Since I don't want to hijack others' threads, I was wondering if anybody could offer advice on my response for secondary prompts discussing adversity or a challenge. Would discussing being a smaller individual in my sport and being told I'd struggle to make it to the NCAA level by current college coaches be a good response for this prompt? For example, discussing the challenge of being a 5' 4" college-basketball player.
Challenge/Adversity Thoughts
- Thread starter ndcpjf
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You need to look at the prompt and figure out what they are asking. Then decide if your struggle and how you handled it/learned from it/overcame it fits with what it is the question is trying to find out about you.
Let's say for this prompt: "Describe how you have dealt with a personal challenge or major obstacle that you have overcome. Focus on what you learned about yourself and how it will help you during the challenges you might face in medical school".
I can certainly discuss how it's shaped me as an indvidual and how it will help me with my future in medical school - I guess I just worry that someone will read it and think "That's not a real challenge!"
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Sounds like a challenge to me.
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The school is making the reasonable assumption that you will face challenges in medical school. It believes that past performance is a predictor of future success and wants to know how what you think that you learned about yoursef in facing past challenges will help you face the inevitable challenges of medical school. In other words, what insights into yourself did past challenges help you acquire and how will those insights about yourself help you going forward?
It is not about whether the challenge was challenging enough but the self-knowledge you've acquired in the process of facing life's challenges.
