Permanent resident status

[David_Allen_VA]

All,

I am a permanent resident here in the US. I fully intend to stay here for a long time (my wife and family are all American). Do med schools differentiate between US citizens and permanent residents, or do they have a box to check for 'US citizen/permanent resident' combined? This is worrying me. Surely my visa status should give no indication as to my commitment to practicing medicine in the United States?

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[UHS2002]

I am going to address both your posts in this one. For starters, you are not really an "older" applicant as far as med schools are concerned. The unofficial cut off age, where schools really start to have second thoughts about you is 33-34 years old, so your age should not worry you.

As for your "permanent resident" status, medical schools cannot legally discriminate against permanent residents, but they do...particularly state schools, even though, by law, you are a resident of your state. Part of it may be ignorance of what "permanent resident" really means. Nobody keeps stats on the percentage of qualified permanent residents who applied and got accepted, but if you take an informal survey, you will find many overqualified permanent residents who weren't accepted.

Keep your performance up and get good MCAT scores and the schools will not have a good excuse not to interview you. That is, if you get rejected without interviews, you have good grounds to call them up and talk to their ad com people about the "why", remember, they cannot come right out and say that is because you are a permanent resident.

Good luck!

 

[Arti]

David

Permanent residents, as far as I have heard and experienced personally are not at a disadvantaged at all. You should have no problem. It may acctually help you if you have a diverse background but make sure to mention it in either your interview or essay.


Arti