Does a Parent being an alumni of a school mean anything?

[mathnerd88]

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Having a parent who is a physician alumni is like having one foot in the door. If it was insignificant, then why do they even ask the question on every single application? Every app I've come across has always asked if I've had a relative who went to the school.

Look at my previous post in this thread about PCOM. Statistics don't lie, having a parent who is an alum provides a significant advantage.

My secondary also asks if you've ever had a speeding ticket.

In any case, I didn't list any osteopathic physicians on my app and I am already getting interest from schools. I don't see how knowing family in do school helps much.

Last year, I listed my sister as a relative in allopathic schools. Got no interest. While it may help, it is negligible

 

[TopTomato]

My secondary also asks if you've ever had a speeding ticket.

In any case, I didn't list any osteopathic physicians on my app and I am already getting interest from schools. I don't see how knowing family in do school helps much.

Right.. and not EVERY application asks if you've had a speeding ticket, but EVERY application does ask if a relative is an alumni of the school.

When you say "my secondary", i'm going to guess that you're a premed who's filling out applications and has yet to set foot in medical school, however when you do get here, you're going to realize how many of your peers have parents/relatives who are alumni of the school. Not only that, but you'll also get more inside information about faculty members and about which ones pulled strings for certain students to get them in. The medical community is small, and the DO community is even smaller. I've had professors find out a classmate's last name, and then stop lecture to tell an old residency story about their parents.

 

[mathnerd88]

Right.. and not EVERY application asks if you've had a speeding ticket, but EVERY application does ask if a relative is an alumni of the school.

When you say "my secondary", i'm going to guess that you're a premed who's filling out applications and has yet to set foot in medical school, however when you do get here, you're going to realize how many of your peers have parents/relatives who are alumni of the school. Not only that, but you'll also get more inside information about faculty members and about which ones pulled strings for certain students to get them in. The medical community is small, and the DO community is even smaller. I've had professors find out a classmate's last name, and then stop lecture to tell an old residency story about their parents.

What we both are doing is a fallacy. Just because your parents are DO's doesn't mean you get a significant advantage in your application. In the end, the adcoms make the choice. If your parents went to that school and had a bad reputation with the adcoms, you're not going to be looked on favorably. Honestly, in the end is who you know, and which connections you make.

Is it harder to make connections into the medical field if you don't have any relatives in medicine? Sure, but it isn't as significantly hard as you say it is. My parents never went to medical school and I don't find it particularly difficult to find shadowing opportunities with DO's, or research opportunities with MD's. All you need to do is make connections with the right people.