Acceptable adversity essay topic?

[brockhamptonfanacct]

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[GreenDuck12]

An essay about you navigating deep cultural and ethnic differences/conflicts/biases would be a fine topic. An essay focusing on your boyfriend or your families - not so much. Your other posts indicate that there are other experiences you could use for the adversity prompt.

 

[brockhamptonfanacct]

An essay about you navigating deep cultural and ethnic differences/conflicts/biases would be a fine topic. An essay focusing on your boyfriend or your families - not so much. Your other posts indicate that there are other experiences you could use for the adversity prompt.

I’m not quite sure how I could do that without the point being my relationship, though. The only reason any of those conflicts culminated so intensely was because of my relationship. Also, I thought my other posts generally focus on academic adversity, and you should stay away from that in these essays.

 

[micro_glia]

You would mention your relationship and the differences as you set up the essay, but the adversity essay should speak to what you learned from it, how you grew, how you dealt with it, etc.

 

[GreenDuck12]

I’m not quite sure how I could do that without the point being my relationship, though. The only reason any of those conflicts culminated so intensely was because of my relationship. Also, I thought my other posts generally focus on academic adversity, and you should stay away from that in these essays.

The challenge you will encounter writing this essay is that you may need to spend a lot of space explaining the situation so that your reader can understand the context. This limits the amount of space you have to explain how you learned to navigate it, grow from it, and ultimately will be a better more compassionate physician because of it. The essay needs to focus on you and your growth, not the growth of your and your boyfriends respective families.

 

[brockhamptonfanacct]

You would mention your relationship and the differences as you set up the essay, but the adversity essay should speak to what you learned from it, how you grew, how you dealt with it, etc.

For sure, thank you. I gave a lot of context here because I wanted it to be clear why this was such an adverse incident—but the majority of my essay will be focused on my learning and growth as a result.

 

[brockhamptonfanacct]

The challenge you will encounter writing this essay is that you may need to spend a lot of space explaining the situation so that your reader can understand the context. This limits the amount of space you have to explain how you learned to navigate it, grow from it, and ultimately will be a better more compassionate physician because of it. The essay needs to focus on you and your growth, not the growth of your and your boyfriends respective families.

That definitely makes sense, thank you. I do think I could pare the setup down to a minimal amount and will be extra diligent with that now.

 

[brockhamptonfanacct]

I would also appreciate some adcom honesty on this! If I’m better off picking a different topic I’ll do so @Goro @LizzyM

 

[Goro]

Preface: I dedicate a lot of space in this post to explaining the setup and background purely to help you all understand the topic and assess if it’s suitable or not. My actual essay would be much more focused on the things I discuss in the last paragraph, and clearly tie in why this will make me a more compassionate and thoughtful doctor.

My boyfriend’s family is Hindu and Indian, mine is Muslim and Pakistani. After the British colonialism ended and Pakistan declared independence as a Muslim country, the two countries’ relationship has been one of bloodshed and strife, marred with wars, religious persecution, rampant discrimination and hatred, etc. My father frequently talks about Indian armies burning down his village.

Before I went to college, my parents told me I’d be ex-communicated if I ever brought back a Hindu. I couldn’t help that my boyfriend is Hindu, nor was it an issue to me personally, so here we are.

I wanted to write in my adversity essays about how much utter grit and sheer perseverance it’s taken to even climb close to acceptance from all sides involved. My parents despised it at first—words really cannot do justice to the difficulties I endured—and it took all my patience, resolve, and empathy to ultimately succeed. My brother received Instagram DMs from teenagers in our mosque community who shamed me for dating a Hindu. I was interrogated by family friends with disgust and disapproval, I was called a traitor, my boyfriend was called a traitor, etc. This is all barely skimming the surface of what has happened, of course.

It has been an experience that has profoundly shaped me, has certainly been adverse, and has taught me a lot of positive things both about myself and the world. We are also currently in an LDR. I was wondering if this would be an acceptable adversity essay topic or something that would be better left off.

Also, I know these types of essays aim to see what qualities you have that would make you successful in medicine. I could speak at length about the ones I’ve gained here—indescribable patience, personal grit, a thick skin, adaptability, resolve, creativity, critical thinking, stress management, the ability to think and perform under pressure, etc.

Excellent topic.

 

[brockhamptonfanacct]

Excellent topic.

Great to hear! Thank you!

 

[LizzyM]

"My romantic partner is a member of a religous minority in the US. My parents and other relatives and members of our religious community hold deeply held prejudices against adherents of that religious tradition due to clashes and persecution in their homeland in the last century and into the present. I have had to develop grit, empathy, and patience to overcome the challenge of being with my partner.

"It has been an experience that has profoundly shaped me, has certainly been adverse, and has taught me a lot of positive things both about myself and the world."

You don't really need to geopolitical stuff.... this is a story that is so universal that many people of many religious traditions could relate to it.

 

[brockhamptonfanacct]

My romantic partner is a member of a religous minority. My parents and other relatives and members of our religious community hold deeply held prejudices against adherents of that religious tradition due to clashes and persecution in their homeland in the last century and into the present. I have had to develop grit, empathy, and patience to overcome the challenge of being with my partner.

It has been an experience that has profoundly shaped me, has certainly been adverse, and has taught me a lot of positive things both about myself and the world.

You don't really need to geopolitical stuff.... this is a story that is so universal that many people of many religious traditions could relate to it.

Oh, yes, that was the plan. I specified our heritages here because I figured I’d be asked and it’d lend context to the story, but for the actual essay itself, I’ll be keeping the ethnicities themselves vague.