Minority & LGBT Students

There are many scholarships available to minority students! A simple Google search will yield many, many useful results.

Affirmative action is a blanket term that refers to any policy that aims to balance and improve racial inequities. The Supreme Court ruled that colleges and universities may use race as admission factor (thus use affirmative action) for the purpose of achieving diversity (an educationally beneficial and desirable quality). Race may be used as a "plus factor" when conducting a holistic review of candidates.

Affirmative Action is the practice of taking race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc. into consideration in order to benefit the underrepresented group. Ideally, in the admissions process, the minority students' status as a minority/ underrepresented group will be taken into consideration when the admission officer is reviewing your application. It is not a shoe- in that you will be admitted some place just because you are black or gay or latino but rather it simply means that its OK for the admissions committee to take that into consideration when they are reviewing your application. Some states have outlawed Affirmative Action and in other places the law is in full effect :)

There are a lot of issues that face minority communities! For starters there is a deficit in the colleges and universities across the nation in terms of African American and Latino young men enrolling in school. This is said to be two of the hardest populations to get to college ( I specialize in both areas). In addition, there is a dramatic increase in undocumented students across our nation that want to go to college. There are many conversations being held at the national level around financial aid for undocumented students versus international populations. There is a number of reverse Affirmative Action cases in which white students feel as if they are not getting the a fair reviewal in the admissions process due to race based biases... and the list goes on and on and on.

YES! It depends on the school and the institution that you are applying to. Some colleges offer diversity awards. In addition, there are a number of scholarship organizations that specifically look for minority students to award money to.

Most minority students should not be afraid to embrace your ethnicity and your cultural background. Going to a majority white school can be intimidating if you have never learned in an environment in which students are different from you. If being from a particular cultural background provides a context for your achievement then talk about that. You should work to let the admission committee know who you are. If your cultural background and experience is an important aspect of your identity then you should talk about that in the process. I can show you exactly how to do that.

LGBT college students might face unique challenges than other students. First, other students on campus might not be comfortable with you as LGBT. This can be difficult as you feel misunderstood and discriminate against based on your sexual preference. While some progress has been made, a better understanding about bi-sexual and transgender individuals is still needed. Second, LGBT has redefine how colleges and universities view diversity. In our opinion, this has been a great thing. Recently, Elmhurst has started to ask the application question on LGBT identification. Harvard is considering this as well. Nevertheless, not all colleges and universities have figured out how to embrace and encourage this form of diversity on campus. Third, a LGBT student might feel pressured to fit a stereotype held by either the LGBT community on campus or other students. Last, the LGBT community can be fragmented on campus, which can make it difficult for LGBT students to share experiences and find support.

There are scholarships for almost everything, so minorities are not excluded. Search any number of organizations (fastweb, cappex, etc.) and include your ethnicity and you will find that there are scholarships that target members of different minority groups. Another good place to look is within certain community organizations that work to support minority students.

Wesleyan University, Brown University, Vassar College are amongst the liberal arts colleges/ivies that are not only LGBT-friendly but also offer strong Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies Programs

Make sure your sexual preference is acceptable - to professors as well as students.