<p>For purposes of college admission, S. Americans are not considered URMs. Hispanics include Mexican, Puerto Ricans and Central Americans.</p>
<p>This does not mean that being Colombian won’t be seen as adding diversity if you bring something from your culture schools find interesting.</p>
<p>While it’s true that Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans are preferred within the pool of Hispanic students, Hispanics from South America are also considered URMs for college admissions. </p>
<p>OP, please read at least the first page of this thread:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/568159-race-college-admissions-faq-discussion-2-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/568159-race-college-admissions-faq-discussion-2-a.html</a></p>
<p>Or go to the Hispanic Students subforum for more information.</p>
<p>I have to disagree hmom. Most schools will tell you to check the box if you self-identify with the culture. Hispanic refers to those countries formerly ruled by Spain which have cultures characterized by the Spanish colonial presence including decedents and language. Columbia certainly qualifies. To include Panama, which you would, and yet exclude Columbia, makes no sense. In most circles Brazil would qualify as well even though the prevalent lnguage is portugese. And yes Andrew it is a relatively big advantage.</p>
<p>IF the rest of your application is as strong as your very impressive SAT scores, I’d say you have a 90 percent chance of getting into Harvard this year.</p>
<p>congrats.</p>
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<p>She isn’t saying that they’re not hispanic or that they couldn’t contribute to diversity. She’s saying that they’re not considered under-represented minorities.</p>
<p>^ exactly. My friend who considers himself Cuban, did not get any kind of admissions boost even with his impressive resume. He is considered hispanic but not URM.</p>
<p>Things may have changed, when I worked in admissions in the dark ages and acted as the regional for S. America, kids were not included in the hispanic pool at the school I worked for.</p>
<p>Ruskie: where did your friend end up??
Yes, being columbian will be a pretty big advantage.</p>
<p>He hasn’t heard from other colleges yet. He was deferred from Georgetown.</p>
<p>hmom doesnt know wat she is talkin about. check dartmouth’s ED acceptance thread…u see a colombian girl getting accepted with much lower scores than her peers…ITS A BIG ADVANTAGE</p>
<p>You’d look great in one of their brochures. Unless of course, you are unsightly.</p>
<p>I hope that isn’t the case.</p>
<p>Yes, big advantage.</p>
<p>anyways , i am against affirmative action!! my daughter worked very hard during her school career, she came here at 6, not knowing English with parents who didn’t speak english at all( we came because of family reason), and still don’t… we are low income , she reached the top 5% all 4 years in hs… she could’nt do better!! i am very proud!! but now we are very sad and disappointed because she is just "white caucasian " and will maybe be denied from all her dreams schools and end up at the state college! i think it’s unfair… there are Spanish and African American way more fortunate than her with rich parents and with more advantages than her ( born here, parents speak English went to college here, who can pay expensive tutoring classes etc…) they need to reconsider the college process… it does not have to be base on race!! there is good people in all race and there is bad people in all race too!! they need to consider the value of a person itself not the color or the religion or the race!! it’s what i call absolute racism!! it’s segregation!</p>
<p>Mr/Mrs Life in Chocolate, </p>
<p>It’s not good-old-fashioned racism that’s the cause; the appearance of racism is merely a symptom. For all their talk of cultural and socioeconomic ‘diversity’, top universities are primarily concerned with appearances. Elite institutions want to appear as if they’re gathering the best and the brightest from all corners of the globe. </p>
<p>This thread has now been properly derailed, but I assume the OP’s concerns have long since been alleviated.</p>
<p>"anyways , i am against affirmative action!! my daughter worked very hard during her school career, she came here at 6, not knowing English with parents who didn’t speak english at all( we came because of family reason), and still don’t… we are low income , she reached the top 5% all 4 years in hs… she could’nt do better!! i am very proud!! but now we are very sad and disappointed because she is just “white caucasian " and will maybe be denied from all her dreams schools and end up at the state college! i think it’s unfair… there are Spanish and African American way more fortunate than her with rich parents and with more advantages than her ( born here, parents speak English went to college here, who can pay expensive tutoring classes etc…) they need to reconsider the college process… it does not have to be base on race!! there is good people in all race and there is bad people in all race too!! they need to consider the value of a person itself not the color or the religion or the race!! it’s what i call absolute racism!! it’s segregation!”</p>
<p>Low-income kids get a boost too. If she doesn’t get in, it won’t be because she’s white.</p>
<p>To address the OP’s question, keep in mind there are a lot of Hispanic students with high scores and good grades. So it helps but there is still a lot of competition. I live in a city where the majority of residents are Hispanic, mostly from Mexico. There are lots of high-achieving students and the selective schools recruit heavily here. Your high SAT’s should help you a lot irrregardless of whether you qualify as a URM.</p>
<p>LaVieEnChocolat,
I agree with you. I have always been sort of annoyed that only certain ethnicities have specific designations to promote pride, URM status, and historical background. Here are the designations on the Common Application:
African American/African Black
Native American/Alaskan Native
Asian American
Asian, including Indian Subcontinent
Hispanic,Latino
Mexican American/Chicano
Puerto Rican
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
White or Caucasian
Other</p>
<p>Hey, the ever-so-generic white people have countries of origin and historical backgrounds too! I don’t see any others designated by a crayon color.</p>
<p>I would yeah that it would give you quite an advantage for admissions.</p>
<p>I think my D is a real minority, especially in Miami where everybody speak Spanish( 65% of latinos) how many French are we? like 4000!!! come on! it was more difficult for her to succeed in her school career than her Spanich classmates… and they are the ones given a boost in the college process and later on in jobs employment…i have some reasons to be a little mad!! anyways… what can i do? thank you for reading me…</p>
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<p>That’s incorrect by the definition of “African American” in the federal regulations. The link giving the definition can be found in post #2 of this FAQ thread.</p>