Nationality vs Ethnicity

Question

I am not sure whether this is the right place to ask but here's my question.

MBA program applications are usually saturated with certain types of candidates, eg. an Indian candidate who is from a tech background or engineering. I just wanted to ask how admissions people decide what category you fall in to. Is it by nationality or by ethnicity.

Personally, I am a Bahamian citizen who was originally born in India but have been living in The Bahamas majority of my life. Would I still count as an Indian given my ethnicity or would I be considered a Bahamian during the admissions process.

Hope my question is clear and thank you everyone for your answers.

bb · Answer

Schools have unofficially started having double lens at the applicants looking at both origin and race (e.g. American born Indian decent or American born Chinese or Korean decent. It is optics but you can't have everyone who looks and speaks Chinese and say we have a diverse student body.... As an example, there are many Indian applicants from the Middle East and they get treated separately from Indian Indians. So a lot of it is background such as social, economic, and personal traits - e.g. engineer who speaks with a heavy Indian accent who lived all their life in Germany will still be an Indian Engineer.

I think you could be a Caribbean person technically if you wanted to... Which you do want that for the purpose of the application.

On those questionnaires you can put yourself as Caribbean or if that's missing then Central/Latin America as long as you don't have a heavy Indian accent, dress in traditional Indian clothes, and are an electrical engineer.

I think you could be a Caribbean person technically if you wanted to... Which you do want that for the purpose of the application.

On those questionnaires you can put yourself as Caribbean or if that's missing then Central/Latin America as long as you don't have a heavy Indian accent, dress in traditional Indian clothes, and are an electrical engineer.

MBADecoder · Answer

Last year, I worked with an Indian applicant who became an Australian citizen just before applying. He was very categorically told by some b-schools that he would be considered an Australian citizen if he had been awarded the citizenship. Before the citizenship came through, he was considered an Indian even though he had lived in Australia for several years.

This is my understanding. it may differ between b-schools/ the region they are in. For example, this guy was applying to European and Asian programs.

Also, I'd agree with  bb  - you should show your international perspective rather than coming across as traditional Indian.

AndrewN · Answer

Wow, reading these responses shows me how little I understood the admissions bias against the stereotypical Indian engineer or tech-minded student. Be mindful of your accent? Keep the traditional garb in the closet? Play up the Caribbean connection? How sad that the business school world has come to this. It reminds me of  this scene  from  The Simpsons . Whatever else you may think of the character of Apu, I hope you may also see that there is a poignant side to his characterization, just as there is a serious thematic undercurrent in many of the earlier episodes from the series.

I trust the advice given above. I am only voicing my opinion against discrimination. I have long lived on the fringe of society because throughout my academic and professional career, I have refused to play the game, opting to be true to myself instead. At least now I am self-employed and beholden to no one, but it took years of frustration before I reached my current state, and I would not advise most people to follow my example.

All I can say about this admissions consideration is that I wish it were different. Good luck to you,  sgali .

- Andrew

bb · Answer

Thank you for this interesting bit of information. I guess it makes sense though I never thought about it in terms of citizenship but makes perfect sense now that you said it....

Interesting enough, in the Middle East it’s almost impossible to get at citizenship in places like Dubai and people who have lived there since the 70s are still living on temporary work permits and their children who are born there are also living as permanent residents... so my guess a permanent resident status may also work in certain situations.

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

Funny episode. I have not seen that one.... I did have a roommate during business school who was a law school student. He was born in the United States to Indian parents who owned several 7-Eleven’s. He always brought up Ali as a reflection of his stereotypical family. Hr was a great guy. Funny snd full of life. He was big into wrestling and basketball and all kinds of sports. I think he was slightly overcompensating, which is common for the first generation trying to fit in.

Posted from my mobile device

elPatron434 · Answer

sigh.. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/1f61f.png" class="forumSmileyItem" width="20" height="20" alt=":(" title="Sad" />

Shikhar22 · Answer

Reminds me of this live by my personal hero, James Baldwin.

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

The whole reason GMAT Club was started is because I have made a ton of application and GMAT mistakes that I felt terrible about I did not want other people to repeat them.
So I put this together: https://gmatclub.com/forum/bb-s-list-of ... 55746.html

Attachment:

mistakes.jpg [ 39.54 KiB | Viewed 6368 times ]

Nationality vs Ethnicity

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards