Comments on: The Minority Excuse

By: Rishi

Rishi — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:59:13 +0000

Interesting observation.

By: Quocimonster

Quocimonster — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:33:09 +0000

how the heck did I get an avatar?! lol

By: Quocimonster

Quocimonster — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:32:38 +0000

For female applicants to med school, the odds are good, but the goods are usually odd…

By: Oscar

Oscar — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:02:09 +0000

I am sorry Rishi. =(
I will also take advantage of being a minority. There aren’t that many Hispanic doctors, so we are not to blame, it is your over-achieving brethren. I am also not wealthy and have had tough jobs, going to school full-time and working full-time during all my college years. I wonder how I even do well sometimes. Working, I sometimes eat but a meal a day and have even developed gastritis and ulcers for pushing myself so hard. I do understand where you are coming from, and yes, there are some wealthy kids out there who take advantage of the “minority status” quite undeserved. Please don’t hate me! I have worked really hard to get somewhere, and I am also the only one in my family to get a college education, plus I speak spanish 100%, so that will also help me get in. Don’t let this “minority” business deter you at all, man. You are a dedicated individual who will make it in life, farther than me, the minority.

By: Sherwin

Sherwin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:38:21 +0000

I believe minorities should have this advantage because they are not afforded the luxuries of quality public schools or supportive family environments due to poverty and relatively less opportunities in general. I just think the definition of minority should be altered to focus on economic background rather than blanketing entire ethnic groups. When these systems were devised it was easier to do it that way because the inverse correlation between income and certain ethnic groups was staggering, and pretty much still is. I agree that if an African American student from a middle class background raised in the suburbs received an advantage in admittance due to race, that’s unfair. The same can’t be said for a student who went to a terrible public school, raised in a single parent household without the kind of support that you and I received (regardless of race). Yet, at the same time, if you start going by economic status, you open up a lot of loopholes. Family income? Individual income? Family’s net worth? What if they were once wealthy but lost it all? The questions are endless with that scenario so there are problems with both methods.