating race was differently done on most of them. Some had a "Biracial" checkbox, some asked for specifications when noting "biracial". (In those cases, he put Asian/Caucasian). At least one application asked for a country of ancestry (in his case, India). Some let you check more than one box. It's my understanding that, for certain schools (by no means all of them), being Laotian, Khmer, Hmong or Vietnamese is considered URM. As with almost everything associated with admissions, it depends on the school.</p>
<p>My son was accepted by seven schools, rejected by two, deferred at one and waitlisted at the last. (A little bit of everything, decision-wise.) I think having one parent from the Indian subcontinent neither helped nor hurt him.</p>
<p>The OP's daughter is half Laotian. If asked for country/countries of origin of parents, certainly she'd put "Laos/China". If Laotian heritage is an important part of her life, she can emphasize it in her essay(s). However, IMO it's only a small "tip", and only at certain schools.</p>
<p>My son had a classmate in HS whose parents were both Iranian immigrants. He was assured by at least one school he wasn't Asian. Apparently sdmissions officers don't have a great grasp of geography.</p>
<p>Some rich Vietnamese kids I know, sons of doctors did not get into any good college. So it's not the Laotian or Vietnamese but most likely the hardship and the low social economic background of the newly arrived immigrants.</p>