I don’t know much about American life but during reading this forum I many times met abbreviation URM. What is real meaning of it for US universities – any minority or only USA minority? Because college counselor in my son’s school using this abbreviation as proof that American universities have big demand to attract people with different culture and national background. But now I got impression that tendency of US universities for diversity is strictly limited by USA borders.
Please understand me correct, I don’t want to steal anybody’s place or money. I just want to get real situation. My son is from little country and at the same time have big international experience. That is not his single value but now I want to clarify about this. Can that give him some advantage for US admissions or it was wrong information?
URM applies only to US applicants, not internationals. Not all minorities are URM’s. At most universities Asians are not underrepresented but are in fact overrepresented.
International students are not in the URM pool in terms of college admissions. That said, many US colleges do like to brag about how many countries are represented amongst their student population. The issue is that most US schools have very limited or no financial aid for international students.
While true, they are generally not the top 20 universities that intl applicants seem to target. None of those colleges is going to admit a student from a country simply to add another flag to the map.
And to reiterate what was said before, internationals belong to their own pool, and URM does not apply. And where URM does apply, it is up to the college to decide what to include and what bump, if any, it will bring. But as a general rules, URM means black/latin@/Native American, Alaskan, Hawaiian. Asians, regardless of the part of Asia, are almost never URM.
Thank you for responses. We are not from Asia. Don’t know why you got such impression 
They mention Asian because that group of international applicants is often concerned with the geo diversity.
Any tip from being from a small and/or under-represented country is affected by how many kids are already at that college (and not about to graduate.) If there are already x kids from small country Z, adcoms may turn to other nearby nations. And even from a small country, there can be other top kids applying. You never know. Your possible major can also affect.
The more you or your son can learn about his possible targets, the better you may understand what they look for, how to best present himself.
In one thing I’m really confident – that my son wouldn’t be in competition at least with our countrymen. My country is under-under-represented for several reasons.
I understand very well that nobody will take him just for collection. But can that give him at least some additional point to profile?
The simple accident of birth in the nation of Wakanda or Genosha or Latveria will not offer an additional data point for his application for top colleges. How that experience molded him may make his story interesting.
Sure. Adcoms like grounded kids with some awareness of and affection for their cultures and families. It’s just one point, but valid. Also, his egagement. Is he involved in any community service type efforts for this small country? Cultural activities? Do we assume he has the rigor and stats? Part of geo diversity is the different perspective and experiences one can bring.
It would help to know the country and major. He needs to be comparatively competitive, in the pool of applicants from your part of the world. Not just your country.
OP, the experts on this site have generously given phenomenal answers, and have helped define URM for not only your situation, but to others who may have a similar question. They weren’t assuming you are Asian, but offered that information to provide a complete answer for the thousands of folks on this site.
Read again the brilliant answers above and you will see all of your questions are answered including #6.
Is there a unique and compelling story about him and his circumstances beyond just coming from an exotic place? There would be a huge difference between a kid who lives in a home without electricity and walks/bus rides to a school miles away but has managed to score 1500+ on the SAT with English not his native language vs a child of privilege going to an international school with a bunch of wealthy/privileged expat children.
I don’t know you guys…i think applications from countries that are very under-represented really can get attention…I’m basing this on press releases that I’ve seen colleges put out that might say “and even our first admitted student from X will be joining us this year.” Looking at the Harvard demographic page (http://www.hio.harvard.edu/statistics ) there are 9 students from Iceland at Harvard and 2 from Iraq…surely it would draw attention if, say, a new student applicant came in from Iraq…
You need to filter for “students” and “Harvard College” to get the undergraduate numbers, which are 0 and 1 respectively. So yes, perhaps the one student in 4 years from Iraq had an interesting story to tell about studying calc while his village in Syria, to which his family fled from Iraqi Kurdistan, was constantly being bombarded by airstrikes and being one of the top HS students that the country every produced. I guarantee you that that was more likely than simply being a 4.0/1600/36 applicant from Iraq because Harvard wanted to say that it accepted a kid from that country.
