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I'm trying to find out whether my specific situation would apply as being economically disadvantaged for the amcas apps. Sorry if it is long; I am trying to provide as much information as possible for individuals to asses my situation. I have read other forum posts, but it's hard to apply to my situation. To the neurotic pre-meds who will say that "only you will know if you were disadvantaged", I will say that being disadvantaged is in the eye of the beholder because first, many disadvantaged individuals did not grow up knowing they were poor, and next, there will always be someone who is worse off than you.
Anyway, here is a very rough draft of my essay for the disadvantaged section
My parents divorced when I was five and from this time until I was about twelve, I never really had a place that I could call home. I moved from house to house, living with relatives and boyfriends of my mother. When I was eight, my mother gave birth to my sister. My mother ended up leaving my sister's father because he was into drugs. For years, my mom has tried to receive child support from him; however, she has been unsuccessful, as he has taken advantage of the court systems.
When I was in the seventh grade, I was finally able to call the place where I live home when my mother reached the top of a list for a government subsidized housing program. Life after this was much better, but as my mother's yearly salary increased, the subsidy on her home became less, making it harder and harder to make ends meet.
I feel that growing up economically disadvantaged has only enhanced my compassion for wanting to become a physician. However, because of my family's financial condition, I decided to attend a local community college after high school. Community college is often times looked down upon. Because of this, I feel that I would be at a disadvantage to other applicants who chose to attend a four year university directly after high school.
Other notes......
-I was on school lunches growing up
-I worked in high school, but I never had to contribute to my mother's expenses. I basically just had to pay for a vehicle, insurance, gas, and any personal expenses. There wasn't always a ton of food in the house so I would often times buy food or get food at work (I waited tables).
-I wasn't as bad off in high school because my mom had been at a job for 11 years and finally entered into a management position; most of my economic disadvantaged status comes from elementary school through middle school. However, I still lived in a single parent home with a mother raising 2 kids.
-I went to a decent high school
-I'm white.
-qualified for amcas fee assistance program even though I consider my mom decent off now
-mom makes about 35k now
-mom averaged about 20-25k growing up....If you exclude before I began high school and she entered a management position, it was about 12k-16k
-I attended a community college for two years and then transferred to a state university (top 50 school). I have received about 90% grants and scholarships to fund my education. I have a 4.00 GPA at both institutions. I have only been at the state university for 1 year, but I have taken 33 credits here and earned all A's (30 of these credits were science classes).
A couple of stories I remember from my childhood***** Should I put any of these in my essay?
-When my mom took me and my sister to the public pool, she would always tell me and my sister to go to the bathroom when she paid; I learned later in life that she never actually paid for us. This was the only way we could afford going to the pool.
-My feet ended up growing out of my shoes as a kid. My mom had signed me up for baseball, but only had enough money for one pair of shoes. She bought a used pair of cleats for me. I ended up wearing these to school because they were the only shoes I owned. My teacher ended up getting me a pair of shoes from the lost and found because cleats were not allowed in school.
-I always used to wonder why my cousin who was 3 years older than me always had the same clothes on that I would wear in his pictures when I would go over his house.
My biggest reason I'm having trouble deciding on economically disadvantaged status is that I've been reading threads where people have stories much worse than me. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
Anyway, here is a very rough draft of my essay for the disadvantaged section
My parents divorced when I was five and from this time until I was about twelve, I never really had a place that I could call home. I moved from house to house, living with relatives and boyfriends of my mother. When I was eight, my mother gave birth to my sister. My mother ended up leaving my sister's father because he was into drugs. For years, my mom has tried to receive child support from him; however, she has been unsuccessful, as he has taken advantage of the court systems.
When I was in the seventh grade, I was finally able to call the place where I live home when my mother reached the top of a list for a government subsidized housing program. Life after this was much better, but as my mother's yearly salary increased, the subsidy on her home became less, making it harder and harder to make ends meet.
I feel that growing up economically disadvantaged has only enhanced my compassion for wanting to become a physician. However, because of my family's financial condition, I decided to attend a local community college after high school. Community college is often times looked down upon. Because of this, I feel that I would be at a disadvantage to other applicants who chose to attend a four year university directly after high school.
Other notes......
-I was on school lunches growing up
-I worked in high school, but I never had to contribute to my mother's expenses. I basically just had to pay for a vehicle, insurance, gas, and any personal expenses. There wasn't always a ton of food in the house so I would often times buy food or get food at work (I waited tables).
-I wasn't as bad off in high school because my mom had been at a job for 11 years and finally entered into a management position; most of my economic disadvantaged status comes from elementary school through middle school. However, I still lived in a single parent home with a mother raising 2 kids.
-I went to a decent high school
-I'm white.
-qualified for amcas fee assistance program even though I consider my mom decent off now
-mom makes about 35k now
-mom averaged about 20-25k growing up....If you exclude before I began high school and she entered a management position, it was about 12k-16k
-I attended a community college for two years and then transferred to a state university (top 50 school). I have received about 90% grants and scholarships to fund my education. I have a 4.00 GPA at both institutions. I have only been at the state university for 1 year, but I have taken 33 credits here and earned all A's (30 of these credits were science classes).
A couple of stories I remember from my childhood***** Should I put any of these in my essay?
-When my mom took me and my sister to the public pool, she would always tell me and my sister to go to the bathroom when she paid; I learned later in life that she never actually paid for us. This was the only way we could afford going to the pool.
-My feet ended up growing out of my shoes as a kid. My mom had signed me up for baseball, but only had enough money for one pair of shoes. She bought a used pair of cleats for me. I ended up wearing these to school because they were the only shoes I owned. My teacher ended up getting me a pair of shoes from the lost and found because cleats were not allowed in school.
-I always used to wonder why my cousin who was 3 years older than me always had the same clothes on that I would wear in his pictures when I would go over his house.
My biggest reason I'm having trouble deciding on economically disadvantaged status is that I've been reading threads where people have stories much worse than me. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
