So how much would being an "ORM" hurt in admissions?

<p>So let’s not turn this thread into an AA thread.</p>

<p>Too late!</p>

<p>The Espanshade numbers are mostly from the 80’s, maybe early 90’s , and apply mostly to AA’ scoring 1800 on the old SAT. Scoring above or below turned out to be a disadvantage. Just sayin’.</p>

<p>" white and black students would prefer attending schools where their own race or ethnicity is numerous."</p>

<p>If for black students numerous means more than 3 percent. </p>

<p>I’m merely providing numbers to address OP’s question. </p>

<p>^^ And that is the most important point. The OP’s question is answered very clearly by the numbers. </p>

<p>OP, the one thing to realize is colleges cannot invent applicants; they must deal with the applicants they have. The bar simply cannot be the same for all applicant groups because not all applicants groups are the same. Your goal should be to get scores within the range of your applicant group. Anything else is a waste of your time trying to figure out because you must first clear the standardized test score hurdle and also get an acceptable AI score, for your applicant group, before your application is taken in full.</p>

<p>Good luck and put your best foot forward!</p>

<p>I’m not sure it is being ORM as much as having an over-represented profile. I’ve been teaching a long time and have seen very clear tendencies of ORMs (probably due to parental pressure) having similar ECs and academic strengths. To put it bluntly, a school only needs so many violinists who are good at math and have done no sports, no matter what the ethnicity.</p>

<p>OP, it depends on what you define as devastating, not getting into HYP, the answer is probably yes. But general devastating, the answer is no. The URMs that my daughter knows didn’t get into her dream school while my daughter who is an ORM got into the same school by just sheer grades and standardized test scores.</p>