Ethnic Minorities and Medicine

[GreenSherbet]

Evidently, there is a lot of competition within medicine and i dunno if my grades are good enough (my average GCSE score is something along the lines of 6.9 on the 8-scale) I recently read that some Uni's (even Oxbridge) use a so-called ''positive discrimination'' scheme to select students from Ethnic Minorities. I am from an ethnic minority and was juss wondering if this works via your college?

I know that in my secondary school 6th form, they had a scheme like this with Cambridge and a student who did OK (she got AABB) was selected. my college doesn't offer this opportunity as they are not in partnership, but will Uni's take ethnic background into consideration anyway?

Thank you for anyone who can shed any light into this matter

[muff1nman]

im almost 100% sure they cant decide on the basis of ethnic backgrounds

[Muffin2]

they shouldn't do, its completely unethical and unfair, but yes they do.

[dreaming_princess]

I think it depends on your background more than your ethnicity. They give preference to people who get good grades from rubbish schools as those people have had to work harder independantly to get those grades then people who go to a posh private school (like me) where a hideous proportion of their pupils get all As and nearly all go on to Uni or further education.
I don't think that they factor race in though.

[Clarkey]

Like others have said, you will not be chosen over another applicant simply because you are in a minority group. There are schemes aimed at targeting students from less advantaged backgrounds, who are also therefore more likely to be an ethnic minority. If you were an ethnic minority whose parents had been to university, you lived in an affluent postcode and had had a private education then you would be considered in the same way as everyone else.

It also depends to which minority group you were referring. Several ethnic minority groups are over-represented in medical school.

[Dr Noodle]

I guess I'm from an ethnic minority (half Irish-half Indo-Mauritian) and I was the darkest person in my school (even though I'm actually quite pale and burned in Rome) but I'd be disgusted if I got into med school on that merit. I'd want to be picked for my ability to be a good doctor only.

[hopefulG]

i think that because universities want to be viewed as being 'cosmopolitan' and practice 'equal opportunities' they will take other ethnicities. i ain't complaining cos i'm an ethnic minority and damn, if i could use my skin colour to get into med school, so be it. if u put it on paper, then put it into practice. i regret not applying to cambridge now....not that i would get in anyway, but with positive dicrimination, u never know.....its a gamble....

[persianmedic]

I wouldn't call the discrimination.
Your background, ethnicity, religion will not in anyway put you AHEAD in the ranking. BUT they might CONSIDER your application inline with others IF you have a SLIGHTLY poorer academic achievement. (e.g. predicted ABB)
The selection process is very systematic. in a way that you need to score a certain point to receive an offer based on your PS,reference, interview and UKCAT. and there are no points for being ehtnic.

[persianmedic]

i think that because universities want to be viewed as being 'cosmopolitan' and practice 'equal opportunities' they will take other ethnicities.

I wouldn't think so. ethnic minorities form a large number of applicants anyway. so they don't need to try to give them more offers. there are loads of around. sometimes too many! lol

[Singh.Simran]

yeah...the ucl open day seemed to be mainly consisting of indians/other south asians for all i saw...

i suppose some might be under-represented (africans?) but i don't know. i very much doubt there is any major negative or positive effect to one's application anyway..