I was just discussing this with my family, and they seem to be under the impression that putting down Arab as my ethnicity would have helped my application somewhat. I didn’t see it, as I felt that traditional minorities-- African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans-- would be considered the prime candidates for affirmative action.
Does anyone think Arab might be considered one? Or maybe other less likely ethnicities as well?
<p>yeah you are a minority, I am too, I'm a Hispanic</p>
<p>It depends not only what you are (ethnicity) but where you are. At HBC's whites are considered URM's and get the benefit of AA policies.</p>
<p>It seems like minorities are anyone who are not one of the following:</p>
<p>White
Cuban
East Asian (Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Japan)
South Asian (Indian, Pakistani)</p>
<p>I think everyone else benefits...</p>
<p>Whether you are a minority is not the issue; you need to be an under-represented minority to receive a favorable factor. Arab is generally not considered URM; at most places it is limited to African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans (including Alaskan and Hawaiin Native Americans). Many engineering schools also consider women in general as URM's.</p>
<p>what aboot turkish</p>
<p>Merhaba Serin. My daughter is half Turkish. She was told to mark white and then add Turkish for ethnicity. Some app's have this option. On the app's that don't have that option, just write it in.</p>
<p>meh, so will they think I'm an idiot if I call up and be like, "oh btw, I'm Arab...yeah, bye"?</p>
<p>i think so.</p>
<p>ah well, i just won't get in anywhere, that's fine too.</p>
<p>I don't think it would matter very much. I'm just basing that on the fact that this incredibly qualified friend of mine got denied EA and he put that he's Arab. If they gave points for being a minority, I would see no way that they could deny him because I can't believe it anyway.</p>
<p>As mentioned above, only Hispanic, African American and Native Americans are officially URM and recieve the benefit of AA. However, if you apply to a school in the south or north east i.e small, private, liberal arts colleges that have little diversity, then the color of your skin, your culture, religion, ethnicity etc. may help with admission and possibly FA as many schools have a committment to increasing the diversity of their community.</p>
<p>I've seen some college-related form (either application or test) that had something to the effect of "White (incl. Middle Eastern)" as one of the choices. I think the "white" choice should be broken down more too (ex. Northern European, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Slavic), but oh well. I mean, I did see something like "Mexican-American/Chicano," "Puerto Rican," "South American," and "Cuban" on some form. I think it was the PSAT, but I'm not sure.</p>
<p>"As mentioned above, only Hispanic, African American and Native Americans are officially URM and recieve the benefit of AA."</p>
<p>However, as also mentioned above, whites are considered minorities on the campuses of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Under the same laws that desegregated schools across the country, these colleges have to diversify. </p>
<p>As a result, they have scholarships and opportunities designed to attract nonblack students. Their minority students office is for students who are not black.</p>
<p>Some HBCUs have some very well respected programs. Howard, for instance, has an good communications school that includes excellent television production facilities and faculty who have worked for major media. Florida A&M 's business school is well known as is its pharmacy school, which does a wonderful job of attracting grants.</p>
<p>While none of the HBCUs are tier one, there are some that are tier 2 schools.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, back to Middle Eastern, at some colleges my guess is that it could be a tip factor -- not for affirmative action, but for general diversity reasons just as having other unusual factors in one's background can be tip factors. I truly doubt that adcms would slap their knees derisively laughing if the OP made mention of her heritage.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the school.. as i repeat from another post, Filipinos (like me), for example, are overrepresented minorities in California schools; URMs in liberal arts colleges, and neutral in the ivies</p>
<p>oo thanks guys</p>