URM Advantage in Medicine

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LuciusVorenus said:
Maybe a more effective method than giving URM preference is a combination of something like two of UC Davis's programs.

Specifically a combination of "The Rural-Program In Medical Education" (designed for students interested in becoming physician leaders in rural California communities. Rural-PRIME curricular enhancements include: weekly seminars in the first and second years, leadership, community engagement and cultural competency, hands-on skill sessions, mentorship and teaching with rural physicians, clinical rotations in rural communities in the third year, leadership and research opportunities related to rural health in the final year) and their "Accelerated Competency-based Education in Primary Care (ACE-PC) program" (allows a select group of eligible students to complete medical school in 3 years and receive a conditional acceptance to a UC Davis or Kaiser Permanente Northern California residency program in primary care. Students who are accepted to the UCDSOM 4-year program and who plan a career in primary care Internal Medicine or Family Medicine will be considered for the program).

In other words, save seats for students who are willing to enter a program specifically designed at training rural primary care physicians?
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Beautiful.
 
LuciusVorenus said:
Maybe a more effective method than giving URM preference is a combination of something like two of UC Davis's programs.

Specifically a combination of "The Rural-Program In Medical Education" (designed for students interested in becoming physician leaders in rural California communities. Rural-PRIME curricular enhancements include: weekly seminars in the first and second years, leadership, community engagement and cultural competency, hands-on skill sessions, mentorship and teaching with rural physicians, clinical rotations in rural communities in the third year, leadership and research opportunities related to rural health in the final year) and their "Accelerated Competency-based Education in Primary Care (ACE-PC) program" (allows a select group of eligible students to complete medical school in 3 years and receive a conditional acceptance to a UC Davis or Kaiser Permanente Northern California residency program in primary care. Students who are accepted to the UCDSOM 4-year program and who plan a career in primary care Internal Medicine or Family Medicine will be considered for the program).

In other words, save seats for students who are willing to enter a program specifically designed at training rural primary care physicians?
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Yeah - there is something similar to this in Arkansas (and I'm sure many other rural states). Have they found this to be successful in keeping physicians in rural areas, or are they seeing them leave after residency? I think that this ends up being the overall concern: how do you weed out people that just say that they want to practice in rural areas in order to get a spot in medical school that would otherwise go to someone else? There seem to be lots of programs that aim to do this, but I wonder how successful they are at determining whether or not candidates are genuine.
 
yehhhboiii said:
in mountains beyond mountains the author talks about how he spent a ton of tom white's money and how he basically stole drugs from the pharmacy at the brigham
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eh, that doesn't mean he abused the generosity of rich people. i mean kidder made it pretty clear that tom knew exactly what he was getting into, and so did the brigham, at least eventually, from what i recall. i've been a missionary, and let me tell you, asking other people for money is one of the most humbling things you can do. but what you're doing is you're actually giving people the opportunity to partner with you - people who have that desire to help, but because of circumstance, family, laziness or whatever, can't or won't help with the hands-on sort of work. giving monetarily is one extraordinary and under-appreciated way people can make a real difference, and that's exactly what tom wanted to do with his money.
 
LizzyM said:
How might we find people who would be willing to devote 30-40 years of their professional lives to living in a hick town and serving the people there? What sort of people should we be looking at? What questions should we be asking? Who's going to deliver the babies, take care of the old folks with heart failure and treat the kids with asthma?
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As someone who spent many years growing up in a "hick town," I would suggest recruiting the "hicks" who have family ties to the area. A lot of these places in the middle of yonder are family towns with populations of less than 2000 people (per town) where everyone's grandpa knows everyone's grandpa - and can recite family histories of a good portion of the town (since most town's residents have several generations of family members in the area). These people often times want to stay near their extended families, cousins, childhood friends, etc. But some of them would probably be open to leaving for a few years to become a doctor and later come back to serve their own community. (Much different than an outsider moving in, who may not feel the same degree of connection to the place.)

The only caveat, as I see it, is that a recruiter would have to go to their high schools. Many "hicks" aren't comfortable navigating the "big city" - especially the parents. They may be wary of new things and new people. A non-threatening recruiter with a clear-cut simple plan (easy to understand) might do the trick. The best program, I think, would be an undergrad/medical school combined program where they could go for a few years, and return home (again keeping things simple and clear). New people, fine print, complicated matters, uncertainty, all risk losing trust*.

