SirHelpMe
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- Joined
- May 7, 2025
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I was thinking of whether or not my recent life experience would explain why I only started doing clinical/volunteer/research until the start of my senior year, and I decided to come here to ask that.
So, I’m a rising senior and have finally been able to get clinical, volunteer, and research opportunities due to a huge load being taken off of my chest. I lived a pretty good childhood between 2-14 years old over in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but then I moved to a small mountain town in Morocco, and that’s where life became a bit harder. My American mom worked as a lecturer making only about $1K (after paying for on-campus faculty housing as well as for our school, which was associated with the university that she worked at), while my dad was essentially jobless as he has a masters in network security, but couldn’t find a network-related job anywhere nearby. Being Moroccan, family proximity and family ties are one of the aspects of life that we most value, so living 2-3 hours away from us to have a better chance elsewhere was off the table.
And so I graduated high school, and yet, this situation still continued. Having American citizenship through my American mother, I decided to come here to the States for university, with my family staying back in Morocco due to my father having been barred from the country for 2 decades for unfair, personal reasons. I was living on campus for my freshman year, and so I still had quite a bit to pay off, which I did through a payment plan. I immediately had to get a job, and with no car and with every other option not being within walking distance of the campus, I decided to get an on-campus job, which paid about 9$/hr. With this being my first year of college, as well as the first time ever I had been so far away from my closely-knit family, I wasn’t ready to work full-time while also having studies to worry about, and so I worked about 25hr/wk, and yet I could still never save up for a car, not only because I was paying the rest of my tuition every month, but because my dad would occasionally ask for help with payments from time to time. I also would save up money for tickets to go back home to Morocco and see my family during winter and summer break of my freshman year, as I had nowhere else to stay, and I could not work due to campus services being close during those breaks.
Moving forward, at the end of freshman year, my dad had sold the land that he had in Morocco to buy a place in the US, though the problem was that half of that money had to go to paying off debt, and so the other half was used to buy a run-down house that had burst radiators, burst water pipes, and which was completely filthy both inside and outside (why my mother and father got it I still do not know to this day). My maternal grandmother came to PA and took one side of this house before I came back from Morocco (along with my sister who was going to attend the same university as me).
Since my dad had used up the rest of his money on this house and his loans, he was left with basically nothing other than this run-down place that was borderline condemnable, and so, since I started living there and not on campus anymore, he would have me do a lot of the renovation work (I.e fixing leaks, setting up security cameras, dealing with pests, renovating a bathroom, renovating the kitchen on my grandma’s side of the house, cutting up the burst radiators (which were heavy as HELL) and taking them outside, etc etc.) during my sophomore year what with being barred from the country and not having the money to pay manual laborers. I was doing this all while trying to focus on work and school, and having to help my dad with even more payments that he couldn’t pay off due to the money from selling the house being completely dried up halfway through my sophomore year.
As for how I managed to get from the house to the school without a car, I walked (for the most part). Yes, my grandmother drove us sometimes, but after doing it for a month, I could tell she was getting annoyed of it, and so my sister and I would usually walk for about 20 minutes to get to the university, often times in the blistering cold that left my hands purple, especially during those very early mornings (6-7 AM) where I would walk to the university dining hall to work. I would then come home to yet a blistering environment, as heating was non-functional for my entire sophomore year, resulting in my sister and I having to sleep in the same, small room and using barely functional electric heaters.
Despite being very frugal with my money (hardly buying games or figures, depending on Medicaid, barely using Uber, only really paying for the house’s electricity/water, etc.), every time I saved up a good amount, my father would contact me saying he urgently needed help paying off, for example, a lawyer for his immigrant case, and that would bring me back to square one. Yes, I could have just financed a car, and looking back on it, I should have, but for religious reasons, I really did not want to deal with interest (which is why I hope to pay off my subsidized loans before interest accrues).
