<p>Hey all,</p>
<p>So I’ve been preparing for graduate school, and I’ve noticed that on all the apps they ask for your ethnicity and make a big deal about the percent of people of color at their school (just like in undergraduate school, but it seems to an even bigger extent in grad school). So my question is, do they really take into account your race, ethnicity, and nationality when admitting you to grad school?</p>
<p>I got the impression that graduate school applications are usually read by the department you are applying to rather than a central admission committee (like for undergrad). If this is true, I would expect professors to admit students that they actually want to work with, rather than students of a certain ethnicity.</p>
<p>P.S. If the department receives some sort of federal funding, they are required to ask about your ethnicity.</p>
<p>Unless the department has a fellowship specifically for students of a certain race/ethnicity, the answer is race is not a major factor in graduate school applications.</p>
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<p>No or 80% of my computer engineering classes wouldn’t be Indian/Chinese :). They take who according to their criteria are most qualified with complete disregard to where you came from or what your skin color is.</p>
<p>The one way in which race/ethnicity/first generation to attend college/gender could matter in graduate admissions is this:</p>
<p>Some disciplines have historically underrepresented populations. These populations vary by discipline. Sometimes there are “extra” assistantship lines available through the Graduate School for applicants from underrepresented groups within a particular discipline. The department usually needs to make an argument for these “extra” support lines, and can effectively do so when they have evidence that a desirable (in other words, completely qualified) applicant is a member of an underrepresented group.</p>
<p>Just to be clear: The existence of these “extra” lines do not effect non-underrepresented applicants in any way.</p>
<p>I am sure that nobody wants to talk about this, but we all know the PI who doesn’t want Chinese/Indian/Whatever ethnicity in his lab because he has generalized personality characteristics to a whole group of people eg. “Not taking on a Chinese student because they can’t communicate well” This is blatant racism but it does exist. I answered that I prefer not to answer when that question on the app came up.</p>
<p>I agree with you belevitt. Although I would like to believe race does not matter, there must be some latent prejudice going on in their selection process.</p>
<p>There <em>MUST</em> be? Really? Don’t be absurd. There <em>MAY</em> be and I highly doubt it’s common anyways.</p>
<p>And you <em>HIGHLY</em> doubt its common?</p>
<p>Well, one of my dorm-mates said she had a friend who received some pretty great fellowships for mathematics because his ethnicity was in the minority. He was white :p</p>