<p>Hello !
I belong to a minority group in Pakistan known as Ahmadis. We are a big target of religious intolerance and I specifically have been targeted by such people. I was the victim and was kept hostage in grade 9, three years back when these terrorists attacked our mosques and killed above 100 people in 4 hours.
I have 8 As in my O levels and my transcript is all As as well. I have good co cirriculars inclduing debates, MUNs, science and computer events, volunteer work, charity work as well as national level sports. I’m in the top 50 students selected for the international mathematics olympiad camp.
I have to give my SAT in oct and I’m aiming above 2200 !
But I need to know if these things might play a role in my admission to cornell or whether cornell does considers to a greater inclination towards minorities and those physically and emotionally supressed people in their uni? </p>
<p>“But I need to know if these things might play a role in my admission to cornell or whether cornell does considers to a greater inclination towards minorities and those physically and emotionally supressed people in their uni?”</p>
<p>-_- no. I am an African American and I hate when race plays role into admission. I am sure you can tell the story about being held hostage but your race should not affect an admission officers mind (At least I dont think so?). Otherwise you have a really interesting story and great grades! That is a real hook right there. I would definitely apply and explain your story.</p>
<p>grover12-- “your race should not affect an admission officers mind”
Yes, race does play a role in the admissions process. If you are Black, Hispanic, or Native American, your odds of admission increase to the equivalent of getting 300 points added to your SAT score.</p>
<p>Being Pakistani, however, qualifies as being apart of the Asian demographic (as it is apart of the Asian continent) and would not qualify as being apart of a URM (under represented minority) at a US college in the traditional sense. You can discuss experiences that gave you difficulty in pursuing your academic interests and how you overcame them, which may be of some advantage, but this will not provide you with the traditional URM boost that it seems you’re looking for.</p>
<p>Grover: sophisticated college admissions don’t just “add SAT points” to certain sub groups. The practice what’s called “category admissions” which is explained in the bottom third of this essay:</p>
<p>The fact is colleges want a certain mix of students. Internationals, women, minorities, science majors, musicians, theater people, athletes, celebrities, etc. And they will allocate soft quotas to try to meet those goals. The kid who is offered a scholarship to play volleyball doesn’t take away the spot of the science major applicant from Los Angeles – that slot was never open in the first place. The LA kid, who doesn’t fall into one of the sub categories competes with others in the “general” category. And it can work out where some sub categories’ average SATs/ACTs are higher or lower than others.</p>
<p>Would you expect the avg SATs of hockey players admitted to Harvard to be lower than the “unhooked” applicants’ pool? Yep.</p>
<p>But that last hockey player who gets in – who does he keep out? The hockey player with lesser grades/SATs and potential. The black kid who gets in pushes out another black kid with lesser grades/SATs and potential. The Asian pianist never competing for the hockey player’s spot or the slot allocated to a black student.</p>
<p>International students are not URMs and even if they were, you are Asian which is still not a URM. Although your situation is interesting for the admissions process, I’m pretty sure you don’t fall under URM. There are a lot of pakistanis on campus, both real and american.</p>