<p>I'm going to a liberal arts college in the U.S. as an int'l student from Asia. I'm curious about which type of student is in the following is most favored or disfavored in the admission of top-rated PhD programs of biological science or biomedical science offered by American universities? Could you rank them? </p>
<ul>
<li>student with U.S. citizenship</li>
<li>int'l student with undergrad education in the U.S.</li>
<li>int'l student with undergrad education outside of the U.S.</li>
</ul>
<p>Are students of URM or under-represented gender favored in PhD admission as much as in undergrad admission? (I'm probably categorized as "over-represented majority.")</p>
<p>Your list from top to bottom = most favored to least favored.</p>
<p>In terms of ethnicity and gender, many grad admissions claim that it’s not a factor but I don’t buy it at all. I personally think Latinos, African Americans, and women are favored in some programs in STEM.</p>
<p>Thanks for your answer. I chose to take undergrad education in US rather than in UK to increase my chance. So, I’m relieved to hear that I have better chance now. I’m sure that URM and women are favored in fields such as pure math, and int’l students are not discriminated in computer science and electronic engineering from the fact that more than half of the PhD students in these fields are usually occupied by int’l students. Then, what about biology? Do you have any idea?</p>
<p>What do you mean by “discriminated?”
Internationals are typically at a competitive disadvantage when applying to grad school (mainly from the funding side), but there’s always a large population of them at every grad school, but you also have to look at the amount of international applicants. If you are doing your undergrad here, that should help things.
I don’t know about anything about the international population in biology grad schools </p>
<p>It is my misconception that engineering students are not discriminated. Thanks for your concern. I will try to survive under the fierce competition with Chinese and Indian students. </p>
<p>I would also say that U.S. citizens are probably most favored in admissions, just because they are the easiest to fund especially if the department is mostly funded through NIH training grants or NSF grants. Then internationals with U.S. education and internationals with education outside the U.S.</p>
<p>As for underrepresented races and genders, no, not as much as undergrad by a long shot. First of all, I would argue that the “favoritism” in undergrad only goes so far as SAT scores, and that’s simply because some racial groups have lower average SAT scores. Secondly, I think the way it works is that if programs get an otherwise equally qualified student from an underrepresented group the reaction is “Wow, great! It would be great to increase the diversity of our program”. But there’s no emphasis on equal access since grad school is not virtually required for a middle-class lifestyle the way college is. URM students are compared to other students and you have to be equally qualified.</p>
<p>Thanks for your remark. Since my field doesn’t seem to be kind of racially polarized, my anxiety about race and gender is probably meaningless if you’re right. </p>