How does religion affect admissions?

[easilydoctor]

This is a two part thread that covers an interesting topic; religion and the applicant.


First, I have a bit of a conundrum. I am reluctant to put the title of being the founder of Atheists, Agnostics and Free Thinkers club for fear of a devout [insert religion] putting their piety over the application process. Though it's probably unethical, it is not beyond possibilities of having an effect on gaining admissions. I know there are plenty of religious What do you guys think?


Second, I though it'd be interesting how religion plays a role in the applicant GPA-wise.

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[StIGMA]

It is against the law to discriminate on the basis of religion (considering medical schools are accepting federal dollars). Please post the laws if you know them.

Religious beliefs likely have no effect on GPA. People are people. My college fraternity was based on religious beliefs and had the highest fraternity GPA on campus. Is this because we were religious? Well, it likely had more to do with not partying.

My advice to anyone is to do what they feel comfortable with in the application process. There is no real reason to hide your accomplishments, and the admissions staff will not arbitrarily throw out your application because you founded a legitimate club. Do you want to go to a school that does not accept you for you anyways? For your application, you can put 'Founder and president of university club' and then describe it below if you are uncomfortable with having the name of the club in the title.

 

[searun]

If you want to marry a hot Jewish girl, and make your mom, and her mom, happy, this is huge. HUGE!

 

[VTBuc]

At each of my interviews I was asked in a positive light about my father being a minister(I mentioned it in my PS). I'd imagine the adcoms just want to know that you think about things other than medicine(same reason they ask about politics) and that being an atheist won't hurt you.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

There's likely no discrimination in the application. However during the interview your bound to see it a few times.

So I mean it's a 50/50 thing. If your interviewer is ( insert belief or lack of here) and you are too then you'll get a some points, it's bias. However at the same time that why you have more then 1 interviewer meet with you.
So in my opinion I'd try to avoid pissing him off by keeping the interview as far away from the 3 evils ( politics, religion/ beliefs, sexual orientation/ interests ( yah, we really want to tell a 60 year old adcom who's likely conservative that your gay won't sit well with them. Like wise telling your adcom who's a devote redskins fan that they failed again this year isn't going to get you any love). Keep it as impersonally personal as possible lol.



Anyways this poll sucks already. You've failed to opperationalize the variables. Religiousity needs to be declared or explained to better suit the variable, does agnosticism or open minded theism count as that or is it non-religious? Spiritualism and or belief in a god without actual affiliation with a organized faith or religion also posses a problem to your poll as they are technocly not religiousity by some people.
But again this religiosity is a topic of subjectiveness, I believe somewhat in god but am not part of a religious organization. Thus I declare myself as non-religious. However a different person with the same tendency might believe this is religiosity.

 

[ARK013]

At each of my interviews I was asked in a positive light about my father being a minister(I mentioned it in my PS). I'd imagine the adcoms just want to know that you think about things other than medicine(same reason they ask about politics) and that being an atheist won't hurt you.

That's what my interviewer told me during my interview. He said he didn't care about my religious beliefs in the slightest he just wanted to see what else I was interested in.

 

[afugazzi]

I'm not sure whether being a leader of such a club would help or hurt. As to the other question, this paper found a negative correlation between religiosity and SAT scores, for whatever it's worth:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1384909

This one found a negative correlation between religiosity and IQ:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...serid=10&md5=db2ee09bae0195cc1ecbd026da77245c

But there may be studies out there showing the opposite result and I just can't find them.

 

[TreeOfSouls]

I think that going into the topic of religion in a med school interview/PS is risky and I personally wouldn't. That topic generates too much controversy and people often hold weird stereotypes about whatever group they're NOT. I would definitely NOT count on non-discrimination laws to protect you here because the composition of medical school classes in general should tell you that the process favors homogeneity- consciously or not. It seems like the best thing is to find other ways to be interesting/different without treading into the controversial areas that can end badly! I have leadership and volunteer experiences that I will not include for that reason, though it would be great if I could in a more equitable world. But, I've done enough other things that it won't matter when I apply. Have you done other things that you could highlight instead or was that your major leadership position?

 

[mcgyver]

Second, I though it'd be interesting how religion plays a role in the applicant GPA-wise.

why do you think it's interesting? i guess you think religion may influence an applicant's academic performance, thus the GPA?

 

[boaz]

This is a two part thread that covers an interesting topic; religion and the applicant.


First, I have a bit of a conundrum. I am reluctant to put the title of being the founder of Atheists, Agnostics and Free Thinkers club for fear of a devout [insert religion] putting their piety over the application process. Though it's probably unethical, it is not beyond possibilities of having an effect on gaining admissions. I know there are plenty of religious What do you guys think?


Second, I though it'd be interesting how religion plays a role in the applicant GPA-wise.

I would say it's not a problem to list that activity, unless the club was involved in some kind of crazy behavior. The same would be the case for someone listing an activity involving a religious club, as long as that didn't involve crazy behavior. Admissions committees want sane, balanced, and mature people who won't be an embarrassment to the school.

Also, most people involved in med school admissions are not extremists (of either sort, religious or anti-religious) and are thus tolerant of views different from their own.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

I am reluctant to put the title of being the founder of Atheists, Agnostics and Free Thinkers club for fear of a devout [insert religion] putting their piety over the application process. .

I find these two phrases somewhat of an interesting contrast...

On the one hand you are head of the club for "free thinkers"

On the other you fall into the typical trap of judging others for their religious beliefs and assuming intolerance...

 

[superccat]

This is a two part thread that covers an interesting topic; religion and the applicant.


First, I have a bit of a conundrum. I am reluctant to put the title of being the founder of Atheists, Agnostics and Free Thinkers club for fear of a devout [insert religion] putting their piety over the application process. Though it's probably unethical, it is not beyond possibilities of having an effect on gaining admissions. I know there are plenty of religious What do you guys think?


Second, I though it'd be interesting how religion plays a role in the applicant GPA-wise.

God has commanded me to learn medication so I can go to Heaven. If you are not becoming a M.D, you will go to hell with Darwin, Thomas Paine, and Immanuel Kant.

 

[Baron Samedi]

God has commanded me to learn medication so I can go to Heaven. If you are not becoming a M.D, you will go to hell with Darwin, Thomas Paine, and Immanuel Kant.

Please don't ever be my doctor.

 

[superccat]

Please don't ever be my doctor.

Don't worry, I am just "joking"😛😛

 

[Ischemic]

Who the hell cares?

 

[afugazzi]

I'm interested in getting more stats on the poll above (I am learning stats and I'd like to use the data set for practice!)

 

[Web MD]

This poll won't help much then since SDN isn't representative of the pre-med population as a whole - you're definitely going to have selection bias. Plus you're probably only going to get the people who feel incredibly strongly about this issue answering

 

[jturkel]

If you want to marry a hot Jewish girl, and make your mom, and her mom, happy, this is huge. HUGE!

pff....those are like 1 in a million. which means there are probably under 20 in the world. then if you wanna try to find one who is half smart AND good looking....well, you are SOL