Anyways, the only time where I should have probably just kept my money was when I was saving up for plane tickets from here to Morocco to see family again during the summer after my sophomore year, as I spent the entire 3 month summer there, when I should have probably just quit my dining hall job and worked at the sheetz/wendy’s that was close to the house during summer. However, not only did I greatly miss my family, just as many Moroccans would, and wanted to be close to them again for yet another summer, but also the university dining hall job was very flexible when it came to my schedule, and I worried that I wouldn’t have gotten that same flexibility during the academic year had I quit the dining hall job and started working at sheetz/wendy’s. Nonetheless I continued working 25 hrs/wk at the dining hall come my junior year (then increased it to 35 at one point).
Fast forward to today (end of junior year), my sister and I jointly paid for a really cheap, old car off of Facebook marketplace, and so to make up for lost time, I immediately applied for a PCT job at the local hospital as well as a volunteering position at the local nursing home. I also applied to an entry-level summer research assistant position at UPMC, and am having an interview for it next week, while also securing an independent study course with my genetics professor this coming fall and a directed study credit with my orgo professor as well. Additionally, my dad has finally resolved that two-decade-long immigration issue, and so he and the rest of my family moved here to this house. My dad has finally gotten a well-paying network job for the first time in 6 and a half years, and although he still has some stuff from the past to pay off, I no longer am the primary person he depends on for said payments, and so I no longer have to put money at the forefront of my mind.
With my dad now being here and having received his new well-paying job, I won’t be needing Medicaid anymore. I still have another year till I apply for med school (end of senior year; will be taking one gap year), and so once I apply, I won’t be considered low-income anymore.
This then brings me to my question: Can I still apply as disadvantaged in order to explain why I wasn’t able to get all my EC’s in until just before my senior year, despite the fact that my household won’t be considered low-income once it comes time to apply? Thankfully I was able to maintain a 4.0 during all of this, and I think I’ll do decent on the MCAT, so I’m not too worried about academics.
I’m sorry for the insane amount of writing that I put here, but I felt like I had to in order to fully explain my situation. If you read the entire thing, thank you and may God bless your soul <3
So, I’m a rising senior and have finally been able to get clinical, volunteer, and research opportunities due to a huge load being taken off of my chest. I lived a pretty good childhood between 2-14 years old over in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but then I moved to a small mountain town in Morocco, and that’s where life became a bit harder. My American mom worked as a lecturer making only about $1K (after paying for on-campus faculty housing as well as for our school, which was associated with the university that she worked at), while my dad was essentially jobless as he has a masters in network security, but couldn’t find a network-related job anywhere nearby. Being Moroccan, family proximity and family ties are one of the aspects of life that we most value, so living 2-3 hours away from us to have a better chance elsewhere was off the table.
And so I graduated high school, and yet, this situation still continued. Having American citizenship through my American mother, I decided to come here to the States for university, with my family staying back in Morocco due to my father having been barred from the country for 2 decades for unfair, personal reasons. I was living on campus for my freshman year, and so I still had quite a bit to pay off, which I did through a payment plan. I immediately had to get a job, and with no car and with every other option not being within walking distance of the campus, I decided to get an on-campus job, which paid about 9$/hr. With this being my first year of college, as well as the first time ever I had been so far away from my closely-knit family, I wasn’t ready to work full-time while also having studies to worry about, and so I worked about 25hr/wk, and yet I could still never save up for a car, not only because I was paying the rest of my tuition every month, but because my dad would occasionally ask for help with payments from time to time. I also would save up money for tickets to go back home to Morocco and see my family during winter and summer break of my freshman year, as I had nowhere else to stay, and I could not work due to campus services being close during those breaks.
Moving forward, at the end of freshman year, my dad had sold the land that he had in Morocco to buy a place in the US, though the problem was that half of that money had to go to paying off debt, and so the other half was used to buy a run-down house that had burst radiators, burst water pipes, and which was completely filthy both inside and outside (why my mother and father got it I still do not know to this day). My maternal grandmother came to PA and took one side of this house before I came back from Morocco (along with my sister who was going to attend the same university as me).
