Am I a URM???/Is___ race/circumstance considered URM?? Forum

kapachino · Post by **kapachino** » Mon Mar 24, 2014 11:17 am

tangelo wrote:
kn6542 wrote:Can't you just say BLACK? WTF?
Man these types of ignorant questions make me wonder how some even get accepted into LS. We don't call them "black" for the same reason we don't call Latinos "brown". Not all people with dark skin are from Africa. I know black people from Brazil, Cuba and several other countries around the world who have no connection to Africa.

Read a book.

You might want to read a book on those countries' connection to Africa. Just sayin'.

Rexdan · Post by **Rexdan** » Thu May 22, 2014 3:15 pm

You guys are gonna hate getting this question, but...

My current generation is the only generation to have been born in the U.S. Everyone else is from Portugal. With that being said, my mother comes from a poor background and my father, though his parents aren't poor (or rich), didn't exactly have a good upbringing. Both of them have had their share of hardships, like finding work, or learning a completely new language. My father quit school around 6th grade and my mother quit around 9th. I was born and raised in a lower-middle class area. While I was in school, people of Portuguese heritage (whether it be from Portugal, Brazil, Angola, etc) were scarce. Growing up, I was a little confused as to whether or not I constituted as a URM, and that confusion continues today. Am I a URM? If not, will a diversity statement with the aforementioned facts help me out?

Thanks guys!

bk1 · Post by **bk1** » Thu May 22, 2014 3:42 pm

Rexdan wrote:You guys are gonna hate getting this question, but...

This is a really easy question. You are not a URM since you are not Native American, African, Mexican, or Puerto Rican. You should write a DS, and if well written it will be beneficial to your application (but it will still be a soft factor that doesn't have a huge impact relative to numbers).

Your question also seems to indicate that you misunderstand what URM means in the context of law school admissions. URM simply means the 4 races stated above. Why would you have ever wondered if you were a URM growing up? Most people don't even hear that term until they start looking into law school admissions. Maybe you wondered whether you were a "minority," but that is a separate term from "URM."

Rexdan · Post by **Rexdan** » Thu May 22, 2014 7:08 pm

bk1 wrote:
Rexdan wrote:You guys are gonna hate getting this question, but...
This is a really easy question. You are not a URM since you are not Native American, African, Mexican, or Puerto Rican. You should write a DS, and if well written it will be beneficial to your application (but it will still be a soft factor that doesn't have a huge impact relative to numbers).

Your question also seems to indicate that you misunderstand what URM means in the context of law school admissions. URM simply means the 4 races stated above. Why would you have ever wondered if you were a URM growing up? Most people don't even hear that term until they start looking into law school admissions. Maybe you wondered whether you were a "minority," but that is a separate term from "URM."

Apologies. I was tired and a robot, for the most part, when I made that post. You are correct about me wondering whether or not I was a minority growing up as opposed to URM. Alright, great. So I'm definitely not a URM, but I can still write a DS as a soft. Thanks for your thorough response! I will definitely be setting some time aside after the June LSAT to draft one up.

bk1 · Post by **bk1** » Thu May 22, 2014 7:25 pm

Rexdan wrote:Apologies. I was tired and a robot, for the most part, when I made that post. You are correct about me wondering whether or not I was a minority growing up as opposed to URM. Alright, great. So I'm definitely not a URM, but I can still write a DS as a soft. Thanks for your thorough response! I will definitely be setting some time aside after the June LSAT to draft one up.

Ah that makes more sense. Good luck.

Rexdan · Post by **Rexdan** » Thu May 22, 2014 7:45 pm

bk1 wrote:
Rexdan wrote:Apologies. I was tired and a robot, for the most part, when I made that post. You are correct about me wondering whether or not I was a minority growing up as opposed to URM. Alright, great. So I'm definitely not a URM, but I can still write a DS as a soft. Thanks for your thorough response! I will definitely be setting some time aside after the June LSAT to draft one up.
Ah that makes more sense. Good luck.

