Does being gay count as a URM in medicine?

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JustACavalier

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So I've heard from other gay guys, some current doctors and some pre-med, that being gay (if referenced in the PS or brought up tastefully in an interview) can help medical school admissions, as it shows diversity and LGBT in medicine is lacking.

Obviously I wouldn't just throw "I'm GAY" into a conversation or essay, but I have done a few EC's that are somewhat connected to LGBT medicine:

HIV research lab (at university and abroad for a summer)
Exec board for AIDs awareness club
May volunteer at HIV/AIDS testing clinic next year

Ultimately I do want to go into either clinical research for HIV or something related to infectious disease, and I hope to get into a top 20 medical school in a big city. Would mentioned my sexual orientation be a good move in apps or interviews?

EDIT: I'm not asking asking if this is a way for me to "game" the system, I'm asking if, since i'm planning on going into HIV/AIDs medicine, being gay would be something I should mention.
 
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if it is your identity and influences your pursuit of medicine I'd find a way of bringing it up in a diplomatic way. DOn't just use it as a way to get a one-up on other applicants. like there's are constant URM threads where people ask if tanning to pass off mexican will help their admissions. Don't be like that. I think you have a great way of addressing this in a personal statement and/or diversity essay. Putting it into the disadvantaged section of your app is a bit of a gray area but if you feel it affected you that way (realistically to your detriment) then go for it. Would you use it in essays if it didn't identify you as URM? because if your answer to that is yes, then go for it.
 
No. Google the aamc definition of URM. Now... Everything that you put on your app gives adcoms an idea of what kind of person you are and what type of physician you might become. If you have been active in your service to the lgbt community and you plan to continue this in med school and beyond, that might "help" you in some schools. This is because lgbt communities are underserved.
 
mrh125 said:
if it is your identity and influences your pursuit of medicine I'd find a way of bringing it up in a diplomatic way. DOn't just use it as a way to get a one-up on other applicants. like there's are constant URM threads where people ask if tanning to pass off mexican will help their admissions. Don't be like that. I think you have a great way of addressing this in a personal statement and/or diversity essay. Putting it into the disadvantaged section of your app is a bit of a gray area but if you feel it affected you that way (realistically to your detriment) then go for it. Would you use it in essays if it didn't identify you as URM? because if your answer to that is yes, then go for it.
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Yeah I don't plan on saying I am disadvantaged by it, I meant more that it is something that distinguishes me
 
Not considered URM for being gay, but it definitely is something diverse you can say about yourself.

Throw it into secondary essays every time you see "how would you contribute to diversity at our school" or any other secondary prompt it would naturally come up in. Probably doesn't need to go into your personal statement unless it was an important factor for you that helped you decide to become a doctor.

On interviews, thoroughly research schools and ask about LGBT health programs and whatnot. If a school has a particular mission or great resources for LGBT health (not to stereotype, but I'm sure UCSF is a good example of that) you'll be making yourself an attractive candidate for the school by stressing the importance of that to you. Standing out amongst the crowd is important in these situations, and as you've already expressed in this thread, it's in line with your long-term goals.
 
Northwestern is one school that specifically reaches out to LGBT students. Specifically:

" Feinberg defines the following groups as underrepresented in medicine: African American, Latino, Native American, Native Hawaiian, and students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBT)."

Source: http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/diversity/recruitment/prosp-students.html


There are probably other schools with the same view. However, for AMCAS purposes, do not mark URM. Instead, as others have pointed out, make it evident in your secondaries that serving LGBT communities is a large part of your passion for medicine.
 
JustACavalier said:
So I've heard from other gay guys, some current doctors and some pre-med, that being gay (if referenced in the PS or brought up tastefully in an interview) can help medical school admissions, as it shows diversity and LGBT in medicine is lacking.

Obviously I wouldn't just throw "I'm GAY" into a conversation or essay, but I have done a few EC's that are somewhat connected to LGBT medicine:

HIV research lab (at university and abroad for a summer)
Exec board for AIDs awareness club
May volunteer at HIV/AIDS testing clinic next year

Ultimately I do want to go into either clinical research for HIV or something related to infectious disease, and I hope to get into a top 20 medical school in a big city. Would mentioned my sexual orientation be a good move in apps or interviews?
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I believe you're considered URM at Northwestern, but—and someone correct me if I'm mistaken—nowhere else, even though you should be. Honesty in your application and your interviews will reflect well on you. If it didn't, would you want to attend that school?
 