I suspect that the first person from a specific super tiny, isolated, and poor community to go to medical school as part of a recruitment program at the local high school would probably make the newspaper. Then everyone would hear about it. The local who finished the program would essentially be famous for it locally. They would be asked about it. And the locals trust their own.

The trick to getting them to go back and serve their community is to pick people with strong family ties to the area, who prioritize living near their family.

All of this is based on my experience on the countryside. Surely there are many countrysides, and some may be different.

*Edit: A way to build credibility beforehand (ahead of a recruiter) would be to send an announcement to the local newspaper explaining your program, a short history of it, the purpose of it (so it's plausible rather than "too good to be true," and maybe how it works. The credibility of the press in a small town can work wonders! (Even though your program is likely prominent, some "hick towns" don't follow medical school rankings, or for that matter even the basics of college sometimes. They might need to be informed.)
 
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Gauss44 said:
As someone who spent many years growing up in a "hick town," I would suggest recruiting the "hicks" who have family ties to the area.

A lot of these places in the middle of yonder are family towns with populations of less than 2000 people (per town) and everyone's grandpa knows everyone's grandpa - and can recite family histories of a good portion of the town (since most town's residents have several generations of family members in the area). These people often times want to stay near their extended families, cousins, childhood friends, etc. But some of them would probably be open to leaving for a few years to become a doctor and later come back to serve their own community. (Much different than an outsider moving in.)

The only caveat, as I see it, is that a recruiter would have to go to their high schools. Slack-jawed yokels (as the Simpsons would put it) aren't usually comfortable navigating the "big city." A undergrad/medical school combined program would be perfect. If they are wary of outsiders, they might want a very simple and clear plan. If the recruiter were to present something complex, distrust or skepticism might set in.

But after the first person from their community goes to medical school and all goes well, the entire community will hear about it and trust their own.

The trick to getting them to go back and serve their community is to pick people with strong family ties, who prioritize living near their family.
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That's good information. Thank you.
 
LizzyM said:
That's good information. Thank you.
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LizzyM,
I think part of the problem is the goal of finding doctors from underserved areas does not line up with the requirements to become a doctor. They need tons of shadowing (but there is a shortage of docs nears them). They need clinical experience (but there is a shortage of clinical locations nearby). They need research experience (yeah, not happening where they are) and then they get pressure to do all their classes at a 4 yr university to be competitive when they have trouble even findig a nearby community college. The only people who are putting in "competitive" apps for med school are those who have proven driven and resourceful enough to get out of those areas....and then we are trying to convince them to go back. The prior idea of finding people who are still there, and convincing them to leave temporarily for training is a FABULOUS one.
 
circulus vitios said:
Replace 'rural' with 'urban' and it's more or less the same idea. Doctors don't want to practice medicine in Skid Row, what a surprise.
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Of course not.

FWIW I'd love to go back to LAC/USC.
 
sb247 said:
LizzyM,
I think part of the problem is the goal of finding doctors from underserved areas does not line up with the requirements to become a doctor. They need tons of shadowing (but there is a shortage of docs nears them). They need clinical experience (but there is a shortage of clinical locations nearby). They need research experience (yeah, not happening where they are) and then they get pressure to do all their classes at a 4 yr university to be competitive when they have trouble even findig a nearby community college. The only people who are putting in "competitive" apps for med school are those who have proven driven and resourceful enough to get out of those areas....and then we are trying to convince them to go back. The prior idea of finding people who are still there, and convincing them to leave temporarily for training is a FABULOUS one.
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This basically sums up the problem in a nutshell.
 
I thiiink, that everyone should just concentrate on getting THEMSELVES into medical school and not waste their time being pissed about URMs having an easier time getting into medical school than them. Unless you plan on going into politics, which I'm assuming you're not seeing as you all want to practice medicine, just let it go! Sidenote: I am a black woman starting med school this fall and I am pretty sure there are less than 8 URMs in our class of 78. Food for thought.

Also, I went to an SNMA conference a couple of years ago at University of Chicago medical school and one of the professors did a presentation on disparities in medicine. She pointed out that diseases that doctors put effort into researching are diseases that hit home for them, i.e. diseases that have affected a family member. One disease she mentioned that wasn't getting a lot of attention was sickle celled anemia which is very common in the black community. That is just one reason why it is important to have different cultures represented among our doctors. The more diverse the doctors the more diverse the care. During this lecture she also pointed out that many older african-american patients STILL have trust issues with doctors because they remember occasions such as the Tuskegee incident in which rural black men who believed they were receiving free health care injected with Syphillus as an EXPERIMENT and observed over the years. They in turn infected their wives. No one apologized for this until BILL CLINTON in 1997.

