Peterock said:
Not everyone can tell whether or not you were poor growing up or if you've had cancer in the past. Sometimes, you choose to make this knowledge known to provide insight into who you are to another person. What is
obvious is that people who live through poverty or chronic diseases generally do not pursue academics as much as someone without these occurences ...aka disadvantages. So when these people apply to medical school, they highlight their accomplishments just like everyone else and their challenges make their accomplishments that much brighter. (Are you simply jealous of that?)
The average medical student is upper middle class. The average couple in my state makes roughly 42k and is laughably poor compared to the average family whose child is in medical school. Medical students may be impoverished due to their parents not directly funding them anymore, but they have grown up with the luxuries of connections, insider information, Kaplan, tutors, private schools, and most importantly, parents who have either directly been in competitive academic systems or at least know that they are key in their child's success. Becoming a medical student is an obviously biased system. I'm sorry if someone didn't hand you this memo at your filthy rich young Republican convention.
<-- see a smiley face, I know you like them!
I agree with your third paragraph. It's unfortunately very true.
Most people can remember traumatic events back to the age of 3 or 4 with some minor details. To remember something from when I was nine isn't exactly remarkable. My 7 year old niece thought she was cute when she took regular scissors and gave herself a partial mohawk.... I don't think kids cutting their own hair is exactly novel.
It'd be much easier to respect your posts if they weren't as insulting as they are. I'm guessing you're a 20-something yourself, and when you throw around barbs like saying the opinions in this thread are sophomoric I can only wonder what kind of person you are and where your motivations lie... I feel you are more than skilled enough as a writer to say " adcoms might think" instead of just stating what you
personally think . See... I've interviewed as as a disadv. student and have had my past brought up in my interviews. I see that some people don't care and others do.
Who have you talked to that gives you insight on this?
Your post was simply your rant on what you think, not on what you've experienced. I do think your last few sentences are very important and we'd all like to know what adcoms are thinking. I can only wonder what a bunch of white 60-somethings think about a person who applies disadvantaged. I don't know... are you a 50-60 year-old adcom or are you just a 20-25 year old from the suburbs?
My post wasn't at all cathartic. In fact, it was pretty damn constipated considering I held back exactly what I thought of you. I still feel like I'm showing you more respect than you've showed me.
I'm sorry your post wasn't as cathartic as I'd hoped. Again, my original post wasn't there to discredit your opinions. I didn't know of your existence until your "reply" came unto the scene. The intention of my post was to balance the opinions that were being touted in the thread, which at the time in _my opinion_ were misleading, largely because of the differences in demographics between ad-coms and pre-meds.
I don't think it's foul play to mention "disadvantages" such as going through cancer, a disease of a loved one, or growing up poor in a county where the term evolution is used a harbinger of evil. The white space for the personal statement is there for that. If somethng is so critical for the development of your personality and character -- by all means, let it pour. What I think is wrong is to specifically label oneself "disadvantaged" on the application unless the fact is truly transparent. And by wrong I simply mean a bit unwise, which was I think highlighted by another poster on this thread who applied disadvantaged and had justifiable reasons for doing so. If you apply as "disadvantaged," your whole file better have an impressive list of grievances to fate, or you may be dismissed as a whiny little black/white/asian boy/girl/whatever. I know I would.
What I think is what I've lived, either directly or indirectly, and always through sensory experience. I think any other claim would be epistemologically absurd. But, maybe you have other ideas?
The upper middle-class thing: I don't know. I'd like to take a poll of how many parents of pre-meds can afford the premiums on their health insurance. I know quite a few who can't. Surely, these are anecdotal cases and don't make for a solid study, but... it's fodder for opinion.
And the rest of that list, too: "luxuries of connections, insider information, Kaplan, tutors, private schools, and most importantly, parents who have either directly been in competitive academic systems or at least know that they are key in their child's success." Very amusing.
I'm sorry, but that sounds like the whiny motto of someone who complains of "the rich white folk with all the advantages," although it seems you've had quite a bit of support to get this far.
By the way, for me those are: no, no, no, no, no, and a resounding no.
I have had one major advantage in my life: a $70,000 grant in the form of free public middle and high-school education. And so I'm not jealous of other people's successes, as I'm quite proud of my own.
As far as your interviews went; well, I hope they went well. If I were interviewing you, a self-labeled disadvantaged student, I'd certainly bring up your past too, but not because I'd particularly care about your past. Instead I'd wonder whether you'd fit in at the school, whether your personal characteristics merit acceptance, whether your application as "disadvantaged" is more than just living through poverty, or a minor chronic disease, or being a minority, or not being born here .... well, most things that matter very little.
Please keep in mind that I have not attacked you personally; I know very little about you, although I don't think we'd get along very well.
🙂 I still don't think you remember much of anything from when you were eight. I know I flayed my hand open with a knife while cutting an apple when I was six, but I don't quite remember this, although I have evidence of it on my hand. And I doubt your sister remembers much of anything about her mohawk, except maybe the hilarious stories of the incident often retold to her to "solidify her memory." Memory is fleeting but false memories are easily constructed.
I wonder what yours will be of this exchange. Ciao.