Since my dad had used up the rest of his money on this house and his loans, he was left with basically nothing other than this run-down place that was borderline condemnable, and so, since I started living there and not on campus anymore, he would have me do a lot of the renovation work (I.e fixing leaks, setting up security cameras, dealing with pests, renovating a bathroom, renovating the kitchen on my grandma’s side of the house, cutting up the burst radiators (which were heavy as HELL) and taking them outside, etc etc.) during my sophomore year what with being barred from the country and not having the money to pay manual laborers. I was doing this all while trying to focus on work and school, and having to help my dad with even more payments that he couldn’t pay off due to the money from selling the house being completely dried up halfway through my sophomore year.
As for how I managed to get from the house to the school without a car, I walked (for the most part). Yes, my grandmother drove us sometimes, but after doing it for a month, I could tell she was getting annoyed of it, and so my sister and I would usually walk for about 20 minutes to get to the university, often times in the blistering cold that left my hands purple, especially during those very early mornings (6-7 AM) where I would walk to the university dining hall to work. I would then come home to yet a blistering environment, as heating was non-functional for my entire sophomore year, resulting in my sister and I having to sleep in the same, small room and using barely functional electric heaters.
Despite being very frugal with my money (hardly buying games or figures, depending on Medicaid, barely using Uber, only really paying for the house’s electricity/water, etc.), every time I saved up a good amount, my father would contact me saying he urgently needed help paying off, for example, a lawyer for his immigrant case, and that would bring me back to square one. Yes, I could have just financed a car, and looking back on it, I should have, but for religious reasons, I really did not want to deal with interest (which is why I hope to pay off my subsidized loans before interest accrues).
Anyways, the only time where I should have probably just kept my money was when I was saving up for plane tickets from here to Morocco to see family again during the summer after my sophomore year, as I spent the entire 3 month summer there, when I should have probably just quit my dining hall job and worked at the sheetz/wendy’s that was close to the house during summer. However, not only did I greatly miss my family, just as many Moroccans would, and wanted to be close to them again for yet another summer, but also the university dining hall job was very flexible when it came to my schedule, and I worried that I wouldn’t have gotten that same flexibility during the academic year had I quit the dining hall job and started working at sheetz/wendy’s. Nonetheless I continued working 25 hrs/wk at the dining hall come my junior year (then increased it to 35 at one point).
Fast forward to today (end of junior year), my sister and I jointly paid for a really cheap, old car off of Facebook marketplace, and so to make up for lost time, I immediately applied for a PCT job at the local hospital as well as a volunteering position at the local nursing home. I also applied to an entry-level summer research assistant position at UPMC, and am having an interview for it next week, while also securing an independent study course with my genetics professor this coming fall and a directed study credit with my orgo professor as well. Additionally, my dad has finally resolved that two-decade-long immigration issue, and so he and the rest of my family moved here to this house. My dad has finally gotten a well-paying network job for the first time in 6 and a half years, and although he still has some stuff from the past to pay off, I no longer am the primary person he depends on for said payments, and so I no longer have to put money at the forefront of my mind.
With my dad now being here and having received his new well-paying job, I won’t be needing Medicaid anymore. I still have another year till I apply for med school (end of senior year; will be taking one gap year), and so once I apply, I won’t be considered low-income anymore.
This then brings me to my question: Can I still apply as disadvantaged in order to explain why I wasn’t able to get all my EC’s in until just before my senior year, despite the fact that my household won’t be considered low-income once it comes time to apply? Thankfully I was able to maintain a 4.0 during all of this, and I think I’ll do decent on the MCAT, so I’m not too worried about academics.
I’m sorry for the insane amount of writing that I put here, but I felt like I had to in order to fully explain my situation. If you read the entire thing, thank you and may God bless your soul <3