@lookingforward Thank you for your interest and answers. Our situation is very special. Unfortunately last 25 years my little country is under dictatorship. That forced me to left it and build my life abroad. So at home my son studied first 5 grades and now we are living in absolutely another part of the world. BTW this country is also under-represented but for another reasons ))
It’s little bit difficult for him to be involved in any community service for our small country due to several thousand miles distance. He participating in volunteering and community service where we live now. His academic results outstanding. He perfect in two languages and have solid level in two more, and one more language little bit. List of extracurriculars exist but that is his weak place as I comparing with competitors. I hope for understanding of admissions that it is not because he is lazy. Just another things required extra efforts. For example for you to speak English is as easy as breathing. For him it was long and hard way between six years ago, when he almost can’t speak, and now, when he got 740 for language part of SAT.
Iraq does have great candidates. I believe some have been on CC. I think we’re talking about the reality of the process.
1 from Iraq? Unless that kid will graduate this spring, they can just as easily look for kids from Iran and Armenia (which isn’t even in the index.) A lot depends on the educational system and success from some countries. A superb Armenian may best another superb kid from Iran, which now has 4 in HC.
As ski said, this is really about top colleges, not all.
And this is not just about plane strikes or other challenges.
Wait a sec, so you are not currently in your homeland? That puts him in a possible grey area. When you say he’s a top kid, you mean in the present country or compared with students in the former country?
It’s getting complicated. Could you name the two countries? Do I assume this is Africa? That’s a great example of how some of geo diversity works. Maybe not this year for country X, maybe next year. And so on.
I was in some doubts because our case is so rare that after answer I will lose any privacy. But Ok, we didn’t stole anything to hide now. We are from Belarus. That was part of USSR before and unfortunately last dictatorship in Europe now.
Now we are living in UAE. His results are outstanding in absolute values. He studying in IB system and in final report for first DP year he got 41 points from 42 possible with 4 HL subjects (Math, Physics, Computer Science and Economics). He got 1520 in SAT (Math 780, English 740) and Subjects SATs Math Level 2 – 800/800 and Physics – 790/800.
I want to ask one more thing and hope that moderators wouldn’t delete that as offtop.
My son did application himself and he didn’t include in it almost any detail of his life though my opinion that details are unusual and can be interesting to admissions. Because six years ago when we relocated from Belarus to UAE, so different from my native country, I hadn’t any doubts how to make his application more suitable for Ivy League or MIT. I didn’t know what these words mean. My doubts were about will he manage to study in English or not. He almost can’t speak and teachers told me that look like he smart boy but he just doesn’t understanding them. But three years later he got High Distinction certificate for IBT English test and his English teacher was delighted with his essays and poems. I was absolutely happy. And start to think about university.
And suddenly behind beautiful words of his first school about their outstanding IB DP program I found that Math HL and CS simply absent in it, and their best valedictorian got 36/45. That was fire alarm. We managed to jump from one running train into another and one year before start of his Diploma Program he came to new school. That forced him to start study Spanish from zero as second foreign language for DP instead of German, because in new school that was single option. And you understand that after changing school it take time to adapt and be accepted by other students. But now after two years he is first in class from 166.
And almost nothing about that he wrote in application. As for me is nothing silly or unfair to add this information. But I never was even one day in USA and I don’t know your customs. What you think, have it sense to add it? Or that can hurt him? And if yes, how technically to do it, in what part of application?
Class rank or percentile is something that should be on his transcript from his school. The common application will also ask students to self report the information in one of their drop down boxes. If he completed the common app fully, he should have filled that out.
Colleges will want to see transcripts from all his high schools so will also see the foreign languages.
IMO, not writing about his language struggles and moving is totally OK.
If anyone were to add it, that would be the counselor.
It’s admirable. But this is not a tip. There are lots of kids who moved to countries where they had to pick up the language fast.
What colleges? There may be little or no competition in applicants from Belarus, but he’s been in the UAE for several years, maybe all of high school? His community service, eg, is about where he is now.