Advice on adversity essay for secondaries?

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Med16484

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Hi, so I had a quick question. The adversity prompt is used by many medical schools for their secondary essays so I want to make sure I write one on an appropriate topic. In college, I raised a future guide dog which was initially a struggle because of many of the added responsibilities going along with my academic and extracurricular commitments. Just to clarify this is a dog that I trained for a year while in college and then he went on to become a guide dog for a blind person. Over time I adjusted and became much more efficient and able to handle all my responsibilities while training him. Do you think this is an appropriate topic to discuss for an adversity essay? Thanks!

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From Johns Hopkins: ““Briefly describe a situation where you had to overcome adversity; include lessons learned and how you think it will affect your career as a future physician.”

I’m not sure if raising a guide dog will constitute “overcoming adversity”, although I’m sure it was a challenging situation you had to adapt to! I wonder if this could be best used for another prompt.. That being said, if you write a compelling essay about how this wasn’t just some puppy, and it really took a toll on your well-being, then maybe it could work. I wonder if there are any other experiences you had that could better be seen as an example of adversity? Definitely get some other opinions on this!
 
From Johns Hopkins: ““Briefly describe a situation where you had to overcome adversity; include lessons learned and how you think it will affect your career as a future physician.”

I’m not sure if raising a guide dog will constitute “overcoming adversity”, although I’m sure it was a challenging situation you had to adapt to! I wonder if this could be best used for another prompt.. That being said, if you write a compelling essay about how this wasn’t just some puppy, and it really took a toll on your well-being, then maybe it could work. I wonder if there are any other experiences you had that could better be seen as an example of adversity? Definitely get some other opinions on this!
Thanks for the opinion, the only other major adversity in my life I can think of was when my father had a heart attack but I wrote about that in my PS and wasn't sure if that would work either because it didn't happen to me. Also one of my prompts asks to "descirbe how you dealt with a personal or academic challenge. Focus on what you learned about yourself and how it will help you when you face challenges in medical school?" DO you think it could work when they're asking for a challenge and not necessarily adversity?
 
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Hi, so I had a quick question. The adversity prompt is used by many medical schools for their secondary essays so I want to make sure I write one on an appropriate topic. In college, I raised a future guide dog which was initially a struggle because of many of the added responsibilities going along with my academic and extracurricular commitments. Just to clarify this is a dog that I trained for a year while in college and then he went on to become a guide dog for a blind person. Over time I adjusted and became much more efficient and able to handle all my responsibilities while training him. Do you think this is an appropriate topic to discuss for an adversity essay? Thanks!
This doesn't sound like adversity.

ad·ver·si·ty

/ədˈvərsədē/

noun

difficulties; misfortune.

"resilience in the face of adversity"
 
Thanks for the opinion, the only other major adversity in my life I can think of was when my father had a heart attack but I wrote about that in my PS and wasn't sure if that would work either because it didn't happen to me. Also one of my prompts asks to "descirbe how you dealt with a personal or academic challenge. Focus on what you learned about yourself and how it will help you when you face challenges in medical school?" DO you think it could work when they're asking for a challenge and not necessarily adversity?
It might be fine to write about your father’s heart attack again. I’m assuming for you PS you wrote about it in the context of why it inspired you to pursue medicine. If you wrote about it again for the adversity essay, you could talk about how it affected you. Just because it wasn’t your health condition doesn’t mean you didn’t experience stress or other negative effects. I’m sure then you might’ve had to help out your family in different ways or deal with every day tasks in a difficult time.
 
It might be fine to write about your father’s heart attack again. I’m assuming for you PS you wrote about it in the context of why it inspired you to pursue medicine. If you wrote about it again for the adversity essay, you could talk about how it affected you. Just because it wasn’t your health condition doesn’t mean you didn’t experience stress or other negative effects. I’m sure then you might’ve had to help out your family in different ways or deal with every day tasks in a difficult time.
Yea I could definatly write about it that way but do you think I can if his heart attack happened during my senior year of highschool, and not college?
 
This doesn't sound like adversity.

ad·ver·si·ty

/ədˈvərsədē/

noun

difficulties; misfortune.

"resilience in the face of adversity"
Thanks for the reply, do you think it's appropriate for a "challenge" essay? I referenced the prompt in an earlier response
 
Fine for a challenge, but dog owners might or might not be sympathetic !

Speaking of challenge prompts and dogs, would handling a chronically ill dog's treatment/death be appropriate to write about for a "personal challenge" prompt? Or would that be seen as weird to write about seriously because it's not a human? Thanks.
 
Speaking of challenge prompts and dogs, would handling a chronically ill dog's treatment/death be appropriate to write about for a "personal challenge" prompt? Or would that be seen as weird to write about seriously because it's not a human? Thanks.
Being a pet owner, this is great subject.
 
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