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Usually when people in the western world say "Asian", they mean China, Korea, Vietnam, i.e. the far eastern continent and pacific islands. To my shock some people who I talked to actually thought the middle east was apart of Europe. Go figure.

So as a middle eastern student, what should I usually put when applying? Other? Asian? Do colleges care to distinguish a korean from an Iranian? Am I underrepresented? I think someone told me that at Cornell Middle Eastern is listed for Caucasian on the application. . .don't know if that's true.

I'm just confused about this whole thing.

By Entropie (Entropie) on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 05:41 pm: Edit

middle easterner is considered caucasian, but im pretty sure most applications have an "other" box, in which you could specify that you're middle eastern. Either way, middle easterners are not considered URMs at most universities, so it probably won't make a difference in admissions.

By Ndbisme5 (Ndbisme5) on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 07:19 pm: Edit

If it were up to me, there should only be a:

Ethnicity/Race (optional) : ______________

No boxes! [evil laughter]

By Css (Css) on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 07:40 pm: Edit

i'm middle eastern too and checked other instead of caucasion in the box. i think it's stupid middle easterners aren't considered a minority...

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 07:43 pm: Edit

It's not a question of being a minority. It's a question of being a signficantly under-represented minority in the college population realtive to the general population. By that standard, Middle Eastern students aren't minorities any more than Indians, Pakistanis, etc. are.

By Neobez (Neobez) on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 08:18 pm: Edit

If there is no Other Box, I think I'll put Asian. I really don't consider myself Caucasian. . .
I realize though that Middle Easterners aren't underrepresented in colleges, so I can't really have an advantage, as is the deal with Indians and Pakistanis, so I suppose that's not what bothers me about it really. I was just looking for some direction as to what I should put down, as it's not really clear.

By Kmehrabi (Kmehrabi) on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 09:42 pm: Edit

Neobez Salammmmmmm,
Khoobi? Che khabar? lol, baba, i had the same problem. and yeah we are considered caucasion most of the time. Espessially since we are Persian-Aryan we are the original caucasions. Anthropologically speaking we are more caucasion than anyone else. if you put asian, than you are facing tougher compitition than if you put caucasion. asians are outstandingly smart generally, and thats what they will expect of you. the best use you can make out of it is in your essays talk about how hard it is to be iranian, since most of us our refugees, have had our relatives killed and our property taken. or talk about how racial profiling has effected you personally. i dont know if this all applied to you but it has to me. whereas you cant get affirmative action or anything, you can portray your nationality to show the uniqueness of your character, and how yoru background has effected your upbringing as a person. colleges like that ;).

By Neobez (Neobez) on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 10:49 pm: Edit

daste shumah dahrd nakuhne.
Thanks man. . .I'm not a refugee, my dad came here with a student visa in the 70s, eventually we were able to settle here in 87 with the whole family as permanent residents. Yeah I have faced racial profiling quite a bit. . .especially since 9/11. Anyways, where do you go? Did you put Caucasian on the app.? Do you think it affected you in the admission process much?

I don't know, among Asians the acceptance rate isn't different at all really, it was like 22 at Dartmouth and 16-18 for caucasians. So I guess I'm still in question as to what I should put. I may call or email some colleges and see what they want. I don't want to be dishonest, this is all just new to me lol. . .never knew I was Caucasian.

Mersi.

By Kmehrabi (Kmehrabi) on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 11:01 pm: Edit

salam, yeah im in the same position as you as far as how my family got here. and yeah you and i both come from "refugee" families in that sense, since we are came to escape the mullahs grasp.
but dude, how can you not know we were caucasion like taht. you know we are aryans right. Iran: Land of the Aryans... u gotta have the pride man ;)
anyway, yeah im studying film, and i use experiences in racial profiling and such in my portfolio and essays. if there is no "middle eastern" box and no "other" i always put caucasion, and most institutions that have an appendix listing on their websites that define races in their opinion (affirmative action schools) explain that their recognition of caucation includes races of the middle east and north africa.
right now i go to temple and hate it, but im likely transfering to usc this fall. you should go there, i hear they have the hottest persian girls in all of socal mmmmmmmmmm. lol
so what are you into? where you wanna go?
felan khodafes

By Neobez (Neobez) on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 11:46 pm: Edit

I had no idea. . .I don't think we are refugees though. . .we weren't persecuted, America was just the land of opportunity so we came here, and I've visited a few times. Maybe you're right though.

