Applying as a URM Hispanic

2RARE2CARE

I know that Black and Mexican/Puerto African URMs get the most significant boost... But will applying as a URM Hispanic give me a boost? I'm 50/50 Italian/Venezuelan and my mothers a Venez immigrant and I have citizenship there. Goal schools are USC/UCLA.. Does anyone know if URM Hispanic gives a LSAT score boost, even if it's a point or two. Thanks.

Pacifico

I've never seen any stats on specific types of URMs pitted against one another. I really don't think it matters what type of URM you are as long as you are one. I know at UCLA Asian URMs are at least a plurality of not majority of the student body but still enjoy URM status due to the demographics at work nationwide for law school applicants. So if it still helps those students I don't see how it wouldn't help you. While some schools may use URM as a specific numbers boost, others factor it into the total package which is why you'll see URMs with LSAT scores 10+ points off the median. You will definitely get a boost so I wouldn't worry about it.

2RARE2CARE

@Pacifico im impressed by your immense knowledge of everything law school related. Thanks once again, my friend.

The 180 Bro_OVO

He was created in a lab at HarvardLaw and programmed to intelligently answer all law related questions.
A gift to us all.

splitterhopeful

Wish I could point you towards more specifics but I know I've read that you can equate URM status towards at least a few LSAT points. Make sure you write a good diversity statement!

Pacifico

Depends on the school. Some do a straight numbers game but others do the whole holistic thing so it's a bag of feathers on the scale. And it's not necessary to write a diversity statement about being an URM if you have a better topic for a diversity statement since you will still have other boxes to check in terms of being an URM.

NYC12345

According to some sources, you will not be considered a URM. Click the following link: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=35568
Also, from what I've been told by people who have worked in law school admissions offices, Blacks/AA receive the largest boost.

Pacifico

Please don't post anonymous nonsense from TLS. Here is LSAC's policy from the horse's mouth: http://www.lsac.org/jd/diversity-in-law-school/racial-ethnic-minority-applicants

As I have said previously, anyone who isn't a Caucasian white person is a URM since the baseline is all law school students and lawyers and most of each of those groups are white Caucasians. While some schools may give a larger boost for certain URM groups over others, it is not consistently applied.

Regardless, you can't change your race/ethnicity so just check the correct boxes, do your best on the LSAT, write a diversity statement on something whether it's race/ethnicity or not and then let the chips fall where they may.

splitterhopeful

@2RARE2CARE said:
@Pacifico im impressed by your immense knowledge of everything law school related.

The Dude abides...

Mark D. Ygarza

@Pacifico I've always figured Hispanic-Americans automatically received URM status since we represent roughly 4-5% of the law school student population but approximately 16% of U.S. population.

Some sources i have recently read now say that most schools will classify you as URM only if you are either Mexican, PR, or AA. This is because official census data tracks these groups and not how many Peruvian-Americans or Colombian-Americans are in the United States for example. So exactly which one is it??

My parents are from Peru, so I'm curious to see what my target schools could be if I fall under URM. If you could let me know any sources where I could find this info that would be great thanks.

The 180 Bro_OVO

"Depends on the school. Some do a straight numbers game but others do the whole holistic thing so it's a bag of feathers on the scale."

Which schools do which? Which schools is it a serious advantage and which schools does it barely even matter? @Pacifico

Pacifico

To the last two posters: I couldn't say for sure since I'm not an URM so I haven't really bothered to research this that much. However, I will reiterate that if you are not a white Caucasian you will receive a boost until such time that any court orders come down barring such affirmative action type of diversity initiatives. Does it really matter which schools give a bigger boost? Why would you base your applications on that and not on where you actually wanted to go? If WUSTL gave you a huge boost because of URM status, but you could still get into a T14 with money then what does it matter if the boost was larger at the former rather than the latter?

