Who is a minority student?

The term minority student would normally be used to refer to a student who belongs to what is known as a visible minority, which is to say, the student in question has some visible racial characteristic such as skin color or type of facial features by which it can be seen that he or she belongs to a racial minority. There are all sorts of minorities, but not all of them are visible. Atheists are outnumbered by theists, but you have no way to tell that someone is an atheist just by looking at them, you have to actually talk to them to find that out.

Gay students may or may not be considered to be minority students; social attitudes vary, in different locations, about whether this should be considered a minority group.