Is medical school just for rich kids?

[darkjedi]

I don't want colleagues like the rest of you here on SDN, I really don't, so I have decided not to be a doctor but to pursue an alternative career. I won't be visiting this site (or Reddit premed) again.

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[Fabio Lanzoni]

I really dislike her letters...

Complaining about traveling, complaining about debt, complaining about family medicine pay, complaining about people having an advantage using prep courses, etc.

I had no money for prep courses, yet I bought MCAT books off ebay, self studied and did well. I could not afford to apply to many schools - or travel extensively, so I stuck to schools close to me (thankfully I am on the east coast and a few schools within 6 hour drive). I had no family help or scholarships or trust funds - my med school was paid for by loans *AND* I work family medicine!

I agree she is very whiny and her point does not come across effectively whatsoever. However, I would like to point out again that while your struggles are far more difficult than most pre meds and still made it, her problem (along with many Native Americans according to this thread) is that she has no SSN, so she can't even get loans to in the first place she were to get in. Many of you are failing to realize there is a difference between not having a birth certificate/SSN and being underprivileged. Without that SSN, it is hard to get a job to support yourself during college, to get FAFSA based grants, or get loans for medical school. So it really isn't the same thing. Now, she's complaining like a little diva, which makes most of us not really feel for her, but there is some truth despite all those racist remarks she makes.

I really like this post and your point of view about their perspectives make a lot of sense.

What would you suggest doing to equalize the playing field for applicants, especially with regards to standardized tests? I absolutely detest how unforgiving this process is. A person with a 40 mcat and like 1 EC can get into a good medical school, but someone who doesn't perform well for any reason (e.g., can't afford all the expensive resources) and does their best on every other aspect of the application is just often times left out of the running. Every solution I think of isn't much better and there's only so subjective adcoms can be. Aside from URMs I want those from all backgrounds who faced difficult circumstances and struggled to be able to have a chance. URM does provide a level of subjectivity, but it's far too narrow and limiting imo. There are white, asian, indian, or middle easterners who face large amounts of adversity as well.

The amcas also does something that is even more frustrating by claiming that their new mcat can test for compassion and empathy, which is the biggest ******* joke ever. No compassion and empathy could ever hope to be measured by a standardized test where this only one right or wrong answer based off of some severely limited premises. It disgusts me.

I don't have a better system to make this more fair. It is, after all, a standardized test. You have to be able to differentiate between similar candidates somehow. This was the method chosen and it gets its job done. I may not necessarily agree with how the MCAT is written but I don't have any better solutions.

 

[sector9]

Closing thread as it is far off topic at this point.