Selladore235 said:
I believe you're considered URM at Northwestern, but—and someone correct me if I'm mistaken—nowhere else, even though you should be. Honesty in your application and your interviews will reflect well on you. If it didn't, would you want to attend that school?
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Not necessarily true. Yale also does actively recruit members of the LGBT community, and Penn has a large LGBT presence. On top of that, Harvard and Stanford have secondary questions that ask about your background and identity, and many do talk about their sexual orientation in these essays.
 
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Shjanzey said:
I have a mole on my elbow - am I URM?
I identify as Hipster - am I URM?
I have a hangnail - am I disadvantaged?

Here are a few more ideas for silly new threads. Go ahead and use them, I provide this as a free service to all.
Click to expand...

You've just equated queerness with hipsters and elbow moles. Regardless of your objections, the OP's questions and concerns are valid.
 
nemo123 said:
Not necessarily true. Yale also does actively recruit members of the LGBT community, and Penn has a large LGBT presence. On top of that, Harvard and Stanford have secondary questions that ask about your background and identity, and many do talk about the sexual orientation in these essays.
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Great! glad to hear it.
 
Shjanzey said:
I have a mole on my elbow - am I URM?
I identify as Hipster - am I URM?
I have a hangnail - am I disadvantaged?

Here are a few more ideas for silly new threads. Go ahead and use them, I provide this as a free service to all.
Click to expand...

Oh god... hipsters
 
As above posters mentioned some schools (e.g.Northwestern) do consider LGBTQ students URM or at least an underserved population. If I remember correctly (I may be wrong) some secondaries asked about sexual orientation so I definitely think its something you can talk about in your secondaries.
 
nemo123 said:
Not necessarily true. Yale also does actively recruit members of the LGBT community, and Penn has a large LGBT presence. On top of that, Harvard and Stanford have secondary questions that ask about your background and identity, and many do talk about the sexual orientation in these essays.
Click to expand...

any schools outside the top 10 that you know of?
 
Shjanzey said:
I have a mole on my elbow - am I URM?
I identify as Hipster - am I URM?
I have a hangnail - am I disadvantaged?

Here are a few more ideas for silly new threads. Go ahead and use them, I provide this as a free service to all.
Click to expand...

There was a lecture in our introduction to clinical medicine class where we talked about underserved populations, which most definitely includes the LGBT community. It turns out that lots of transgender individuals actually fear going to the doctor. I think that having more openly LGBT physicians would help the community.

Aside from that, the OP sounds like my friend who was extremely successful in this current cycle. He is gay, but he's not the outwardly the "gay and proud type." In fact, his partner still says that he is straight on Facebook and at work. My friend ended up picking up a few LGBT-related ECs, which also included volunteering in an HIV/AIDS clinic. He made his homosexuality the centerpiece of his application, and he is holding numerous acceptances already. Whether he will actually end up practicing in the LGBT community remains to be determined, he may end up going the way of most pre-meds who proclaim their love for helping the underserved. Currently in my class, I know of two people who are very "gay and proud," and who claim they will serve in the LGBT community. It will definitely help to get more physicians like that on board. I also see people gaming the system, like my friend potentially, who I personally don't think wants to serve the community, yet picked up ECs specifically to play that angle on the application.

On SDN, you don't typically hear about people asking if being gay can be an advantage. On the other hand, there are some fascinating threads on other forums regarding this topic. Wallstreetoasis has some interesting threads about people using this as an advantage, and they are very open about it.
 
You are not URM, but that doesn't diminish the fact that you have a facet of your identity that holds strong personal value for you, possibly has shaped your personal and professional development thus far, and may well have some influence on your intended path in medicine .. and schools will be interested in all of those. Some schools explicitly will ask you to discuss your experiences with diversity (Northwestern comes to mind), and when schools ask questions on their secondary application like what distinguishes you as a candidate, or what you will bring to their class, or how you represent diversity, this is an appropriate response.

That being said, be sure to be honest, insightful, and creative - being an LGBT candidate isn't at all a unique situation, and I imagine that it's something that quite a few LGBT candidates will choose to write about.
 
aspirantmed said:
You are not URM, but that doesn't diminish the fact that you have a facet of your identity that holds strong personal value for you, possibly has shaped your personal and professional development thus far, and may well have some influence on your intended path in medicine .. and schools will be interested in all of those. Some schools explicitly will ask you to discuss your experiences with diversity (Northwestern comes to mind), and when schools ask questions on their secondary application like what distinguishes you as a candidate, or what you will bring to their class, or how you represent diversity, this is an appropriate response.

