<p>What I mean to ask is that, does the admission base “where the student is applying from?” from their ethnicity, or home address or nationality (e.g. country shown on the passport)?</p>
<p>For example, if let’s say I am a “student applying from Switzerland”.
Would that mean that my parents are Swiss, or I live in Switzerland, or I have a Swiss passport?</p>
<p>It would great if somebody can do a little clarification here.
Thanks!</p>
<p>It’s not as if they have a checklist for “Swiss Nationals”. Diversity is an institutional goal, not a point-by-point list of “must have” students.</p>
<p>Diverse could be the child of a Swiss diplomat who has attended schools in North Africa.</p>
<p>Diverse can be the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, who lives in Palo Alto, who desires to be an anthropologist and has participated in populuation studies in Latin America.</p>
<p>Diverse can be the 15 yr old wunderkind who is a computer code genius.</p>
<p>There’s no hard def’n other than broad institutional goals (i.e. quotas when possible)</p>
<p>I guess “diversity” isn’t exactly the right word.</p>
<p>What I meant to ask is let’s say a school boasts that it has 80 countries represented. Among which is a person who “represents” Switzerland. Would that mean his parents are Swiss, he lives in Switzerland, or lets say just has a Swiss passport but lives in the States?</p>
<p>That’s what I am trying to ask. Just out of curiosity.</p>
<p>^ For what it’s worth, the Incoming Class Profile page on the Penn Admissions web site states that international students are “listed by home address”:</p>
<p>[Penn</a> Admissions: Incoming Class Profile](<a href=“http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/profile/]Penn”>http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/profile/)</p>
<p>I don’t think that this necessarily applies to classifications for all purposes such as, e.g., need-blind admissions (an international student must be a “permanent resident” of the US to benefit from need-blind admissions), but it appears to be the criterion for determining class demographics.</p>