Out of country URMs

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Do URM benefits apply to out of country applicants? ie. Canadian URMs?

Thanks.

 

[NotSur]

doubt it

 

[Dr Lyss]

No

 

[Bernoull]

YES, IF you have US citizenship or permanent residency.

 

[Dr Lyss]

YES, IF you have US citizenship or permanent residency.

URM = African American, Main Island Puerto Rican, Native American, Mexican

So if you are a permanent resident from Canada or Spain or France the answer is no

 

[ThaliaNox]

I disagree with the majority opinion in this thread. I went to school with several African students, all of them non-residents, who applied to medical school with me. They all got in with lower than average GPAs and MCAT scores. The trick for an out of country URM will be making sure the school you're applying to TAKES nonresident students. Canadians often have an easier time with this than African students, though. Some schools only accept out of country students from Canada, like Wayne State, for example. In summary, being a nonresident URM probably does help, as long as you apply to schools which take nonresidents.

To Dr. Lyss: Keep in mind that a BLACK Spaniard, Canadian or French person would also qualify as URM. I suspect this sort of URM status is what the OP is referring to. On the flipside, a white South African would not qualify as URM.

 

[Dr Lyss]

I disagree with the majority opinion in this thread. I went to school with several African students, all of them non-residents, who applied to medical school with me. They all got in with lower than average GPAs and MCAT scores. The trick for an out of country URM will be making sure the school you're applying to TAKES nonresident students. Canadians often have an easier time with this than African students, though. Some schools only accept out of country students from Canada, like Wayne State, for example. In summary, being a nonresident URM probably does help, as long as you apply to schools which take nonresidents.

To Dr. Lyss: Keep in mind that a BLACK Spaniard, Canadian or French person would also qualify as URM. I suspect this sort of URM status is what the OP is referring to. On the flipside, a white South African would not qualify as URM.

This is the definition from : http://www.aamc.org/meded/urm/start.htm

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Executive Committee adopted a clarification to its definition of "underrepresented in medicine" on March 19, 2004, titled "The status of the new AAMC definition of 'underrepresented in medicine' following the Supreme Court's decision in Grutter."

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) definition of underrepresented in medicine is:

"Underrepresented in medicine means those racial and ethnic populations that are underrepresented in the medical profession relative to their numbers in the general population."

Adopted by the AAMC's Executive Council on June 26, 2003, the definition helps medical schools accomplish three important objectives:

* a shift in focus from a fixed aggregation of four racial and ethnic groups to a continually evolving underlying reality. The definition accommodates including and removing underrepresented groups on the basis of changing demographics of society and the profession,
* a shift in focus from a national perspective to a regional or local perspective on underrepresentation, and
* stimulate data collection and reporting on the broad range of racial and ethnic self-descriptions.

Before June 26, 2003, the AAMC used the term "underrepresented minority (URM)," which consisted of Blacks, Mexican-Americans, Native Americans (that is, American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians), and mainland Puerto Ricans. The AAMC remains committed to ensuring access to medical education and medicine-related careers for individuals from these four historically underrepresented racial/ethnic groups.

so no a black spaniard or canadian is not considered a URM because the designation is not based on your skin color. It is based on your ethnicity & the percentage in the population.

Just because you know some people that got in with lower numbers doesn't mean they got in because they were URMs. I know plenty of Caucasian people with lower than average numbers that got accepted to schools too.

 

[LizzyM]

The race categories on the AMCAS include "Black/African-American". So, some international students do get tagged in the same category as African-Americans. If a school believes that such a student offers an interesting perspective and/or is likely to serve a community that lacks service providers, then that student may be offered an interview. If that goes well, the student may be offered admission.

Do keep in mind that the proportion of applicants who self-identify as Black/African-American is a very small proportion of all applicants.