But Agrawal, who was born in Lansing, says his parents are a little old-fashioned in a few ways.

"They're not coming from an American background, they're coming from an Indian background," Agrawal said. "We had conflicts over curfew, hanging out with the opposite sex and stuff like that. I always had to be back by midnight."

Conflicts between older and younger generations about traditional ways of life occur often between parents raised abroad and their children raised in the United States. In some families, differences in food, music and religious practices are prevalent with American-born children of foreign-born parents - sometimes creating clashes.

The dilemma could force those young people to decide between the importance of American popular culture and what their parents' culture dictates.

Agrawal says his parents had a strict upbringing, which was influential while parenting him.

"They couldn't see much of a reason for me to be out that late," he said. "It's not the lifestyle they grew up in. They were a lot more focused on studies.

"I'm on my own now. I just have to depend on the stuff they raised me with."

Some students try to fit the religions they were born with into their busy schedules.

Spanish sophomore Mitchell Wagner, who is also the Spartypact Campus Political Coordinator for the Jewish Student Union, says it's disappointing when religion and other cultural practices lack importance to students.

"I do understand, especially in college," he said. "But people have to prioritize and figure out what's best for them.

"I was raised in a religious Jewish neighborhood in Detroit. Religion's always been a part of my life and identity, not just religious Judaism, but a cultural aspect to it," he says. "I thought if I continue not to be active, there would be a huge gap in my life."

Cindy Hughey, director of MSU's Hillel Jewish Student Center, says the college experience changes priorities for many students.

"They're so overwhelmed by the experience of college and making new friends that often times, religious practices fall at the bottom of the list of priorities," she said.

Kathleen Rout, an American Thought and Language professor, says it's difficult for parents raised in other countries to teach their U.S.-born children to follow their native culture because of the differences with American ideals.

"Since we've had the last big wave of immigration, you'd have parents that would be adults coming from another country, focused on that country's language and events. They'd have friends and relatives in the old country, so they'd try and make carbon copies of themselves," Rout says.

New ways of life, such as attending public school, shape the views of the generation born in America, she says.

"They start relating to people in their peer group," she said. "They start speaking English, playing football, baseball and listening to music that would not be the music their parents knew.

"They become complete strangers to their parents, and the parents panic."

Rout says American influence has spread outside of American boundaries.

"I remember when my son was a baby, and he was being taken care of by a woman from Iran," Rout said. "At the time, the shah was trying to westernize Iran, so a lot of Iranians were sent over here.

"Their (the woman and her husband's) daughter had been here so long, she spoke English with no accent."

Rout says it's inevitable for parents not to be able to raise children in the traditional way of life.

"It will always be like this," she said. "Every time you have parents who try to raise their kids in a different environment, the older they get, they get completely immersed in culture of their peer group.

Rout says you can't be a smaller version of your parents.

She added that although generations born or raised in the United States typically don't have allegiance to their home country like their parents do, they do socialize with others like them.

"In the old days, the Italians hung out with the Italians, the Irish hung out with the Irish," she said. "Even with religion, everyone who was Catholic hung out with other Catholics, the Jews hung out with the Jews