Did Any of You Apply As Disadvantaged Status

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SpiritiualDuck

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I'm going to submit my primary this week. I'm not sure if I want to apply under disadvantage status. My numbers are solid. But I do come from an extremely tough past and I wasn't sure if I should mention it. Friends have been all over the place about advising me. Some say tell them and others say don't. I know my story is unique but there is a part of me that wants to leave it in the past and not talk about it.

So, if any of you applied as disadvantaged applicants can you tell about how it was viewed by the schools, interviews and which schools seemed receptive and which ones indifferent. Tell me the pros and cons too.

BTW, my undergraduate school knew about my past and it was sort of a big deal for them, not for me, but for them because they had a couple of news papers interview me at graduation. It was PR for the school. They wanted to say that they gave a chance to a kid with little chance of success considering where I came from. But the truth is: When I got there they told me that I'd be lucky to even stay afloat, but at graduation time, I was there favored child.

So please let me know about how it went for you.
Thanks
 
If it drives you to become a doctor, then mention it.
 
Hey, I claimed disadvantaged status. I won't say why because so many sdn'ers seem to think that you have to have been tortured in a concentration camp in order to legitimately claim you were disadvantaged. But it's my opinion that you can claim disadvantaged for just about any reason as long as you can back it up. It's going to be highly subjective, and they're going to have to interpret each case, and I don't think anyone in their right mind would give you a hard time about it as long as you can make your case intelligently.
 
I applied as a disadvantaged student. I only listed financial reasons and something about my parents' divorce and lawsuits to demonstrate more financial need. I did mine solely on economics (and left out all the super fun things that poverty brings with it!)... I think it's harder to try any other social reason ('cept medical disability.. which I also think I could have applied for). There was a lot of other stuff I could have listed, but frankly, it's none of their business and things I'd rather not bring out into the open. I also think my advisor agreed with this status and supported me in her letter...

I really think you should only talk to your advisor and other students who applied as "disadvantaged". People hate to think of their playing field as uneven and that they could have had an unfair advantage. Most of the people who would tell me not to apply as such, didn't want me to apply simply based on competition and the idea that their accomplishments would mean less with respect to mine. This isn't the time to listen to someone's ethical rant about how you don't need/deserve an unfair advantage. Your life is not someone else's social theory, this box is there for a reason. (It's amazing how people have every opportunity in life can try to claim they were disadvantaged too b/c they were gassy or it was cloudy and they needed Prozac etc....)

The more interesting your story, the more I hope you wrote it into your personal statement.
 
If you come to America as a refugee from a war-torn country with a single-digit literacy rate and your only source of income was your mother that worked some 50 hours a week to make ends meet because your father was a big shot back home (b.s., masters, ph.d) and now is broken-hearted (depressed), and lived in a govt. aided town-house (section 8 housing) for 11 out of the 14 years you've been in America...are you disadvantaged? Even if you started college in the 3 years you've been financially stable?
 
By the way...everybody loves a winner, which is why you were interviewed by the press. Sounds like a story that admissions committees would love.
 
i came from a foreign country and my dad was stuck working in a different country (not divorced) and my mom worked close to 60hrs a week just to make ends meet while paying for my sister in college and 2sons in high school... i slept on the floor all throughout high school... yet i did not claim a disadvantaged status... why? because life turned out better as it went along and sure my family didnt have anything for the 10yrs before college but like i said, it worked out well. does that really make a person disadvantaged?
 
For the above poster, sleeping on the floor is never normal, especially when you did NOT choose to do so...

My advice is apply disadvantaged only if you have financial issues or really, really strong personal issues...the latter cannot be proven the former (financial) trouble can be clearly seen if you get an AMCAS fee waiver...good luck to all disadvantaged, you guys deserve this opportunity more than anyone!:clap:
 
Originally posted by coldchemist
many sdn'ers seem to think that you have to have been tortured in a concentration camp in order to legitimately claim you were disadvantaged.
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Well I am glad that we are clear on this.
 