So, it's not as if there are not good reasons for affirmative action in medical schools to exist. I know your frustrated (Trust me, I'm the girl who waited 8 months after her interview to find out if she was accepted, it was well worth the wait 😀), but just try to look at both sides. My 25 years on this earth has taught me that life isn't fair. Maybe if things were more fair for everyone back then things would be more fair for everyone now.

Good luck to everyone in your applications. Byeeee <3
 
sb247 said:
LizzyM,
I think part of the problem is the goal of finding doctors from underserved areas does not line up with the requirements to become a doctor. They need tons of shadowing (but there is a shortage of docs nears them). They need clinical experience (but there is a shortage of clinical locations nearby). They need research experience (yeah, not happening where they are) and then they get pressure to do all their classes at a 4 yr university to be competitive when they have trouble even findig a nearby community college. The only people who are putting in "competitive" apps for med school are those who have proven driven and resourceful enough to get out of those areas....and then we are trying to convince them to go back. The prior idea of finding people who are still there, and convincing them to leave temporarily for training is a FABULOUS one.
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What matters is the person's character, humbleness, attitude towards life, and desire for success. The rest is just a clerical necessity.

Shadowing, volunteering, and research, are in no way requirements for application.

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Submit an application with no shadowing, no research and no volunteering and see where it gets you...

You do need some of those things
 
Chrissisissi said:
I thiiink, that everyone should just concentrate on getting THEMSELVES into medical school and not waste their time being pissed about URMs having an easier time getting into medical school than them. Unless you plan on going into politics, which I'm assuming you're not seeing as you all want to practice medicine, just let it go! Sidenote: I am a black woman starting med school this fall and I am pretty sure there are less than 8 URMs in our class of 78. Food for thought.

Also, I went to an SNMA conference a couple of years ago at University of Chicago medical school and one of the professors did a presentation on disparities in medicine. She pointed out that diseases that doctors put effort into researching are diseases that hit home for them, i.e. diseases that have affected a family member. One disease she mentioned that wasn't getting a lot of attention was sickle celled anemia which is very common in the black community. That is just one reason why it is important to have different cultures represented among our doctors. The more diverse the doctors the more diverse the care. During this lecture she also pointed out that many older african-american patients STILL have trust issues with doctors because they remember occasions such as the Tuskegee incident in which rural black men who believed they were receiving free health care injected with Syphillus as an EXPERIMENT and observed over the years. They in turn infected their wives. No one apologized for this until BILL CLINTON in 1997.

So, it's not as if there are not good reasons for affirmative action in medical schools to exist. I know your frustrated (Trust me, I'm the girl who waited 8 months after her interview to find out if she was accepted, it was well worth the wait 😀), but just try to look at both sides. My 25 years on this earth has taught me that life isn't fair. Maybe if things were more fair for everyone back then things would be more fair for everyone now.

Good luck to everyone in your applications. Byeeee <3
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Well said. 👍
 
I think that someone applying to a school with a mission to train docs for rural areas who has a decent MCAT, college degree with the pre-reqs, and some idea of what it takes to be a rural doc as well as a heart for service as demonstrated by some sort of volunteerism or community service and/or a paying job in a service indlustry during summers would be a good fit. (I've seen applications from people who participated in rural doc shadowing where they live with the doc for a week over winter break and see what the work is like.)

I would think that non-trads who have roots in a rural area and are going back to school after military service or an initial career might be a good fit for rural medicine.
 
alpinism said:
Of course not.

FWIW I'd love to go back to LAC/USC.
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That means absolutely nothing. You could practice in the nice part of Los Angeles, or you could practice in the ghetto parts of Los Angeles.

Take a pick at which is more likely to occur.
 
sb247 said:
LizzyM,
I think part of the problem is the goal of finding doctors from underserved areas does not line up with the requirements to become a doctor. They need tons of shadowing (but there is a shortage of docs nears them). They need clinical experience (but there is a shortage of clinical locations nearby). They need research experience (yeah, not happening where they are) and then they get pressure to do all their classes at a 4 yr university to be competitive when they have trouble even findig a nearby community college. The only people who are putting in "competitive" apps for med school are those who have proven driven and resourceful enough to get out of those areas....and then we are trying to convince them to go back. The prior idea of finding people who are still there, and convincing them to leave temporarily for training is a FABULOUS one.
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Yup, I agree with everything you wrote. Putting together a decent application is so much harder coming from a rural background.