URM status should not really change your target schools, it should just open the possibility of some additional reach schools. Just apply where you want to go and then aim a little higher with a few apps. Don't forget who you are and what your goals are just because you might be helped by a URM boost. Just apply as if you got no boost and then be presently surprised when you outperform your numbers. I'm applying to a lot of schools I have no business getting into, but if I get the right adcom reading my file then who knows what might help me outperform my numbers. I have a lot of strong softs but none of them make me unrealistic about what my safeties, targets, and reaches are. Stay true to yourself and the rest will work itself out. And if for some bizarre reason you can't check the box for URM status then just write about it in a DS and they'll get the message.

ddakjiking

I was under the impression that asians are treated just like caucasian applicants but if what you're saying is true, more the merrier for me.

c.janson35

"Regardless, you can't change your race/ethnicity"

The U.S. Census would disagree lol

"If race were based on permanent, innate divisions of human beings, the American government wouldn't have to constantly scramble to change the definitions and qualifications for each category.

But it does. All the time. As political priorities change, American racial definitions adjust right along with them.

So, for example, people of Mexican birth or ancestry were "white" until the 1930 Census snatched that privilege back. Since then, their status — white or Hispanic — has flip-flopped several more times, all depending largely on whatever the current thinking was about their role in labor or immigration.

Similarly, courts went back and forth in the early 20th century about whether people from Japan were white, finally deciding in 1933 that they weren't, based on "the common understanding of the white man." (Sounds really official, huh?)

And what it took to be "black" once varied so wildly throughout the country (from one-quarter, to one-sixteenth, to the infamous one drop of African ancestry) that people could actually change races by crossing state lines.

Then, suddenly, in 2000, the government decided that Americans could be more than one race, adding options to express this to the Census. In other words, one day you could be a single race, and the next day you could be as many as you pleased.

With these constant changes, it's hard to make the case that the concept of race is anywhere near stable."

Pacifico

But that argument is just speaking to government changing the categorizations that one falls under, not one changing their own race while sitting in their kitchen filling out law school applications. Due to the official channels this must percolate through, even if one would like to identify as a different race, they have to wait for the government to change the categorizations or requirements in order to check a different box on the LSAT or on law school apps.

cjones76

@ddakjiking said:
I was under the impression that asians are treated just like caucasian applicants but if what you're saying is true, more the merrier for me.

Word. My thoughts exactly, lol

Pacifico

Yeah just keep in mind that everything is based on national demographics and not any particular school's demographics.

adam.arian.huber

Sweet line of discussion. I'd be interested to hear where all the posters ended up. I just snagged this article off of power score that details the hard numbers of the URM boost. The quick take away is that higher ranked schools put more emphasis (to what degree?) on URM status. I suspected a causation / correlation issue at first, but the methodology states the information is based on the admission of a URM when two equally qualified applicants based on numbers alone are pitted against each other. I'm not sure if the article defines what a URM is or what "type" of URM it applies to. The data I'd like to see is what percentage of admitted students under the median LSAT scores are URM, and by how much. I think I'd also like to see if research could determine an actual "point" evaluation given to URM's by type. Don't mix Pacifico's with White Russians; only bad things can happen.

https://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/do-underrepresented-minority-urm-applicants-have-a-law-school-admissions-advantage

-Ari

10000019

@"adam.arian.huber" said:
Sweet line of discussion. I'd be interested to hear where all the posters ended up. I just snagged this article off of power score that details the hard numbers of the URM boost. The quick take away is that higher ranked schools put more emphasis (to what degree?) on URM status. I suspected a causation / correlation issue at first, but the methodology states the information is based on the admission of a URM when two equally qualified applicants based on numbers alone are pitted against each other. I'm not sure if the article defines what a URM is or what "type" of URM it applies to. The data I'd like to see is what percentage of admitted students under the median LSAT scores are URM, and by how much. I think I'd also like to see if research could determine an actual "point" evaluation given to URM's by type. Don't mix Pacifico's with White Russians; only bad things can happen.

https://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/do-underrepresented-minority-urm-applicants-have-a-law-school-admissions-advantage

-Ari

Ari, this thread is 2 years old. I'm not sure how much has changed since then, but I do have one thing you might find interesting:
http://www.ceousa.org/attachments/article/651/VALaw.pdf

It's old and long, but I think it's still worth a read. It affirms that different URMs did get different boosts at least at some schools.

As for access to that data, I doubt it will happen until the boost is gone.