Medical school is so hard to get into. Why not take advantage of everything you can?
 
I fully agree, take advantage of what you can, present the facts honestly and clearly and how they have affected your childhood, work, or desire to go into medicine. And then, they will use the information as they see fit. I've been told the worst that could happen is that they don't "approve" your disadvantaged status. But your application to medical school alone can still be approved of course. If you aren't lying, there's no reason to be paranoid about whether or not its a "good decision" Anyway, just my opinion and my reasoning for doing it , and I'm no longer willing to share my personal info on posts.
 
Hey SpiritualDuck, I am planning to apply next year and will likely apply disadvantaged as well. I too have gone back and forth on the issue, and there are people who will tell you to do it and people who say it's a bad idea, so in the end what matters is what you think. Did you face unusually difficult obstacles to get where you are? Do you feel that these experiences are relevant to your reasons for pursuing medicine or should be considered when evaluating your application? The key word in the preceding question is unusual--everyone faces obstacles, but the fact that mommy and daddy didn't pay for college or were divorced is hardly uncommon, certainly not enough so to warrant special attention from adcoms. Of course you can still claim disadvantaged status for those type of things if you wish, but you should realize that there are people with much more difficult circumstances also applying disadvantaged, and by contrast you may appear whiny or like you are trying to exploit this status. I assume if your story is newspaper worthy, it does not fall into the divorced parents-type category, and if it had a significant impact on your life (which it probably did) adcoms would probably like to know about it.

I know what you mean about leaving things in the past, I have wondered if my background is the sort of thing I would really like to talk about in interviews. One thing that helped me was meeting other premeds and realizing just how unusual my circumstances are among this group--I have yet to meet another person applying to med school who grew up in foster care. This is not to say they aren't out there, just that they are few and far between; premeds are by and large a more privileged than average group, at least in my experience. To me, this means that I should be proud of who I am and where I came from, and that I have achieved what I have without some of the advantages that many of the people I will be interviewing with had. You should also be proud (not to say that you aren't), and if you're being honest about your life than I'm sure med schools will be interested. Good luck!
 
Originally posted by Lab-Rat21
For the above poster, sleeping on the floor is never normal, especially when you did NOT choose to do so...

My advice is apply disadvantaged only if you have financial issues or really, really strong personal issues...the latter cannot be proven the former (financial) trouble can be clearly seen if you get an AMCAS fee waiver...good luck to all disadvantaged, you guys deserve this opportunity more than anyone!:clap:
Click to expand...

i actually chose not to apply as disadvantaged (already sent in my application a few weeks ago)... it made me into the person that i am today and i just didnt feel as if it had hurt me any... if anything, it probably pushed me a bit more and taught me to work through all the hardships
 
The box is there for a reason, you can choose to check it or not. Don't get self-righteous if you don't. It's up to you to say whether your educational/life situation was effected by your environment.

As far as divorce goes... it's a very strange thing when your parent sues for complete custody sending your other parent into massive debt... then decides to say um... leave the country. This wouldn't change anything just exacerbate problems already. The divorce/lawsuit was simply a one line aside in my essay.

I can't exactly talk about how everyone in my family has substance abuse problems now can I? Only certain social problems are acceptable to bring up in our society which is kidn of a shame. And by all means, bring up the foster care, debt, etc. Not every doc has to be from the same damn neighborhood with the same cookie-cutter life story.
 
I disagree with Mistress S's distinction between a group of people claiming disadvantaged who don't really deserve it versus people who had extreme hardships and obviously do. Its not a yes or no thing, there's obviously many stops on the way between the two and if you'd like where you stand on that continuum to be evident and if you feel its important to your application than you should do it. I agree, that "my parents are divorced and didn't pay for college" is not enough. But if your parents are divorced, and only one had custody of you and contributed to your financial needs, and that parent only made less than 20,000 dollars a year for a large family, etc. then you are somewhere between the two categories and depending on how you feel about it why not report it?

