What counts as a URM?

[neur0goddess]

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I am 100% Iranian & born in the US. I know typically URMs are African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Pacific Islanders, etc but do Iranians count?

Could my ethnicity help me with admission? I've experienced some racism and stereotyping, could I potentially work this into my admissions essay?

 

[akram_laiq]

hey, I'm afghan and I wrote about it in my application, so why not! If you craft a really strong essay and how you overcame the racism then it would be to your advantage. If you need any help you can pm me!

 

[allantois]

You are not URM, but it doesn't mean that you can't talk about the unique experiences due to your ethnicity.

 

[ChEMD]

URM stands for under-represented in medicine, meaning the proportion of physicians of a given ethnicity is lower than the percentage of that ethnicity in the total population. So even though a given race/ethnicity may be a minority in the US, it doesn't automatically mean that the population is under-represented.

 

[Stagg737]

For medical school applications you would be considered white, which is silly, but there's not much you can do about it. For undergrad admissions I'd be shocked if you weren't considered a minority. Either way, you can write about experiences as a ___ individual in your essays like allenIchs said.