AMCAS and rural background

[medlife52525]

I come from a rural underserved region and a large part of my application was built on this aspect and wanting to work with these types of communities. While AMCAS allowed me to describe my childhood home city as rural, when I generate a PDF of the application there is only a 'U' (for underserved that appears next to the county name and No 'R' for rural... Are they not considering the county as rural then? Or does the 'R' for rural only appear with verification? For reference, my county is filled with farms and cows, etc. no Malls/big stores/etc. but according to the ARF data AMCAS uses we are classified as urban level 3 (the lowest urban distinction before you are rural)...Should I be removing rural from my descriptions then? I did my clinical experience in the outpatient rural setting and learned a lot on rural healthcare that I discuss but I wasn't sure if it would be viewed negatively because AMCAS is not calling it rural....

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[stayathomemom]

I'm not an adcom, but I can see the limitations of the way AMCAS decides your designation. I think your narrative is important, and even though it doesn't label you a rural, you do have a rural experience. (I'm similar to you...if I rode my bike four blocks west I'd be out in wheat fields and pasture land. But I'm technically urban, too.)

 

[SpudWeb]

I am in a similar situation. My county is more rural that urban but AMCAS didn't designate my address as rural. The advice I received from an MD mentor at the medical school I hope to attend is that my descriptions of my experiences were very important to help the committee understand my interest and commitment to the underserved. She said they know that AMCAS uses a formula for deciding rural and that I can and should tell my story through my descriptions and experiences.

 

[medlife52525]

I am in a similar situation. My county is more rural that urban but AMCAS didn't designate my address as rural. The advice I received from an MD mentor at the medical school I hope to attend is that my descriptions of my experiences were very important to help the committee understand my interest and commitment to the underserved. She said they know that AMCAS uses a formula for deciding rural and that I can and should tell my story through my descriptions and experiences.

Okay- thank you! And yeah, I think I'm going to keep my discussion and story as I've experienced it!