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- Pre-Pharmacy


Seems like some other minorities are asking and no one has in awhile. Anyone have any experiences about how its been applicable in applying or getting ready to apply next cycle? I just feel alone! Thanks!
Seems like some other minorities are asking and no one has in awhile. Anyone have any experiences about how its been applicable in applying or getting ready to apply next cycle? I just feel alone! Thanks!
That is awesome to know! Next cycle I am applying to my only IS school because my partner is finishing her BSN and I am not willing to move until she is done. I am worried about having to explain that in my interview because I am sure it will come up since I am only applying to one school.
People often on SDN talk about how they don't want to bring up their boyfriends or girlfriends, but partners are different. We have been together for 4 years. I donno, just a complex. . .any ideas? THANKS!



Where I'm from, at least growing up, people use/used that term in the most derogatory way possible.
Yeah, that was probably the case for many of us who grew up in homophobic communities. But in some regions (e.g., SF Bay), "queer" actually has a positive connotation. 🙂
You're not alone. There's quite a few of us here.
It has come up in 3 of my interviews. Blind interviews, so I brought it up, not the interviewer. I wrote my personal statement about trans-health and its relationship to social justice, so I'm suprised it didn't come up (at least to some degree) in my other interviews.
People here have an interesting take on the being queer in relation to applying. I think it can be useful if framed properly...
Anyway, I don't think being "non-heterosexual" relates at all to applying to medical school. It has no effect on your abilities as a physician, so it's really a non-issue.
oops, I fixed it. I've been out to my family with mixed results for about a year. I'm slowly coming out at work, on my swim team, to friends etc. Sorry for the confusion 🙂
I actually agree, although I'm sure people will go nuts now. Someone's homosexuality is as relevant to medical school admissions as someone else's heterosexuality. Neither have any place in medical school admissions.
If you are, however, very active in ECs that are directly tied to this, then it may be worth mentioning. Otherwise, it's irrelevant.
But I understand the point of this thread is more for establishing some solidarity among people who share a common bond.
If you aren't queer identifying you wouldn't understand the point of this thread. It seems extremely disrespectful to voice an opinion if you don't have a lot of experience in the matter, you wouldn't consider going to a thread on black pre-meds and saying this thread is pointless what does that have to do with being accepted to medical school would you? I considered listing all the reasons as to being queer and applying to medical school is important, but it isn't worth it to explain it to someone who would never understand.
As for HeatherMD, How incredibly disrespectful to tell individuals how they should identify based on your limited knowledge of the literal meanings of terms that have been applied to an oppressed minority. In fact, how dare you. I hope your narrow-minded arrogance keeps you out of medical school for you possible future patients sake.
Sorry I lol'd so much when I read the title of this thread..
You would think they wouldn't want to refer to themselves as "queer" given the word also describes "strange".
Stick with "gay", it means "happy".
And who cares who's what.. oh nevermind, this is the USA.
Anyway, I don't think being "non-heterosexual" relates at all to applying to medical school. It has no effect on your abilities as a physician, so it's really a non-issue.
Sorry I lol'd so much when I read the title of this thread..
You would think they wouldn't want to refer to themselves as "queer" given the word also describes "strange".
Stick with "gay", it means "happy".
And who cares who's what.. oh nevermind, this is the USA.
Anyway, I don't think being "non-heterosexual" relates at all to applying to medical school. It has no effect on your abilities as a physician, so it's really a non-issue.
You're right, it is is a non-issue. However, you have to remember that people love to play the victim and will use any personal quality to do so.
...yeah
Just like being black, Hispanic, an immigrant, etc has no bearing on your abilities as a physician. However, social alienation and hierarchies that form between social categories make certain people's lives different, better, worse, etc than others'. That's why social categories such as race, class, education, family background, and sexual orientation can play huge roles in how a person can experience the world and therefore in the particulars of the path that a person takes to becoming a premed or med student.
I truly believe it does have a bearing on your ability to practice medicine, unfortunately, for many years, medicine was the good ol boys club , and while that is changing, it is far from it. Many minorities, regardless of what minority it is, is under-represented, and to be able to possible serve an underrepresented community, as a physician, as an advocate, or otherwise, is completely related to your ability to practice medicine.
It seems that while people have an understanding of how some kinds of minority statuses (e.g., based on ethnicity or social class) are related to privilege, many people haven't thought deeply about the relationship between privilege and sexual orientation.
I am reminded of the white heteronormative privilege .
