Adversity Secondary Prompt

[Buggy1324]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Here's a brief summary of my response to the adversity prompt:

I discuss being born prematurely with developmental delays and later experiencing a season-ending shoulder injury requiring surgery while serving as captain of my university volleyball team. The injury forced me to redefine leadership, shifting from contributing through performance to supporting others through encouragement, listening, and mentorship. I also reflect on learning that resilience is often collaborative. I connect these lessons to medicine by describing how they will influence my approach to caring for patients facing unexpected setbacks that threaten their identities and sense of purpose.

I wanted to get people's opinions and see what they think of this. I'm worried talking about injury as a big emphasis of this essay can come across very cliché. I tie this into how my perspective on leadership and collaboration has changed, and ultimately how my approach to medicine will be impacted. I'd be happy to send my full version over if someone wants to review.

Additionally, I've thought about solely focusing on being born premature. My only concern with that option is I already mentioned the fact I was born premature in my personal statement (only a sentence mentioning it brought health challenges, but the fact it was mentioned makes me worried of repetition). What do you think?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

What specific prompt are you answering? Was your health status discussed in your primary application?

 

[LelouchLamperouge]

To be honest, a common answer to the adversity essay does not necessarily mean it is a bad answer. If you truly went through some adversity in your injury, then sure. However, if the prompt tells you something like "Write about your distance traveled," then you should think about a longitudinal experience in your life that you constantly had to overcome to get to the point where you are today. I think that prompt is different from asking, "Tell us a time when you faced a challenge." Either way, stick to the prompt.

 

[Buggy1324]

To be honest, a common answer to the adversity essay does not necessarily mean it is a bad answer. If you truly went through some adversity in your injury, then sure. However, if the prompt tells you something like "Write about your distance traveled," then you should think about a longitudinal experience in your life that you constantly had to overcome to get to the point where you are today. I think that prompt is different from asking, "Tell us a time when you faced a challenge." Either way, stick to the prompt.

Thank you for your advice, I really appreciate it! There's only one school on my list that has the "distance traveled" prompt, but the rest of my schools use a challenge/adversity moment prompt. I'll make sure to stick to the prompt.

 

[Buggy1324]

What specific prompt are you answering? Was your health status discussed in your primary application?

The specific prompt I'm answering involves telling a time I faced adversity and reflect on the lessons learned as well as how I can connect that to being a physician. In my personal statement, I have one sentence talking about being born premature that brought health challenges. Now the unique aspect is I have a twin brother applying this cycle and he's writing about being born premature so I'm wanting to be cautious of not writing the exact same thing as him (although I briefly mention it and transition over to volleyball since I think it's still an important aspect of my life). Volleyball was one of my meaningful experiences so I reflect a little more on that and the lessons I learned in this essay while talking about my injury (since I didn't mention the injury in my primary app). Hopefully that provides enough context, although I'm happy to clarify any other things! Thank you for your advice!

 

[polymerization]

I had almost word-for-word the same idea in early versions of my personal statement (dramatized to emphasize the [I'd imagine] agonizing week or two I was down in the NICU after birth, with speculative birth traumas as reasons for my eventual interests in medicine), and the reason I decided against it was because ultimately, the premise is weak, in my opinion, the way I had been framing it. It may shake out differently for you, but here was my thinking.

I realized, OK, I was born premature, and? While the implied underdevelopment of vital organs is certainly an adverse consequence of early birth, it just isn't the kind of adversity the prompt is asking for. The point of the prompt is for you to highlight an instance of perseverance that you can still claim. The meta-narrative should basically close the loop by saying "this is what happened and what I did to overcome it, therefore, by admitting me, you are getting a student who is bringing this exact perseverance to your medical school."

In my story, that I kept breathing 30 years ago when my body struggled to do so is, of course, a result of modern medicine, but I don't see it completing the claim I was trying to make. It only proves "modern medicine saved my life," maybe. Which... valid, but I think it's too common and a bit of a stretch having been within 100 miles of at least 4 different medical schools and countless hospitals.

After going back and forth with myself on it, I realized that to make it address the claims I wanted to make, I would have to be unreasonably dramatic and stretch the truth in a way that was easy to see through, like basically taking personal credit for surviving what was only possible through the interventions of others, etc.

 

[Buggy1324]

I had almost word-for-word the same idea in early versions of my personal statement (dramatized to emphasize the [I'd imagine] agonizing week or two I was down in the NICU after birth, with speculative birth traumas as reasons for my eventual interests in medicine), and the reason I decided against it was because ultimately, the premise is weak, in my opinion, the way I had been framing it. It may shake out differently for you, but here was my thinking.

I realized, OK, I was born premature, and? While the implied underdevelopment of vital organs is certainly an adverse consequence of early birth, it just isn't the kind of adversity the prompt is asking for. The point of the prompt is for you to highlight an instance of perseverance that you can still claim. The meta-narrative should basically close the loop by saying "this is what happened and what I did to overcome it, therefore, by admitting me, you are getting a student who is bringing this exact perseverance to your medical school."

In my story, that I kept breathing 30 years ago when my body struggled to do so is, of course, a result of modern medicine, but I don't see it completing the claim I was trying to make. It only proves "modern medicine saved my life," maybe. Which... valid, but I think it's too common and a bit of a stretch having been within 100 miles of at least 4 different medical schools and countless hospitals.

After going back and forth with myself on it, I realized that to make it address the claims I wanted to make, I would have to be unreasonably dramatic and stretch the truth in a way that was easy to see through, like basically taking personal credit for surviving what was only possible through the interventions of others, etc.

Thank you for providing your experience, that is really helpful to see! This might be too much to ask, but if you are willing, and able, to, could you read my current essay draft? I'd be really interested in getting your feedback and perspective on it. No worries if not, just thought I'd ask!

 

[polymerization]

Thank you for providing your experience, that is really helpful to see! This might be too much to ask, but if you are willing, and able, to, could you read my current essay draft? I'd be really interested in getting your feedback and perspective on it. No worries if not, just thought I'd ask!

I am not an advisor or consultant, so I shrink from giving private, personal application advice that cannot be disagreed with/superseded by professionals. That said, I am more than happy to interact on a public forum like this; I would say I am very active/responsive here.