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rialbs2022
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Joined: 16 Apr 2019
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Location: Canada
Concentration: Strategy, International Business
Schools: INSEAD Jan 22 intake (A)
GMAT 1: 720 Q48 V40
Schools: INSEAD Jan 22 intake (A)
GMAT 1: 720 Q48 V40
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How do MBA programs determine nationality/ethnicity? 26 Jun 2020, 16:58
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Hi mbaMission!

I hope this is the right place to ask this question.

Would anyone be able to give me insight on how schools determine a candidate's ethnicity/nationality? Is it by country of birth, where you were raised or what countries you’re a citizen of?

I was raised in Africa, my family has been there for 4 generations. When I was about 7 years of age, my family moved to Canada and have been here since but was born in India (the African city we lived in had far worse medical care so she went to India to give birth).

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
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How do MBA programs determine nationality/ethnicity? 28 Jun 2020, 16:35
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Hi, rialbs2022, hmmmm that's a great question and I am not EXACTLY sure how they categorize things, but I suspect most of the time they are marking country of citizenship in the charts that you might see on international representation. It is whatever you'd put under "Nationality" on your application form. That said, when the admissions committee reps are making their decisions, your entire journey will definitely count, and there are no hard quotas on any single country, so I don't think you need to be too worried about this. Hopefully you will be bringing your full and rich gamut of experiences into the application. I for one would be curious to hear more about your story, and I am sure they will feel that way too!

Julie-Anne Heafey
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Businessconquerer
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How do MBA programs determine nationality/ethnicity? 03 Jul 2020, 11:24
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So you're ethnicity is mixed. That is amazing. However, you must choose the nationality that you "choose to identify as or under" under the Nationality section. There is also a section on Dual nationality so you can use that. P.S. You are not Indian. You'll have nationality of Canada and Africa. Indian nationals have to be born and raised in India to be nationals much as I know when I got my domicile
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How do MBA programs determine nationality/ethnicity? 03 Jul 2020, 15:41
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Normally I wouldn't jump back in here, but I don't really understand businessconquerer's idea about the nationality you "choose to define as or under." You have an actual citizenship status somewhere, presumably, or perhaps a dual citizenship status, and so you put those on the application where it asks about Citizenship. If you have citizenship officially in 2 countries, you can rank which one you want to put down as the primary citizenship and have the other as the "dual" category (unless the app tells you expressly what to put first - MIT for example says, if one is US, put US first), but these answers are still going to be based on your actual status, not where you identify because you spent time there. So - do you have your citizenship in the country where you grew up in Africa, in Canada, or in India?

There is usually also a question on birth city and country, and there you will put the place in India where you were born.

They will see your schooling and where that was, in other parts of the application. And your resume and short answers will show where those took place.

I didn't address your question on "ethnicity" -- that is not something asked on these apps, really.

Hope this helps,
Julie-Anne Heafey
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