<p>URM status helps, but there’s no arbitrary range or anything like that. You need to be a good, wholesome candidate regardless of whether you are URM or not. If you need that reassurance, and I perfectly understand that you might, Google and take a look at the CollegeBoard’s national percentiles for African Americans and maybe that will give you an idea of what is considered an ample score or not. That being said, if you have a 2050, and all of your scores are above the 95th percentile, that does not guarantee admission into an Ivy or Ivy-equivalent school. Again, you need to be a wholesome candidate.</p>
<p>College decisions are a mystery, but they tend to work exactly how colleges say they work. They look for:
** Rigor of academic record: you need to be taking the top classes in your intended field/excelling in particular areas of interest; for example, if you know that you are an excellent Math student and future engineer, you probably should be pulling your best grades possible in those areas – it’s not to say that you shouldn’t be doing well in History, but they are going to judge a B in history much more receptively if you are a student geared towards Math/Engineering in the future. Just an example. This is where they look at your transcript and make said judgments. They want to see the classes that you took, more so than the grades.</p>
<p>** Essays: These are extremely important as they define you. Talk about your passions and your interests - the things that are most important to you and what drives you. Be unique if you are a unique person. Be funny if you are a funny person. And so on. But only be yourself</p>
<p>** Extracurriculars: Obvious; you don’t need to be Captain of every single team and sport at school to get into college. But you need to be dedicated to a few activities and show your mastery in them. Hype up the things you are dedicated to you and be able to explain how meaningful they are to you, why you’re passionate about them.</p>
<p>** Statistics: SAT scores and GPA are pretty subjective numbers overall, I personally think, and the admissions committees seem to agree. This is why there are no arbitrary ranges that determine admission and moreover, they are merely numbers. The students who apply and have realistic chances at top schools most likely are in the top percentiles already, and nobody is going to make an admissions decision based on someone getting 100 points higher on their SAT. Your statistics need to be good, but you don’t need to freak out if you’re seeing “Accepted: 2200” on a board and your score is a 2000. Work your hardest, your best is all that counts here. Period.</p>