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mnakita01 said:
Have you lived (for three years or more) in communities which are medically underserved, or where the majority of the population is economically and/or educationally disadvantaged? Please explain/describe briefly:

After residency, do you plan to practice medicine in an underserved or disadvantaged community? Please explain/describe briefly:

Have you worked (volunteer or paid employment) with medically underserved, economically disadvantaged and/or educationally disadvantaged populations? Please explain/describe briefly:

Please provide below any additional information you believe is important in evaluating your application (e.g. additional coursework, problems with academic record; disadvantaged, etc.)

They also asked if you were convicted of felony and to explain. On another page they ask for super simple explanations of what you're doing for the next 9-12 months (work, school, research).
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Also, what the character limit?
 
I also like how they are not asking us, why Howard.
 
mnakita01 said:
Okay, so secondaries are finally in! Anyone know if there's a word/character limit on the short answers? Don't see any indicated...
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Im curious to know if the reason u got the secondary early was maybe due to higher stats? Do you have great stats, or maybe was it just by name order?
 
teamoteamo said:
This is annoying. The email said they were revamping/changing their secondary questions ... and they didn't. And now they're just staggering out the secondaries? +pissed+
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The adcom's got us like, "What's up?":arghh:
 
Can anyone confirm the character limit so i can prewrite
 
Zosa said:
Im curious to know if the reason u got the secondary early was maybe due to higher stats? Do you have great stats, or maybe was it just by name order?
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Def don't think that's it...
 
GoingWild said:
I cannot type anything on the supplemental like a security error. The website won't allow me to type anything, please, help????
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you might be having the same "grayed out" issue I was having. Called HUCM and was told that it's an "app-wide issue, these technical problems are to be expected", and he suggested I try again tomorrow. Guess we'll see.
 
For those of you who are anxious about your secondaries,

I am a Howard undergrad alumna and my advice to you is: RELAX. As stated before, Howard is very disorganized and understaffed. I know this for fact because I use to work in the College of Medicine.

If you are stressing out this early, please stop. It's not beneficial to you and it's not going to make the process move any faster
 
mnakita01 said:
you might be having the same "grayed out" issue I was having. Called HUCM and was told that it's an "app-wide issue, these technical problems are to be expected", and he suggested I try again tomorrow. Guess we'll see.
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Still having the same issue... 🙁
 
Trollest said:
Also, what the character limit?
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Sorry if this is stupid, but for the first question, if it is for sure a "no", then should we start blabbing about our experiences (although we have to answer that question next) or just leave it as n/a or no?
 
Secondary received!! However I am too busy to deal with it. I will work on it on September 1st!!
 
cj1143 said:
Sorry if this is stupid, but for the first question, if it is for sure a "no", then should we start blabbing about our experiences (although we have to answer that question next) or just leave it as n/a or no?
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Probably just a N/A or no, so your not questioned for repeating yourself
 
Zosa said:
Less is probably better, would you have to write alot to answer these questions?
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For a couple, yes, but I'll try to be as concise as possible. I tend to overwrite, which has cost me a great deal in the past. Thanks for the advice!
 
Got the secondary email, as well! Working on it now🙂
 
sike, im working on it now! it's close to home so it'd be awesome to attend, plus the medically under served mission is big for me.
so on the secondary, about employment.. im not sure what mine falls under; I work at a Biomedical Company, but there is no active research involved. It isn't medicine, but it isn't Biomed Research either. Thoughts anyone?
 
What are you guys thoughts on the any additional information question?
 
UmbcPremed said:
sike, im working on it now! it's close to home so it'd be awesome to attend, plus the medically under served mission is big for me.
so on the secondary, about employment.. im not sure what mine falls under; I work at a Biomedical Company, but there is no active research involved. It isn't medicine, but it isn't Biomed Research either. Thoughts anyone?
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I would put it as the third choice of non-medical field since it's not research.
 
Have you lived (for three years or more) in communities which are medically underserved, or where the majority of the population is economically and/or educationally disadvantaged?

This is stupid but I'm struggling with this question and would appreciate a stranger's thoughts. I went to a high school in a town where the average income was 50,000. My school offered very few math/science classes and 15% of my class went to college. Since I've graduated, the community has improved and is now completely different. Can I still answer this question with a 'yes'? Where do you guys draw the line for economically/educationally disadvantaged?
 
harkas said:
Have you lived (for three years or more) in communities which are medically underserved, or where the majority of the population is economically and/or educationally disadvantaged?

This is stupid but I'm struggling with this question and would appreciate a stranger's thoughts. I went to a high school in a town where the average income was 50,000. My school offered very few math/science classes and 15% of my class went to college. Since I've graduated, the community has improved and is now completely different. Can I still answer this question with a 'yes'? Where do you guys draw the line for economically/educationally disadvantaged?
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I think educationally disadvantaged yes, also if u were there three or more years, yes. However in terms of the average income, im not sure if that is economically disadvantaged, by like the nations standards. Also you can just google your community to see if its medically underserved as a last option for confirmation, there are state lists online, if your community isn't on any list then maybe just touch on the educationally disadvantaged part, or leave the question blank
 
Zosa said:
I think educationally disadvantaged yes, also if u were there three or more years, yes. However in terms of the average income, im not sure if that is economically disadvantaged, by like the nations standards. Also you can just google your community to see if its medically underserved as a last option for confirmation, there are state lists online, if your community isn't on any list then maybe just touch on the educationally disadvantaged part, or leave the question blank
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Thanks so much for your input! I'll probably just stick to talking about education.

