disadvantaged status

[Yonko Shanks]

Hello there. I was wondering how do adcoms look at an applicant who has been disadvantaged his whole life. Is it ok if they don't have those stellar ECs like their counterparts?

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[LizzyM]

Hello there. I was wondering how do adcoms look at an applicant who has been disadvantaged his whole life. Is it ok if they don't have those stellar ECs like their counterparts?

That's one of the reasons... if the applicant was working 30 hrs/wk during college and checks the disadvantaged box and explains that they worked 10 hours per week during HS to help pay household bills and grew up in a housing project in a bad neighborhood but had the good luck to be chosen as a scholarship student for a summer leadership program that opened the student's eyes to opportunities outside of the 'hood, it puts things in context.

Now, those 30 hrs/wk cut into the time one could be spending on fun, research, volunteerism, and the rest. Of course, there are 168 hours in a week and even if you need to work 30 hrs wk and attend classes 20 hours wk (including labs) and prep for 40 hrs wk there are still 78 hours wk to squeeze in sleep, good hygiene, and meals. Get a job where you can study while you work (late night babysitting, front desk, etc) and join groups that meet during meal time and you make your hours stretch further. Ditto for independent study in junior year that gives you class credits for research projects. Work-study in a lab is also a good two-fer.

There are people who manage to be very good time managers and despite having to work or care for family members or whatever they also manage to squeeze in some ECs. You don't have to travel 1,000 miles or pay $1,000 to do a worthwhile EC. We do recognize that if you didn't have a physician in the family, or even in the neighborhood, it might be harder to arrange a shadowing experience compared with an applicant who knows a dozen physicians since birth. A disadvantaged student might be cut a little slack in the EC dept but not much. Just as you have to be twice as creative to stay under budget, you need to be creative in the way you manage your time.

 

[theseeker4]

Hello there. I was wondering how do adcoms look at an applicant who has been disadvantaged his whole life. Is it ok if they don't have those stellar ECs like their counterparts?

You are talking about something different from the "disadvantaged" box you can check on your app. That is basically asking if you were poor growing up (in a nut shell).

What has prevented you from completing the standard pre-med EC's? If you were working 45 hours a week while attending school full time and supporting your family, I would bet most adcoms will have no issue with you having minimal clinical experience, no research/leadership/etc.

 

[LizzyM]

You are talking about something different from the "disadvantaged" box you can check on your app. That is basically asking if you were poor growing up (in a nut shell).

What has prevented you from completing the standard pre-med EC's? If you were working 45 hours a week while attending school full time and supporting your family, I would bet most adcoms will have no issue with you having minimal clinical experience, no research/leadership/etc.

The applicant still needs to prove they know what a career in medicine involves and that they are passionate about it. Someone who walks in with a 3.7 gpa while attending local schools part-time, 30 MCAT and a 45-hour a week job as a assistant manager at Red Lobster and no shadowing, no work or volunteerism in a clinical setting, no community service is not going to rise to the top of my list of people who have a passion for medicine. They may be a hard worker and even a good manager but I want to see that they know what medicine is about. I can recall a military veteran and civil engineer who dropped a good paying job to go into medicine and ended up deeply in debt and very unhappy at the end of it all.

 

[Yonko Shanks]

My story:

Single mom, father gives 300$ a month because that is all he can afford. I worked to pay for bills and to pay my brothers tuition for college. My mother has been hospitalized over 10 times in the past 2 years. We are about 140k in debt because of the hospital bills, and I have been working with friends to have enough money for rent and pay the minimum. I went to college because of scholarships and financial aid.

 

[Yonko Shanks]

I am also hispanic and english is my third language.

 

[SunsFun]

Not to mention that you may loose out to people who are disadvantaged and still managed to get involved. I came to this country speaking zero English when I was fifteen. Needless to say my family is dirt poor and I haven't been to a physician except for once or twice when I went to urgent care. I didn't know a single doctor yet managed to find volunteering and shadowing opportunities. Your explanation will look like a poor excuse in the context of people who ended up finding those shadowing opportunities despite hardship.

 

[Yonko Shanks]

The shadowing is what is killing me. I never even been to the hospital. I never had a primary care physician. Also, mother is unemployed due to disabilities.

 

[Yonko Shanks]

Not to mention that you may loose out to people who are disadvantaged and still managed to get involved. I came to this country speaking zero English when I was fifteen. Needless to say my family is dirt poor and I haven't been to a physician except for once or twice when I went to urgent care. I didn't know a single doctor yet managed to find volunteering and shadowing opportunities. Your explanation will look like a poor excuse in the context of people who ended up finding those shadowing opportunities despite hardship.

I am not asking if having 0 volunteer and shadowing experience is good. I have some but not as many as my counterparts. I have volunteered at homeless shelter for a year, coach basketball for kids who are poverty stricken, and shadowed a doctor but in a different country..

 

[LizzyM]

I am not asking if having 0 volunteer and shadowing experience is good. I have some but not as many as my counterparts. I have volunteered at homeless shelter for a year, coach basketball for kids who are poverty stricken, and shadowed a doctor but in a different country..

