Disadvantaged Status - what is it, what are the benefits?

[RxnMan]

Folks,

What is disadvantaged status? Do you apply for it? What is the benefit of it? For example: Say you had to support yourself in college, and your studying suffered because you had have money for food. Could you consider yourself disadvantaged? How would it affect how the average ADCOM looks at your application?

Thanks

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[star22]

Folks,

What is disadvantaged status? Do you apply for it? What is the benefit of it? For example: Say you had to support yourself in college, and your studying suffered because you had have money for food. Could you consider yourself disadvantaged? How would it affect how the average ADCOM looks at your application?

Thanks

There is a place on the AMCAS where you can indicate if you are disadvantaged. I think you have to write an essay about how you are disadvantaged... I am not sure if was AMCAS or a different application that asks if you worked during HS, if you contributed to your household income growing up, what your parents highest level of education is, etc. I personally have no idea how this changes your how an adcom would look at your application. I am sure if your situation is compelling it would be beneficial.

 

[ilovehedgehogs]

I applied as disadvantaged-there was a place on amcas to denote this status, and an area to explain, it was only about a paragraph long. Honestly, I have no idea what influence it had, but i dont think it hurt at all. I talked to an adcomm once about my parents (part of the disadvantagedness), and asked what sort of impact it may have that my dad is a starving artist and my mom is a seamstress...and she said that it probably makes me look unique, as long as I was exposed to the medical profession in large enough ways to allude to my making an informed choice about this profession. Also, I did work in college to pay for what fafsa didnt cover. I didnt write a sob story or anything, just stated my situation.

 

[Doc.Holliday]

Folks,

What is disadvantaged status? Do you apply for it? What is the benefit of it? For example: Say you had to support yourself in college, and your studying suffered because you had have money for food. Could you consider yourself disadvantaged? How would it affect how the average ADCOM looks at your application?

Thanks

as others have said, its on amcas, you mark it and explain it, but surely you know all that this being your third round eh? The biggest draw for me to mark it is special financial loans and scholarships etc.

I don't necessarily think having to work "some" during college qualifies someone, though fulltime then maybe. I honestly dont know how fine the line is between disadvantaged and not, and the fact that you are allowed to declare yourself disadvantaged or not worries me if there is actually any sort of extra attention to these applications, because for the most part, the surface is only a very small percentage of the story, and many good applicants/doctors would otherwise be screened out right at the start. It doesnt erase low grades or low mcat or lack of ECs, BUT it puts things into perspective for the adcomm, and hopefully levels the playing field slightly, or at least keeps such applicants from being screened. Again, i dont really know, all speculation/what ive "heard".

 

[RxnMan]

I've never explored the disadvantaged status part of the AMCAS application. Unlike many of you, I don't have access to a premed advisor. My story is different than the example I posted. Can I have one of the posters involved in admissions tell us how social, educational, and financial disadvantaged status is used?

 

[BooMed]

I've never explored the disadvantaged status part of the AMCAS application. Unlike many of you, I don't have access to a premed advisor. My story is different than the example I posted. Can I have one of the posters involved in admissions tell us how social, educational, and financial disadvantaged status is used?

I'm not sure in anyone knows exactly how it is used. It may be different from school to school.

I didn't have a pre-med advisor either, I just read the AMCAS and followed their qualifications for who is considered disadvantaged. Since my situation qualified I figured it couldn't hurt and I wrote a short paragraph about it. Who knows.

 

[FDoRoML]

No, not involved in Admissions. But I know plenty of people on the AdCom at various med schools (OK, plenty = 6 at 4 different schools).

I applied, unsuccessfully, in 03 and refused to use the disadvantaged status and essay space (my pre-med advisor told me this would only help me, a close friend on the AdCom at one of the UCs said that many on the AdCom scoff when they see it b/c most of the time it's frivolous). Hindsight being 20/20, I was pretty stupid.

AMCAS is kind of funny-- you only have so much space to tell your story, and if a significant part of your story (in my case) consists of a severe illness AND financial trouble that adversely affected your education, then it really stinks if choose to use only the main personal statement to explain this. So, for my re-application this year, I used the personal statement to focus a little on my story (mentioned the illness but did not go into detail, as it was a major turning point in my path to medicine) and a lot on why I fit medicine. Then I was able to use the disadvantaged essay to explain the course of the illness, how it affected my grades (you gotta explain these things!!), and how I have overcome it and proved how good of a student I really am and why I will do well in med school.

