How much does being a minority help in admissions?

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PhysicsAccount
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:13 pm

How much does being a minority help in admissions?

Post by PhysicsAccount » Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:15 pm

:D
Last edited by PhysicsAccount on Fri Jan 17, 2020 4:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

geekusprimus
Posts: 143
Joined: Sat Jun 08, 2019 1:10 pm

Re: How much does being a minority help in admissions?

Post by geekusprimus » Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:30 pm

Depends on where you apply. Some schools, like public universities in California, are prohibited by state law from using race, gender, national origin, or ethnicity in their admissions, even if they do collect it. On the other hand, a lot of schools on the east coast will consider it, including big name universities like Harvard.

Glancing through the old stickied admissions posts, it looks like the students that it helped the most were those whose scores were a little bit on the low side for where they were applying but otherwise fairly good (e.g., applying to MIT with a mid to high 800s PGRE instead of mid to high 900s). Students who applied with noticeably poorer scores, though, didn't see it help them too much. You can (and I would recommend it, too) look through them yourself to see how you stack up. My personal advice, though, would be to find schools that might be a little beyond where you think you can get in (but not too far beyond) and try a couple of those.



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