Curious. Did you make the connection of "was tired and a robot" to "after the June LSAT"?

bk1 · Post by **bk1** » Thu May 22, 2014 7:49 pm

Rexdan wrote:Curious. Did you make the connection of "was tired and a robot" to "after the June LSAT"?

lol you don't have to remind me. I took June and was pretty exhausted at this point because of the PTs. Plus the LSAT happened to be in the middle of finals for me.

Rexdan · Post by **Rexdan** » Thu May 22, 2014 7:59 pm

bk1 wrote:
Rexdan wrote:Curious. Did you make the connection of "was tired and a robot" to "after the June LSAT"?
lol you don't have to remind me. I took June and was pretty exhausted at this point because of the PTs. Plus the LSAT happened to be in the middle of finals for me.

Haha I can imagine. I saw a huge point increase in my score from my last PT and the one before (9 points). After reviewing my last test, I was a little surprised to learn that what I need to improve most on is RC. So these next few days are going to be devoted to reviewing and drilling. Wait, you said it happened during the middle of finals? Were you still in undergrad and were you in one of those quarter semesters? Or trimesters?

bk1 · Post by **bk1** » Thu May 22, 2014 8:32 pm

Rexdan wrote:Haha I can imagine. I saw a huge point increase in my score from my last PT and the one before (9 points). After reviewing my last test, I was a little surprised to learn that what I need to improve most on is RC. So these next few days are going to be devoted to reviewing and drilling. Wait, you said it happened during the middle of finals? Were you still in undergrad and were you in one of those quarter semesters? Or trimesters?

Undergrad on the quarter system.

Rexdan · Post by **Rexdan** » Fri May 23, 2014 9:51 am

bk1 wrote:
Rexdan wrote:Haha I can imagine. I saw a huge point increase in my score from my last PT and the one before (9 points). After reviewing my last test, I was a little surprised to learn that what I need to improve most on is RC. So these next few days are going to be devoted to reviewing and drilling. Wait, you said it happened during the middle of finals? Were you still in undergrad and were you in one of those quarter semesters? Or trimesters?
Undergrad on the quarter system.

Ah, that explains it.

chicharon · Post by **chicharon** » Fri May 23, 2014 11:10 am

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MistakenGenius · Post by **MistakenGenius** » Fri May 23, 2014 11:16 am

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A. Nony Mouse · Post by **A. Nony Mouse** » Fri May 23, 2014 11:59 am

Let people use the labels that make sense to them. I'm sure as hell not telling black people/African Americans which label they should prefer.

bk1 · Post by **bk1** » Fri May 23, 2014 6:25 pm

A. Nony Mouse wrote:Let people use the labels that make sense to them. I'm sure as hell not telling black people/African Americans which label they should prefer.

Also: why is it so hard for people to understand how euphemisms work?

bk1 · Post by **bk1** » Fri May 23, 2014 6:28 pm

chicharon wrote:Filipino--first-gen immigrant, stepped off the proverbial boat 2 years ago. URM?

Being Filipino, I naturally have lots of Spanish and Mexican heritage. One of my great-grandparents was Mexican, and the other was Spanish.

Being Spanish and Filipino is irrelevant for URM.

So one of your great-grandparents came from Mexico? That would technically make you 1/8 Mexican. If you are indeed 1/8 Mexican then you would be a URM though it may look weird if you haven't always claimed on race/ethnicity surveys that you are Mexican (but that shouldn't necessarily stop you from filling out race/ethnicity portion of law school apps honestly and completely).

chicharon · Post by **chicharon** » Fri May 23, 2014 7:58 pm

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RCSOB657 · Post by **RCSOB657** » Wed Jun 18, 2014 2:54 am

Rexdan wrote:You guys are gonna hate getting this question, but...

