The more I got involved with this process the more messed up it seemed. Especially the ORM aspect just seems like thinly veiled racism. Not sure how we ended up with a system where a white guy who grew up in the US, UK, Germany or France requires a lower GMAT, GPA or quantitative prowess than an engineer from India or China. I understand how systemic racism has affected African Americans in the US and POC in Latin American countries and agree with them requiring lower GMAT scores or GPAs to get in. But why is it the same with some white guy from Mexico who marks down Hispanic in his application? Mexico has a much higher per capita GDP than India even after taking into account PPP. So why does consortium provide fellowships to white Mexicans rather than Indians or Cambodians? So obviously the system is not fair, nor is it trying to counter inherent hurdles people might face that can lead to a lower (on paper) quality of applications.

So the only understandable reason for this is that we need a diversity of opinions so we pull from many different countries. But that is just a bogus argument with how many more white Americans there are in every class. Also, there's more diversity between Hongkong and Chengdu than there is between San Antonio and Monterrey. It just seems insane that a country like China is treated like a monolith but there is plenty of space to differentiate between someone from Chile vs Argentina. A Muslim applicant from India requires higher qualifications than a white trust fund kid from Brazil.

And don't even get me started on how horny all universities seem for prestigious "international" high schools, ivy league undergrads, international volunteering by taking time off work, and other rich people crap like that. You know why I could not afford to take a work sabbatical to go to Africa to build huts Karen? Because I cannot stop getting a paycheck! And even if I could I wouldn't. It is not like "Africans" (another beautiful monolith right here) don't know how to build huts. They don't have the money to afford to build housing! How pretentious to think you, a BCG consultant and econ major will build a better house than a native Haitian or Ghanaian builder. Wonder how adcom would react to someone saying I wanted to go do that, so, I took all the money I would have spent on my poverty tourism trip and just gave it to five random families in the DRC. Same with international experiences - there was a guy on poets and quants who listed his Mormon mission abroad as international experience. Yeah you went to a place to tell the natives that they were wrong and their ancestors were wrong. How in the world is that a valid international experience!?! I thought you were supposed to learn from the places and people you visit, not go there with the express intention of saying everything they believe in is wrong. And never forget the family and friends portion of the application.

The system is messed up. It is neither a meritocracy nor does it strive for any kind of fairness. Mostly feels like a cabal that decided how best to pat each other on the back. So everyone who didn't get into their choice of schools - try not to care. It is hard but the goal of the program is not education, empowerment or any kind of life changing experience. It is just a weird country club where barely a handful of actually underprivileged, deserving students sometimes make in. And then these students have to run around and try to understand why going on a ski trip is more important than doing well in class. All about the club.
Rant over.