Disadvantaged Status Section

[TwitchBeGone]

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Hi all,

I'm curious as to how the Disadvantaged Status essay works in the application. 1325 characters isn't very much and I don't want to repeat information that is already stated somewhere else. My family/I received welfare in the form of food stamps, housing assistance, PG&E assistance, free lunch, Medi-Cal, food bank donations... Should I be stating these things in my essay, or are there separate questions about this?

[Edit] More things about me: poor neighborhood (clearly), poor high school, abusive and alcoholic parent, learned English by myself because parents don't speak English

 

[Jagon]

I don't think you really need to get into this much detail. Just mention that you relieved some forms of financial assistance from the gov and give a few examples. I don't think any adcoms will be questioning your disadvantaged status based on what you wrote here.

 

[Tintinnabula]

I don't recall that that section had questions about your specific government assistance(s) so I wouldn't worry about it. In order to save yourself characters on your essay maybe use the phrasing "several forms of government assistance." That will also give you room to discuss what forms if it happens to come up in your interview. I had I've think one awkwardly phrased question about the disadvantaged nature of my background, ever.

 

[LizzyM]

Unless this factors into your decision to pursue a career in medicine, it can be left out of your essay. It should not be left out of the option section on family. Your parents' names, locations, highest academic institution attended, occupation may be listed. There are some yes/no questions about whether you were employed before the age of 18, whether your family received gov't assistance, how you paid for college (% merit aid, %need based aid, %loans, %parental contribution, %your own funds, %other) etc. and some fill in the blank questions about the geographic area where you grew up and the HS you graduated from. Some school names are familiar to us and we can always google the rest and learn something about that school and the community if we want to know about the demographic profile of your childhood area.
If an adcom is going to care about this sort of information, this is where they will look to get the information in a standardized fashion. IIRC, there is also the option to write a brief paragraph and that is where you might mention having to learn English on your own as your parents did not/do not speak English.

 

[mehc012]

Unless this factors into your decision to pursue a career in medicine, it can be left out of your essay. It should not be left out of the option section on family. Your parents' names, locations, highest academic institution attended, occupation may be listed. There are some yes/no questions about whether you were employed before the age of 18, whether your family received gov't assistance, how you paid for college (% merit aid, %need based aid, %loans, %parental contribution, %your own funds, %other) etc. and some fill in the blank questions about the geographic area where you grew up and the HS you graduated from. Some school names are familiar to us and we can always google the rest and learn something about that school and the community if we want to know about the demographic profile of your childhood area.
If an adcom is going to care about this sort of information, this is where they will look to get the information in a standardized fashion. IIRC, there is also the option to write a brief paragraph and that is where you might mention having to learn English on your own as your parents did not/do not speak English.

Those questions always seem so...static. In some cases, they're simply not going to reflect the actual experience of the family. In particular, your parents' 'highest academic institution attended', 'occupation', and 'locations', as well as 'the geographic area where you grew up' are all highly mutable things. I can answer all of those questions for now, but that has little bearing on what they were when I was a child, which is the more relevant period of my life here.

 

[NickNaylor]

I would include it but agree with LizzyM that listing the details of government assistance is unnecessary. Instead, try to speak generally about your experience and how it has affected you. Ideally that experience has also informed your decision to pursue medicine and/or the kinds of populations you want to deal with as a physician; if so, you should absolutely make that connection.

 

[LizzyM]

Those questions always seem so...static. In some cases, they're simply not going to reflect the actual experience of the family. In particular, your parents' 'highest academic institution attended', 'occupation', and 'locations', as well as 'the geographic area where you grew up' are all highly mutable things. I can answer all of those questions for now, but that has little bearing on what they were when I was a child, which is the more relevant period of my life here.

Hey, don't shoot the messenger. AMCAS asks for your parents current living situation and highest education. It also asks for the county in which you grew up. If you moved between or among counties I guess you might choose the one that you spent the most time in or where you ended (or started) your childhood rather than where you began if you think that is more relevant.

It is tough to list a parent's highest education when, perhaps, your parent completed their degree while you were in HS or even college. I've also seen applicants who applied as "disadvantaged" although a parent had a professional degree (JD, MD, etc) and they have explained in the text section that their parent was totally disabled due to illness or injury.

The point is that we know something about a family if the application reads

Jack Spratt Central Valley High School "some high school" (meaning he didn't graduate) construction worker
Jake Smart UCLA MBA administrator

 

[mehc012]

Hey, don't shoot the messenger. AMCAS asks for your parents current living situation and highest education. It also asks for the county in which you grew up. If you moved between or among counties I guess you might choose the one that you spent the most time in or where you ended (or started) your childhood rather than where you began if you think that is more relevant.

It is tough to list a parent's highest education when, perhaps, your parent completed their degree while you were in HS or even college. I've also seen applicants who applied as "disadvantaged" although a parent had a professional degree (JD, MD, etc) and they have explained in the text section that their parent was totally disabled due to illness or injury.

The point is that we know something about a family if the application reads

Jack Spratt Central Valley High School "some high school" (meaning he didn't graduate) construction worker
Jake Smart UCLA MBA administrator

Fair enough, fair enough!