Awesome man, I love film. . .I thought about majoring in that alot, but I think I'm leaning towards journalism or some other humanities subject. I hadn't researched USC yet. . .with the persians I might now though lol.

I had no idea though . . . can you give me some school website links about that? I seriously didn't know. Man, where have I been? I'm in shock right now. . .wow.

Mutshakher
khodafes

By Kmehrabi (Kmehrabi) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 12:15 am: Edit

sure, i know all about these schools, email me ur aim sn and well talk about it, ;)

By Neobez (Neobez) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 12:20 am: Edit

my AIM is Posting screen names is not permitted on CC. Please refer readers to your Profile, that's what it's there for. Repeat violators may be banned. --Admin

By Paulhomework (Paulhomework) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 01:11 am: Edit

guys i'm iranian too and i have the same problem!!!!

I immigrated to US a few years ago so i didn't know iranians are not "asians" so i put asians in my psat. Later i got all this japanese/chinese minority recruitment stuff from colleges and i was like wtf!!!

anyways, i called college board and they said i should've put caucasian. After doing a little research, it turned out that as Mehrabi said, we're even MORE caucasian that white people in America!! go figure that out!!!

i'm living in texas right now but my hope is to come to california for college (specifically uc berkeley, caltech, stanford, etc.) as there are so many more iranian in cali than there are in texas.

By Dontgouc (Dontgouc) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 02:10 pm: Edit

Aight I'm gonna bust out my farsi too. Salam, kholeshoma chitore? Just curious to all of the other Iranians/Persians on this board, what part of Iran is your family from? BTW,my dad is from Ardabil in northwest Iran.

By Mini (Mini) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 06:06 pm: Edit

If they ask for race, put 200 meters, or, simply, NASCAR.

By Sraid7777 (Sraid7777) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 06:45 pm: Edit

"Khoobi? Che khabar?"


hahah. It's good to hear some Finglisi being spoken.

pedar va madaram enjuh zendigee kardan barahaj beest sol. Anyone been back to Iran lately? I was there 2 years ago...

If I can check more than one I usually do this/

aryan if it's offered
other: Persian (I think Iranian has a negative connotation, especially for older people around in 79'.)
and my last resort is white/caucasian. Iranians don't really fall into any category- we're not arabs, not caucasian, and we don't have blonde hair like germans, but we are aryans. haha, een khole, nah?

Any Iranians here read+write farsi? I can speak, but I'm illiterate. Must work on that...

By Chocoman (Chocoman) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 07:52 pm: Edit

Hitler allied with Iran because he considered them Aryan.


And he wanted oil.

By Demonllama (Demonllama) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 08:01 pm: Edit

wow, it's weird to read something and understand it. it's like an inside joke!
anyway, in case you didn't already know, i'm persian too. usually i either put other or caucasian.
as for a question someone asked- i can speak farsi...well somewhat. i guess you could call it the americanized version of farsi where i combine both english and farsi together. i know enough to be able to communicate with my parents. my sister and i speak english to each other though. the only thing i can write is my own name. i might take a farsi class in college or something.

By Dontgouc (Dontgouc) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 08:29 pm: Edit

Sraid, I'm the exact opposite of you. I can read and write in farsi, however I don't understand what I'm reading but I can say the words and sentences from a book or newspaper outloud. But in terms of speaking the language, I can only last as far as hello and how are you doing. I took Farsi class for 3 years until I was 12 years old so thats how I know how to read and write.