I think we've pretty much established on here that its not a yes or no thing, help or not help, like checking off a URM box. there are tons of gray areas, that only you can define in essay form.
 
Originally posted by Mistress S
Hey SpiritualDuck, I am planning to apply next year and will likely apply disadvantaged as well. I too have gone back and forth on the issue, and there are people who will tell you to do it and people who say it's a bad idea, so in the end what matters is what you think. Did you face unusually difficult obstacles to get where you are? Do you feel that these experiences are relevant to your reasons for pursuing medicine or should be considered when evaluating your application? The key word in the preceding question is unusual--everyone faces obstacles, but the fact that mommy and daddy didn't pay for college or were divorced is hardly uncommon, certainly not enough so to warrant special attention from adcoms. Of course you can still claim disadvantaged status for those type of things if you wish, but you should realize that there are people with much more difficult circumstances also applying disadvantaged, and by contrast you may appear whiny or like you are trying to exploit this status. I assume if your story is newspaper worthy, it does not fall into the divorced parents-type category, and if it had a significant impact on your life (which it probably did) adcoms would probably like to know about it.

I know what you mean about leaving things in the past, I have wondered if my background is the sort of thing I would really like to talk about in interviews. One thing that helped me was meeting other premeds and realizing just how unusual my circumstances are among this group--I have yet to meet another person applying to med school who grew up in foster care. This is not to say they aren't out there, just that they are few and far between; premeds are by and large a more privileged than average group, at least in my experience. To me, this means that I should be proud of who I am and where I came from, and that I have achieved what I have without some of the advantages that many of the people I will be interviewing with had. You should also be proud (not to say that you aren't), and if you're being honest about your life than I'm sure med schools will be interested. Good luck!
Click to expand...

It certainly did! I think being disadvantaged builds more character!
 
Originally posted by SpiritiualDuck

BTW, my undergraduate school knew about my past and it was sort of a big deal for them, not for me, but for them because they had a couple of news papers interview me at graduation. It was PR for the school. They wanted to say that they gave a chance to a kid with little chance of success considering where I came from. But the truth is: When I got there they told me that I'd be lucky to even stay afloat, but at graduation time, I was there favored child.
Click to expand...

This answers the question. If your undergraduate considered you underprivileged, then you were. You say you come from "an extremely tough past." That sounds underprivileged to me. If I were you, I'd just describe that past on AMCAS, and let the adcoms decide. It will help you get in, and that's your goal, right?
I don't see what the downside is.
 
As long as you feel that you were and you can discuss this at length on the secondaries and interviews you should be fine...
 
Originally posted by Ahmad04
If you come to America as a refugee from a war-torn country with a single-digit literacy rate and your only source of income was your mother that worked some 50 hours a week to make ends meet because your father was a big shot back home (b.s., masters, ph.d) and now is broken-hearted (depressed), and lived in a govt. aided town-house (section 8 housing) for 11 out of the 14 years you've been in America...are you disadvantaged? Even if you started college in the 3 years you've been financially stable?
Click to expand...

I would definitely claim disadvantaged if this had happened to me.
 
Thanks everyone for your respones. I guess part of my reservations for not wanting to talk about it or having doubts about wanting to talk about it stems from a fear that I might be pitied, labled or considered less. I know academically and intellectually, I can hang with most applicants and I know that I'll be a good doctor. However, I must confess, I have days of doubt. Sometimes, it just seems to be so much work to get in and such a difficult process.

And there is another reason why that I have doubts and I seldomly talk about it and it's more on an unconscious level, but I fear that I may be creating a divide between my family and myself. I'm the only one in my family, including 3 syblings, that even has a high school diploma. My dad has a 7th grade education, mom made it to the 9th grade, and sisters quit in the 9th grade.

So, just having a college degree has created a divide. I will never disown or not be with my family. I love them, but I see the world in different terms, but not always better too. For instance, I met this doctor about a month ago. He's a resident at Penn. He went to Duke for medical school. He began to explain to me how if you don't go to a top medical you won't get a good residency in a top program like in Opth at Penn.

