Ethnic Background Question

Question

I have heard being Indian makes it harder to get into Harvard due to competition...

If my ethnicity is Indian, but I am a Citizen in Australia, with high schooling in Australia, Primary schooling in California and middle schooling in India, does that put me in the Indian Box of Applications or Oceania Box?

No racism or whatever else intended here.

Thanks.

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MBAkarma · Answer

Hello AdityaPujara23 Your passport defines your nationality. Your diverse experiences could add to the diversity of your profile (if presented in the right manner). Apart from this, do not try to look too much into what box you fall- rather focus on a strong application- needless to say, Harvard is tough for all applicants. Best Varun Sharma +919137133507 Free Profile Review MBAkarma.com GMAT Score Predictor info@mbakarma.com

MahmoudFawzy · Answer

Greetings  MBAkarma

your comment got my attention.
does ethnicity affect admission?

From AdityaPujara23's question, if I are applying as an Indian, Am I competing against candidates from the same ethnicity or I am competing against all the candidates evenly?

MBAkarma · Answer

Hello Mahmoudfawzy83

Ethnicity may play some role in admissions.
If you belong to a highly represented pool of applicants (say Indians or Chinese) generally speaking, you will be expected to have a stellar profile with high GMAT scores. For example within Indians, the largest pool of applicants is a Male IT Engineer. Say if an Indian belongs to the Armed Services, he/she will at least be diverse within their own pool.
At the same time there might be some ethnicity that sees very few applications- that might increase the chances as schools want to increase diversity. But that does not mean that a weak profile will easily get an admission.
A candidate is competing within the pool that he she belongs to and against all candidates at the same time. Ultimately it is the individual merit of the candidate which will decide the final outcome.
Each school will have their own way of categorizing pools as well.

Best
Varun Sharma
+919137133507
MBAkarma.com
GMAT Score Predictor
[email protected]

Mahmoudfawzy83

Greetings MBAkarma

your comment got my attention.
does ethnicity affect admission?

From AdityaPujara23's question, if I are applying as an Indian, Am I competing against candidates from the same ethnicity or I am competing against all the candidates evenly?

isasda66 · Answer

Hey Varun

Does this mean than a person with Anglo roots, an Indian Jew or Parsi with an average profile (for India) will be considered diverse within the Indian pool?
Is diversity explicitly only with regards to the career or even includes community.

MBAkarma · Answer

Hello isasda66 Diversity can be presented in 2 ways- 1. As a bullet point 2. Explained qualitatively Industry, academic background, nationality, extremely high GMAT, national/international awards etc. can be presented as a bullet point and if impressive/different can add to your diversity. Other things such as sub-ethnicity, quality of work experience, achievements and accomplishments at work need to be presented in detail through a story in your essays/LOR to explain why these make you diverse. Also, all schools may not look at sub-ethnicity in such detail. Diversity can come from any aspect of you profile, sky is the limit really. What matters is how you choose to present it and showcase that it is relevant for your application. I believe this conversation is going too deep into just one aspect of the application, which is not the right way to go. Best Varun Sharma +919137133507 MBAkarma.com GMAT Score Predictor info@mbakarma.com

bb · Answer

Ethnic Background Question

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