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Started by prospectszn
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It depends on who the parents are. Then it depends on who recuses themselves.
A disproportionate number of matriculants has this advantage.
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My committee is neutral on it.
Tons of medical students are the children of doctors, so the gestalt is that it can't be bad
Having physician parents will open many doors that otherwise may be closed. So when I see a student from a disadvantaged background accomplish similar things, it does make them stand out. However, this isn't to say that having physician parents are a disadvantage when a large proportion of applicants/matriculants fall into this category.
If given the choice, I'd choose physician parents 100% of the time. Just my thoughts.
I do think you want to be careful to not, say, have all of your clinical experience or shadowing with your parents / your parents friends.
How could the admissions committee possibly know if a physician they worked with is friends with their parents unless the applicant tells them?
It wasn't advantageous in our case. The school my wife graduated from and where i did my residency got my son a courtesy interview and perpetually waitlisted, despite that we were also donors. He was well within their metrics for admission. So it's a case by case thing imo.
Exactly.
I know a guy in my class who got an interview at my school really late in the cycle because his dad was a local doctor and made a phone call to his friends in the school's administration.
In other words and in my opinion, if someone can't get into med school despite the immense advantage of having even one physician parent, they definitely wouldn't get into med school without physician parents.
It will probably be a courtesy interview and perpetual wait list. That is quite common in cases like this.
You'd be surprised at how often letters mention things like that not thinking about the possible effects on an applicant. And how often applicants do, and how they talk about their experiences.
It's even worse when their Mom writes a glowing letter under her original surname, not realizing that we have her name in the demographics section.
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