So, I told him I met a guy that went to Puerto Rico, Ponce, and got an Opth in Philly. He then said, "Well, I can't believe that a foreign med grad could possibly land such a residency." I looked at him and said, "Ponce is not a foreign medical school. It's part of the LCME."
He shrugged and said, "Really? Is that true? What's the LCME?" He then became dismissive and said, "It's been nicing talking with you. I wish you the best in your future endeavors."

It's amazing how people judge others too. I mean, we all do. I do. I'm not above it, but I've been on both sides of it. I paint houses during the summer. Last summer, I was working on this house and there was this young girl, maybe 18, taking a summer class and having some trouble with a problem set. I was working on her folks house. So, during lunch, I asked her what she was studying. She told me and she said she couldn't get it. So I helped her. Her parents saw us talking.
They asked her to come into the house. Later she told me, and I'm not sure why she told me, but she said, "My mother was worried. She said I needed to be careful talking to you. She said, 'what would he know about statistics." I didn't respond. I finished up the house, got paid, and just learned. I could have said that I was a TA for stats for two years and that I did an undergraduate honors research project and that I probably knew more than they'd ever know about stats. But I didn't.
People judge. And people make mistakes. So, being a doctor will never make me a better man. I've met good people from all parts of society. This might seem cheesy, I just want to find ways to enjoy this life. I want to be a loving person. I want to face my fears.
I'm afraid that half of my battles about getting a college degree and wanting to be a doctor were initially about wanting to prove that I was better than my past. Today, I know, after meeting several doctors, it won't make me a better person. But doctors should be good people. And I know that people will say that morals need not be considered in the worth of a doctor. But, I'd agrue, intelligence isn't enough. Character counts. Yes, when I'm sick, I want the smartest person for the job, but I also want a doc to have empathy.
 
Originally posted by 4 Ever
i came from a foreign country and my dad was stuck working in a different country (not divorced) and my mom worked close to 60hrs a week just to make ends meet while paying for my sister in college and 2sons in high school... i slept on the floor all throughout high school... yet i did not claim a disadvantaged status... why? because life turned out better as it went along and sure my family didnt have anything for the 10yrs before college but like i said, it worked out well. does that really make a person disadvantaged?
Click to expand...

If it affected your academic performance resulting in a less competitive application, then you deserve consideration. Remember, claiming disadvantaged doesn't mean you'll get it, it just lets them know you would like to be considered.
 
Originally posted by peterockduke
The box is there for a reason, you can choose to check it or not. Don't get self-righteous if you don't.
Click to expand...

I absolutely agree with this. It's a personal decision, and if someone on these forums begins to object, well...it's my opinion that they are motivated more by a competitive attitude than true integrity.
 
i wasnt getting "self righteous" from it (i didnt come here just to post about some "self righteous" act...I was replying to a post with what i put down given my situation)... my parents were the ones that pulled through it all...

by my definition , disadvantaged would have meant it hindered my education in a significant way. since it didnt, i chose not to check it off.

Judging from your posts Peter, you seem to have some issues regarding some people claiming to be disadvantaged. Either thats because your situation made you truly disadvantaged, or youre just complaining because you didnt check the box. please correct me if im wrong
 
Sh1t, I checked the box!

I wouldn't challenge most people, if not all of them about disadv. status. I was simply curious about your father's/mother's situation. If both your mom and father worked 40 hrs / week and made $6.0 / hr you wouldn't even qualify for federal aid and you would be considered part of the working poor. I just thought about the numbers, I was guessing there was more to the story. Just being curious.