I was lucky enough to secure shadowing and volunteering positions at the only 'large' hospital in town. I still had to drive 45 minutes each way to get there.

There weren't any research opportunities at my small, rural college. I looked into biological summer research programs but I wasn't competitive for them because I wasn't a biology major. And, of course, there were no research jobs in my small town or any town in a 75 mile radius. I thought about moving to a big city to get a research job...but they want significant research experience, even for entry level jobs.

Interview season is going to be fun. The closest airport is a rinky-dink operation that is 1.5 hours away. The closest real airport is 3.5 hours away.

Scheduling time off for an interview is going to be awesome, too. If you live in a small town, the only real jobs are minimum wage crap or manufacturing. I work in manufacturing so I have a horrible work schedule that's going to make scheduling an interview during regular hours nearly impossible -- I fully expect to be fired for missing too much work.
 
LizzyM said:
I think that someone applying to a school with a mission to train docs for rural areas who has a decent MCAT, college degree with the pre-reqs, and some idea of what it takes to be a rural doc as well as a heart for service as demonstrated by some sort of volunteerism or community service and/or a paying job in a service indlustry during summers would be a good fit. (I've seen applications from people who participated in rural doc shadowing where they live with the doc for a week over winter break and see what the work is like.)

I would think that non-trads who have roots in a rural area and are going back to school after military service or an initial career might be a good fit for rural medicine.
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Do you think there is a disconnect between academic medicine (who selects medical students) and physicians in the community? I don't have much experience to know who serves on an ADCOM, but I do sense a difference between academic physicians and community physicians. The former seem to be more impressed by research, credentials, and "name brands." The latter seem more interested in doing a decent job, taking care of their family, and enjoying their time off.

My experience is obviously limited, but looking at ADCOM bios I see a lot of Ivy League medical schools and residencies and very few people like me.
 
circulus vitios said:
Yup, I agree with everything you wrote. Putting together a decent application is so much harder coming from a rural background.

I was lucky enough to secure shadowing and volunteering positions at the only 'large' hospital in town. I still had to drive 45 minutes each way to get there.

There weren't any research opportunities at my small, rural college. I looked into biological summer research programs but I wasn't competitive for them because I wasn't a biology major. And, of course, there were no research jobs in my small town or any town in a 75 mile radius. I thought about moving to a big city to get a research job...but they want significant research experience, even for entry level jobs.

Interview season is going to be fun. The closest airport is a rinky-dink operation that is 1.5 hours away. The closest real airport is 3.5 hours away.

Scheduling time off for an interview is going to be awesome, too. If you live in a small town, the only real jobs are minimum wage crap or manufacturing. I work in manufacturing so I have a horrible work schedule that's going to make scheduling an interview during regular hours nearly impossible -- I fully expect to be fired for missing too much work.
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I hope you mention all of that in your personal statement (primarily in a positive way), as a challenge you accepted wanting to become a doctor.
 
Gauss44 said:
[/B]

I hope you mention all of that in your personal statement (primarily in a positive way), as a challenge you accepted wanting to become a doctor.
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Being middle class and rural isn't as sexy as being poor and inner-city. I didn't waste my breath on it.
 
LizzyM said:
How might we find people who would be willing to devote 30-40 years of their professional lives to living in a hick town and serving the people there? What sort of people should we be looking at? What questions should we be asking? Who's going to deliver the babies, take care of the old folks with heart failure and treat the kids with asthma?
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350K/year+ and rural family med would be almost as competitive as Derm, but the last thing anyone wants to do is spend more money.


I think that someone applying to a school with a mission to train docs for rural areas who has a decent MCAT, college degree with the pre-reqs, and some idea of what it takes to be a rural doc as well as a heart for service as demonstrated by some sort of volunteerism or community service and/or a paying job in a service indlustry during summers would be a good fit. (I've seen applications from people who participated in rural doc shadowing where they live with the doc for a week over winter break and see what the work is like.)

I would think that non-trads who have roots in a rural area and are going back to school after military service or an initial career might be a good fit for rural medicine.
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At my school this year, there were exactly 3 people (out of over 150) who decided to go into Family Medicine. I'm assuming most of the Internal Medicine guys will be subspecializing too. I'm guessing that my school really caters to younger, traditional urbanites like myself.

I originally had some strong reservations about "affirmative action" that would give preferences to rural and nontrad students. But after seeing my school's match list, it's clear that we need to get more people into primary care somehow. We could make the job more desirable, but that's never going to happen. So I guess our only choice is to try to get medical students who are comfortable doing primary care in rural areas.