That being said, be sure to be honest, insightful, and creative - being an LGBT candidate isn't at all a unique situation, and I imagine that it's something that quite a few LGBT candidates will choose to write about.
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I agree with everything you said. And as for the bolded part, it's all about ECs, ECs, and ECs... If the applicant wants to show their passion and commitment to the community, they need to do it via ECs. If someone is LGBT, but has never done anything in the community, and just mentions it for the sake of mentioning it, I don't think that it will help them significantly in any way.
 
Just going to chime in here and echo what some other people have already said here: No, absolutely not, no. Being Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgendered, or any derivatives therein, does not make you a URM. URM, by and large, pertains to ethnicity - Alaskan/Native American, Pacific Islander, African-American, Afro-Carribean, Hispanic, and I am sure I've missed a few, but what/who you're into has nothing to do with your URM/ORM status in the circle of medical school admissions.

TL;DR - To sum, "No, you are not a special flower."
 
AsclepiusMD said:
Just going to chime in here and echo what some other people have already said here: No, absolutely not, no. Being Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgendered, or any derivatives therein, does not make you a URM. URM, by and large, pertains to ethnicity - Alaskan/Native American, Pacific Islander, African-American, Afro-Carribean, Hispanic, and I am sure I've missed a few, but what/who you're into has nothing to do with your URM/ORM status in the circle of medical school admissions.

TL;DR - To sum, "No, you are not a special flower."
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agreed. although I would not say that you are not special. growing up in the south, I have seen people treat members of the LGBT community far worse than any member of a specific ethnic/racial group. you are not a URM, but a lot of secondaries will ask about specific struggles or adversities that you have faced and I think this would be a good place to bring this up if that has been your experience.
 
Not URM for AMCAS, but I'd argue that lgbtq docs are underrepresented. Regardless, it's something you can bring up in essays asking about diversity and as mentioned some schools do "count" it. I was in the closet for my app, not IRL tho, because I was worried about repercussions. Looking back, I probably was a bit paranoid.

And seriously? Special flower? OP never said they wanted to game the system and they have plenty of ECs to back up the "actually give a shet" part of the community. It's a reasonable question
 
BeancheBlanco said:
any schools outside the top 10 that you know of?
Click to expand...

No idea, though being LGBT does add to the diversity of the student body at med schools, and schools are always looking to increase the diversity of their medical school classes.
 
Sorry if being transsexual does not cause one to be an URM, being gay certainly does not.

But what do I know? I am just a third going on fourth round LGBT applicant who even applied to schools that do "count" it.
 
familyaerospace said:
Sorry if being transsexual does not cause one to be an URM, being gay certainly does not.

But what do I know? I am just a third going on fourth round LGBT applicant who even applied to schools that do "count" it.
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Looking at your MDapps, I'm shocked that you haven't gotten in. Did you take the MCAT more than once? Have you gotten any feedback after the unsuccessful cycles?
 
Kaputt said:
Looking at your MDapps, I'm shocked that you haven't gotten in. Did you take the MCAT more than once? Have you gotten any feedback after the unsuccessful cycles?
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I've taken it more than once. It expires on me in July.

My feedback

Round 1 - school 1 don't be trans we need a balanced class

Round 2 - school 2 we can't accept people who are out even if they aren't going to tell the patients, school 3 because you are LGBT you can't work with straight people, also learn German (WL)

Round 3 - school 4 we can't accept Jews, school 2/interview 2 was told no deficiencies in the application (WL), school 5 I am actually scared to ask them, school 3/interview 2 waiting to hear back (WL).

I am preparing for round fricken four while I sit on two waitlists. I am going to submit next week as I am rewriting everything as I was told only a few days ago that I can afford to apply to two or three schools this round so I am going to apply to the two schools where I was waitlisted, then start studying and preparing to retake the new MCAT and apply for round 5.
 
familyaerospace said:
I've taken it more than once. It expires on me in July.

My feedback

Round 1 - school 1 don't be trans we need a balanced class

Round 2 - school 2 we can't accept people who are out even if they aren't going to tell the patients, school 3 because you are LGBT you can't work with straight people, also learn German (WL)

Round 3 - school 4 we can't accept Jews, school 2/interview 2 was told no deficiencies in the application (WL), school 5 I am actually scared to ask them, school 3/interview 2 waiting to hear back (WL).

I am preparing for round fricken four while I sit on two waitlists. I am going to submit next week as I am rewriting everything as I was told only a few days ago that I can afford to apply to two or three schools this round so I am going to apply to the two schools where I was waitlisted, then start studying and preparing to retake the new MCAT and apply for round 5.
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Holy crap, how is this not blatant discrimination...?
 
pDeluxe said:
Northwestern is one school that specifically reaches out to LGBT students. Specifically:

" Feinberg defines the following groups as underrepresented in medicine: African American, Latino, Native American, Native Hawaiian, and students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBT)."