My current generation is the only generation to have been born in the U.S. Everyone else is from Portugal. With that being said, my mother comes from a poor background and my father, though his parents aren't poor (or rich), didn't exactly have a good upbringing. Both of them have had their share of hardships, like finding work, or learning a completely new language. My father quit school around 6th grade and my mother quit around 9th. I was born and raised in a lower-middle class area. While I was in school, people of Portuguese heritage (whether it be from Portugal, Brazil, Angola, etc) were scarce. Growing up, I was a little confused as to whether or not I constituted as a URM, and that confusion continues today. Am I a URM? If not, will a diversity statement with the aforementioned facts help me out?

Thanks guys!

I'll give you an answer to the minority part. Portuguese are not considered Hispanic or minority. We are considered 'White / European', sucks doesn't it?

rwe13 · Post by **rwe13** » Wed Aug 13, 2014 11:32 am

My apologies if someone already asked and answered this...
I am 25% Mexican. Does that qualify as URM ?

BearsintheRafters · Post by **BearsintheRafters** » Sun Aug 17, 2014 5:00 am

Nova · Post by **Nova** » Sun Aug 17, 2014 5:19 am

there is no bright line cut off

it all depends on what boxes u check

meezus · Post by **meezus** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 8:37 pm

I have a hard time believing/accepting that being 100% Palestinian born to two immigrant parents is not in the least bit considered a URM. Lol that's pretty silly. In fact, it helped a great deal getting into my undergrad and even got me a scholarship.

sesto elemento · Post by **sesto elemento** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 8:49 pm

meezus wrote:I have a hard time believing/accepting that being 100% Palestinian born to two immigrant parents is not in the least bit considered a URM. Lol that's pretty silly. In fact, it helped a great deal getting into my undergrad and even got me a scholarship.

You're confusing URM status with diversity. Sounds like your diverse, but you're not what LSAC considers an under-represented minority (ie African America, Mexican America, Puerto Rican, Native American).

ScottRiqui · Post by **ScottRiqui** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 9:00 pm

sesto elemento wrote:
meezus wrote:I have a hard time believing/accepting that being 100% Palestinian born to two immigrant parents is not in the least bit considered a URM. Lol that's pretty silly. In fact, it helped a great deal getting into my undergrad and even got me a scholarship.
You're confusing URM status with diversity. Sounds like your diverse, but you're not what LSAC considers an under-represented minority (ie African America, Mexican America, Puerto Rican, Native American).

Pretty much this. There are so few Palestinians in America that they really can't be "underrepresented", since there's no real expectation that there would be *any* of them at a given school.

A. Nony Mouse · Post by **A. Nony Mouse** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 9:45 pm

meezus wrote:I have a hard time believing/accepting that being 100% Palestinian born to two immigrant parents is not in the least bit considered a URM. Lol that's pretty silly. In fact, it helped a great deal getting into my undergrad and even got me a scholarship.

What percentage of the US population is Palestinian? What percentage of students in law school are Palestinian? How many Palestinian students do schools need to accurately represent the percentage of Palestinians in the US population? Schools also likely characterize Palestinians as Middle Eastern, so you'd get lumped with all the other varieties of Middle Easterners, of which there are probably plenty in law school. (This happens to Asian-Americans, too - there are way more, say, Koreans in law school than Hmong, but the box law schools are looking to check is Asian-Americans collectively, not the different categories thereof, so Hmong students don't get a boost.) I'm sure you can write a great diversity statement and that will probably help, but schools don't need Palestinian students enough to give them a quantifiable bump in admissions.

And undergrad admissions are very very different from law school admissions.

pp5150 · Post by **pp5150** » Sun Sep 21, 2014 6:15 pm

Sooooooo im wondering if i could be considered as a urm. I was born here, in california, but both my parents were born in east africa. My last name is Patel, which is clearly indian, but both sides of my family have been in kenya and Uganda for 5 generations.
what do you guys think?