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I mean if you want to do stuff more on the clinical side/health advocacy, you can accomplish that goal at a non research powerhouse school.

I don’t think it’s a hard requirement but research schools want students interested in research.
 
It really depends on the wording of the PS. If you made it sound like you tried researching and didn't like it then say goodbye to schools with an emphasis on research.

Not sure why you would research and then imply that it wasn't meaningful in your PS.

EDIT: It depends on how you worded it in your PS.
 
I don't think it will be very detrimental to your application. There are plenty of research powerhouse programs that admit folks who are more interested in the patient side of things. That being said, your emphasis on T20 is a bit misplaced. Focus on getting into a single medical school, something that 2/3 of applicants this year will be unable to do. If you are in the fortunate position that 1/6 applicants are in of having multiple acceptances, then you can fret over rankings and other factors.

Your personal statement is finished and cannot be changed, let it go. There are so many parts of this process that are *beyond your control* that you need to stop worrying about them. The reality is there are dozens of qualified applicants for each seat in medical school. At some point, decisions about who to admit vs who to reject becomes somewhat random and arbitrary. Instead of worrying about your PS, spend your time practicing interview skills by formulating answers to questions, learning about current issues in the field, etc.
 
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It depends on the reader's own perception, which is based on their own understanding of what the school is looking for and how you conveyed your aspirations in your PS.

You have control over neither of those now. As nice as it would be if people on the internet could provide you comfort about what will happen, we can't.

Should you get any interviews, you will have another chance to convey what inspires you. If they feel that is a good match for their school and they are confident you will succeed there, then you have a chance. Don't say you want to do research because you think that's what they want to hear. Actually, don't say anything because you think it's what they want to hear. Good luck!
 
Hi all, thank you for the replies. I really appreciate everyone's time and effort spent reading my disgustingly long post and commenting.

I know I cannot change information on my primary application, but I'm trying to see in what ways I could possible present myself in secondaries without seeming to conflict with my primaries.

The problem I have is not that I do not want to do research in the future, but I may have accidentally written in a way that makes it seem like I do not want to do research. I mainly started the activities related to public health because it was related to my background (so more personal interest), and it is actually one of my newer interests and I am not sure if I actually want to continue focusing on that path. Research, on the other hand, has been something I have done consistently since high school, and I am interested in continuing to do research, just maybe not the level of a physician scientist. I'm also an engineering major, but switched pretty late, so I am also looking to apply what I am learning in class through more research (I had something lined up this summer, but it went sour because of COVID). Again, while I am interested in research, I don't think I expressed it appropriately.

It's just right now, I'm not 100% which path I want to pursue, one focused on research or public health. I know I probably should have a clearer idea, but I don't. I'm just worried that I may have other parts of my application may have closed my chances at research-oriented schools because of the way I expressed myself. I want to clear things up in my secondaries, but I'm worried that this may sound contradictory.

Also, I know I sound like I'm obsessed with T20 schools, but I only mentioned them because a good portion of the schools I currently applied to are T20. Because of this, I wanted to gauge my new chances at these schools, given these blunders, and determine whether my secondaries can help mitigate the damage done. I am currently looking for new schools to add to my list because I may have killed my chances at these schools (the ones focused on research).
 
Hzreio said:
I mean if you want to do stuff more on the clinical side/health advocacy, you can accomplish that goal at a non research powerhouse school.

I don’t think it’s a hard requirement but research schools want students interested in research.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply. I still want to do more research but I do not think I conveyed this properly in my primaries. I want to fix this in my secondaries, though I'm not sure if it will sound like conflicting information.
 
worried_applicant said:
Hi all, thank you for the replies. I really appreciate everyone's time and effort spent reading my disgustingly long post and commenting.

I know I cannot change information on my primary application, but I'm trying to see in what ways I could possible present myself in secondaries without seeming to conflict with my primaries.

The problem I have is not that I do not want to do research in the future, but I may have accidentally written in a way that makes it seem like I do not want to do research. I mainly started the activities related to public health because it was related to my background (so more personal interest), and it is actually one of my newer interests and I am not sure if I actually want to continue focusing on that path. Research, on the other hand, has been something I have done consistently since high school, and I am interested in continuing to do research, just maybe not the level of a physician scientist. I'm also an engineering major, but switched pretty late, so I am also looking to apply what I am learning in class through more research (I had something lined up this summer, but it went sour because of COVID). Again, while I am interested in research, I don't think I expressed it appropriately.

It's just right now, I'm not 100% which path I want to pursue, one focused on research or public health. I know I probably should have a clearer idea, but I don't. I'm just worried that I may have other parts of my application may have closed my chances at research-oriented schools because of the way I expressed myself. I want to clear things up in my secondaries, but I'm worried that this may sound contradictory.

Also, I know I sound like I'm obsessed with T20 schools, but I only mentioned them because a good portion of the schools I currently applied to are T20. Because of this, I wanted to gauge my new chances at these schools, given these blunders, and determine whether my secondaries can help mitigate the damage done. I am currently looking for new schools to add to my list because I may have killed my chances at these schools (the ones focused on research).
Click to expand...

Just be honest in your secondaries. If you have a research interest, talk about it. If you have a public health interest, talk about it. Adcoms are more likely to be impressed by authenticity rather than writing about what you think the school is looking for.

