Under Represented Minority? How much weight does it effect?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>Hello CC universe! I was just wondering how much being an under-represented minority boosts your chances of getting into an ivy league college? In particular, African Americans/Native American as i happen to be both! Is it worth putting on applications? Does it really help THAT much? . . . and why are people so negative about it sometimes? PLEASE REFRAIN FROM ANY NEGATIVITY ON THIS THREAD. it's ignorant and unnecessary.</p>

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<p>. . . . please feel free to answer.</p>

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<p>Yes it helps THAT MUCH, definitely put it on. Some people express negativity towards the advantages that URMs receive because they feel as if URMs get an easy way into colleges…which is half true.</p>

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<p>Bumppppppp</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/Provost_-_CDS2008_2009_Harvard_for_Web_Clean.pdf[/url]”>http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/Provost_-_CDS2008_2009_Harvard_for_Web_Clean.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>According to the 2008-2009 Harvard Common Data Set (Page 2), 522 Harvard undergraduate students out of a total of 6678 self-reported being Black/Non-Hispanic (7.8%) and 44 Harvard undergraduate students out of a total of 6678 self-reported being American Indian/Alaska Native (0.0659%).</p>

<p>If you look at those numbers in relation to the percentages of White/Non-Hispanic and Asian or Pacific Islander – yes, being an URM does help, especially being both African American and Native American. As every college is seeking a diverse student body, YES, I would put it down on ALL your applications.</p>

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<p>Thank you (:</p>

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<p>On another thread about here somewhere (that I can’t now find), somebody said “URM status is the frosting on the cake that is the application, but the cake had better be pretty moist and tasty to begin with.” I think that seems spot on.</p>

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<p>Native American is a huge deal since there are so few… But in order to be considered native american for college admissions you have to be registered with your tribe and they check… it’s not so simple… if you have that it can be a very big boost.</p>

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<p>I’ve heard, although I don’t have a source for this, that Native Americans are actually overrepresented on some college campuses, including some elite ones. How? Said college ends up with a 1.0% or whatever American Indian student body, while American Indians actually make up only [url=&lt;a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html]0.9%[/url”&gt;http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html]0.9%[/url</a>] of the country’s population. </p>

<p>Even if that’s not true, it will and can not, like every other single factor on your application, make you a shoo-in. There is no one factor that can make that happen, even winning a Nobel or Medal of Honor at age 18. If you do either of those but still have a 1200/2400 SAT, it’s not going to happen. Likewise with every racial status out there: it can help. People can disagree about how much it will help. But it will never turn a “definite no” into a “yes.”</p>