Diversity Essay Ideas Critique

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anhnen5

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Hello everyone,

Just pre-writing my essays for next cycle. I'm having a tough time coming up with what to write about for my diversity essay. I've looked back on past threads to get some ideas, but not sure if any of these would work. Any feedback and advice is much appreciated! Sorry they're so long! I was just spewing out ideas, these are not actual edited and fine tuned paragraphs yet.

1. Even though I lived with my grandparents mostly, I had my own computer and laptop at a young age (my father was a tech enthusiast and computer engineer so he spoiled my family like crazy). I always remember I knew how to type on a keyboard before any of my peers. One of my hobbies that eventually grew from that is computer programming. In general, I guess I am pretty tech savvy too. I've always enjoyed problem solving and tackling a problem/troubleshooting in a logical manner. I was interested in biology and the medical sciences when I went to college, but found out about bioinformatics as a major which integrated computer science, stats, and biology together. I thought that was pretty cool so I went for it. I've learned so much about how computers and technology are an integral part of scientific research which is also fundamental for advancing medicine. To sum it up, I was going to talk about how my interest in computer programming led me to bioinformatics which has led me to have a different perspective in approaching biological problems. I was going to also going to mention about how my senior capstone project I worked with a small team to write a code that predicted influenza viral resistances to medications using a flu genomic database. As a scribe I worked with EMRs and was very comfortable with them quickly. In my research position currently, I learned the value of data analysis and being able to work with large sets of it.

2. I lived and was raised by my grandparents for a large part of my life (as a baby to about mid-way through middle school) due to both of my parents working full time. I would go home with my parents on most weekends and holidays. So I have always been pretty comfortable around the elderly. When I was still figuring out what I wanted to do with my life, I was interested in geriatric care and volunteered in a nursing home during high school as one of those activities. When my grandparents passed away in a horrible accident during my college years, I didn't handle the grief well and had lots of regrets because I couldn't say goodbye or how much they meant to me before they passed away. I didn't like opening up my feelings and talking about their deaths with others. Later on, I became a hospice volunteer and fell absolutely in love with it. As weird as it sounds, it sort of became therapeutic for me to comfort those that were dying. It made me more comfortable talking about death with others and appreciate life more. It also gave me a different perspective of the practice of medicine (I'll elaborate in the actual essay of course). I guess to sum it up, I was going to focus on how my experience being comfortable around the elderly while growing up and hospice work has given me a different perspective of medicine (importance of humanizing with patients) and the subject of death which has a negative connotation in the healthcare field.

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There are great elements in both. Why not combine them? Showcase both your analytical skills and personal humanizing characteristics.

Also be sure to highlight your experience working in a team with other people to solve problems/do stuff. The field of medicine (or at least that's what our attendings say) has shifted towards a "team-based environment". Imho, considering that these guys read and eval apps, they'd probably be looking for some aspect of this in what you have written.
 
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There are great elements in both. Why not combine them? Showcase both your analytical skills and personal humanizing characteristics.

Also be sure to highlight your experience working in a team with other people to solve problems/do stuff. The field of medicine (or at least that's what our attendings say) has shifted towards a "team-based environment". Imho, considering that these guys read and eval apps, they'd probably be looking for some aspect of this in what you have written.

Thank you so much for the feedback and idea! I never thought to combine both of them. I will do my best to see if I can combine these two ideas somehow.
 
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I think either are good; combining them would be cool but if this proves difficult just go with whatever feels most earnest. That actually really comes across in writing.
 
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