By Kmehrabi (Kmehrabi) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 08:52 pm: Edit

choco this is true, but theres no question about "considering" Iranians as Aryan. Iran is the birthplace of the Aryan Race, and MORE aryan than germany or anywhere in northern europe. Most Iranians refer to themselves as the TRUE Aryans, and that north europeans are their panned-out cousins.

in 1934 the countries name "Persia" was offically changed to "Iran: Land of the Aryans" even though it was refered to as Iran, by the people within the nation for much longer. See, the name Iran itself is derived from the word Aryan

By Kmehrabi (Kmehrabi) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 08:54 pm: Edit

i can read, write, and speak Persian, i go to Persian classes in college too though to advance my vocabulary.

By Paulhomework (Paulhomework) on Friday, June 11, 2004 - 12:09 am: Edit

I can read, write, and speak farsi. Afterall, i was in Iran until 8th grade! However, I'm starting to combine a lot of English with Farsi, which sucks cuz my parents make fun of me for that all the time!!!

By Rez (Rez) on Friday, June 11, 2004 - 03:42 am: Edit

persian pride.. =P holla!

Whenever I'm asked to state my race i do the same as most of you guys. I put other, or caucasion.

How many of persian kids live in cali! represent!

By Sraid7777 (Sraid7777) on Friday, June 11, 2004 - 03:36 pm: Edit

americanized version of farsi where i combine both english and farsi together

finglisi!

A popular name in Iran is "Arya"- just a comment.

Massive persian pride right here. I'm the only muslim kid in my school (in NY so its almost 90% jewish). These jewish kids think I'm arab or something, but they are closer to Saudi Arabians, Libyans, etc. than I am! Ah, I love race religions. Especially when older people can't figure out what you are. My last naem is a jewish name though, but I'm muslim...

I can understand better than I can speak, but I'm pretty good at both. this summer, I have to get my mom to teach me farsi. I don't even know the alphabet!

By Sostressedout (Sostressedout) on Friday, June 11, 2004 - 04:21 pm: Edit

Race religions? What do you mean? A muslims a muslim right? Lol, I dunno maybe I think that because I'm half arab and half persian, but from a nonbiased perspective you are closer to a saudi or libyan than the jewish kids are. Don't forget the word Ummah

By Interesteddad (Interesteddad) on Friday, June 11, 2004 - 04:45 pm: Edit

You do not have to indicate a race or enthnicity. It's totally voluntary and a rapidly increasing percentage of applicants is choosing not to check a box.

Personally, I would check a box if I thought it would be to my advantage and not check a box if I didn't.

By Kmehrabi (Kmehrabi) on Friday, June 11, 2004 - 05:00 pm: Edit

sostressedout, you are completely incorrect, both jews and arabs stem from SEMETIC roots, where as Persians are of course of ARYAN roots, that is why libyans, saudi arabians, and those of all other arab countries, are ethnically closer to jews than Iranians are

By Sostressedout (Sostressedout) on Friday, June 11, 2004 - 06:27 pm: Edit

LOL kmehrabi I was looking at it from a different perspective if you read the last line of my post, you know UMMAH? But I'm not going to get into that here. Your right about the ties in roots but I was thinking of something else if you get the jist?
-Salaam

By Kmehrabi (Kmehrabi) on Friday, June 11, 2004 - 07:20 pm: Edit

yeah but thats messed up too, not all persians are muslim. there are millions of non muslim persians. mostly jews and bahais. you shouldnt generalise like that

By Sostressedout (Sostressedout) on Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 07:15 am: Edit

No I was refering to what him specifically, he did say he was muslim

By Sostressedout (Sostressedout) on Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 07:19 am: Edit

Plus I noticed when I went there two years ago that there isn't much social interaction between persians of muslim faith and persians of other faith, I'm guessing its because of the Islamic regime though

By Sraid7777 (Sraid7777) on Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 11:59 am: Edit

Race religions?


yeah my bad, my subconcious was working there. I meant to sya race RELATIONS. People are too mixed nowadays for anyone to know who they are. Marshall McLuhan said that globalization and technology would do this. I guess he's right.

