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Waarya! A salaam alaikum. You look like you got it all going for you. I would put African-American because I have a lot of Somali friends and that is what most of them put, even the ones that are mixed with Arab. I don't think anyone is going to question you on it because it is a self reported thing, but if you want you could put both white and black if that'd make you feel better, but judging by your stats you'll be fine (are you a NY resident now?) Nobody can question your race or ethnicity, it's yours to report.
 
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Thanks for the responses, guys.

@ChemEngMD Wasalam, bro. I was just making sure because I was reading other URM threads where people were saying that you might get in trouble with adcom. I am a NY resident btw.

@chinocochino I got the 100 hours in different ways. About 20 hours come from pure shadowing (Endo/FP) which I did before I landed my volunteer position. The other 80 are from my volunteer position at the medical center that I work at. When its dead I'm able to shadow the doctor if the patient allows it. But normally, I'm actually interacting with the patient and not shadowing.
 
To be honest with you I would put if the AMCAS allows you an "other" option of some sort. Whatever a multi-racial (half black/half white) applicant would put down is what I recommend. You are "African-American" on the basis of your birth of origin, but that could go for several Egyptians, Morrocoan, etc.. but they are all still generally considered Arab. Therefore, I believe you are a biracial individual on the basis of application standards go and to lessen any ambiguity or uncertainty in your application I would put just that, half Arab/half African.

Also, as far as your chances go, no one can really give you a good prediction of matriculation likelihood until you take that MCAT. It can make or break your application. It seems as though up until now you have done all the right things, but just focus on the MCAT and ask for a better gauge of your status when you have a score.

Good luck homie.
 
WS Akh,

Your stats look good to me, Science GPA is a little low but still in the range.
I think a lot of what your chances really are will depend on what schools you apply to.
With that said if your crack out a 30 or above I'd say chances are good.
 
1 Ku MuDaPhuDka said:
To be honest with you I would put if the AMCAS allows you an "other" option of some sort. Whatever a multi-racial (half black/half white) applicant would put down is what I recommend. You are "African-American" on the basis of your birth of origin, but that could go for several Egyptians, Morrocoan, etc.. but they are all still generally considered Arab. Therefore, I believe you are a biracial individual on the basis of application standards go and to lessen any ambiguity or uncertainty in your application I would put just that, half Arab/half African.
Click to expand...

This is false. As has been previously discussed within this forum, nobody is going to question you for your race. My good friend DrLyss is Puerto Rican like myself and she put Black for her race because she felt that was what best fit for her. It's whatever you personally consider yourself. If your entire life you've felt Black/African-American and that's how you've always put yourself then by all means put it down. Black people come in all shades and colors.

And for the record there is no "other" option, but you could check more than one race if you chose to. I personally will not be filling out the race section and just leave my ethnicity as Puerto Rican. It's all up to you brother.
 
ChemEngMD said:
This is false. As has been previously discussed within this forum, nobody is going to question you for your race. My good friend DrLyss is Puerto Rican like myself and she put Black for her race because she felt that was what best fit for her. It's whatever you personally consider yourself. If your entire life you've felt Black/African-American and that's how you've always put yourself then by all means put it down. Black people come in all shades and colors.

And for the record there is no "other" option, but you could check more than one race if you chose to. I personally will not be filling out the race section and just leave my ethnicity as Puerto Rican. It's all up to you brother.
Click to expand...

MJ, (RIP, brother) exemplified this. Obama is biracial and IDs as African American. Furthermore, by definition, the OP is an American of African origin so African American is apt.

Wa Salaam and goodluck!
 
Thank you everyone! Another question since you're all very knowledgeable on this subject:

Am I right in saying that ethnicity is what culture you feel you fit into (like the DrLyss example) and your race is what you're considered biologically?
 
The only ethnicities acknowledged by AMCAS are specific Hispanic ethnicities, everything else is considered race...that's why Hispanics have to fill out both sections
 
ChemEngMD said:
This is false. As has been previously discussed within this forum, nobody is going to question you for your race. My good friend DrLyss is Puerto Rican like myself and she put Black for her race because she felt that was what best fit for her. It's whatever you personally consider yourself. If your entire life you've felt Black/African-American and that's how you've always put yourself then by all means put it down. Black people come in all shades and colors.

And for the record there is no "other" option, but you could check more than one race if you chose to. I personally will not be filling out the race section and just leave my ethnicity as Puerto Rican. It's all up to you brother.
Click to expand...

So with that statement, Eminem and Paul Wall could both put down black (African-American) because they both better identify with the african-american culture than the Caucasian community and feel black? Or a white South African born male, that immigrates to America that helped fight apartheid, he can put African-American also? Hmmmm, thats interesting, I didn't know that. I am black, but have been raised in predominantly Hispanic communities my whole life and have been identified by third parties as Hispanic severaly because of this despite my darker complexion, so should I call myself Hispanic because other people do? No, because I am not. President Obama does not identify himself as African-American for the record, the media does this to him. He is a biracial individual and never fails to acknowledge the imperative fact and noone should in his situation. If the OP can put down multiple ethinicities he should do so unless in his everday life he fails to acknowledge parts of his unique heritage, which he is clearly not doing by starting the post.

