<p>Does URM only apply to racial identity?</p>
<p>Do some colleges grant URM status based on life experiences/other unique qualities?</p>
<p>How about homosexuality, political identification, religion, etc?</p>
<p>Would any colleges grant URM considerations for anything other that race?</p>
<p>The things that you mention are important for diversity reasons, and colleges that care about diversity want students from a variety of religious/ethnic/socioeconomic/cultural backbgrounds and sexual orientations. In general, the more competitive the college is, the more interested it is in selecting students from a variety of different backgrounds, viewpoints, etc.</p>
<p>That's good.</p>
<p>Does anyone know exactly how much such non-affirmative action "diversities" gain "points" in admissions?</p>
<p>IE how far below par can one be but still be accepted due to such diversities?</p>
<p>There's no way to answer your question because points are not awarded.</p>
<p>The colleges that care about the things that I mentioned are places like HPY. Virtually all of the students who apply for admission to such colleges qualify for admission based on courses, scores and grades. What helps students get in are factors that help the admissions office create a well rounded class. If the class has a dearth of gay students, then a student who is gay will have an advantage. If the class has a dearth of fundamentalist Christians, such students will have an advantage. No one, however, is going to get in who lacks the grades, stats, coursework that would allow them to be academically successful at the college. Such colleges have the country's highest graduation rates with more than 90% of students graduating within 6 years of entering the college. In other words, if you have a 1500 (new SAT) and a 3.0 unweighted average from an average school, no matter how much you'd add to HPY's diversity, you'd be very unlikely to get admitted.</p>
<p>BTW, being male (any race) is a plus at most LACs, which have an overabundance of female candidates, but not as many male candidates. The colleges would like to have about a 50:50 male:female ratio, so they have more liberal admissions standards for males than females.</p>
<p>Ohh...</p>
<p>How about more competetive schools such as Wesleyan, Vassar, Bowdoin, Middlebury, etc... but not as competetive as HYP? Do they have similar policies... or is this only for ultra-hard-to-get-into schools?</p>
<p>LACs, including the ones that you mention, have a hard time attracting males, so it's easier for guys to get admitted to them than it is for females. This particularly is true at formerly all female colleges like Vassar.</p>
<p>so can I assume that my chances are better than I previously anticipated at colleges such as Skidmore, Wheaton (MA), and Hampshire, all of which are about 60% women, 40% men...?</p>
<p>any other opinions on URM issues?</p>
<p>You should get a little bump in admissions to your schools.</p>
<p>Men are not considered URMs. It's a diversity issue.</p>
<p>"Methods vary as colleges try to attract men </p>
<p>By KEVIN WACK, Portland Press Herald Writer</p>
<p>A Pennsylvania college added more photos of men to its admissions brochures. A small Maine school started a Division III football team. A large Southern university eased its admission standards for male applicants.</p>
<p>Across the country, as the proportion of female college students continues a decades-long surge, admissions departments are looking for ways to attract more men.</p>
<p>Few schools will admit using affirmative action, especially after a University of Georgia policy that favored men was struck down as unconstitutional. However, a recent study by a Skidmore College economist found that it's not uncommon for historically female liberal arts colleges to show a preference for men.</p>
<p>'Being a male applicant raises the probability of acceptance at these schools by between 6.5 and 9 percentage points,' the study found...."</p>
<p>well that's pretty cool.</p>
<p>Would being... oh say... a homosexual republican qualify as a slight urm?</p>
<p>From a USA Today article:
" Most of those tracking the issue agree that getting males into the college pipeline is best addressed in elementary and secondary schools. </p>
<p>Even so, the disparities on campuses worry some admissions officials, particularly at liberal arts colleges where gaps are widest. </p>
<p>"We think there's value in having equal numbers," says Jim Bock, admissions dean at Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College. Last year, the school admitted more women than men, but it admitted a greater percentage of the male applicants than female. The student body's male/female breakdown is about 48/52. </p>
<p>In interviews, several college administrators, including Bock, said they would not admit a male over a better qualified female. But they do try to build a diverse class — an idea that echoes the Supreme Court's 2003 ruling on race-based affirmative action. That ruling struck down a University of Michigan formula that gave extra points to minorities because of their race. But the justices also ruled that schools could consider race as one of many factors because achieving diversity on college campuses is an important goal. In 2000, a federal judge told the University of Georgia to stop awarding bonus points to males (and minorities) in admissions.</p>
<p>A study this year of admissions processes at 13 liberal arts schools, most with a predominantly female applicant pool, found that gender was "not a significant determinant" in admissions decisions. When a gender preference for men emerged, it occurred at historically female campuses where the share of female applicants had reached 55% or more, authors Sandy Baum and Eban Goodstein say. </p>
<p>The authors neither advocate nor oppose affirmative action, but as men grow shorter in supply, "we should be talking about whether it's reasonable to give preferences to men," says Baum, a Skidmore College professor."
<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-10-19-male-college-cover_x.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-10-19-male-college-cover_x.htm</a></p>
<p>From the Los AngelesTimes:
"gender gap growing on college campuses </p>
<p>By Peter Y. Hong
Los Angeles Times</p>
<p>SANTA CLARA, Calif. When admissions officers for Santa Clara University recruit new freshmen, they do their best to reach the kind of students they'd like to see more of on the Silicon Valley campus: boys. </p>
<p>"We make a special pitch to them to talk about the benefits of Santa Clara, as we do for other underrepresented groups," said Charles Nolan, Santa Clara's vice provost for admissions. </p>
<p>It's a startling development to anyone who remembers that Santa Clara was all male until 1960. But the Jesuit-run school reflects an important transformation of American college life. </p>
<p>Among the 4,550 undergraduates at Santa Clara, 57 percent are female. That matches the percentage of U.S. bachelor's degrees now awarded to women, a demographic shift that has accelerated since women across the country began to attend college at a higher rate than men about a decade ago. ....
Despite employing the same tactics used for years to lure ethnic minority students, few colleges say they give admissions preferences to boys. But high-school counselors and admissions experts say they believe it is happening. </p>
<p>"At some schools, it's definitely a strategic advantage" to be male, said Chuck Hughes, a former Harvard admissions officer who is now a private admissions counselor and author of "What it Really Takes to Get into the Ivy League and Other Highly Selective Colleges." </p>
<p>Vincent Garcia, a college counselor at the Los Angeles prep school Campbell Hall, said liberal-arts colleges, especially, can be "more forgiving of the occasional B or even a C" from a boy. "Sometimes the expectation is a little bit less" than for girls, he said. ...''
<a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002105282_college01.html%5B/url%5D">http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002105282_college01.html</a></p>
<p>so regarding those Ivies, does it help by any chance if i present myself as a lower-class citizen, considering the fact that my household income is 20K.
isn't "socioeconomic" background part of URM, as you mentioned?</p>
<p>I think that would help.</p>
<p>unless the school ISNT need blind, but the ivies definately are.</p>
<p>I'm also semi-low class. My whole geographic region is... perhaps that will help a tad?</p>
<p>EVERYTHING LITTLE THING HELPS. lol</p>