Minority students

[jcfly21]

Hello,
I am a first time poster here and I’ve just recently decided to go to medical school. My whole life i have been preparing for law school and found out now in my sophomore year that it is just not for me. I have started taking the required courses for medical school and am doing well in all of them. The topic of my question is in reference to that of minority students. I am a minority (hispanic) and i have noticed on the aama web page that the gpa for accepted minority students and MCAT scores are far lower than that of the white male/female. My question is this, does being a minority student help my chances of being accepted into medical school?

Thank you for all your responses,

Josh Cordova

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[vikaskoth]

if you're mexican american or of puerto rican descent it will help to some extent. Any other central american or south american descent it does not.

 

[blaze1306]

I am also a minority student, but as a non-trad with lower grades i'm hopeing to get into osteopatic schools. from what i've seen for osteo or allo you can help yourself by registering with the minority registry service. Your grades still need to be competative according to the admissions personnel ive talked to.

 

[blaze1306]

I am also a minority student, but as a non-trad with lower grades i'm hopeing to get into osteopatic schools. from what i've seen for osteo or allo you can help yourself by registering with the minority registry service. Your grades still need to be competative according to the admissions personnel ive talked to.

hope this helps

http://www.aamc.org/students/minorities/resources/medmar.htm

 

[Pose]

Out of curiosity, do underprivileged caucasians, or caucasians that have had underprivileged lives/childhoods get special treatment regarding medical school admission?

 

[jcfly21]

Out of curiosity, do underprivileged caucasians, or caucasians that have had underprivileged lives/childhoods get special treatment regarding medical school admission?

I dont know the answer to that. I am a hispanic/mexican minority and i live with a single mother that was involved in a serious car wreck when i was younger and she lives on money from social security and a job that gives her about 4000 dollars a year. So im hoping i can get some help with that sort of background. I have busted my but through comm. college. and am graduating from ucf in a year. So im hoping i can build a life i dream of because its been very very hard with my background I would hope that no matter what the color of your skin is that if you are from a troubled/underprivileged home you should have some sort of help.

 

[PineappleGirl]

I remember seeing something on the AAMC site that you could qualify as economically disadvantaged if your family received welfare, foodstamps, other kinds of government or state financial assistance.
I tried searching the site: They have a little blurb about it here, but eh, this isn't what I originally saw.

http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2004instructionbook.pdf

 

[PineappleGirl]

Ah, this is a bit better description.
It's from
http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2003instructionbook.pdf



Disadvantaged
The following definitions/questions may help you answer the questions on this
page:

Underserved: Do you believe, based on your own experiences or the
experiences of family and friends, that the area in which you grew up was
adequately served by the available health care professionals? Were there
enough physicians, nurses, hospitals, clinics, and other health care service
providers?

State and Federal Assistance Programs: These programs are specifically
defined as "Means-Tested Programs" under which the individual, family, or
household income and assets must be below specified thresholds. The
sponsoring agencies then provide cash and non-cash assistance to eligible
individuals, families, or households. Such programs include welfare benefit
18 programs (federal, state, and local) Aid to Families with Dependent Children
(AFDC or ADC); unemployment compensation; General Assistance (GA); food
stamps; Supplemental Security Income (SSI); Medicaid; housing assistance; or other federal, state, or local financial assistance programs

 

[kornnata]

Hello,
I am a first time poster here and I’ve just recently decided to go to medical school. My whole life i have been preparing for law school and found out now in my sophomore year that it is just not for me. I have started taking the required courses for medical school and am doing well in all of them. The topic of my question is in reference to that of minority students. I am a minority (hispanic) and i have noticed on the aama web page that the gpa for accepted minority students and MCAT scores are far lower than that of the white male/female. My question is this, does being a minority student help my chances of being accepted into medical school?

Thank you for all your responses,

Josh Cordova

tick...tick...tick...I give it an hour max before people who are so passionate about AA will start replying you. It will get nasty real soon, really nasty...

 

[Jennifer25]

Hello,
I am a first time poster here and I’ve just recently decided to go to medical school. My whole life i have been preparing for law school and found out now in my sophomore year that it is just not for me. I have started taking the required courses for medical school and am doing well in all of them. The topic of my question is in reference to that of minority students. I am a minority (hispanic) and i have noticed on the aama web page that the gpa for accepted minority students and MCAT scores are far lower than that of the white male/female. My question is this, does being a minority student help my chances of being accepted into medical school?

Thank you for all your responses,

Josh Cordova

I feel that medical schools separate applicants into two separate pools--URM and non-URM. Thus, URMs will compete against URMs and non-URMs compete against other non-URMs. Because the numbers tend to be lower for URMs (due to a multitude of reasons that sociologists/philosophers/economists/behavorists attempt to explain), a URM can have lower GPA and MCAT scores than their white counterparts and still get in to that school, wheresas their white peers may not, because the average non-URM scores tend to be higher. One notices this pool selection when second look weekends come along. The most competitive URMs get into the same schools, because those schools want the best of a certain group. This also applies to non-URMs who tend to see each other at the selective second look weekends as well. . . So, yes, it may be "easier" to get into a medical school if you are a URM, but only, if schools select based on numbers.

But most schools do no simply selected on numbers. I think it's relative how easy/competitive it is for URMs to get into medical school. Yes, the numbers for URMs tend to be lower than for the rest of the medical school applicants, but that does NOT mean that URMs can slack off and expect to get into any school just because of their ethnic/racial background. One still has to show the schools that they are committed to becoming a physician and that they can maintain/achieve good numbers. I think for URMs, extracurriculars, LORs count more heavily than the scores. Whereas for non-URMs, the numbers count more.

Note: Statiscally, speaking, there are fewer URM applicants than non-URMs, but medical schools will accept a higher percentage (i.e. if 5% of med school applicants qualify as URM and med schools admit 10%, than more URM get into a school than apply and thus it's "easier" to get in).

Question: There has been talk about how medical schools will categorize students as URM in future admissions processes. Schools will have the choice to decide who qualifies as URM. Some schools may attribute URM status to those students based on the demographics of the school's location (e.g. if caucasians are in the minority in southern cali, they could be considered URM and thus be given that status during the admissions process. This will skew the percentage numbers that schools will report, because they don't necessarily have to report what types of URM matriculate to the school). Caveat: I heard this from someone who sits on JHU's admission board. Does anyone know if this is true?

 

[gerido]

Out of curiosity, do underprivileged caucasians, or caucasians that have had underprivileged lives/childhoods get special treatment regarding medical school admission?

Hi Pose,

I think they do take it into consideration because the AMCAS has a section where you can declare yourself with a disadvantage in education. They include income estimate over a period of time as well as space to explain why you think you were disadvantaged. This doesn't have anything to do with race or ethnicity. Hope this help.