That is exactly the situation I find myself in, which is why I jumped on it, sorry. When I was born, neither of my parents had quite finished high school. By the time I myself had graduated high school, my mother had finished high school, nursing school, undergrad, and a Ph.D, while my father, to the best of my knowledge, has yet to get that high school diploma. Along the way we lived in 6 counties in 4 states (5 by now), everywhere from trailer parks to cushy neighborhoods, depending on how far my mother was in her educational track at that time. We've gone from WIC to bargain meals to a budget to guilt-free grocery shopping. I just always feel bizarre boiling down our family picture to her current career/degree/location and the town I happened to be in for high school. I suppose that by now, I hardly qualify as 'disadvantaged' anyway, so it's a moot point.

 

[LizzyM]

Fair enough, fair enough!

That is exactly the situation I find myself in, which is why I jumped on it, sorry. When I was born, neither of my parents had quite finished high school. By the time I myself had graduated high school, my mother had finished high school, nursing school, undergrad, and a Ph.D, while my father, to the best of my knowledge, has yet to get that high school diploma. Along the way we lived in 6 counties in 4 states (5 by now), everywhere from trailer parks to cushy neighborhoods, depending on how far my mother was in her educational track at that time. We've gone from WIC to bargain meals to a budget to guilt-free grocery shopping. I just always feel bizarre boiling down our family picture to her current career/degree/location and the town I happened to be in for high school. I suppose that by now, I hardly qualify as 'disadvantaged' anyway, so it's a moot point.

Perhaps your "disadvantage" was eliminated by the time you got to college. If you are interested in serving low income populations, you might work some of your background into your essay as a way of pointing out that you can identify with the people you hope to serve and that your mother's boot-strap rise and your father's failure to complete high school are two ends of a continuum that you understand. I think that adds something different or novel to your essay that will catch the attention of some adcoms.

 

[mehc012]

Perhaps your "disadvantage" was eliminated by the time you got to college. If you are interested in serving low income populations, you might work some of your background into your essay as a way of pointing out that you can identify with the people you hope to serve and that your mother's boot-strap rise and your father's failure to complete high school are two ends of a continuum that you understand. I think that adds something different or novel to your essay that will catch the attention of some adcoms.

Thanks - that's good advice. It's something I've definitely pondered on since I started working in the ER...some of the attitudes I've seen towards our less well-off patients have been incredibly disrespectful, and I've been glad to have enough background in that area to recognize that peoples' circumstances do not wholly define them. Unfortunately, 'I want to work with low income populations' often tends to be taken as 'I want to work in primary care' (for good reason - it's the big gap at the moment) and I don't see myself in that specialty.

And just for clarity (sorry to hijack, guys) - when you say 'in your essay', do you mean in the disadvantaged section, the PS, or just in secondaries?

Alright, that's the last of me monopolizing things, thank you everyone for your patience!

 

[LizzyM]

Thanks - that's good advice. It's something I've definitely pondered on since I started working in the ER...some of the attitudes I've seen towards our less well-off patients have been incredibly disrespectful, and I've been glad to have enough background in that area to recognize that peoples' circumstances do not wholly define them. Unfortunately, 'I want to work with low income populations' often tends to be taken as 'I want to work in primary care' (for good reason - it's the big gap at the moment) and I don't see myself in that specialty.

And just for clarity (sorry to hijack, guys) - when you say 'in your essay', do you mean in the disadvantaged section, the PS, or just in secondaries?

Alright, that's the last of me monopolizing things, thank you everyone for your patience!

In any essays, you can address your interest in serving underserved popuations. Yeah, they need primary care but they also need trauma surgeons and oncologists, physiatrists and psychiatrists, and so forth.

And by "essays" I mean anywhere you think it is relevant but not in EVERY essay or you come across as a Johnny One-Note.

 

[mehc012]

In any essays, you can address your interest in serving underserved popuations. Yeah, they need primary care but they also need trauma surgeons and oncologists, physiatrists and psychiatrists, and so forth.

And by "essays" I mean anywhere you think it is relevant but not in EVERY essay or you come across as a Johnny One-Note.

Ah, good to know that it won't seem disingenuous to express a desire to work with underserved populations and elsewhere mention an (open-minded) interest in surgery!
Excellent point on the last bit...applications are short on real estate, no sense in repeating yourself! Also, as you said, it's boring/one dimensional.

 

[gyngyn]

Ah, good to know that it won't seem disingenuous to express a desire to work with underserved populations and elsewhere mention an (open-minded) interest in surgery!
Excellent point on the last bit...applications are short on real estate, no sense in repeating yourself! Also, as you said, it's boring/one dimensional.

Plenty of the poor end up in the OR.

 

[TwitchBeGone]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I realized listing every type of aid is unnecessary so I'll just briefly describe them.

While ideally, I could say that I'm interested in helping low-income communities, the truth is that it's something that I haven't put a lot of thought into. It would be disingenuous to me if I spun it that way. I feel more comfortable talking about how my SES has contributed to my perseverance and resilience, and express my professional goals in other sections.