Adopting

[Does being adopted qualify me for URM status?]

Does being adopted qualify me for URM status?

Yes

 0 (0%)

No

 13 (100%)

That depends

 0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 13

[lawschool0192]

Adopting seems like a good idea. Adopting an URM might give that person more opportunities than birth.

[NYCFed]

If adopted children make up 2% of the population, then they are only "under represented" in law schools with close to 0 adopted students, so I doubt that it qualifies as any sort of extra consideration by itself.  It's worthy of mentioning if it is/was a hardship for you of some sort, or if it gave you some sort of unique insight you can bring to the class.
I know several people who were adopted, and I really only see it providing unique insights into society in the instances where the parents and adopted child are racially different. It's just my opinion, of course, so if you can prove it wrong, please do.

[mbw]

Supposedly only 2.5% of children in the US were adopted. This would thus be a group smaller than any racial minority in the US. Does it thus mean I'm an URM in law school?

Is it worth mentioning in my personal statement?

You might want to check the US census figures for American Indians.  We don't even break 1%, IIRC.

[heartbreaker]

This may be the single dumbest question I've ever read on LSD.

[SwampFox]

I supposed being adopted is no more of an irrelevant criteria to law school admissions than all of the other "soft factors" currently examined:  URM status, type of extracurricular activities, "life experience," etc.  This one certainly might get some sympathy votes under the "I-had-a-%@$@-life-so-admit-me" heading.  It probably can't hurt.

This may be the single dumbest question I've ever read on LSD.

For the record, THIS topic seems to be even more brazen about such things:
http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw/index.php/topic,4019736.msg0.html

[TimMitchell]

http://www.xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=350233&forum_id=2&PHPSESSID=1cb829bc82bf2722e042391c1029c0e8