2019-2020 Harvard

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"Have you ever previously applied for admission to the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology?"

If I have applied for the Ph.D. component of this program in a prior year, but never the MD program would this be a yes or no to this question?
 
jsjocean said:
"Have you ever previously applied for admission to the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology?"

If I have applied for the Ph.D. component of this program in a prior year, but never the MD program would this be a yes or no to this question?
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I’d say no
 
For someone who has just graduated in May, I am having difficulty even coming close to 4000 characters. Is it okay to actually give a "brief overview."
 
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Just dropping by to say good luck to everyone. Current M2 here. I didn’t think I’d ever get into HMS so shoot your shot. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.
 
RJ McReady said:
How is it possible that HMS is the easiest secondary to complete? I have a strange feeling I'm missing something...
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It is because they understand their applicants are top notch and very thoughtful. They dont need to ask some ridiculous question as it is likely already answered in the primary somewhere. More schools should be like Harvard lol
 
Does anyone know/have experience with how strict they are with the HST upper-level requirements?

"In addition to all the above requirements, the HST curriculum track requires that students be comfortable with upper-level mathematics (through differential equations and linear algebra), biochemistry, and molecular biology. This is usually demonstrated through upper-level course work, but other approaches may satisfy these requirements. In addition, one year of calculus-based physics in college is required."

I have taken algebra-based physics and no upper level math but have taken biochem and molecular bio. Is it worth applying/are they lax about these requirements because the program seems really cool?
 
airman23 said:
Does anyone know/have experience with how strict they are with the HST upper-level requirements?

"In addition to all the above requirements, the HST curriculum track requires that students be comfortable with upper-level mathematics (through differential equations and linear algebra), biochemistry, and molecular biology. This is usually demonstrated through upper-level course work, but other approaches may satisfy these requirements. In addition, one year of calculus-based physics in college is required."

I have taken algebra-based physics and no upper level math but have taken biochem and molecular bio. Is it worth applying/are they lax about these requirements because the program seems really cool?
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related question: if I have little to no experience with differential equations and linear algebra, would I get wrecked by the HST curriculum?
 
EmbryonalCarcinoma said:
Something like homelessness.
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Sorry to bump this comment, but do you think as a low SES applicant, it would be appropriate for me to write something for #2 on the secondary? I'm not sure what constitutes SES as "unusual", but it definitely has given me a unique perspective and has influenced my desire to be a physician.
 
1337leet1337 said:
Sorry to bump this comment, but do you think as a low SES applicant, it would be appropriate for me to write something for #2? I'm not sure what constitutes SES as "unusual", but it definitely has given me a unique perspective and has influenced my desire to be a physician.
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Yes, I think it would be appropriate.
 
If I just graduated this spring, should I still answer the "summarize your activities since graduation" by describing what my plans are for my gap year?
 
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hate to be another one of these "rate my trauma" people but was wondering what people thought about talking about intense emotional abuse from their parents as hardship...i have a difficult time figuring out whether this constitutes "hardship" in the sense that harvard specified it? kind of feel like they might view it as a stretch and think i was just creating something. idk ?

for a little more context: first-gen immigrant, ORM

thanks for the help
 
medicineiskool said:
hate to be another one of these "rate my trauma" people but was wondering what people thought about talking about intense emotional abuse from their parents as hardship...i have a difficult time figuring out whether this constitutes "hardship" in the sense that harvard specified it? kind of feel like they might view it as a stretch and think i was just creating something. idk ?

for a little more context: first-gen immigrant, ORM

thanks for the help
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I think it all depends on how you write it. Don’t make it a sob story, and maybe talk about how it made you grow. Don’t just say it sucked and that’s it.
 
medicineiskool said:
hate to be another one of these "rate my trauma" people but was wondering what people thought about talking about intense emotional abuse from their parents as hardship...i have a difficult time figuring out whether this constitutes "hardship" in the sense that harvard specified it? kind of feel like they might view it as a stretch and think i was just creating something. idk ?

for a little more context: first-gen immigrant, ORM

thanks for the help
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I agree with what @sadpremed121 said. That being said, I hate to be another one of "those people," but what you'll end up likely describing is the experience of 95% of first-gen Asians in America. Adcoms don't need another one of "those" sad stories.
 
SciClin said:
I agree with what @sadpremed121 said. That being said, I hate to be another one of "those people," but what you'll end up likely describing is the experience of 95% of first-gen Asians in America. Adcoms don't need another one of "those" sad stories.
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I agree.

