URM more likely to be accepted?

[ToujoursMieux]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm planning on applying this summer, and just learned that there is such thing as an Underrepresented Minority status. I'm not sure what the perks of this are, if there are any. But do you think that there is a good chance at being accepted in schools located in regions that have a large white population (i.e. South Dakota, Oregon, etc)??? Well, I mean a better chance at being accepted compared to a non-URM applicant.

P.S. I'm Cuban by birth, so I assume that qualifies me as URM, right? Thanks!

 

[flaahless]

I'm planning on applying this summer, and just learned that there is such thing as an Underrepresented Minority status. I'm not sure what the perks of this are, if there are any. But do you think that there is a good chance at being accepted in schools located in regions that have a large white population (i.e. South Dakota, Oregon, etc)??? Well, I mean a better chance at being accepted compared to a non-URM applicant.

P.S. I'm Cuban by birth, so I assume that qualifies me as URM, right? Thanks!

I think Cubans are considered underrepresented in medicine. Anyways, the "perks" of being urm remain debatable. Sure the average numbers are lower but that is due to a variety of factors that don't logically lead to urms having an "easier" or "better" chance at getting accepted. All you can do is check the box that asks your ethnicity, and each school will handle that differently.

Some schools actively recruit urm students (ie: Vanderbilt) and they will make this apparent in their mission statement. Others like UCSD or UCLA don't really care. I'm not sure about South Dakota or Oregon, but you should look for schools that are most compatible to you, probably the Florida schools. THe application process is a game, and you creat your own chances. Apply smart and you should do fine. Good luck.

 

[xeulee]

I don't think there are any special advantages to applying as an URM since there are tons of people with that status applying too. I also don't think you would have a better chance applying as an URM vs a non URM to the schools with a large white population. The schools may be looking to diversify their classes but that doesn't mean you have an advantage. If that was the case, I would think that those schools would already be diverse.

here is a link to AAMC's fact sheet, it breaks down different stats according to race.
Also, you can get the new MSAR in April (here) or order the US News Stats (here) and see the breakdown of students matriculated according to race. I wish they would show stats on minorities accepted since you don't really know if schools actually accepted a lot of URM's and they didn't go or if they barely interviewed/accepted any.

I think you are qualified as an URM.

 

[xeulee]

Some schools actively recruit urm students (ie: Vanderbilt) and they will make this apparent in their mission statement. Others like UCSD or UCLA don't really care. I'm not sure about South Dakota or Oregon, but you should look for schools that are most compatible to you, probably the Florida schools. THe application process is a game, and you creat your own chances. Apply smart and you should do fine. Good luck.

If you are a Texas resident, UTMB Galveston and UT San Antonio have a commitment to diversity. Even if you are out of state, you might have a good chance getting into those schools. You might also want to check if schools like South Dakota or Oregon have any residency requirements.

 

[mdnsw]

I don't think there are any special advantages to applying as an URM since there are tons of people with that status applying too. I also don't think you would have a better chance applying as an URM vs a non URM to the schools with a large white population. The schools may be looking to diversify their classes but that doesn't mean you have an advantage. If that was the case, I would think that those schools would already be diverse.

here is a link to AAMC's fact sheet, it breaks down different stats according to race.
Also, you can get the new MSAR in April (here) or order the US News Stats (here) and see the breakdown of students matriculated according to race. I wish they would show stats on minorities accepted since you don't really know if schools actually accepted a lot of URM's and they didn't go or if they barely interviewed/accepted any.

I think you are qualified as an URM.

Lets look at the numbers on the aamc site you reference.
The average black MATRICULANT scores greater than one standard deviation below the average white APPLICANT. This means that around 90% of white applicants scored higher than most of the blacks that were accepted. With over 23000 white applicants 90% of whom scored higher than most black matriculants and 11440 or so white students accepted, that leaves about 12000 white applicants not accepted who scored higher than most of the black students accepted. And that is just the average in the range. If we broke down the numbers further we could see that there are many many white applicants who did very much better than almost all black matriculants.
I'm kind of in a hurry so that might not be clear, but look at the numbers. They don't lie, and there is an enourmous difference / racist preference given to black applicants.

 

[172858]

Lets look at the numbers on the aamc site you reference.
The average black MATRICULANT scores greater than one standard deviation below the average white APPLICANT. This means that around 90% of white applicants scored higher than most of the blacks that were accepted. With over 23000 white applicants 90% of whom scored higher than most black matriculants and 11440 or so white students accepted, that leaves about 12000 white applicants not accepted who scored higher than most of the black students accepted. And that is just the average in the range. If we broke down the numbers further we could see that there are many many white applicants who did very much better than almost all black matriculants.
I'm kind of in a hurry so that might not be clear, but look at the numbers. They don't lie, and there is an enourmous difference / racist preference given to black applicants.

