Equal Opportunity for applicants

[LL562]

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hey guys just joined the network today... great community

I had a quick question... I know that most schools claim that they evaluate each student who applies to their DPT program without regard to gender or race...

but do you think that they might give an edge to students of different ethnic backgrounds in attempt to create a diverse student body to avoid any accusations of maybe admitting a higher number of students of a particular ethnicity?

I live in southern California where the population is in my opinion, I could be wrong, is more diverse than most parts of the US, however, in my undergrad the majority of my class mates were caucasian.. and from what some of my friends in grad school have told me, the disparity only grows...

Obviously we probably won't know unless someone here was on admissions board somewhere... but just wanted to know everyone's opinion...

I always wondered about this because my friends would always joke about it when we would talk about school because I was one of two Samoan graduates from CSULB's entire 2009 graduating class (NOT major)...

Obviously applying to a DTP program is going to be extremely competitve and in the end I still need a high GPA, high GRE scores, good LORs, and experience... but just out of curiosity do you think this might give me a little boost?

thanks guys...

 

[black]

It shouldn't for the same reason that they can't deny someone of a certain race. I was close to putting human as my race on my applications but ended up leaving it blank.

 

[MIDPT2012]

There was a US Supreme Court ruling regarding a University of Michigan lawsuit in 20003 preventing public universities from giving someone from an underrepresented group more "points" when scoring an application, however race was something that could be taken into consideration in a broader picture.

http://www.npr.org/news/specials/michigan/index.html

For gender, I believe due to the large disparity between women and men in the PT career, men are given a slight favor when applying, if all other things are considered equal.

 

[artizzle]

MIDPT2012,

I have no evidence whatsoever, but I am under the impression that the difference in number between females and males in the PT profession have no affect on admissions to PT school. Have you heard of this happening or heard that some adcoms take this into consideration (possibly as the final final judgment, if two applicants are completely identical -- minus their gender)?

LL652,

I'm not sure how much race plays into the adcom's decision. And I don't think it would be possible to get a straight or direct answer from one. What you can do is draw upon your unique cultural experience and use it in your personal statements. It will certainly help your essay stand out from the rest of the field. Good luck.

 

[Shugo]

hey guys just joined the network today... great community

I had a quick question... I know that most schools claim that they evaluate each student who applies to their DPT program without regard to gender or race...

but do you think that they might give an edge to students of different ethnic backgrounds in attempt to create a diverse student body to avoid any accusations of maybe admitting a higher number of students of a particular ethnicity?

I live in southern California where the population is in my opinion, I could be wrong, is more diverse than most parts of the US, however, in my undergrad the majority of my class mates were caucasian.. and from what some of my friends in grad school have told me, the disparity only grows...

Obviously we probably won't know unless someone here was on admissions board somewhere... but just wanted to know everyone's opinion...

I always wondered about this because my friends would always joke about it when we would talk about school because I was one of two Samoan graduates from CSULB's entire 2009 graduating class (NOT major)...

Obviously applying to a DTP program is going to be extremely competitve and in the end I still need a high GPA, high GRE scores, good LORs, and experience... but just out of curiosity do you think this might give me a little boost?

thanks guys...

I think that some schools show some degree of preference to applicants who come from diverse backgrounds. A friend I knew while earning my undergrad applied to Pacific University in Oregon, a pretty competitive program, and was accepted. In all honesty I was very very surprised he was accepted. This student had not taken any chemistry, and only one physics class where he barely earned a C in it, when he applied. He ended up getting C's in all of the chemistry and physics courses he took later on. He was Alaska Native though, and he had a full ride scholarship for his undergrad and for his graduate education just because he was Alaska Native. I don't know for sure, but I have wondered if being native helped him get into grad. school.

 

[LL562]

hey guys thanks for all the input...