Is this notion true regarding T-20 schools?

[aayz345]

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I've heard on a different site that being URM doesn't offer much of an advantage towards getting into top20 schools. The reasoning is that those schools choose the URM students with 3.7+/517+ metrics. Is this true? Does being URM only help with getting into mid/low tier schools?

 

[Goro]

Not true!!!!!

 

[deleted709753]

You haven't heard of the superstar URMs, yet. They exist. But in general, yes URM gives you a boost at top and low tier schools.

 

[NickNaylor]

I served on the admissions committee for an institution that was a T10 school at the time though still remains in the T20. URM did play a role, but it wasn't all that overt. We still interviewed and reviewed plenty of URM applicants that didn't have superstar stats. One might argue that they were the recipient of benefits from their URM status at that point. I really don't know.

We weren't going out of our way to accept potentially problematic students just because they were URM. That being said, strong URM applicants would almost certainly get an acceptance + scholarship where a non-URM student may not have the same outcome.

 

[Walter Raleigh]

Not true!!!!!

Being an URM helps. But when there are candidates applying with 99th percentile MCATs, 4.0s, and things like first-author Nature papers, URMs have to be fairly strong candidates to be considered by top 20 schools.