Diversity Essay Ideas Help

[vrazzles]

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Hi guys!

I would appreciate comments and criticisms of the following ideas for a diversity essay! I am applying next year just thinking ahead.

1. I am from an eastern European immigrant family (born outside of the US). Growing up in this environment exposed me simultaneously to two cultures and showed me how powerful of an influence culture can be on behavior. This experience has helped to shape me as an individual that does not make ethnocentric judgements, but tries to see how an individual's culture influences their priorities, decision-making and behavior. Later in life, my multicultural background pushed me to expand my horizons by joining Peace Corps and serving in a culture completely different from either of my own. As a result of my experiences with diverse cultures, I speak 3 extremely different languages. I believe that as a physician, my experiences will lead me to actively consider and respect a patient's culture when making medical decisions.

Concerns: Doesn't sound very unique to me, a ton of med school applicants are immigrants.

2. I ran with a pretty rough crowd as a teen and almost got kicked out of high school. Seeing many of my friends go down very bad paths showed me that I didn't want to live that life. During this time, I discovered my fascination with medicine after helping to pull someone out of a car that flipped in front of me, and studying human biology for fun. These experiences showed me just how close I was to having a much different life than I do now and how easy it is to go down this path when you're too young to know any better. Due to these perspectives, I am not quick to judge and am willing to help anyone, as long as they desire to be helped.

Concerns: not sure how it would be looked upon that I was a poor high school student

3. I grew up in a pretty rural southern area and, through firsthand experience, saw the cultural and environmental barriers to effective health care delivery. Due to this, I have an interest in working in rural areas and promoting public health for the rural underserved.

Concerns: I don't think it's very interesting

I just don't think I'm super diverse guys. 🙁

@LizzyM @Goro @gyngyn @gonnif

Thank you!

 

[MedicineN'Jazz]

1 is great, but emphasize peace corps more than your ethnicity/background

3 is great, and is definitely something that a lot of medical schools will be interested in seeing. It’s not everyday that you have applicants seeking to practice rural medicine.

2...don’t do it. I had a background similar to this, and made the mistake of mentioning it during an interview. End Result: swift rejection LOL (like Taylor Swift’s breakups quick )

 

[LizzyM]

You have had some experiences that are relatively rare among med school applicants; you are familiar with several different cultures and language groups, you have insider experience with a rough crowd (drinking? drugs? other degenerate activity? do you know how to speak their language, if you know what I mean?) and you have had life experience in the rural south and have a desire to serve in a rural area. I think that this could make an interesting essay but I'd focus on your desire to serve in the rural south, particularly if your language skills are not in high demand in the rural South (no point speaking Kyrgyz if there isn't anyone to talk to).

 

[Goro]

Run with the Peace Corps!!!!!

 

[vrazzles]

You have had some experiences that are relatively rare among med school applicants; you are familiar with several different cultures and language groups, you have insider experience with a rough crowd (drinking? drugs? other degenerate activity? do you know how to speak their language, if you know what I mean?) and you have had life experience in the rural south and have a desire to serve in a rural area. I think that this could make an interesting essay but I'd focus on your desire to serve in the rural south, particularly if your language skills are not in high demand in the rural South (no point speaking Kyrgyz if there isn't anyone to talk to).

Are you suggesting that I integrate all three of these topics under the auspices of "dealing with various cultures"? I'm a bit worried about the risk that comes with writing about my high school past.

Are you suggesting that I DO focus on making my diversity essays focused on working in the rural south? My concern is that my school list is pretty much all top 20 schools (524 MCAT, 3.95 GPA). Will my interest in rural health be detrimental to my candidacy at such schools? I appreciate your advise a lot.

 

[vrazzles]

Run with the Peace Corps!!!!!

Thank you! My concern about writing entirely about that is that it would potentially be repeated in other areas (adversity, PS). With such an extended and impactful life experience it's hard not to discuss it, however I don't want to come off as repetitive and one dimensional.

 

[Goro]

Thank you! My concern about writing entirely about that is that it would potentially be repeated in other areas (adversity, PS). With such an extended and impactful life experience it's hard not to discuss it, however I don't want to come off as repetitive and one dimensional.

With the PS, it's merits just a mention.

With secondaries, it's fleshed out.

Capeesh?

 

[vrazzles]

With the PS, it's merits just a mention.

With secondaries, it's fleshed out.

Capeesh?

Gotcha, I can do just that. Thank you Goro!

 

[vrazzles]

Just the flipping the car part leading to medicine is unneeded. But discussing, interacting, and what this experience says about your, your characterisitic and what impact it had on you is what matter. Picture for @LizzyM for use of the word "degenerate"

View attachment 236545

You typically advise applicants to minimize risk. As MedN'Jazz brought to my attention, this could be quite risky. thoughts?

 

[LizzyM]

If you are interested in health promotion/disease prevention and other public health measures in the rural south, why are you applying to the top 20 reserach schools? Do you think they want what you want? Do you want what they want?

 

[vrazzles]

If you are interested in health promotion/disease prevention and other public health measures in the rural south, why are you applying to the top 20 reserach schools? Do you think they want what you want? Do you want what they want?

