diversity offices

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brisingr

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Hi guys, I'm gearing up for this application season and I was just curious about any experiences with schools diversity offices that anyone has had before they matriculated to the school. Did you contact the office when you were applying? What did you say? Were they helpful in anyway during the application process?
Thanks!

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Diversity offices are awesome, but in my opinion they don't become particularly helpful until the interview. I would make a point of meeting with a representative in the office (the higher up the better) during your interview day to reiterate your interest in the school and inquire about their support for medical students. Post-acceptance, diversity offices may help with second-look flights and financial aid negotiations do definitely stay in touch. Sometimes, When I didn't get a chance to talk to minority students who were out of state like me, I would ask them to connect me to someone.
 
The diversity office at my school hosts a program over the summer where you take sample sessions, do counseling/stress-managment/note-taking seminars etc. and shadow a doctor. Its not for grades, just to ease you into med school so that you know what to expect. It's offered to everybody, but I mean it's put on by the diversity office so...

I think they also set up a mentoring program and pair you with a current student.

Maybe some of the schools you're applying to do something similar?
 
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Well Penn doesn't have one anymore, but when we did it was very helpful.
 
Hello everyone,

I am currently applying to med school, and am wondering to what degree emails from diversity offices should influence the school to which I will be applying. I registered for Med-MAR when I signed up for the MCAT, and I've steadily been receiving emails from various diversity offices encouraging me to apply. I'm on a limited budget, and unfortunately, I did not qualify for the fee waiver. Thus, I'm trying to be as strategic as possible with my applications. I narrowed my list down to 15 schools, for which either my GPA or MCAT score at least meet the 10th percentile (as indicated on MSAR). My greatest concern is that I'm not sure if I should apply to schools on the sole basis of receiving communication from their diversity office. For a few of the schools, my stats are within the 10th to 90th percentile, so I've added those to my list. But for others, I do not meet this criteria, is it still worth it to apply? To what degree does minority status weigh into admissions decisions? Has anyone else been in or going through this? Any advise gladly appreciated.
 
Hello everyone,

I am currently applying to med school, and am wondering to what degree emails from diversity offices should influence the school to which I will be applying. I registered for Med-MAR when I signed up for the MCAT, and I've steadily been receiving emails from various diversity offices encouraging me to apply. I'm on a limited budget, and unfortunately, I did not qualify for the fee waiver. Thus, I'm trying to be as strategic as possible with my applications. I narrowed my list down to 15 schools, for which either my GPA or MCAT score at least meet the 10th percentile (as indicated on MSAR). My greatest concern is that I'm not sure if I should apply to schools on the sole basis of receiving communication from their diversity office. For a few of the schools, my stats are within the 10th to 90th percentile, so I've added those to my list. But for others, I do not meet this criteria, is it still worth it to apply? To what degree does minority status weigh into admissions decisions? Has anyone else been in or going through this? Any advise gladly appreciated.
I am sure there is some kind of MCAT cutoff that schools use to send these letters, but I don't think that this cutoff is necessarily very close to the MCAT scores the school's students typically fall under. I wouldn't see a letter from MED-MAR as an indication that you have a good chance, esp since your application is more than your MCAT. I would see it as an indication that a school is trying to broaden its pool of minority applicants because it is interested in increasing or maintaining its URM population. It's like receiving college applications in the mail as a college senior--getting an app from MIT on the basis of your SAT math score doesn't mean you're a shoe-in for their engineering program
 
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