Source: http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/diversity/recruitment/prosp-students.html


There are probably other schools with the same view. However, for AMCAS purposes, do not mark URM. Instead, as others have pointed out, make it evident in your secondaries that serving LGBT communities is a large part of your passion for medicine.
Click to expand...
Guess who just became bisexual? This guy.
 
Kaputt said:
Holy crap, how is this not blatant discrimination...?
Click to expand...

That school does not have a non-discrimination policy inclusive of the transsexual community. Nor does the state that the school is located in.

That state has incredibly high transsexual unemployment.
 
familyaerospace said:
That school does not have a non-discrimination policy inclusive of the transsexual community. Nor does the state that the school is located in.

That state has incredibly high transsexual unemployment.
Click to expand...

That sucks tremendously. It's ridiculous in this day and age that this sort of discrimination is blatant and accepted. I'm no law expert, but has anybody tried to take these places to task for discrimination? If these are public universities we're talking about, that's just ripe for the suing.

I'm sure you know more about it than I do and have weighed your options, but if discrimination is the only thing keeping you out, I'd say it's time to say Eff You to Georgia (easier said than done...moving just yourself is enough trouble, can't imagine the stress it would put on a family). I really hope it works out for you. If you're applying next year you should throw in some more applications to Northern schools in Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, etc.
 
Kaputt said:
That sucks tremendously. It's ridiculous in this day and age that this sort of discrimination is blatant and accepted. I'm no law expert, but has anybody tried to take these places to task for discrimination? If these are public universities we're talking about, that's just ripe for the suing.

I'm sure you know more about it than I do and have weighed your options, but if discrimination is the only thing keeping you out, I'd say it's time to say Eff You to Georgia (easier said than done...moving just yourself is enough trouble, can't imagine the stress it would put on a family). I really hope it works out for you. If you're applying next year you should throw in some more applications to Northern schools in Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, etc.
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It was private. Remember the state says they can discriminate.

I applied to five schools in the New England/North area last cycle as my partner currently lives in NH.

I did interview at Michigan State and was rejected.
 
jonnythan said:
Not a cool thing to say. Trivializes the lifestyle and struggle of a lot of people.
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I've been thinking about the same sex for a while, don't act like you know what it's like to be a struggling bisexual having to hide your desires. NOT COOL to publicly discriminate on an internet forum!
 
IL Pre Med said:
I've been thinking about the same sex for a while, don't act like you know what it's like to be a struggling bisexual having to hide your desires. NOT COOL to publicly discriminate on an internet forum!
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You said guess who just "became bisexual" as if it were a spur of the moment decision based on this thread.
 
JustACavalier said:
You said guess who just "became bisexual" as if it were a spur of the moment decision based on this thread.
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Okay, you're right. I made a joke of it because I'm trying to be cool and open with it because hiding it for a long time has been causing psychological issues considering I have a long term girlfriend. Sorry I wanted to anonymously make a joke to make myself feel better about a group I am starting to become comfortable associating with.
 
familyaerospace said:
It was private. Remember the state says they can discriminate.

I applied to five schools in the New England/North area last cycle as my partner currently lives in NH.

I did interview at Michigan State and was rejected.
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Could someone challenge that discrimination on the federal level, though?

I would have extended your list to include some of the following: Boston, Tufts, Drexel, Temple, Einstein, Case Western, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Minnesota, Mayo, Rush, UIC, Northwestern, Rosalind Franklin, Iowa, Georgetown, George Washington. Applying to only Harvard, Dartmouth, and Brown apparently didn't cut it :\

Sorry I inadvertently turned this into an advice-giving thread and I'll stop here.
 
IL Pre Med said:
Okay, you're right. I made a joke of it because I'm trying to be cool and open with it because hiding it for a long time has been causing psychological issues considering I have a long term girlfriend. Sorry I wanted to anonymously make a joke to make myself feel better about a group I am starting to become comfortable associating with.
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C'mon, you knew that implying that being bisexual is a choice you can turn on to get admissions cycle points would not go over well. And now you're trying to guilt people into apologizing for calling you out?
 
IL Pre Med said:
Okay, you're right. I made a joke of it because I'm trying to be cool and open with it because hiding it for a long time has been causing psychological issues considering I have a long term girlfriend. Sorry I wanted to anonymously make a joke to make myself feel better about a group I am starting to become com
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Come on man, no need to spin it around
 
Kaputt said:
C'mon, you knew that implying that being bisexual is a choice you can turn on to get admissions cycle points would not go over well. And now you're trying to guilt people into apologizing for calling you out?
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No apologies necessary, just drop it and move on please.
 
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