<p>The URM population that has been best studied in relation to higher education admission in the United States is the black American population, to which a whole journal, the [Journal</a> of Blacks in Higher Education](<a href=“http://www.jbhe.com/]Journal”>http://www.jbhe.com/), is devoted. There is actually a rather huge disparity between “white” and “black” test scores–especially at the high end–and between high school grades for each ill-defined social group. I think that has more to do with early learning experiences and high school activities than to do with genes (in other words, I think the black-white educational attainment gap could close a lot over the next several years). But colleges have to decide what to do with the application pools they actually have, not the application pools they wish they had in a society with no noticeable group differences of that kind. </p>
<p>I think the most important point made above in the thread, by other posters, is that a person who is in the bottom 25 percent as to test scores may not be in the bottom 25 percent as to high school grades, and, yes, it is possible to have test scores that are unbalanced between the reading and math sections. Harvard, in [its</a> NCAA self-study](<a href=“http://www.college.harvard.edu/deans_office/NCAASelfStudy.pdf]its”>http://www.college.harvard.edu/deans_office/NCAASelfStudy.pdf), makes clear that applicants who are truly outstanding in sports or in performing arts can safely be admitted even with test scores below Harvard’s usual averages, because their scores are only so “low” because they were very busy perfecting their sport or performing art–it is presumed that they would have scored higher on the tests if they weren’t so busy.</p>