Thread by @tmprowell

Students from 🏠 with annual income <$50K were half as likely to be accepted to med school as students with 🏠 annual income >$200K. We all knew this was a problem, but the magnitude is shocking. We all have a role in addressing this, #MedTwitter… /1

https://twitter.com/MytienTNguyen/status/1656766277384302592

Students from lower income 🏠 are at an educational disadvantage that begins well before college. A concrete intervention: volunteer to tutor students. I did this multiple times per month the whole time all 3 of my kids were in elem school. files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ898… /2

All of us in #MedTwitter should be teaching our kids to use their privilege to lift other students. A concrete example: one of my kids had the opportunity in 5th grade to do an independent study in which he learned to code via his amazing public school teacher, Mrs. Stansbury. /3

She later moved to a title 1 ES. When he was in HS, he contacted her & established an after school coding club for 5th graders. He developed/ taught them a 26 wk coding curriculum. He used his privilege to be a force multiplier. We have to teach our kids we expect this. /4

As the parent of 3 teens, I’ve witnessed how early kids in public schools get sorted into gifted (or not) classes, which downstream translates into big differences in HS transcripts (eg # of AP classes) & in turn weighted GPA potential, etc, which impact college admissions. /5

For those from lower income 🏠 who make it to college, they may now have less academic prep than their peers & struggle more. They may have less free time after studying (& often need to work a paid job too), which means fewer opps to do unpaid research or shadow a dr. /6

And these students are also less likely to have the family/friend connections that open doors to great research or shadowing opps. So now you have a student with a lower college GPA, no research, less favorable letters of recs, & you can see where this is going. /7

And this is before accounting for the staggering cost of applying to med school with all the trappings of MCAT prep, testing & retesting, applying/visiting, not to mention the actual tuition, which is 🤯. This thread could go on all night, so I’ll end with this. /8

If we aren’t ACTIVELY working to mitigate this—by tutoring/ mentoring students from low income 🏠 & underrepresented backgrounds, by offering paid research opps, etc—we are perpetuating the problem. Here’s an opp to be aware of that in the DC area where I live /9

The deadline for the 2023 annual OCE Summer Scholars program has already passed (in April), but bookmark this tweet or the website for next year. /End

Go here to learn more: fda.gov/about-fda/scie…. #Equity #MedTwitter #MedEd #DEI