Parental biographic information on AMCAS as a non trad

[nontrad33]

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Hey all, back with another question since this group has been so helpful already. I am a very non-trad applicant (in my thirties) and am struggling with what to list as my parents' occupations and what not in the AMCAS biographic info section. The rest of this section seems to focus on time up until age 18, so my inclination is to list what my parents did for a living during that time (it has since changed, not significantly in terms of upward mobility or SES status but I would classify them in a different category from the available options). Additionally, while my parents divorced when I was very young, my step-parents did not enter the picture until many years later when I was an independent adult. They have not raised me nor contributed towards my educational expenses etc. Do I need to list them (and any step siblings) in this section or would I be okay to list only my bio parents and sibling? None of my parents, step or otherwise, will be helping me financially with med school. I called AAMC but they indicated there was no hard and fast rule.

Thanks for any advice you can offer!

 

[LizzyM]

It might help you to know how this information is being used:

https://www.aamc.org/download/330166/data/seseffectivepractices.pdf

If either parent had a career that influenced you in your career choices (helps explain your earlier career choices) then it might be strategic to list that (e.g. you went into teaching or accounting because you had a parent in that field).

IMHO it is more useful to list their occupation when they were in the workforce than to list "retired".

I would say that it is not necessary to list step parents and step siblings who you did not grow up with but who joined the family after you reached adulthood.

 

[Campana]

I really like LizzyM's advice and probably would have filled out my application differently had I read that last year.

I filled out my parent's information as it is now (I'm older than OP) - which means my parents are both retired. My system-derived SES indicator came out as Unknown since they only had my parent's education levels to use instead of also having their careers. Out on interviews, I was surprised to see how many applicants come from medical families. I can now see that my non-medical family was definitely a factor in pursuing this later.

 

[deleted967981]

I’m in my 30s, I filled out my parents’ info based on when I was 18/senior in high school.

 

[nontrad33]

Thank you all! This confirms my own suspicions about how I should approach the topic, especially as at least one of my parents' work inspired some of my early direction despite it not being the best fit for me. LizzyM thank you for the link, this document gave me a much better picture of the goal med schools have in collecting this information!