But unfortunately, in this process, challenges of people are seen as nothing more than "uniqueness" collected by schools like trading-cards. Suffering is only valued if it somehow makes a school look good or invokes the potential for a student to make the school look good. Your circumstances are somehow less valid, less accepted to be written about and more likely to make an adcom grumpy, roll their eyes, and judge you for wasting their precious time with your story, if it isn't the equivalent of a holographic foil card.
 
Fruitjuice said:
I agree.

But unfortunately, in this process, challenges of people are seen as nothing more than "uniqueness" collected by schools like trading-cards. Suffering is only valued if it somehow makes a school look good or invokes the potential for a student to make the school look good. Your circumstances are somehow less valid, less accepted to be written about and more likely to make an adcom grumpy, if it isn't the equivalent of a holographic foil card.
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Hopefully, I'm not derailing this thread. And yes to all your points. On the other hand...

I'm of the opinion that these "challenge" or "adversity" prompts are actually a very great way of assessing how mature a person is. It's, to some extent, quite true that the more you've suffered, the more mature you are. Compare two extremes: (1) premed whose biggest challenge has been to pass Organic Chemistry 2 vs. (2) premed whose biggest challenge was to take care of their siblings at an early age because of being orphaned. Obviously, person (2) is much more mature than the other person, all other things equal.

In the same vein, if your toughest challenge has honestly been dealing with parents putting you down, then you still have a lot of room to grow. I'm not trying to invalidate those feelings; I honestly think it's horrible that this behavior is endemic to Asian households. You deserve better. Yet at the same time, I think it's borderline immature to say something like, "My parents were tough on me. I didn't get enough validation growing up. Please accept me." Of course, this is an unfair generalization, but essays like that can very easily sound like so. I would be extra careful of writing about "emotional abuse" that can come off the wrong way. A holographic Charizard card is much more valuable than a holographic Jynx card.
 
SciClin said:
I'm of the opinion that these "challenge" or "adversity" prompts are actually a very great way of assessing how mature a person is. It's, to some extent, quite true that the more you've suffered, the more mature you are.
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I agree. Though my cynical personal can't let go of the idea that med schools, especially top schools like The H, just want to collect. It's just sad to see people's stories be given numbers, ranks, grades, Charizard classifications, Jynx classifications just because these institutions have some supposedly "greater mission"

SciClin said:
if your toughest challenge has honestly been dealing with parents putting you down
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I didn't interpret @medicineiskool's hardship like this, but I guess I shouldn't assume. I had some other hardships in mind, which may be considered invalid or topics to avoid writing about. On a REALLY far off tangent, I really hope that people don't start automatically pulling from the "parents not giving enough validation" stereotype when they see "Asian" and "abuse" in the same sentence.
 
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hey -- thanks all for the insight and the thoughtful and honest comments - definitely were super helpful!

i guess my story is somewhere between the two extremes discussed; compared to other first-gen asian friends I had it was definitely much more painful BUT that being said, i did grow up pretty okay.

To be safe I'm probably not going to write it but again, thanks everyone. Also, just chiming in to agree that its so so ****ty that we have to rank our trauma/emotions (ofc the orgo 2 example is not 'trauma') but i guess thats the way this game goes.

gluck w the cycle 🙂
 
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dwu12 said:
does everyone answer "If there is an important aspect of your personal background or identity, not addressed elsewhere in the application, that you would like to share with the Committee, we invite you to do so here. Many applicants will not need to answer this question. Examples might include significant challenges in access to education, unusual socioeconomic factors, identification with a minority culture, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity. Briefly explain how such factors have influenced your motivation for a career in medicine.(4000 character maximum)" or do most keep it blank?
Click to expand...

See bolded... it’s in the prompt.
 
has anyone else still not received a secondary? i know everyone gets one and they send in batches but i can’t help but worry that there’s some problem with my app at this point...
 
sp0375 said:
has anyone else still not received a secondary? i know everyone gets one and they send in batches but i can’t help but worry that there’s some problem with my app at this point...
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Write to them! I had at least two schools where their secondaries fell into the black hole of the internet, and I had to email them to receive them.
 
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MCAT Score: 510 and cGPA: 3.86. Non-traditional. 4 year professional experience in healthcare consulting. Expat experience (global health) and 4 co-authored publications. From an economically disadvantaged background.

Is this Harvard worthy, or should I let the dream go? (i mean its $140 in total fee)
 
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