By Spitoutalready (Spitoutalready) on Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 03:12 am: Edit

salam everybody, I was about to write in the "Persian Students" but didn't want to risk it haha .. I guess i'll bust out the farsi (can't resist) yekam farsi harfmesanam, so excuse the errors in advance.

KMEHRABI, man film daram mekonam as well! haha valee man meram NYU baby! bezar begam, NYU khalee behtar as USC, you can't even compare LA to NYC .. alright back to english .. I live in CA, LA though..yes yes, where all the perzans are at. Shumaha mardese koja dareen miree? Farsi harf bezan barenke en moderators poshte sare mah hastan. (sorry for the BAD grammar, as I said I can't really speak it)

By Sostressedout (Sostressedout) on Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 07:16 am: Edit

Your going to NYU spitoutalready? Thats AWESOME! Theres actually allot of perian kids over there, two of my really good friends go there and they said its like nothing else! I think NYU has a pretty active Iranian Student Association and a Muslim Student Association, atleast thats what I was told, so you should have a great time
-Salaam

By Kmehrabi (Kmehrabi) on Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 02:03 pm: Edit

spitoutalready,

hey, dude im like an expert of film schools already. i used to want to go to nyu more than anything, but later i realized why usc and ucla are sooooo much better. dont get me wrong, the nyu film training is excellent, but they dont prepare you for success. i mean, they train you for starting independant projects, outside of the industrial system. in that case its just one step above experimental teaching.
basically theyll teach you about film and then be like...ok so heres how you raise money
ive met a lot of HIGHLY successful nyu film grads, and im talking about people whove won at sundance, had their films on hbo... all of that. and you know what? they are sooo poor and still have to spend years between each film they make in order to raise money for the next.
if you go to usc or ucla, they will train you in a more corporate light, so you can make whatever films you want, whenever, fast.
not to mention, the success rate of usc and ucla is much higher than that of nyu. most successful industry professionals came from usc and ucla, going to these schools can give you more of a guarentee that you will end up in rapidly climbing position in the industry
but nyu churns out one of these big name heavyweights once ever oh....10 years. the rest of their grads end up in not so favorable career status.
also, LA is much better, im from philly, and i am soooo sick of the cold, maybe the snow will be exciting for like...oooh 5 minutes, ull get sick of it fast. LA is also good espessially for us, the community has a much larger persian population. both usc and ucla are packed with persians. ucla has the best iranian studies program in the country. usc is reza pahlavi's alma mater.

By Kmehrabi (Kmehrabi) on Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 02:09 pm: Edit

sostressdout
stop assuming everyones muslim

By Spitoutalready (Spitoutalready) on Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 03:50 pm: Edit

-Thanks sostressedout! I'm already meeting some Persians through facebook and they're already very welcoming (any of you guys doing facebook by the way?) and Kmehrabi, I don't think he/she was assuming anything, as long as they're persians I'll join, regardless of whether they're Muslims or Jews. (My father was born Muslim, but doesn't practice, just carries the korans haha)