The answers I generally hear for not applying "disadvantaged" are rather dubious at best. It's like someone telling you how lucky you are for receiving a lot of your tuition on financial aid and in grants. Nobody is lucky to be poor.. I'd much rather have parents who can just dole out that kind of money, much like the majority of my student population. "You should want your abilities judged by your meirt" they say... well sure. But when I work 45 hours / week and take 24 hours of classes / week... I want that sh1t to reflect on my merit and bottom line is that adcoms seem to be gpa/mcat monkeys.

Oops, I made a B, but I also made $5k cuz i needed it. Looks like I don't have as much merit as soemone who can just go to a library for 5 hours a day and then hang out at the pool after class and get an A. Please, I'd like to have my merit judged on the fact that I was doing 90 hour weeks. No, no... gpa/mcat ... gpa/mcat! I think since the majority of students cannot list something that could be helpful to them, they get pissed, they get competitive. It's what this entire process does... limited spots for more than a surplus of applicants.

A box made for people like me - HOT DAMN. Since the VAST majority of people in medical school are from middle or upper class homes, I definitely think that should say something about the plight of people on the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. And no it's not that they're genetically inferior you eugenics Nazi!

Nobody on this board knows how much disadvantage status helps for nonminority students. What I'd really like to see is what link to amcas etc where there was any type of explanation.

😱 <-- be mesmorized by my powers and let my liberal message brain wash you
 
Originally posted by 4 Ever
i wasnt getting "self righteous" from it (i didnt come here just to post about some "self righteous" act...I was replying to a post with what i put down given my situation)... my parents were the ones that pulled through it all...

by my definition , disadvantaged would have meant it hindered my education in a significant way. since it didnt, i chose not to check it off.

Judging from your posts Peter, you seem to have some issues regarding some people claiming to be disadvantaged. Either thats because your situation made you truly disadvantaged, or youre just complaining because you didnt check the box. please correct me if im wrong
Click to expand...

4 Ever

I wasn't referring to you, just talking about those who tend to get downright hostile whenever the subject comes up.
 
then i apologize =)
 
I'm not going to get into a URM and non-URM debate. I'm a white a guy. My wife is not. I was raised with mostly black folks. So, I'm not going to do a white vs. black thing.

But the thing that does bother me sometimes is: My wife comes from the middle class. She went to private schools. I lived in the projects, lived by the streets, and I knew a world that she never knew. But she'd get a heads up on me in the application process. The numbers on http://www.mdapplicants.com/ prove that this is true. I think disadvantaged should apply to economics, class, and not race. My wife and I are both returning to school. I'm further along in the process. She's still finishing up prequisites. We both have undergraduate degrees already. I have a stronger GPA and I was in an honors program. But we all know that she'd be picked over me. So, for me it's mixed feelings, I want her to do well and get in somewhere, maybe the same school. She's applying next year. But if she was applying this year and I was sitting back not getting in, having been through a harder life, over coming more, and because she doesn't need sun block...she gets a spot...🙁
 
my guess is that many of the truly poor people do not apply for disadvantaged status, simply because they are too reluctant or do not consider themselves "disadvantaged".

Instead, I think that this special category is often taken advantage of by opportunists trying to abuse the system. For example, accounts can be manipulated to imply an economic disadvantage, or trivial reasons may be claimed for social hardship. I believe that people for whom this category was created (like Spiritual Duck, the original poster) are often reluctant to push forward this special aspect of their background...leaving the field ripe for cheaters. So, I believe that people with special hardships should seek this status, if only to prevent abuse by others.
 
I think if the individual deems themself disadvantaged, then by all means check the box and explain why. It's up to the ad comm to determine if they are truly disadvantaged or not. I decided not to apply disadvantaged after I couldn't find any rules stating exactly what disadvantaged means.
 
Spiritual, i am in ur same situation... well somewhat (asian) and not once did i consider race when thinking of the disadvantaged status... i do agree that race has nothing to do with the environmental conditions and if it were a perfect world, there would be no discrimination or preference due to race. but hey we're not so might as well make the best of it
 
If you checked the box and then have to sit and think about what in your past may qualify you for disadvantaged status, you probably shouldn't have checked it.
 
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