financially disadvantaged

[hildtom]

i know that there are some threads on this already, but I just wanted to get a straight answer.
I am not an URM, however, I have been economically disadvantaged all my life. and I've heard people say they've applied as "financially disadvantaged", what sort of difference does this make in the admissions process?
I mean, I'm not trying to outdo anybody or anything, I'm just curious, because I have no clue as to what kind of impacts it makes.
I wasn't sure if this was the right forum to post this, and if not, i'll edit to delete, and repost in pre-allo. thank you for your responses

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[Lshapley]

I am applying as disadvantaged status, but I don't know what real effect it has. I'm not sure it has much. I have a good mcat, below average gpa and unique EC's. Right now I have one invite, one hold and one pre-sec rejection. That seems about right for my stats regardless of my "disadvantaged" status. IMO, I don't think it excuses or makes up for low grades or mcat, but it might help your application along the lines of an EC. Economically disadvantaged, in an adcom's eyes, might show that you are more willing to practice in a disadvantaged community or can relate better to the disadvantaged. These are a lot of "mights" and "ifs" though. Check back with me in June after the interviews and acceptances all shake out and I'll let you know what I think then.

 

[hildtom]

I am applying as disadvantaged status, but I don't know what real effect it has. I'm not sure it has much. I have a good mcat, below average gpa and unique EC's. Right now I have one invite, one hold and one pre-sec rejection. That seems about right for my stats regardless of my "disadvantaged" status. IMO, I don't think it excuses or makes up for low grades or mcat, but it might help your application along the lines of an EC. Economically disadvantaged, in an adcom's eyes, might show that you are more willing to practice in a disadvantaged community or can relate better to the disadvantaged. These are a lot of "mights" and "ifs" though. Check back with me in June after the interviews and acceptances all shake out and I'll let you know what I think then.

Thanks a lot! Yes, I'll PM you in June, thanks again!

 

[artaxerxes]

I applied as financially disavantageous, although I wouldn't really consider myself that disadvantaged at this point, but during my youth, up until college, my family was. Its certainly something to write about in your essays and it can play a role in contributing to your world view of things. I believe it adds some diversity, but overall, I doubt it plays that large of a role, unlike URMdom. Right now I have 8 invites, but I don't think any of them, with the possible exception of MSSM, has to do with the disadvantaged status.

 

[hildtom]

I applied as financially disavantageous, although I wouldn't really consider myself that disadvantaged at this point, but during my youth, up until college, my family was. Its certainly something to write about in your essays and it can play a role in contributing to your world view of things. I believe it adds some diversity, but overall, I doubt it plays that large of a role, unlike URMdom. Right now I have 8 invites, but I don't think any of them, with the possible exception of MSSM, has to do with the disadvantaged status.

hehe, cool. thanks for the info!

 

[Rajazz Flava]

a friend of mine who's in med school right now told me that there are some things you can fill out to get your application fees waived, at least to a certain extent. I'm currently a senior and am going to apply this year (I'm taking a year off). I've lost his contact information, can anyone help me out?

 

[Savantrice]

Yep, its AAMC's Fee Assistance Program

Per the website:
The AAMC Fee Assistance Program (FAP) assists MCAT examinees and AMCAS applicants who, without financial assistance, would be unable to take the MCAT examination or apply to medical schools that use the AMCAS application.

Applicants who are approved for fee assistance in 2007 receive the following benefits from the AAMC:

Reduction of the MCAT registration fee from $210 to $85 for any registration submitted subsequent to the date of approval during the 2007 calendar year
Waiver of the application fee of $490 for submitting the completed AMCAS application to up to 12 medical schools. Applicants pay $30 for each school beyond the 12 free applications.
In addition, most AMCAS-participating medical schools waive their supplemental application fees for applicants who have been granted fee assistance by the AAMC.

Note that some on here have said that the supplemental fees were only waived for the first 12 schools applied to on AMCAS (the ones that were actually free for the primary)

I used the FAP, and without it I would not have been able to apply for medical school at all. Again, as with all things amcas, the earlier the application is in the better. I applied for it in June.
AACOMAS also has something similar, but they have few and they must go very quickly. I applied for theirs a few weeks later, still mid-summer and they were not giving out anymore.

 

[4paw]

As part of my travels this year, I was given some interview feedback from an interviewer at one school out of the many across the states. the feedack for economically disadvantaged is that at some schools that would count for something, and it is definitely somehting to bring up at an interview.

what it counts for are a couple main points. one is class diversity - there is a lot of classism - i've heard 'white trash' a little more than should be heard amongst med students in my travels this year, and that's likely because most med students come from non-economically disadvantaged backgrounds and we're in a world that is classist - so diversity of having folks who were poor growing up is about that diversity that teaches everyone in the class about relating across difference. the other main point about economic disadvantage is that out of that pool may be people who are more likely to decide to work for poor people even though we are in a world where to be poor or to dedicate oneself professionally to people who are poor is to be marginalized, not compensated to the same extent etc. those are the two main points.

economic disadvantage is different from urm, but it has long been tracked as a statistic by the aamc and that tracking was initiated at the same time under the same policy and by the same committee as the urm work.