But I hope there's always going to be a place for young city guys who don't have the stats to go to Harvard. 🙂
 
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circulus vitios said:
Being middle class and rural isn't as sexy as being poor and inner-city. I didn't waste my breath on it.
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Honestly, I think you should have.

Contrary to popular premed belief these essays aren't a contest of who has had the hardest luck. They are about having awareness and insight to your own challenges and how you handled overcoming them. This in itself is one way to measure maturity.
 
Arkangeloid said:
At my school this year, there were exactly 3 people (out of over 150) who decided to go into Family Medicine. I'm assuming most of the Internal Medicine guys will be subspecializing too. I'm guessing that my school really caters to younger, traditional urbanites like myself.

I originally had some strong reservations about "affirmative action" that would give preferences to rural and nontrad students. But after seeing my school's match list, it's clear that we need to get more people into primary care somehow. We could make the job more desirable, but that's never going to happen. So I guess our only choice is to try to get medical students who are comfortable doing primary care in rural areas.
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3/150 going into FM is appalling. Does the school not even have an FM program or something?

One thing I find fascinating is that there are several thousand applicants to the NHSC program every year for a few hundred spots. Why not expand that program dramatically and lock in all of those people to underserved primary care? Their repayment penalty makes it almost impossible to escape.

As CV pointed out earlier, the problem with the "just recruit more redneck premeds" strategy is that the traditional route to medicine begins before college. If you don't have a clue about medicine or how to get there, you'll either not go to college or not do what you need to do to get accepted to med school. Recruitment has to begin in rural high schools. How many physicians are signing up for that job? I'd love to do it, but I'm not in the majority.
 
Serious question: Can't anyone apply as URM if they wanted too?
It says how do you SELF-identify.
 
Mt Kilimanjaro said:
3/150 going into FM is appalling. Does the school not even have an FM program or something?

One thing I find fascinating is that there are several thousand applicants to the NHSC program every year for a few hundred spots. Why not expand that program dramatically and lock in all of those people to underserved primary care? Their repayment penalty makes it almost impossible to escape.

As CV pointed out earlier, the problem with the "just recruit more redneck premeds" strategy is that the traditional route to medicine begins before college. If you don't have a clue about medicine or how to get there, you'll either not go to college or not do what you need to do to get accepted to med school. Recruitment has to begin in rural high schools. How many physicians are signing up for that job? I'd love to do it, but I'm not in the majority.
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They do teach people FM. I think the deal is how the school advertises itself and how it recruits students. Most schools at least give lip service to the whole primary care shebang, but this school doesn't do even that. Also, it gives relatively little preferential treatment to URMs, nontrads, rural dudes, or older dudes. The school selects a bunch of young city dudes, and we urbanites seek out the competitive specialties and have little interest in primary care. The end result is a school in which for every FP grad, about 3 go into Derm. And there's nothing wrong with this. We need physician researchers, and we need Dermatologists. But I think we need more dudes in primary care ATM, that much is clear to anyone.

Speaking as an young urban Asian dude, I don't really like the idea of strong preferences being given to rural and older people. But it's sadly clear that most young urban Asian dudes have little interest in primary care, so something needs to be done.

PS: if you know which school this is, please don't post the name.
 
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moto_za said:
Serious question: Can't anyone apply as URM if they wanted too?
It says how do you SELF-identify.
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Yeah, but you better have the melanin to back it up at the interview. They will even interview you in a different language if you mark that you are fluent.
 
Arbor Vitae said:
Yeah, but you better have the melanin to back it up at the interview. They will even interview you in a different language if you mark that you are fluent.
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Pretty sure the second part is an urban legend. I (truthfully, with the coursework and references to prove it) claimed fluency in 3 languages and nobody ever even mentioned it when I was interviewing.
 
Arkangeloid said:
Pretty sure the second part is an urban legend. I (truthfully, with the coursework and references to prove it) claimed fluency in 3 languages and nobody ever even mentioned it when I was interviewing.
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hah, it happened to me 😎 trust me, the adcoms love to sniff out BS, you probably just got lucky without them having an interviewer who spoke the languages.
 
