White in Historically Black College

ttgiang15
Wed, 08 Jun 2005 18:26:25 +0000

Variance,

URM is different at each school. In general, blacks, hispanics, and american indians are UNDER-REPRESENTED at colleges, not in the general population. A standard that is often used is the national percentage of a particular race against the percentage of that race at a particular college. Asian Americans are underrepresented nationwide in the general population (4%?), but they are OVERrepresented at the University of California schools (from 35%-60%). There are liberal arts colleges in New England that still consider Asian Americans as URMs, while most of the major universities and West-Coast schools do not at all. At an HBCU, you should be considered a URM. Obviously there is an overrepresentation of one race (Blacks) over another, which is not reflective of the area (Whites). As for American-Indians, they may have a high rate of their people going to colleges, but they are still woefully represented at any institution. A good number for American-Indians is 1% of the student population, unfortunately, because there are so few of them and even less that apply to a certain university, American-Indians are almost universally considered URMs; “their spots” (that elusive 1%) are competitive only against other American-Indians, so many can get into a particular college with mediocre stats simply because of their status, URM. Hope that helped clarify some things (you seemed a bit lost),


TTG