<p>I often read that men have a slight advantage during the admissions process, sheerly due to being male. Is this also true with african-american performers?</p>
<p>Historically, the AA community has been underrepresented in film and tv (and stage?). Does this underrepresentation carry over into undergrad theatre/drama/MT programs? </p>
<p>If that’s the case, are Asian performers even more highly sought after?</p>
<p>I am seeing many more Hispanic/Latino performers, so I wonder if they’re are becoming a ORM as opposed to an URM in theatre programs?</p>
<p>In the top auditioned programs, they are not going to take anyone who isn’t really good. Possibly it’s something less of a lottery if you are African American, or any other under-represented group, but the talent has to be there.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. </p>
<p>I didn’t think that they didn’t need to be talented, just wanted to know if there is more of a demand. I see many threads talking about how schools will “just love” someone if they’re male, or baritone, etc. :)</p>
<p>I don’t know what the official position is, but I would guess that yes, being an URM might help chances for acceptance, given that all else is equal.</p>
<p>I think ethnicity in general (or, ethnically ambiguous!) might help.</p>
<p>Unless a department has a propensity to overpopulate a program with minorities at a rate disproportionate to their actual overall national population percentages, then no they do not have an advantage. At all.</p>
<p>Even if a department wants to bolster it’s minority count, and fill some kind of quota, it needs to be understood that the AA, or Asian, hypothetical applicants in question are competing against OTHER minorities for a very select place in the program. So if it’s a well regarded, competitive program said AA or Asian male needs to be both talented enough be worthy of the program, and will be facing stiff competition against other minority males for a very, very limited amount of slots. Because, and this might not be pretty, unless you’re attending a HBC, or other minority leaning establishment, no major BFA program is likely to have a high amount of minorities regardless of how many audition, and who is talented; we are still a very long way from true color blind casting, even at the university level. Because an African American or Asian male isn’t competing in most small, competitive BFA programs against, say, a blond White woman.</p>