AMCAS Childhood Info

[potazzium21]

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[Govols22]

I want to make sure I'm reading this right. AMCAS asks for my household income in the place where I spent the majority of my childhood (before age 18). When I lived in place 1 (ages 2-10), we made 50-75k. When I lived in place 2 (ages 10-14), we made 75k-100k. I now live in place 3 (ages 14-21) and we make 150k+.

I want to make sure I should list the income from place 1, since it's where I spent the majority of my time before age 18. I just think it might be a little fishy if I list 50-75k, since we now make 3 times that amount.

I found this to be confusing as well. I just went ahead and averaged the several income time periods together. My parents as well had an increase in income as they became older and more experienced (like many others). In my opinion, unless you state you were disadvantaged, I don't think it matters too greatly, but I'm not an expert. I'm sure someone else is more sure of this.

 

[starspells]

Yeah it is confusing but I think you are supposed to list your parents income from ages 0-18 or what they made the majority of that time. It happens and I don't think it looks fishy that your parents make more now.

 

[starspells]

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[LizzyM]

This is pretty typical for parents in medicine and academics if they made little during residency or doctoral training or as a law clerk and then had a big jump in income as they entered into practice or were promoted through the ranks as an academic. Take the average (mean or median) of the 18 year period.

Unless you were living well below the average for all Americans (currently about 50K) for your childhood, this doesn't matter much. Reminds me of the applicant whose father was an Ivy League professor. Applicant checked the disadvantaged box because he didn't have educational toys when his father was a poor graduate student and they all lived in a small grad student apartment. Oh, how my heart was breaking for him. /s

 

[When the Moon Forgot]

(Content redacted to preserve anonymity)

 

[LizzyM]

@LizzyM I have a related question about the childhood section. If I come from a somewhat well-off family (high income) but grew up in a rural, underserved area of a foreign country, would adcoms be suspicious if I check off the "underserved" box if I am really telling the truth, or does it not matter that much?

the underserved box is mainly meant to ID applicants who might be more inclined that other applicants to go back to a community like the one they grew up in and help relieve the shortage. If you are applying to US med school, you aren't likely to go back to a rural foreign country. so whether you check the box or not it isn't likely to change how someone sees your application. Furthermore, as mentioned previously, if your family and friends were very well off, it is unlikely that you suffered due to these shortages given that you could afford to travel to obtain care. My school doesn't have a mission of training people for underserved areas so we don't pay much attention to that box.