Am I a minority?

[mrotstein]

---

Members don't see this ad.

.

 

[jvesco22]

For med school application purposes, NO. Just take a multi and keep lifting heavy.

 

[mrotstein]

Oh yea? Why not

 

[RogueUnicorn]

have you even opened the amcas

 

[mrotstein]

No I am gonna do that later. Is it true that I am a minority if I am a direct* descendant from my parents even though I am born here?

 

[RogueUnicorn]

when you do open it later, you'll see there is no box for 'minority'

 

[NotAsking4Much]

No I am gonna do that later. Is it true that I am a minority if I am a direct* descendant from my parents even though I am born here?

Um...no.

I can't stand it when people ask questions for help when they don't even bother taking two minutes of their time to look at the application once for themselves or just read the guidelines. Drives me nuts.

 

[morning]

Do you identify as hispanic?

 

[Dreaming big]

I am born here?

Are you? Are you really?

 

[Superman DO]

My dad's was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina as well as most of family

My mom was born in Ukraine

I am born here?

Am I considered minority?

Do you not know where you were born??

Assuming you are born in the United States, that makes you an American. . .congrats, you are not a minority if you are still living in the United States in a country full of Americans!

 

[Bernoull]

No I am gonna do that later. Is it true that I am a minority if I am a direct* descendant from my parents even though I am born here?

Yes, i wondered the same... it's either an asinine or a loaded phrase, hopefully the "*" is a typo too...😱

 

[MadRadLad]

Oops.

 

[Amadelphous]

If you've never considered it before, chances are.....no.

 

[LizzyM]

The AMCAS will ask your place of birth. It will ask your race (you may choose not to answer or you may choose "other" if no category fits you). You may choose to self - identify as Hispanic. If so, you will be asked to identify the Hispanic country of your heritage.

You will be given the option of giving your parents names, where they live now and the last school they attended which may (or may not) provide clues to their ethnicity and experiences abroad.

You could certainly write about the diversity of your ethnic heritage in a secondary essay where it seems like it fits the question being asked. Many Americans are a blend of different ethnic heritages so it isn't as unusual or uncommon as you might think although to be the child of immigrants from 2 different continents is a bit unusual and might be a hook in your application (something that attracts the adcoms attention and helps you to stand out in the crowd).

 

[LizzyM]

You've already answered this question many times in your life including the last census. Do you actively identify as Hispanic? If the answer is no, you're not. Being from Argentina and Ukrainian background growing up in the US, chances are you're a white kid with an Italian, Spanish, or German last name.

It's sad how so many kids try to take advantage of the URM status. Even if it helps me, I wish we got rid of it and only gave help to those with a disadvantaged background regardless of creed.

Which items on the AMCAS application would you eliminate?

 

[RogueUnicorn]

You've already answered this question many times in your life including the last census. Do you actively identify as Hispanic? If the answer is no, you're not. Being from Argentina and Ukrainian background growing up in the US, chances are you're a white kid with an Italian, Spanish, or German last name.

It's sad how so many kids try to take advantage of the URM status. Even if it helps me, I wish we got rid of it and only gave help to those with a disadvantaged background regardless of creed.

i don't think being hispanic or black is a religion.

 

[RogueUnicorn]

Anything related to race or gender. Schools shouldn't even be allowed to see the person's name. Just give them a number. They should evaluate every applicant based on his/her application alone, except disadvantaged background because we know that getting an B in a neighborhood filled with poverty and uneducated people likely takes more effort than a B in a neighborhood where you grow up with the help of tutors and college graduate parents. Schools can then find out people's race after they have matriculated just for purposes or statistical research.

simmer down.. what is this, a double blind placebo trial? like or not med schools decided race is a factor they will use for admissions to correct health disparities that exist today. just deal with it.

Hahahaha. Sorry, I was cross posting in a religion thread on the MCAT forum.

a religion thread in the MCAT forum? wtf?

 

[FlowRate]

Which items on the AMCAS application would you eliminate?

I know this wasn't posed to me but I ended up not answering a certain question which I think could be removed entirely. There are good arguments for and against it. My personal opinion is that it engenders differentiation of certain things that really shouldn't be.


AS for the OP, if I was you and didn't have my own opinions, I would totally identify as Hispanic. Hispanic doesn't have to mean Mexican. Statistically, it will probably help.

 

[LizzyM]

If we eliminate questions regarding race on the application and only ask after matriculation, we will lose any chance of being able to show that a particular group is being discriminated against in a major way. We'd have no "denominator". You may think that name and race give it away but I can also determine quite a bit from an applicant's address, experiences, and, at interview, appearance. If you think that you can eliminate bias, you are mistaken. We need to collect data and report to be sure that we are not discriminating against some racial/ethnic groups.

 

[anbuitachi]

Yea... unless you go to your interview fully masked with all skin covered, it's pretty easy to tell your race...

 

[LizzyM]

We can gather the information in another way. It can be given to the AMCAS but not presented to the individual schools. The interview would be the biggest "giveaway" of all though. There is no way around that.


Sure. If your only interest is to "maximize chances" by pretending to be part of an ethnic group you haven't ever identified with (in fact, you need others to tell you because it's that far out for you), go for it. Hopefully the OP didn't fill out his undergrad saying he was white because the disparity will be quite clear.

Hispanic is an category unrelated to race or skin color. Hispanics can be white, black, of the indiginous people of the Americas, or even Asian! If you answer yes to the hispanic question, then you are asked to indicate the country of origin and this appears on the application that the adcom sees. So, we can differentiate between an applicant who is of Puerto Rican or Mexcian ancestry, or Argentine, Peruvian, Cuban, etc. Each medical school can make its own decisions about how this information is used based on the under-represented in medicine situation in its own area.

 

[FlowRate]

If we eliminate questions regarding race on the application and only ask after matriculation, we will lose any chance of being able to show that a particular group is being discriminated against in a major way. We'd have no "denominator". You may think that name and race give it away but I can also determine quite a bit from an applicant's address, experiences, and, at interview, appearance. If you think that you can eliminate bias, you are mistaken. We need to collect data and report to be sure that we are not discriminating against some racial/ethnic groups.

Sincerely, I like seeing your point of view on these things. That's a side that really hadn't registered with me--I guess kids with my sort of background don't think of racism as still being a significant problem (in the US academic community.) I guess that's my own rose colored glasses.

Sure. If your only interest is to "maximize chances" by pretending to be part of an ethnic group you haven't ever identified with (in fact, you need others to tell you because it's that far out for you), go for it. Hopefully the OP didn't fill out his undergrad saying he was white because the disparity will be quite clear.

Thanks for agreeing with me? 🙂