Wow - and it only took 4 replies for hate to rear it's ugly head on an "underrepresented applicant" thread. SDN record?

 

[flaahless]

Don't trip TexasMD. Dude just has a vendetta against African Americans. His post did not address the OP's question in any way, and the OP is Cuban, not African American. So Mdnsw's post was completely irrelevant. If you look at the posts that he has made, you can see that many of them are against African Americans and a few a quite racist.

 

[DoctaJay]

I would like to remind everything that the UIH forum is not for discussions of affirmative action/ or AA like conversations. Those threads may be started in the All-Students forum.

 

[mdnsw]

I would like to remind everything that the UIH forum is not for discussions of affirmative action/ or AA like conversations. Those threads may be started in the All-Students forum.

It didn't take 4 posts to become racist. It started with the first post in the OP's hope of a racist preference in his favor.

He can ask about preferences and clearly false responses saying 'no' go over just fine. When I actually look at a reference posted by someone else and point out the obvious, suddenly it's inappropriate for this forum. I've never said anything racist and I don't have anything against black people. I have something against racist admissions policies. You are such hypocrits. You act like you are for equality, all the while supporting admissions policies that are obviously biased. There isn't even an argument to be made, look at the numbers. Denying the truth doesn't change anything.

To answer the OP. Yes you get preferential treatment as a Cuban relative to white and Asian applicants but a disadvantage relative to black applicants. Cubans scores are the higher than Mexican's and PR's but lower than 'other hispanic' which may represent differential preference between groups or maybe just geographic differences in populations and medical school competitiveness.?

I'd be as happy as anyone to see proportional representation in medical schools. I just insist that it be done ethically, not through racist preferences.

 

[Coconut45]

Do yourself and all of us a favor and don't use words like "perks" when referring to URM status and admissions. The post is almost a little questionable. At any rate, anyone not being clouded by hate knows that the numbers game is tied to issues a lot deeper than the color of one's skin. I would love to see these numbers correlated with mean household income, education level of parents and siblings of applicants, and number of hours worked in college. I don't see any of these enraged people going out to help little brown kids with their science homework in junior high while the rest of the kids in ther class can ask their parents for help (just an example, please don't tell me about how you did your geology homework all by yourself.) I have a white friend going to MUSC next year that got a 26 MCAT, two of my scores combined were higher than all three of hers, but people look at me and see "affirmative action at work."

Perks? The perks are being called a "Sp*c" by your patients and being looked at as inferior at first glance. Enjoy.

 

[deleted50478]

Do yourself and all of us a favor and don't use words like "perks" when referring to URM status and admissions. The post is almost a little questionable. At any rate, anyone not being clouded by hate knows that the numbers game is tied to issues a lot deeper than the color of one's skin. I would love to see these numbers correlated with mean household income, education level of parents and siblings of applicants, and number of hours worked in college. I don't see any of these enraged people going out to help little brown kids with their science homework in junior high while the rest of the kids in ther class can ask their parents for help (just an example, please don't tell me about how you did your geology homework all by yourself.) I have a white friend going to MUSC next year that got a 26 MCAT, two of my scores combined were higher than all three of hers, but people look at me and see "affirmative action at work."

Perks? The perks are being called a "Sp*c" by your patients and being looked at as inferior at first glance. Enjoy.

Single examples are totally meaningless.

 

[ToujoursMieux]

Do yourself and all of us a favor and don't use words like "perks" when referring to URM status and admissions. The post is almost a little questionable. At any rate, anyone not being clouded by hate knows that the numbers game is tied to issues a lot deeper than the color of one's skin. I would love to see these numbers correlated with mean household income, education level of parents and siblings of applicants, and number of hours worked in college. I don't see any of these enraged people going out to help little brown kids with their science homework in junior high while the rest of the kids in ther class can ask their parents for help (just an example, please don't tell me about how you did your geology homework all by yourself.) I have a white friend going to MUSC next year that got a 26 MCAT, two of my scores combined were higher than all three of hers, but people look at me and see "affirmative action at work."

Perks? The perks are being called a "Sp*c" by your patients and being looked at as inferior at first glance. Enjoy.

That was a pretty rude response to a completely innocent question I was trying to ask. Would it please you to replace the word "perks" with the word "advantages"? A word that's so much more subtle and isn't going to upset some bitter people. I was just simply wondering if a URM would get preference over a non-URM because I don't know much about this. And someone else already answered my question. Apparently, they do get preference to a certain extent. That is all I wanted to know. Thanks.

 

[njbmd]

Since the OP has an answer to the question that they asked, this thread is closed.