Is "I want to help people" really a bad answer?

[sundancing]

Hi everyone,

I'm experiencing some worry over my recent interviews because I think I used the dreaded "I want to help people" cliche in the "why medicine" questions. Now I am seeing all over this forum that it is a poor answer that won't be taken seriously be interviewers and I'm worried.

To be clear, I didn't plainly say "I want to help people." I explained how my background/family structure led me to this goal, and explained specifically what problems I want to address. I also tied in how being a physician would be different from other careers that also help people and I explained why this career also aligned with my personal interests outside of helping people.

I guess I just want to put my mind at ease. Is it really a horrible answer?

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[Afford]

Sounds like a standard answer to me. I feel that saying "I want to help people" and just leaving at that is frowned upon. Since you explained it well, it sounds good to me. There are only a handful of reasons why people want medicine anyways.

 

[PreciousHamburgers]

Hi everyone,

I'm experiencing some worry over my recent interviews because I think I used the dreaded "I want to help people" cliche in the "why medicine" questions. Now I am seeing all over this forum that it is a poor answer that won't be taken seriously be interviewers and I'm worried.

To be clear, I didn't plainly say "I want to help people." I explained how my background/family structure led me to this goal, and explained specifically what problems I want to address. I also tied in how being a physician would be different from other careers that also help people and I explained why this career also aligned with my personal interests outside of helping people.

I guess I just want to put my mind at ease. Is it really a horrible answer?

I think "I want to help people" isn't a bad answer, it is just an incomplete answer. If you are including the bolded then it is probably fine.

 

[dbeast]

Every good personal statment contains an element of "I want to help people". Your job is to answer why you want to help people and how your reasons are different than everybody else. Sounds like you did just that (thumbs up emoji)

 

[Goro]

Just be aware that it leads to the riposte of "you can help people by being a nurse, a PA, a cop, soldier, an EMT...etc, so why not do those?

 

[sundancing]

Just be aware that it leads to the riposte of "you can help people by being a nurse, a PA, a cop, soldier, an EMT...etc, so why not do those?

Yeah, I considered that. So far interviewers haven't asked me that so I guess I explained "why physician" well enough