Your ECs seem pretty good. You should try to shadow a doctor in the US as the system here is unique and if you are applying to attend medical school in the US, you should have an idea of what you are getting into here.

If your mother has been to the hospital 10 times in 2 years, there should be some physicans involved in her care that you could talk with to request an opportunity to shadow. It takes some creativity sometimes.

If you were living close to the poverty line during at least part of 0-18 you might want to self-identify as "disadvantaged" and provide the additional short statement on your childhood circumstances. Your mother's current illness (after you turned 18) doesn't factor in to childhood disadvantage.

This is not a measure of your current financial status (FASIS does that); it is possible to be making $90,000/yr and self-identify as having had a disadvantaged childhood. It is possible to have had a golden childhood and to have fallen on hard times during college or after college (natural disaster, parent's death, etc) and with some creativity those can be worked in to the PS or the supplemental essay. Sometimes, if an advisor knows of the circumstances, they will be included in the "committee letter", too.

 

[Yonko Shanks]

Your ECs seem pretty good. You should try to shadow a doctor in the US as the system here is unique and if you are applying to attend medical school in the US, you should have an idea of what you are getting into here.

If your mother has been to the hospital 10 times in 2 years, there should be some physicans involved in her care that you could talk with to request an opportunity to shadow. It takes some creativity sometimes.

If you were living close to the poverty line during at least part of 0-18 you might want to self-identify as "disadvantaged" and provide the additional short statement on your childhood circumstances. Your mother's current illness (after you turned 18) doesn't factor in to childhood disadvantage.

This is not a measure of your current financial status (FASIS does that); it is possible to be making $90,000/yr and self-identify as having had a disadvantaged childhood. It is possible to have had a golden childhood and to have fallen on hard times during college or after college (natural disaster, parent's death, etc) and with some creativity those can be worked in to the PS or the supplemental essay. Sometimes, if an advisor knows of the circumstances, they will be included in the "committee letter", too.

I have been this way my whole life. My mother has been unemployed since 2005. I asked because I am kind of scared that because of my little ECs I have I wont be getting in. About the shadowing, I feel that because I am darker than most I won't be taken seriously. I have had this happen before and it demolished my hopes.

 

[theseeker4]

The applicant still needs to prove they know what a career in medicine involves and that they are passionate about it. Someone who walks in with a 3.7 gpa while attending local schools part-time, 30 MCAT and a 45-hour a week job as a assistant manager at Red Lobster and no shadowing, no work or volunteerism in a clinical setting, no community service is not going to rise to the top of my list of people who have a passion for medicine. They may be a hard worker and even a good manager but I want to see that they know what medicine is about. I can recall a military veteran and civil engineer who dropped a good paying job to go into medicine and ended up deeply in debt and very unhappy at the end of it all.

Not arguing with you, but for my n=1 experience, I had no shadowing when applying and started volunteering the same month I applied, and was successful (EDP, so one school). I am fairly confident the fact that I have had a variety of jobs before, a family, etc. mitigated some of the negative effect my lack of traditional EC's had on my application. Obviously variable from school to school and committee member to committee member.

 

[SnowyRox]

Don't worry about your skin color; there's nothing you can do to change that.

You want to make sure that your spoken English is impeccable if it's your third language. Nothing is worse to patients than not being able to understand their doctors. I had to "translate" for my grandma when my grandpa was in the hospital and his doctor had a very strong indian accent. It drove her crazy.

Make sure that you're dressing professionally for these opportunities. You want to dress for the job you want, not the job you have. You can't go wrong with a tucked-in button down shirt, a tie, nice pants, and polished shoes. Might be overkill for some instances, but you want to look neat & clean. Clean is VERY important. No body odor or colognes.

And don't be afraid to ask for shadowing opportunities. The word "volunteer" is less appropriate than "shadow" if you just want to follow a doctor around and see what he does. The worst he can say is no, and the best is yes. Only fear will keep you from finding out the answer.

 

[Yonko Shanks]

Don't worry about your skin color; there's nothing you can do to change that.

You want to make sure that your spoken English is impeccable if it's your third language. Nothing is worse to patients than not being able to understand their doctors. I had to "translate" for my grandma when my grandpa was in the hospital and his doctor had a very strong indian accent. It drove her crazy.

Make sure that you're dressing professionally for these opportunities. You want to dress for the job you want, not the job you have. You can't go wrong with a tucked-in button down shirt, a tie, nice pants, and polished shoes. Might be overkill for some instances, but you want to look neat & clean. Clean is VERY important. No body odor or colognes.

And don't be afraid to ask for shadowing opportunities. The word "volunteer" is less appropriate than "shadow" if you just want to follow a doctor around and see what he does. The worst he can say is no, and the best is yes. Only fear will keep you from finding out the answer.

Thanks for the tips and reply. Yes I speak perfect english and spanish and creole. I will continue searching for docs to let me shadow.