<p>Hi everybody,
Its Sharif from Bangladesh.
May be many of u r not aquatinted with the name of the country. It's a country beside India. I m going to complete my undergrad in CSE (Computer Science & Engineering).
I wanna apply to MIT for my graduate study. I had some questions. I will be grateful, if someone (from MIT preferably) can help me with the answers.</p>
<p>I know the non-discrimination policy of MIT. Still confused with this question. I m a Muslim, and practice my religion seriously. Currently, a negative concept has been built up against Muslims in the western world. Lots of reasons r there... but I think the main reason is misunderstanding. However, i dont want to annoy u with politics. Frankly speaking.... will it be a problem in my admission decision... that i m a Muslim... or i have kept my beard... or i am looked like so called ... terrorists?</p>
<p>I asked with a frank mind ... dont mind please. Well, some academic info about me..
I have a GPA of 3.95 out of 4.00. (5th position out of 120). </p>
<p>I m doing my undergraduate thesis on Combinatorial Object Generation and Bioinformatics. There may be some publications, if it is completed nicely.</p>
<p>I m also working on a research laboratory "Stochastic Logic" that works on probabilistic modeling of financial markets. My CEO is a Ph.D. from UCSD,USA.
He worked on "Time series analysis" in his Ph.D.</p>
<p>I had SATII subject tests many years before. Just for ur consideration
MathIIC-800, Physics-790</p>
<p>In my leisure, i voluntarily invite people towards true Islam. Not a great athlete or stage performer though.</p>
<p>Can anyone predict my chance in MIT?
Can u give any suggestion?</p>
<p>I don't think they would ever discriminate against you for the way you look or your faith. I think MIT is primarily a meritocracy, and your chances I cannot comment on(I don't know anything about graduate admissions).</p>
<p>Your religious status would never be considered as a factor in your admissions -- they won't even ask. There are many practicing Muslims at MIT; you might want to check out the webpage of the Muslim</a> Students' Association.</p>
<p>It's difficult to predict chances, since the program has many applicants for few spots, but you certainly don't have anything that would disqualify you. I would suggest contacting faculty members you'd like to work with by email closer to the time of the application.</p>
<p>I don't know about today's generation, but most people my age know about Bangladesh. It was constantly in the news when it became a nation, back in the late '60s or early '70s, if I recall correctly.</p>
<p>I think you'll find that the bulk of Americans carry no grudge against Muslims, and that college personnel, faculty, and students are even more accepting than the general public.</p>
<p>"-We insult jesus, but you cannot insult mohammed because that is wrong"
i think your first point is <em>a bit</em> flawed it is wrong to insult anyones prophet... two wrongs don't make a right</p>
<p>and most muslims believe in jesus as a true prophet of god just not as a divine being (son of god)
the koran even mentions him quite a bit... i'm no expert or even very religious</p>
<p>but i think you will hard pressed to find a muslim that insults jesus! jesus is like just as important a prophet as mohammed and moses and all the others.</p>
<p>well im muslim too and i applied to mit undergraduate, well see what happens. i mentioned it in the essays because i had to overcome some hardships when i flew to america a week before the 9/11 attacks.</p>
<p>From what I have seen, some muslims were pretty upset at that cartoon when they do the same themselves. Never said all muslims because that would be ignorant, but a select few do.</p>
<p>I would hope, and believe, that most people on CC (and esp. those applying to MIT) know what Bangladesh is.<br>
I have to agree with sephiroth that the radical Muslim population gives all Muslims a bad name. For example, many newspapers have been publishing anti-semetic cartoons for years in the Middle East, yet there is no response. Anyway, in my mind, there is very little discrimination against Muslims in America. Unless you are in a very small town and are the first Muslim to visit that town, I think you should be fine. In a city like Boston, you should have no worries.</p>
<p>Yea, sorry I forgot that muslims believe that jesus is a prophet, but not the son of God. As for my example, I was mainly talking about the idea that some muslims feel that they can insult others freely but others don't have the same right.</p>
<p>Thanks everybody for ur lively reply. I want to mention a point, in Islam criticism to another religion is very strictly prohibited. Even many muslims are not aware of it. If we criticise others, others will also criticise us. Not believeing in other faiths does not necessarily mean, we should criticise them.
True islam is an excellent balanced complete code of life. U may find this statement biased but u may check from authentic sources. one more point, one of u said, Islam says, women are inferior to man. I never find this in my whole life. Islam never says that, But it surely says, Women and Men are NOT EQUAL. And not equal does not mean lesser than or greater than. Apple and Mango are not equal. This statement does not degrade any one of them. Islam gave specific and appropriate rights to each of them. I dont know how u will take this, Islam says, our paradise is under the feet of our mother. Then how can we think women inferior to us? We are under the feet of them. There are so much wrong propaganda against true islam, that people are confused. One last point, one of u said that, We criticise Jesus. As far as I know, If any Muslim ever criticise a Prophet like Jesus as we believe, he cant stay as Muslim. Then how is it possible? Ok thanks for ur patience. U may pm me if any of u r further interested in Islam.</p>
<p>""jesus is just as important a prophet as mohammed!""</p>
<p>In Islam, although Jesus is a prophet, I think it is incorrect to say that they are equivalent. Mohammed is seen as the difinitive prophet--after Mohammed there will be no more prophets. I think it's just factually wrong to equate the importance of Jesus and Mohammed in Islam.</p>