-"once every ten years" .. Kmehrabi, I don't mean to offend you, but I think you should get your facts straight. I've done quite a lot of research for film schools too. NYU has A LOT of people in the industry, just cuz they don't wear a cap proclaiming it dont assume. I'm constantly finding new people who've gone to NYU (just yesterday I found out Charlie Kaufman went there, writer of "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation"..not only two famous movies, but GREAT screenplays). NYU teaches you quality while USC is just Hollywood money making. I say learn the quality and then jump into the business part of it, not vise versa.(moviemaking for me anyway is about expressing yourself and sharing ideas with the world) One thing I've noticed between the different kids I've talked with, the students going to NYU are first all about making films that mean something to them, while as you said, the USC ones' first concern is the money making aspect of it. Give me an opportunity to direct those Hollywood cheesy romantic comedies that the average person falls for or an intellectually stimpulating film that I struggle to pay for out of my own pocket and I'll gladly take the latter. There's a lot of diginity with film Kmehrabi. I'm not going to sell myself short. Don't get me wrong, I also want to make money and have the fame that comes with it and I will one day but for the right films ;)
..UCLA is an awesome film school too, I wanted to go there also(along with USC) but NYU and USC take the lead in top film schools in the country. UCLA only admits 15 kids into its program so no way can you say there are more UCLA students in the industry than in NYU. And NYU has one of the best business schools in the country, number one in some fields and a lot of film students at NYU are getting the best of both worlds.

If you want to talk about cities, have you been to LA? CA is seriously overrated. A lot of people make a big deal about weather, but I prefer NY's four seasons, thats just my personal flavor (and I've visited NYC in Jan and yes I did freeze my butt off but then again I loved stopping in a lil cafe for some hot chocolate). After seeing NY, my parents now want to leave CA. They were in shock when they visited NYC, it has a lot of influence from Europe. In CA it's all dry,freeways, and polluted (just driving to LA you'll literally see thick brown smog above it). I'm not into the Persians here at all.That is, southern cali I mean, my sister goes to ucb and she says the persians up there are MUCH more down to earth and intellectuals (something you WONT find down here). LA is extremely superficial. I use to LOVE LA and still do, just cuz i'm in love with cities, but once i saw NYC, LA was like a baby in comparison. It's incredible how much more diverse NYC is and how it's all about culture and art, something I prefer over materialistic LA. Trust me, once you go there you'll see what I mean, just take a stroll down Melrose. Nasty people you'll find.

Either way, everyone should pick what's best for them. If you have the talent and are dead on adamant about it, regardless of which film school you go to or even if you go to one, you'll succeed. Good look with your endeavors kmehrabi, we need some more persians (and FEMALES) up in this business!

By Sostressedout (Sostressedout) on Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 06:59 pm: Edit

OK Kmehrabi lets clear something up,I wasn't nor have I ever assumed everyone was Muslim. You need to stop jumping to conclusions, Spitoutalready said he was muslim and thats why I mentioned the Muslim Student Association. There are a lot of people in that club who are also in the Iranian Student Association and I thought it might help him out. Infact my friend told me that LOTS of non-muslims come to club meetings to just hang out or learn something new.

Thanks Spitoutalready for standing up for me, and just to let you guys know I'm a girl. Anyways have you talked to anyone personally from NYU? I could introduce you to two of my friends if you want and they could probably introduce you to several kids in turn.

By Sostressedout (Sostressedout) on Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 07:14 pm: Edit

Oh and one of my friends that goes there is a Iranian Christian

By Spitoutalready (Spitoutalready) on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 01:59 am: Edit

Aw that would be awesome sostressedout! Thanks so much! My AIM is in my profile. I'm also a girl by the way ;)

By Kmehrabi (Kmehrabi) on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 03:17 pm: Edit

well finish this on aim

By Kmehrabi (Kmehrabi) on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 05:47 pm: Edit

sostressedout, spitoutalready DID NOT say she was muslim, helloooo. YOU aer the one jumping to conclusions, lol.

By Sostressedout (Sostressedout) on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 06:19 pm: Edit

Oh shoot that was sraid77 not spitout, you're right, my bad. I mixed those two up, in my first post I was refering to sraid and I thought I was referring to sraid in all my posts when it was spitout, both start with "s" I think thats why I got confused. My apologies, that did mess things up. But I didn't assume anything, I just got confused, I'm sorry if I offended you in any way.

By Kmehrabi (Kmehrabi) on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 09:19 pm: Edit

its okay