Should I keep my hopes up?

jags861
Sat, 13 Jan 2007 12:07:59 +0000

bklyn2cornell,

i could be wrong here, but when schools say they want diversity, they mean they want to have the same demographics of the community around them represented in their school. therefore, since UVa represents the state of virginia, they want to represent the community of the state of virginia.

virginia has like 71% white kids - which is about the same as UVa. Where UVa falls short is in black students - Virginia is like 20% black, yet UVa only has 8 or 9% black students.

If you notice, hispanics - who are considered a “minority” get a miniscule - if any statistically viable edge in admissions versus white students. thats because UVa is like 3% hispanic…and so is virginia. because UVa doesn’t “need” more hispanic students (to get that equilibrium with Virginia’s hispanic population) they don’t give hispanic students that “AA boost.”

The problem arises with asian students. they on a whole score better on SATs than any other race - which is why they are over represented in top colleges. However, the reason why its tougher for asians to get into top colleges is because they are competing against a limited number of slots for asians - because asians on a whole make up a much smaller percent of the population than they represent in top schools. Virginia is between 3% and 4% asian, yet UVa’s asian population is hovering around 11%.

for an asian student like Seuol, who is out of state, not in the top 10% of his class, doesn’t have an incredible SAT score (not that 1420 isn’t good - its a great score - just in a very competitive pool), and with no really commendable EC’s, I think he will have a very difficult chance of getting in after a deferral.

hopefully i’m wrong.