My Dirty Little Secret!!

[mdsadler]

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Ok. I have finally made up my mind and I feel more comfortable about this decision now than I ever really thought I would. I am very happy to know that I will enter this admissions process comfortable with what I present to the adcoms.

In complete frustration I called my endo and spoke with him. He essentially summed up all the opinions I have received to date in a simple expression, "It will be a neutral." It will not hinder nor benefit my application but will simply offer a way for the adcoms to understand who I am and what my life entails. In addition he said, "if anyone has a problem with it, tell them to talk to me and I will tell them you are in excellent control." This man is one of the many reasons why I want to be a doctor, something which I speak on in my original PS.

In my PS I will talk about my diabetes and how it has motivated me to become a doctor. I want to thank everyone for their comments and help. Also, I hope that this forum has opened some eyes for many future doctors. Although we will think we are the masters and know everything about illness and disease, we won't be the ones living with it. Textbooks do not clearly portray the realities of living with disease.This thread has shown some disturbing prejudices and I really hope that this is one way we can inform those who do not live with DM and other diseases on a daily basis.

Thanks everyone.

 

[hakksar]

The key word here is "AFTER". The school cannot dismiss someone after an acceptance for medical reasons--contrary to what you stated in your first post. Whether they disclosed the information prior to acceptance or not, it is not grounds for rescinding the acceptance.

Actually they can dismiss someone after an acceptance for medical reasons. If the person is not able to meet the medical standards for admissions (for instance sufficient visual, auditory, behavior, and communication abilities) the school can dismiss a student at any time. They cannot dismiss a student for medical reasons that do not cause the student to not be able to meet these requirements.

In addition, schools cannot legally refuse to accept someone due to medical reasons that do not affect the medical standards for admissions (for this reason I think that disclosing DM in the PS might actually help in the admissions process since rejecting an applicant due to a perceived bias about the DM would be excellent justification for an ADA lawsuit).

I think all the concern about potential bias against diabetics due to a perceived bias is foolish. If you have the experience with medicine that having DM causes it should be mentioned in your PS. Especially, if you decided to pursue medicine because of your diabetes . . .