Should you bring up parenthood in your application?

If you’re just applying for school, you may be wondering how schools may interpret you being a parent. Will they question your ability to dedicate time to your studies, or appreciate the value and diversity you can offer their campus?

Will bringing it up put you at a disadvantage?

Probably not. Remember, it is real people who are filtering through the applications. Although some may have biases as to who they feel makes for an ideal applicant, the life skills that come with parenthood may even give you an edge.

If you are a parent and your reason for wanting to become a physician [or any other professional] includes being a parent, then it has to go in your application because it’s a part of your story.

Dr. Ryan Gray

Hide it or flaunt it?

There may even be consequences around avoiding certain parts of your story that are integral to who you are. But if you get into a school that is not flexible with your childcare needs and you’re penalized, this isn’t the school you want to be at. 

The best thing that you can do is to lay all your cards out and let the school decide. Sometimes it works out, other times it doesn’t. Schools that empower you to become the person you want to become will embrace your children’s needs and support you in providing for them.

Being a parent is your superpower!

Raising children requires patience, maturity, and considering the needs of others, not to mention a crazy amount of logistics. These are incredible like skills that most of your peers can’t bring to the table just yet. Your roles as a parent, partner and so on, are not in opposition to your role as a student. The competence in balancing the variety of opportunities that life has to offer is a skill that will make you stand out against your peers in a wonderful way.