Needless to say, if you do express interest in any field, you should also have the proper experiences to back your interests up.
 
yokiguz said:
It really depends on the wording of the PS. If you made it sound like you tried researching and didn't like it then say goodbye to schools with an emphasis on research.

Not sure why you would research and then imply that it wasn't meaningful in your PS.

EDIT: It depends on how you worded it in your PS.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply.

I expressed more in a way that my intellectual side was satisfied but I still wanted to do something in my life that involved spending more time with people. I do like research, but I think I did not convey it properly.
 
GreenDuck12 said:
I don't think it will be very detrimental to your application. There are plenty of research powerhouse programs that admit folks who are more interested in the patient side of things. That being said, your emphasis on T20 is a bit misplaced. Focus on getting into a single medical school, something that 2/3 of applicants this year will be unable to do. If you are in the fortunate position that 1/6 applicants are in of having multiple acceptances, then you can fret over rankings and other factors.

Your personal statement is finished and cannot be changed, let it go. There are so many parts of this process that are *beyond your control* that you need to stop worrying about them. The reality is there are dozens of qualified applicants for each seat in medical school. At some point, decisions about who to admit vs who to reject becomes somewhat random and arbitrary. Instead of worrying about your PS, spend your time practicing interview skills by formulating answers to questions, learning about current issues in the field, etc.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the reply. I was hoping to be one of the people you mentioned. I know my emphasis is misplaced; it's just that a lot of the schools I am applying to are T20, so I wanted to gauge whether or not I still have a shot at them and how many new schools I need to add to my list because of my poor communication skills so far. Sorry if it seemed like I only care about rankings; T20 was more a way to concisely express some of schools I applied to.

I am less worried about changing my primaries and more about how I can fix my miscommunications in my secondaries (if that makes sense).
 
gamache said:
It depends on the reader's own perception, which is based on their own understanding of what the school is looking for and how you conveyed your aspirations in your PS.

You have control over neither of those now. As nice as it would be if people on the internet could provide you comfort about what will happen, we can't.

Should you get any interviews, you will have another chance to convey what inspires you. If they feel that is a good match for their school and they are confident you will succeed there, then you have a chance. Don't say you want to do research because you think that's what they want to hear. Actually, don't say anything because you think it's what they want to hear. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the reply, advice, and wishes for good luck; I'll definitely need it.
 
worried_applicant said:
It's just right now, I'm not 100% which path I want to pursue, one focused on research or public health. I know I probably should have a clearer idea, but I don't. I'm just worried that I may have other parts of my application may have closed my chances at research-oriented schools because of the way I expressed myself. I want to clear things up in my secondaries, but I'm worried that this may sound contradictory.
Click to expand...

It's okay that you don't have everything all figured out right now, most premeds don't! Just because a school is "research heavy" doesn't mean that they don't care about public health/patient care, and because of that I don't think your essay is going to hurt your chances at those schools. I had a remarkably similar story to yours (engineering undergrad, did a lot of research but wanted more experiences with patients, etc.), and I am now attending one of those "research heavy" schools. Just because you don't want to do research as your career, doesn't mean that you can't participate in it during medical school!

worried_applicant said:
Also, I know I sound like I'm obsessed with T20 schools, but I only mentioned them because a good portion of the schools I currently applied to are T20.
Click to expand...

Just a word of advice, med school apps can be a bit of a crapshoot. You could have a 4.0 GPA and 520 MCAT and still get rejected from a top school. 60% of applicants don't get any acceptances each year, and so your goal should be to get into a medical school, not a top one.
 
penguinsfan71 said:
Why do you want to attend a research powerhouse if research isn't your primary focus? Plenty of top medical schools place an emphasis on patient care/public health.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply. I just think I did not appropriately express myself and am looking for ways to relay my interest in research, but just not at the level of a physician scientist, in my secondaries without sounding too contradictory to the information I already presented about myself.
 
worried_applicant said:
Thank you so much for the reply. I was hoping to be one of the people you mentioned. I know my emphasis is misplaced; it's just that a lot of the schools I am applying to are T20, so I wanted to gauge whether or not I still have a shot at them and how many new schools I need to add to my list because of my poor communication skills so far. Sorry if it seemed like I only care about rankings; T20 was more a way to concisely express some of schools I applied to.

I am less worried about changing my primaries and more about how I can fix my miscommunications in my secondaries (if that makes sense).
Click to expand...

Unless there is a prompt that specifically addresses your interests or research, I would not bring it up. Secondary prompts tend to be very straight forward and have limited space. Just focus on answering the prompts to the best of your ability in a clear and concise way. Trying to change a response to a prompt to connect back to something in your personal statement isn't worth the confusion it may cause.
 
You don't have to want to do research to get into a top research school. Top schools accept a mix of applicants with strong backgrounds in research, community service, humanities, art, etc., and some people who are just well rounded and smart.
 
Fam, chill out. Take a xanax. Breathe. Relax.

If your stats are were they should be, and your research hours are what you say they are, then you are going to be fine. Not every student that gets in to those schools are writing their primary application about how they love research.
 
ICON1026 said:
Why do you act as though you can't possibly guess why someone might be interested in going to a top 20 school. Step 1 is p/f, therefore prestige is important to match easier to competitive specialty's. Life is easier at top 20s with more of them moving to p/f 3rd and 4th year.
Click to expand...

There are plenty of high ranking schools that place just as much of an emphasis on public health/patient care as they do on research.
 
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