I worried... I didn't want to sound like a whiny @ss because so many people in the world have it so much harder than I did/do. But I did understand how the disadvantaged essay would help give AdComs a better picture of why some of my GPA was low and recent stuff was so different. I wasn't farting around and partying... I was most often found lying on the floor or trying like heck to work and pay for school. Sure, you can explain it all better when you get to an interview, but AMCAS is tough to interpret anyway... make good use of the essay sections. Be concise.

BTW-- I got around feeling like a whiny baby ("waaaah, I'm sick and can't go to class, waaaaaah") by just telling the story like you'd explain a case to another physician. Just the facts, not dwelling on the negative for long, and then making a happy ending with the resolution. "Yeah, crap happens to people, but look, I got through it and I just wanted you to know about it in case you were wondering how an honors student could drop down below a 3.0 and then drop out of school completely.... and then come back later and think they ought to be going to med school!"

Anyway, PM me if you want more info. I went through a lot of internal and external debate over this issue...

FDoRoML

 

[Neuronix]

I applied disadvantaged. Believe me that the vast majority of med students are from middle class or higher backgrounds. If you have an interesting story to tell, adcoms would like to hear it. It's not whining, it's just telling them what makes you an interesting person different from all the other thousands of applications they get. Personal statements often times get overlooked, so it's good to have a separate essay.

Exactly what level of hardship deserves it? That's a judgement call you have to make.

 

[Doc.Holliday]

Personal statements often times get overlooked, so it's good to have a separate essay.

 

[RxnMan]

I applied disadvantaged. Believe me that the vast majority of med students are from middle class or higher backgrounds. If you have an interesting story to tell, adcoms would like to hear it. It's not whining, it's just telling them what makes you an interesting person different from all the other thousands of applications they get. Personal statements often times get overlooked, so it's good to have a separate essay.

Exactly what level of hardship deserves it? That's a judgement call you have to make.

I'm not asking for money - I just believe that I went through hardships (not finiancial) that other pre-meds haven't (and I hope they never do). Thus, I shouldn't be compared to them as if I didn't.

 

[Neuronix]

Disadvantaged doesn't have to mean financial, though it usually does. Again, if you have overcome unique and significant obstacles that you think merit a seprate essay, write it!

As for the , I had a very unique life history that a certain MD/PhD program had absolutely no idea about when I came for second look. When I pointed this out to them in conversation, they admitted "We never read personal statements". Adcoms often very briefly scan them. They're busy people with alot of statements to read. It comes down to that you need to really fine tune your statement for those who DO read it, but not be too upset when people DON'T read it. If you really have something interesting to say, make it stand out. My opinions as a med student off--I should really go be productive.

 

[lilnoelle]

I know that my school defines disadvantaged in two ways. Economic - and you have to prove that your family were close to poverty level, and Education - I think you have to provide numbers from your high school (avg GPA and avg class that matriculated into a college). I didn't qualify for either of those extremes and so I didn't file disadvantaged. Perhaps the AMCAS portion is more up to interpretation than my own university's definition of disadvantaged. I felt that I could've applied disadvantaged because my dad only went to school through ninth grade, my mom barely attended college and I was brought up in a rural area where I was not given the opportunities many individuals are. My highschool education was subpar as well. I didn't apply disadvantaged but did include the above information as a part of my PS and feel that it did help me get into medical school. My numbers were below average (28N and 3.8 GPA) and I had virtually no clinical experience (due to lack of opportunity in high school/college and then getting married and having kids/working full time) And I still was accepted to a state university and an osteopathic program. I think the fact that I grew up on a farm helped me more than hurt me.

 

[riceman04]

I'm not asking for money - I just believe that I went through hardships (not finiancial) that other pre-meds haven't (and I hope they never do). Thus, I shouldn't be compared to them as if I didn't.

why wouldn't you ask for more money if you are disadvantaged

 

[RxnMan]

why wouldn't you ask for more money if you are disadvantaged

AAMC describes financial, social, and education disadvantages. While I worked throughout college and paid for my own grad school, money was not the problem, so I don't feel right asking for financial disadvantaged status (though, if anyone wants to give me money, by all means do so).

For example, I had someone PM me saying they had applied for it because they had a chronic disease that interfered with their education. Have most med students gone through a similar situation? No; so it wouldn't be appropriate to compare them (as-is) with the regular applicant pool. Conversely, the ADCOMs probably thought it lent greater perspective into that applicant.