I haven't had a chance to read all the posts so far in this thread. Things are a little crazy with exams, so I have been strapped for time, but wanted to offer some of my thoughts...
I will never quite understand the general SDN mentality toward URMs. I just don't get it. First of all, the medical school admissions process is hyper-competitive. It only takes half a brain to realize that. Secondly, the pro-allopathic forum's purpose is to help give an advantage to applicants. With that said, if you have a legitimate URM that is not necessarily engaged in their respective URM community (not really the case of the OP, but it's common), but decides to partake in URM-related ECs for the sake of medical school admissions, they are bombarded with nasty comments here on SDN. People are screaming at these applicants that they are
UNETHICAL and only trying to use their URM status as a leg up in medical school admissions. I remember coming across a thread a few months back where a
BLACK applicant didn't want to check off the African-American box so he wouldn't come off as trying to "get a leg up" in the admissions process. I don't remember if this was the exact reason, but it was something along those lines. I kid you not!
Ultimately, if you are a URM that is disadvantaged and genuinely wants to help your respective community, then you're alright according to a lot of people on SDN. However, if you are a URM that is well-off and not connected to your respective community, then may God help you if you decide to partake in your respective URM ECs, because you're nothing more than a selfish @$$hole trying to game the system.
But what about ORMs in the process? Everyone is expected to volunteer. Obviously, wanting to help the poor and underserved is the norm. If you don't do it, then you can kiss your medical school application goodbye. I was at lunch the other day with a couple fellow classmates. We spent some time talking about our pre-med lives, and they were saying how their volunteer work was "total bullsh*t." There's clearly something wrong when a majority of people are lying about their intentions regarding helping the underserved. Recently I met someone in class that actually wants to help the underserved. Without even thinking I exclaimed to her: "OMG really?!" So in this case, it's not only considered okay, but ORMs are
EXPECTED to partake in activities they probably don't care about. The ZERO to Mother Teresa applicants that don't care are going the extra mile to pad their application, beyond the minimal expectations which prevent you from looking bad. They too are trying to get a "leg up" in the admissions process, playing the underserved card. They come off as these bleeding heart applicants during the medical school admissions process, but once they are in medical school, it changes in the blink of an eye, and they couldn't care less about the things they said previously. No one bats an eye when this happens. It happens all the time, and not only does no one care, but it's also expected to occur!
It's kind of a funny double-standard here... Let's attack URMs because they have a legitimate status, but don't do anything when ORMs are putting on a huge facade to do the same exact thing.