It's tricky because no that is not economically disadvantaged, but the average income in that town was driven up (even more so in 2017) by wealthier folks who want homes outside the city, but the community itself has little resources and the families that attend the local school have a lower income.

It's not medically underserved because we're 30 miles from a large city.
 
harkas said:
Thanks so much for your input! I'll probably just stick to talking about education.

It's tricky because no that is not economically disadvantaged, but the average income in that town was driven up (even more so in 2017) by wealthier folks who want homes outside the city, but the community itself has little resources and the families that attend the local school have a lower income.

It's not medically underserved because we're 30 miles from a large city.
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In that case maybe if you can explain how the economical disadvantage affected you in some way and if it did you may be able to stretch that.

And don't count your area out, they base if a community if underserved by like township/county/whatever its called around you... I know towns 20 mins away from a major city that are extremely underserved.
 
Zosa said:
In that case maybe if you can explain how the economical disadvantage affected you in some way and if it did you may be able to stretch that.

And don't count your area out, they base if a community if underserved by like township/county/whatever its called around you... I know towns 20 mins away from a major city that are extremely underserved.
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That's a good point. I may include a few points along those lines because it definitely affected the community I lived in. I have some creative ideas now 🙂 Thank you!

My town isn't on the list but that's really interesting! I work in underserved communities and most are that way because they're in the middle of nowhere.
 
harkas said:
That's a good point. I may include a few points along those lines because it definitely affected the community I lived in. I have some creative ideas now 🙂 Thank you!

My town isn't on the list but that's really interesting! I work in underserved communities and most are that way because they're in the middle of nowhere.
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Your primary application itself might be able to help you out here; AMCAS uses a designation of (U) in your demographic info (by your city/town of residence) to indicate that it is underserved. I didn't even realize that where I currently live is considered medically underserved (probs should've peeped that from the sheer number of black folks in my part of town, but when I look around people don't seem so badly off), and we're just on the outskirts of one of the biggest cities in the US.
 
mnakita01 said:
Your primary application itself might be able to help you out here; AMCAS uses a designation of (U) in your demographic info (by your city/town of residence) to indicate that it is underserved. I didn't even realize that where I currently live is considered medically underserved (probs should've peeped that from the sheer number of black folks in my part of town, but when I look around people don't seem so badly off), and we're just on the outskirts of one of the biggest cities in the US.
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Oh I just looked and have that next to my county. We have some affluent cities in my county so that's very confusing. Thanks for mentioning that! I feel a little better talking about that in my application because in my opinion, my town is medically underserved.

Edit: I self-reported as not underserved but I listed yes for family assistance, employment under 18, contribution to family, and first generation. Is that weird? I just didn't think I would count
 
texanbeaut40 said:
For those of you who are anxious about your secondaries,

I am a Howard undergrad alumna and my advice to you is: RELAX. As stated before, Howard is very disorganized and understaffed. I know this for fact because I use to work in the College of Medicine.

If you are stressing out this early, please stop. It's not beneficial to you and it's not going to make the process move any faster
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Do you feel Howard does a good job of supporting it's medical students once admitted? Going into this cycle Howard was one of my top choices, now I just want to make sure the disorganization is not something that will hurt the preclinical or clinical instruction. I know medical schools and applicants try to represent themselves at their best during this process to be more desirable so it's a bit of a red flag for me. Are they slow to supply things like LOR's or academic support? I'm still really excited to fill out the secondary but would appreciate anyone's thoughts on this!
 
Just received and submitted my secondary last night. When do y'all think we'll hear back?
 
FlyMissMD93 said:
Not so fast. Just because you have a (U) doesn't necessarily mean that your community in particular is underserved. I'm in Washington, D. C. and they consider it to be medically underserved. The reason why though is because of SE DC, which I don't live in. So even though it shows my city as being underserved, I personally wouldn't write the underserved essay because I am from a part of the city where I can receive medical care easily, have had health insurance all my life because of my dad's job, etc. I think people really need to think critically about what opportunities you had growing up and if it really constitutes as living in an underserved community. Don't just write the essay to write it as if you're catering to what they want to hear.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I wanted to echo this as well. Having that "U" doesn't mean anything if your familial income is over a certain threshold or if you live in a part of town with accessible healthcare. Both my hometown and the area that is my permanent residence have that same classification. I have generally lived in the nicer parts of town and can spot out which neighborhoods would be struggling with access/economic hardship. It'll be detrimental attempting to make the "underserved" bill fit for you when it doesn't apply, so just be honest. Better to do so rather than get an interview, and seem as if you're lying when they attempt to delve deeper. Just my two cents 🙂
 
FlyMissMD93 said:
Can you guys clarify what this question means in the academics section? "Please explain any deviations/differences in your course of study (premed requirements) in this box."

Also, I'm a tad bit concerned about the English course requirement. One of my courses has English in the course number, the other has Writing 101 as the course number, but it was an English writing course...
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This could be a chance to explain coursework that may fulfill the med school requirements but it may not seem like it by looking at the title of the class. In my instance, I have lots of biomedical engineering courses that come together to fulfill the Bio requirement, but they wouldn't know that since they're likely looking for a standard "Bio I, Bio II, Bio I Lab, Bio II Lab", so I'll explain all of that stuff here + say that my letter writer included explanations for our curriculum and how it ties to medical school competency. This could be perfect for explaining why your Writing 101 course that should be classified as the English requirement. That's the way I'm interpreting it, emphasizing the "differences" portion instead of "deviations".
 
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