Is there really that big of an advantage being a minority? Will my stats seem more impressive to an admissions comittee if they see that I am half puerto rican?
One day, I hear that being a minority is a huge advantage. The next day I hear that it really makes no difference. Whats the word (can anybody answer with certainty?)
There's no certain answer to this. There are going to be some situations where being a minority is an advantage, and some where it's a disadvantage. Depends on the location, the personalities, and lots of other things.
I expect that minority status is an advantage in getting into medical school. There's not a med school in the country, not in the deep south or anywhere, that likes looking homogeneous. You have to go through a committee to get in; committees tend to suppress dickheads. (If your stats suck, however, you lose this advantage.)
I expect that minority status can be a disadvantage during rotations and residency, if you are a minority within that establishment. You have to work with dickheads wherever you go. You'll have supervisors, nurses, instructors, administrators etc. who have already decided what they think of you based on your skin color (as you know). During rotations and residency, the opinions of individuals determine your success. I doubt that you'll see overt racism. I hope it's never an issue. Out here on the west coast you'd have a lynch mob going after any authority that practices racism.
As for later on, I've worked for small and large engineering firms. I'm going to claim that these firms are similar to private medical practice, in that when the group needs another engineer/doctor, they recruit, screen, interview, and mostly reject applicants. Then the group finally finds a candidate who fits the group's needs. A great deal of time and money gets spent on this process. At this point it's half individual opinion, half committee, because in practice a dickhead can own the vote.
When an elite professional group takes on a new member, the group then does some counting. How many women do we have, how many blacks/hispanics/Muslims/GLBT/disabled. Doesn't matter if the group is predominantly female/black/hispanic/Muslim/GLBT/disabled, the counting is going to happen. And in my experience, when a new member is hired, if that member is female/black/hispanic/Muslim/GLBT/disabled, it's commented on and it's viewed as a good thing. If a minority is a good candidate and is NOT hired, it's noticed, commented on, and lamented. And on the backside, there are always some young white guys who are going to make jokes about diversity, and not get it at all, and say everybody's whining and overreacting. Again, on the west coast, when a group hires a minority it's almost like winning a merit badge.
In 20 years in industry I saw a huge increase in tolerance and acceptance. Unfortunately I did NOT see any increase in the number of strong minority candidates. Which sucks.