Arkangeloid said:
They do teach people FM. I think the deal is how the school advertises itself and how it recruits students. Most schools at least give lip service to the whole primary care shebang, but this school doesn't do even that. Also, it gives relatively little preferential treatment to URMs, nontrads, rural dudes, or older dudes. The school selects a bunch of young city dudes, and we urbanites seek out the competitive specialties and have little interest in primary care. The end result is a school in which for every FP grad, about 3 go into Derm. And there's nothing wrong with this. We need physician researchers, and we need Dermatologists. But I think we need more dudes in primary care ATM, that much is clear to anyone.

Speaking as an young urban Asian dude, I don't really like the idea of strong preferences being given to rural and older people. But it's sadly clear that most young urban Asian dudes have little interest in primary care, so something needs to be done.

PS: if you know which school this is, please don't post the name.
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Dude, thats radical for young asian dudes like yourself dude.
 
moto_za said:
Serious question: Can't anyone apply as URM if they wanted too?
It says how do you SELF-identify.
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Haha wut.

If you self identify as black, hispanic, or native american you better not show up to the interview looking as white as a ghost.
 
LuciusVorenus said:
Haha wut.

If you self identify as black, hispanic, or native american you better not show up to the interview looking as white as a ghost.
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haha although if someone did then I am sure it might raise more than suspicion
 
Mt Kilimanjaro said:
3/150 going into FM is appalling. Does the school not even have an FM program or something?

One thing I find fascinating is that there are several thousand applicants to the NHSC program every year for a few hundred spots. Why not expand that program dramatically and lock in all of those people to underserved primary care? Their repayment penalty makes it almost impossible to escape.

👍
Click to expand...
 
Arbor Vitae said:
I think only certain ethnicities within the hispanic race qualify as URM, like Mexican, Puerto Rican, and any Native North/CentralSouth American. not 100% sure on how this works though, or how anybody could really prove it either.
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Yeah to some degree it is on the honor system.
 
Arbor Vitae said:
I think only certain ethnicities within the hispanic race qualify as URM, like Mexican, Puerto Rican, and any Native North/CentralSouth American. not 100% sure on how this works though, or how anybody could really prove it either.
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I don't think there's a "Hispanic race." The definition of "Hispanic" can clarify.
 
Gauss44 said:
I don't think there's a "Hispanic race." The definition of "Hispanic" can clarify.
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I think you are right, within Hispanic, you can be any race, such as white, black, Asian, or native american

Hispanic is just Spanish speaking people, so any race can speak spanish
 
LuciusVorenus said:
Haha wut.

If you self identify as black, hispanic, or native american you better not show up to the interview looking as white as a ghost.
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Actually you can be white as ghost and be Hispanic. My dad was born in Puerto Rico, his mom was Spanish (From Spain) his dad I have no clue because my dad never knew his dad (Some what confusing). But my dad looks like a straight up white guy, green eyes, light brown hair, and has white skin. My second oldest brother turned out the same.

Me on the other hand have my mom's looks, straight up Puerto Rican lol
 
acslater99 said:
Actually you can be white as ghost and be Hispanic. My dad was born in Puerto Rico, his mom was Spanish (From Spain) his dad I have no clue because my dad never knew his dad (Some what confusing). But my dad looks like a straight up white guy, green eyes, light brown hair, and has white skin. My second oldest brother turned out the same.

Me on the other hand have my mom's looks, straight up Puerto Rican lol
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Sometimes an interviewer will ask some questions about ethnic foods, your travels, your language skills, your volunteerism to get an idea of whether you will be an asset to Puerto Ricans who need/want a physician who understands there culture and customs. The higher your numbers the less this is an issue (if you have a 3.7/40, no one is going to care).
 
LizzyM said:
Sometimes an interviewer will ask some questions about ethnic foods, your travels, your language skills, your volunteerism to get an idea of whether you will be an asset to Puerto Ricans who need/want a physician who understands there culture and customs. The higher your numbers the less this is an issue (if you have a 3.7/40, no one is going to care).
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👍

Some schools might inform the interviewee that they are recording that portion of the interview. Then they could present each candidate's answers to a panel of people (or an individual) from that same URM group for judgment/ratings.

A fun (sort of related) idea I got from law firms, is videotaping the parts of the interview where the candidates introduce themselves, and the parts where they demonstrate talents. Then have someone edit clips of the videos together, put some music to it, and play it back at an assembly. Some law firms do that to introduce the new associates.
 
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Corriefangirl said:
Yep. Still managed a 33 mcat and 3.5 from a top 10 notoriously difficult undergrad. But none of that matters because I'm black and my stats aren't as good as all the orms.
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:idea:Aren't there spots reserved for URMs? If so, you aren't competing with non-URMs for those.:idea:
 
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