economically disadvantaged

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Dear SDN Members,

I am new here and had a quick question. I just found out not too long ago that growing up economically disadvantaged is considered to be an underrepreseted minority, so I would fall under that catagory. My dad, acting very unintelligent, had 5 children he could not support (I am the youngest). At one point my parents and all of us lived in a broken down bus. My parent separated when I was very young, and I lived with my mom. I started working at age 12 to contribute to the household bills. We lived at about 150% of the federal poverty level, and were on food assistance for a couple years. My mother currently still lives at about 150% federal poverty level (she is a ballet teacher), and I live off financial aid, student loans, and some work-study funds.

I vowed to never be like my parents and now attend a University where I am almost finished with my Biochemistry B.S. I will be applying to medical school this year. I believe on the AMCAS application there is an area where they ask if and why you are underrepresented. My question is:

Should I claim myself to be underrepresented and explain why, or would this be looked upon negatively by a medical committee?
I forgot to mention that I am first-generation college student in my family. Both my parents only have high-school degrees. I am caucasian.

Thank you for your help!

Originally Posted by skittles11

Dear SDN Members,

Should I claim myself to be underrepresented and explain why, or would this be looked upon negatively by a medical committee?
I forgot to mention that I am first-generation college student in my family. Both my parents only have high-school degrees. I am caucasian.

Thank you for your help!

you should definitely fill in the disadvantaged section, diverse life experiences are highly valued in the admissions process (I'm basing this on my success this cycle, and the amount of schools that asked for diversity essays as a part of their secondary).

The way you just described your situation didn't come off as whiny to me, so you could use that as a base for your AMCAS explanation.

-edit-

FYI: Underrepresented (URM) and Disadvantaged are different things

URM is race/ethnicity based
Disadvantaged is socioeconomically based

Hello Skittles11,

I would like to wish you all the best on your future endeavours and congratulations on your achievements.

Great turnaround Skittles - it is very hard to overcome early difficulties, especially to go into a field like medicine where the benefits take such a long time to manifest.

URM is just race/ethnicity based so you wouldn't be classified as such. However you are definitely disadvantaged and it will be a great story in your application.

Good luck and keep up the hard work.