Hello Everybody,
I am filling out med school application and I want to be considered as disadvantageous applicant .Could you please advise whether i am eligible to apply as disadvantageous status. Below is my essay.
I was born and raised in rural town (Bokoji) in Ethiopia, Africa. I am one of the five siblings raised by a single mother. My mother doesn’t have an education at all and she does not speak English. Consequently, she has only been able to offer limited support for my educational pursuits. My mother used to sale homemade local beer to farmers, and she had struggled to support our family on the proceeds from the sales. I began working to help support my family starting at age 7 selling sugar canes, fruits, potatoes after school. I had to trade sleep for work or school to meet ends. My older brother who had been living 53 miles away in the capital city (Addis Ababa) of Ethiopia helped me to attend my high school education. I attended science while at high school. I have had to struggle on my own to perform in school and understand subject matters. I learned to ask for assistance, seek out any and all resources, and take initiative in my own learning. As a result, I performed well in high school. While I was in high school, I studied science and received the highest academic awards, ranking first in my class. I managed and successfully passed the High School Leaving Exam with honor and got admission to Addis Ababa University. My mother passed away while I was 2nd year student. I had suffered and endured emotional stress due to the loss of my mother .While working part time I have graduated in Economics. I would have been happy, had my mother had seen my achievement.
I came to the United States of America due to the political instability in my country. My family arrived lately to the US. My marriage with Mrs. Messeret Debebe has yielded four children. As a father of four, I am reminded of the burden of time and financial constraints as dual responsibility of father-student often presents. On the one hand, as a bread winner, I am responsible to take care of the financial aspect of the whole household working as full time. Working as a cashier in a low paying industry, has been financially challenging for me to raise my children and meet their basics. As a result, I have been receiving government assistant in the form of food stamp, medical insurance and free student lunch. Also, now we live in low income government housing project built to help low income immigrants. My wife has been taking care of our children and she is a homestay mom. I have been thinking about how to become self-sufficient and the only way out is education.
I started to attend day time at Northern Virginia Community College majoring science, aspiring for a better life for me and for my family under difficult financial constraint. I successfully completed my required courses with a GPA of 4.00. I made the President’s Scholar and Dean’s List every quarter in Northern Virginia Community college. In addition, I achieved this academic success while working as full-time employee, even with a highly irregular schedule as a cashier at a hotel during the graveyard shift. Needless to say, I had little time to participate in extracurricular activities such as serving community as a volunteer. I served as a volunteer at Inova Fairfax hospital in Virginia. Since I moved to Washington State, I have been volunteering at New Holy park community center and at the Ethiopian community center in Seattle. I am also a member of the Parent –Teachers association (PTA) at Hawthorn Elementary School where my children attend . I have been participating in school related activities with the school community.
