<p>I am Native American and I have documentation to prove it. How much will this improve my chances of getting into a school like the University of Virginia?</p>
<p>I’m not sure to what extent it would boost your chances at public universities like UVA (anti-discrimination policies?).</p>
<p>Regardless, URM status is an incredible boost to college admissions in general, especially for private institutions. Have you considered private universities similar in caliber to UVA?</p>
<p>EDIT: Took a look at your chance thread. In terms of stats, GPA looks sufficient for UVA (though not ideal for weighted GPA), but SAT looks too low to me. Just to be safe, I think it would be wise to retake it, regardless of your URM and legacy bonuses.</p>
<p>[University</a> of Virginia Admissions Information - CollegeData College Profile](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1571]University”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1571) says that Virginia considers “ethnicity” to be “very important” (which is unusual, since “not considered” and “considered” appear to be the most common categories).</p>
<p>You need to look up each university, rather than make assumptions about whether it matters and how much it matters at each school. However, claiming that it is “an incredible boost to college admissions in general” is likely overstating the effect, since many schools do not consider it at all, while many others give only minor consideration.</p>
<p>In general, you should make your reach/match/safety assessments without assuming any advantage for ethnicity, so that anything that you do get is a bonus, rather than assuming too much and being let down if you over-assume.</p>
<p>An exception would be if there is something automatic, rather than an unknown amount of consideration in a holistic admissions process. An example would be the tuition waiver at University of Minnesota - Morris: [url=<a href=“http://www.morris.umn.edu/financialaid/scholarshipswaivers/americanindiantuition/]University”>http://www.morris.umn.edu/financialaid/scholarshipswaivers/americanindiantuition/]University</a> of Minnesota Morris | Financial Aid | American Indian Tuition Waiver<a href=“however,%20there%20is%20no%20admission%20advantage”>/url</a></p>
<p>QuietLurker-</p>
<p>“Regardless, URM status is an incredible boost to college admissions in general, especially for private institutions.”</p>
<p>“Incredible” is a strong word. What do you base this assertion on?</p>
<p>It does play a role, but it may be not as much as before the Supreme Court decision this Summer.</p>
<p>[Colleges</a> can still use race for admissions – but carefully](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/24/affirmative-action-universities-admissions-supreme-court/2452703/]Colleges”>http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/24/affirmative-action-universities-admissions-supreme-court/2452703/)</p>
<p>UNM and U OK have specific scholarships for Native Americans.</p>
<p>Actually, nothing much has changed based on the June ruling from the Supreme Court. They simply kicked it back to a lower court with new instructions, but that court hasn’t ruled yet. </p>
<p>Also, private and public institutions probably play by different rules on URMs, so if you want to go private, like Ivies, different rules apply.</p>
<p>My mistake for saying “incredible.” From my perspective as an ORM (over-represented minority; i.e. Asian), the boost is incredible when applying to highly selective private colleges (HYPSM, Ivies, etc.); it can be considered a “hook.”</p>
<p>Look at the admissions statistics (some can be found on CC, albeit those are self-reported) for highly ranked private colleges: Oftentimes, I have noticed that many URM applicants gain admittance into such schools with below-average (for the school in question) GPA/SAT statistics. No conclusion can be drawn due to the numerous confounding variables inherent in college admissions (e.g. essays, recs, etc.), but the strong correlation I have seen certainly seems significant to me (many data points).</p>
<p>Anyway, the boost can vary significantly when considering public schools and other private schools. I tried to make that clear in my post, regardless of my careless diction.</p>