Let's be real here. By your picture, you look Arab. You clearly are not fully Arab based on the information you have given us. You are trying to emphasize this point by marking only African-American on your application and also garnering URM status. When you send your picture, like everyone has to on secondaries and they see it, you will be questioned and raise eyebrows on committees possibly hindering the chance at an interview. Yes, as ChemEngMD stated, African-Americans come in many shades and colors but in our society it is hard to not state what appears to be the obvious, so why put yourself through that? I think you will still receive URM status by placing your multiple ethnicities as do many other biracial individuals and fair very well in the process with a good MCAT. Don't sweat this stuff man, just do it the right way and I promise you will do fine. Best of luck.
 
1 Ku MuDaPhuDka said:
So with that statement, Eminem and Paul Wall could both put down black (African-American) because they both better identify with the african-american culture than the Caucasian community and feel black? Or a white South African born male, that immigrates to America that helped fight apartheid, he can put African-American also? Hmmmm, thats interesting, I didn't know that. I am black, but have been raised in predominantly Hispanic communities my whole life and have been identified by third parties as Hispanic severaly because of this despite my darker complexion, so should I call myself Hispanic because other people do? No, because I am not. President Obama does not identify himself as African-American for the record, the media does this to him. He is a biracial individual and never fails to acknowledge the imperative fact and noone should in his situation. If the OP can put down multiple ethinicities he should do so unless in his everday life he fails to acknowledge parts of his unique heritage, which he is clearly not doing by starting the post.

Let's be real here. By your picture, you look Arab. You clearly are not fully Arab based on the information you have given us. You are trying to emphasize this point by marking only African-American on your application and also garnering URM status. When you send your picture, like everyone has to on secondaries and they see it, you will be questioned and raise eyebrows on committees possibly hindering the chance at an interview. Yes, as ChemEngMD stated, African-Americans come in many shades and colors but in our society it is hard to not state what appears to be the obvious, so why put yourself through that? I think you will still receive URM status by placing your multiple ethnicities as do many other biracial individuals and fair very well in the process with a good MCAT. Don't sweat this stuff man, just do it the right way and I promise you will do fine. Best of luck.
Click to expand...


Your logic is not completely accurate, but it is the flaw of the system. There is a current South African student at UMDNJ who I saw on the news who put African-American. I have friends of Arabic descent who put that on transcripts because they feel it describes them best. This is personally why I do not like the term "African-American", I prefer Black, but hey that's me (and the majority of the people I know). African-American is a made up term like Hispanic, to try and group people together into similar groups, but it is inherently flawed since Africa is a continent that is more diverse than any other on the planet.

Yes the OP looks Arab for the most part, but you should understand as somebody that grew up in a majority Hispanic neighborhood that people can look completely different than their relatives. Same thing happens in Black families, I've dated girls that I identify as Black that are lighter than me! It's the OP's personal choice and whatever he feels is best for him.

But in short, he probably should put both or not fill it out at all (in protest of course).

ChemEngMD
 
Dear OP,

Put whatever designation you identify with, either African-American or Arab/African-American, etc. You are not being disingenuous if you just leave it as African-American. I would be surprised if anyone from the admissions committee used the darkness of your skin to measure your African-American-ness and then proceeded to reject you based on that. That would be quite odd.

It might just be that I come from a pretty diverse environment but I don't think I would say you were Arab just from your picture. I've seen Latinos, African-Americans, and Indian Americans with your skin tone.

Good luck!
 
Thank you so much everyone! You've all been very helpful.
 
I am in a similar boat as the OP-- my mothers side is full egyptian, and my fathers side contains sudanese descent. I am a CA resident so I actually called UCLA's med school admissions and told them exactly what I was and whether I should put white or black. They told me to put what I feel. My mom has always raised me saying we are not middle eastern, we are simply egyptian (i do not know my fathers side of my family just my mom)-- and that egyptians have a different descent than other middle eastern nations. Since I never identified myself as middle eastern, I put myself as an AA.

and yes I am not terribly dark, more of an olive complexion like the OP though people have thought I was at least half white and black before
 
Interesting dialogue going on here. What I can't wrap my head around is Egyptians considering themselves white!!!! I guess it's similar to people from the Dominican republic who do not identify as being black. Race can be so fluid.
 
Thanks for the reply, AmyLT. I submitted AMCAS last week and I decided to just put down AA. I just can't bring myself to put down caucasian. I don't consider myself that and, growing up, my parents taught me that I'm not like my other Egyptian/Somali friends since I'm a mix.

If they ask, I'm not too worried. I'm not lying and I have nothing to hide. Hopefully they all just take me for my word :)
 
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