Hopefully I don't get flamed for this, but at what point did people attracted to people of the same sex start preferring to be referred to as "queer"?
Because I must have missed that. Where I'm from, at least growing up, people use/used that term in the most derogatory way possible.
i'm also interested in trans-health. i'm planning on going to the big conference in philly this year. maybe i'll see you there? i am always interested in finding others interested in this facet of healthcare
As for HeatherMD, How incredibly disrespectful to tell individuals how they should identify based on your limited knowledge of the literal meanings of terms that have been applied to an oppressed minority. In fact, how dare you. I hope your narrow-minded arrogance keeps you out of medical school for you possible future patients sake.
Im sure not all gay folks use it in their applications, but for some people it does play a large part in how they got attracted into medicine.
Wait wait wait, we shouldnt use queer because some other people use it as a negative? You know what word that sounds like to me?
BTW, being queer can affect your abilities as a doctor. Unfortunately, some patients will want nothing to do with you, and some colleagues may alienate themselves from you.
I don't understand how a patient would ever know something like this about his or her physician. Sexual orientation also isn't really something that should probably come up in the professional setting so I'm not certain how a colleague would know something like this either.
As for HeatherMD, How incredibly disrespectful to tell individuals how they should identify based on your limited knowledge of the literal meanings of terms that have been applied to an oppressed minority. In fact, how dare you. I hope your narrow-minded arrogance keeps you out of medical school for you possible future patients sake.
As long as a fellow colleague is competent and does not bring his sexual life into the work place, I could care less. In fact no one, gay or straight, should be making their sexual preferences overwhelmingly public. I know a lot of gay students at my school and some of are nice, other not so nice. Oh yeah, its exactly the same with straight people too
Gay/Straight/Black/White/Green/Polka-Dot doesn't matter IMO- it should be all about who can be the best doctor.
As for HeatherMD, How incredibly disrespectful to tell individuals how they should identify based on your limited knowledge of the literal meanings of terms that have been applied to an oppressed minority. In fact, how dare you. I hope your narrow-minded arrogance keeps you out of medical school for you possible future patient's sake.
Chill. You're putting words into my mouth.
I was simply pointing out my observation. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that I didn't start hearing it until the whole "Queer Eye" phenomenon.
Fixed- added the should be. I fear you have a wonderful, but tragically idealized, vision of how the healthcare hierarchy works.
The fact of the matter is that when it comes to getting into residencies and other positions, a huge part of the selection process comes down to whether or not the director who interviews you subjectively "likes you" or not. As LizzyM has said, everyone's application (and I'm sure this is true about applying to residencies and beyond) has warts; if the director of the program wants to badly enough, they can use those as an excuse to block your from the residency if they want to badly enough- and the sad truth is that there are still a bunch of 70 year old WASPs who grew up learning that homosexuality is a sin against God. If they were to somehow find out, or if they perceived you as such in an interview, BAM, all of a sudden, you having 1 point lower on your STEP 1 score than some other applicant outweighs all of the extra research you have on them. Surely, this is not the case all of the time, or even necessarily most of the time in this day and age, but it definitely still happens.
I'm hetero myself, and I wholeheartedly agree that physicians should be judged strictly on competence alone. However, to simply dismiss the struggles of the queer (or whatever term you prefer) population as trying to play "the victim card" ignores the reality of the situation; in reality, they will probably face challenges that those of us who aren't simply can't understand, having not faced it ourselves. There's simply no way around it- all of those terms (queer, gay, lesbian, bi, transexual, etc) have been given negative connotations by society, and it will take several more years, if not decades, to change popular perception.
Therefore, for those of you who do consider yourselves "queer," I truly do applaud your perseverance, and wish you all the best.
I don't understand how a patient would ever know something like this about his or her physician. Sexual orientation also isn't really something that should probably come up in the professional setting so I'm not certain how a colleague would know something like this either.
Sometimes it isn't necessarily knowing information, but the perception. This is especially true in the case of gender identity and gender-variant individuals, (who also fall under the "queer" umbrella) as well with sexual orientation. People will perceive you to be gay or bi or straight or as a man or as a woman or as a freak or as a good-old boy or white or black etc. regardless of whether or not they have all the information or are "guessing" correctly. It's for these reasons that many hate-crime legislations (again, speaking from knowledge of gender identity laws), consider all crimes resulting from the victim being perceived as having a different gender identity regardless of how that person actually identifies.
So, even if a patient or colleague thinks you might be queer (or straight), you might feel the results, whatever they may be.