How much will being a URM help me?

<p>I’m currently a junior in high school, and I wanted to know how much being a URM would help me at some of the top ten schools in the country.</p>

<p>Gender: F</p>

<p>State: MA</p>

<p>Ethnicity: African American</p>

<p>GPA (unweighted)-3.7 (although this might be a 3.5 or 3.6)</p>

<p>GPA (Weighted)- 4.56</p>

<p>SAT: Reading, 800
Math: 760
Writing: 800</p>

<p>Extra Curricular Activites: </p>

<p>9th, 10th, 11th, (and 12th for next year) member and violinst of the school orchestra
Copy editor of the school newspaper 10th grade
President and creator of my of high school STAND chapter (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur) 11th grade, and will continue till I graduate
Member of Tri-M Music Honor society- 11th grade, (and continue next year)</p>

<p>Interests in Volunteering: </p>

<p>One of the things that I am most passionate about is increasing the literacy rate for lower-income children across the nation. I am really passionate about volunteering, and am considering entering the Ameri-corps after college graduation for a year. I had tried to volunteer at non-profit organizations that were geared towards my interest in education and literacy, especially catering towards helping lower-income children in inner-cities. It is important for me to help these children, especially since I have a parent that grew up in a very low-income inner-city Boston neighborhood, and came out of the Boston public school system. I also still have family that live in poorer areas in inner-city boston, so it is close to my heart to help many of these disadvantaged children throughout the country.</p>

<p>Volunteer Work: (450 hours and counting)</p>

<p>Registration Coordinator for First Book, a non-profit organization based in D.C, which helps distribute free or reduced-priced books to lower income children across the nation. As a registration coordinator I had reached out to many different Title 1 schools, and after school programs that serve over 80% of low income children. To date, I have helped over 25 schools and after school programs including Washington D.C, New York City, and around the inner-city Boston area in Massachusetts, recieve free or reduced priced books. </p>

<p>Volunteer at an elementary school after-school program in my hometown, (11th grade and continue on in 12th grade)</p>

<p>Volunteer for Student Solutions, a non-profit organization based in North Carolina, which helps increase the literacy rate in children across America by providing literary and eduacational resources to schools in need. As a volunteer, I helped create databases of schools across the country that Student Solutions would reach out to to provide educational resources and materials to.</p>

<p>Volunteer for Nanubai, a non-profit organization based in India, which helps keep women and children in schools and India, and also helps increase the literacy rate among them. </p>

<p>Awards/Achievements:</p>

<p>Winner of First Book Registration Coordinator Challange</p>

<p>Presidents Volunteer Service Award- Gold</p>

<p>Congressional Award- Bronze Certificate</p>

<p>Congressional Award- Silver Certificate</p>

<p>Congressional Award- Gold Certificate </p>

<p>*The only problem is that I go to a really competitve high school where most people do well,( I have a class of about 360) I’m probably not going to be in the top ten percent of my class, bt maybe the top quarter, I’m not sure yet. Do you think I still might have a chance? </p>

<p>*I am also about to start my own non-profit organization called “Change for Changing Lives” that helps benefit low-income children in inner city schools and will raise money to help provide educational resources.</p>

<p>*Does it also help that my school is not diverse at all, and I’m one of the only African Americans at my school? Do colleges pay attention to that?</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

<p>It will probably help you a good amount, especially with those scores. However, there was a URM here with near-perfect scores who was rejected EA, so you never know.</p>

<p>This question comes up often. Being a URM in itself will not carry much weight. However, if you can show how being a URM has not stopped you and that you are competitive as the next person, it will give you an edge. You are competitive to begin with. If you can highlight you passions, talk about how it is to be the only black student in your class and how that has shaped your views etc., you could have a very compelling case. Your opportunity is what you make of it.</p>

<p>@ mazewanderer: I disagree. Schools that practice AA likely do it for the appearance of diversity. When colleges publish their percentages by race, overcoming URM status doesn’t matter.
Even if it did, writing about “how being a URM has not stopped you and that you are competitive as the next person” won’t increase the boost at all, I would think. UChicago doesn’t want to see some 20% of its applications saying the same thing about “overcoming” when URM status, in itself, isn’t really anything to overcome. They want to hear about who you are as a person. Sure, being URM is part of that, but it’s just a part. Unless being URM is the biggest thing of your life, your application and your essays should not be focused on it.</p>

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@ phuriku: I haven’t read through the whole EA thread, but if you’re talking about a guy who posted near the end, I think that was thought by most posters to be a ■■■■■ post.</p>

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<p>Yeah, that was to whom I was referring. People thought he was ■■■■■■■■ just because he was a near-perfect applicant who was a minority and that “Chicago would never reject someone like that.” That’s not a good reason to label someone as a ■■■■■, and the reason I don’t think he was a ■■■■■ was because he had posted on another forum that he was rejected from his top school with his scores (and didn’t even reference Chicago), so what would be the point of ■■■■■■■■? On the other hand, this is an online forum, so you can never detect such falsities.</p>

<p>In any case, I have seen a few applicants with perfect SATs get rejected, so I don’t know why this wouldn’t also be applicable to minorities.</p>