As someone who attended a low-ranked university and constantly felt that I wasn't being pushed by my peers to the maximum degree, I don't want to repeat this mistake in med school. I also have a large interest in research which I wish to balance with my desire to do rural medicine (not sure how). From anecdotal evidence, top medical schools typically have more resources to support their student's needs and desires, and many have eliminated grades. I am interested matching to a competitive residency and higher ranked medical schools often help in this. Finally, I'm worried that my stats will get me yield-protected at many OOS schools that emphasize rural medicine, and I don't really want to live in memphis (IS school).

I do wish to apply to the rural health tracks at top-tier schools (such as Columbia's Bassett). I wish there were more avenues for both doing research AND practicing rural medicine. In theory, I would be interested in spending half my time at an academic center and the other half doing work at a rural clinic. I don't know how realistic this is.

edit: A number of top tier schools have excellent public health programs. Emory and JHU come to mind.

 

[vrazzles]

The biggest risk that applicants present is that they cant write well. A well crafted essay on what the applicant learned about people while running with that dangerous crowd (we ain't too pretty, we ain't too proud) , especially since they would be considered an "underserved" population. So the content can be risky, but the crafting can eliminate that. Being attracted and running with a "bad" crowd, realizing this is bad (introspection), getting out it, overcoming ties, social stigma, and getting on a strait and narrow, is great story.

Thank you!

 

[LizzyM]

Do yourself a favor and go to the website of each school you are interested in and enter the word "rural" into the search bar at the top of the page. The hits you get will tell you a lot about where the emphasis is at that school. I hear your concern about fit and yield protection but you can also help yourself by narrowing your list of top 20 to those that will find your application resonating with their mission/interests/facutly research.

 

[vrazzles]

Do yourself a favor and go to the website of each school you are interested in and enter the word "rural" into the search bar at the top of the page. The hits you get will tell you a lot about where the emphasis is at that school. I hear your concern about fit and yield protection but you can also help yourself by narrowing your list of top 20 to those that will find your application resonating with their mission/interests/facutly research.

It is a little bit disappointing to me that relatively few top schools have any emphasis on rural care. With the pressing need for physicians in rural areas, the lack of specialists, and the high disease load, the rural physicians that I shadowed had to have a very broad base of information from which to draw for diagnosis. It's hard for me to imagine that seeing a wide range of interesting cases at large academic medical centers during training wouldn't result in more effective rural medicine physicians (especially if they have prior experience with the local culture).

 

[LizzyM]

It is a little bit disappointing to me that relatively few top schools have any emphasis on rural care. With the pressing need for physicians in rural areas, the lack of specialists, and the high disease load, the rural physicians that I shadowed had to have a very broad base of information from which to draw for diagnosis. It's hard for me to imagine that seeing a wide range of interesting cases at large academic medical centers during training wouldn't result in more effective rural medicine physicians (especially if they have prior experience with the local culture).

Look at where the top hospitals are located. Most are in urban areas. The primary care providers who are going to provide the care for someone who lives 150 miles from Springfield (once received a post card advertising for a primary care doc to serve a community 150 miles from Springfield, doesn't quite matter which Springfield... none of them are really big cities and the idea of pinning one's location to being a 2-3 hour drive from a small city boggles the mind of most city-slickers).

The population one usually sees in a major medical center includes those who travel great distances to see a specialist at the tertiary center as well as those people who arrive because it is the closest hospital to their home. So, a major metropolitan medical center might or might not see some rural patients, but they will almost surely see the urban poor and working class and the suburban gentry for whom the med school affiliated medical center it is the local "top hospital".

So, hospitals that are within an hour's drive of a rural area are, I would think, those that are most likely to see rural medicine as one of their missions. Few of the top 20 are going to be in that boat. Don't forget that much of what makes a top 20 a top 20 is NIH funding and the big bucks go to the bench research endeavors, not to investigations of the best way to serve the rural poor.

 

[vrazzles]

Look at where the top hospitals are located. Most are in urban areas. The primary care providers who are going to provide the care for someone who lives 150 miles from Springfield (once received a post card advertising for a primary care doc to serve a community 150 miles from Springfield, doesn't quite matter which Springfield... none of them are really big cities and the idea of pinning one's location to being a 2-3 hour drive from a small city boggles the mind of most city-slickers).

The population one usually sees in a major medical center includes those who travel great distances to see a specialist at the tertiary center as well as those people who arrive because it is the closest hospital to their home. So, a major metropolitan medical center might or might not see some rural patients, but they will almost surely see the urban poor and working class and the suburban gentry for whom the med school affiliated medical center it is the local "top hospital".

So, hospitals that are within an hour's drive of a rural area are, I would think, those that are most likely to see rural medicine as one of their missions. Few of the top 20 are going to be in that boat. Don't forget that much of what makes a top 20 a top 20 is NIH funding and the big bucks go to the bench research endeavors, not to investigations of the best way to serve the rural poor.

Here is how this sounds to me though: if I craft my application from the perspective of wanting to serve the rural poor, a lot of top schools will shut me out. If I craft it from the perspective of my research interests (which I can do based on research experiences, publications, and LORs), top schools won't shut me out, and it won't harm my ability to practice rural medicine in the future. It almost seems disadvantageous for one in my situation to be genuine and write about my desire to practice rural medicine if I desire to be trained at a top academic medical center.

It sounds like I should downplay my desire to work with rural populations and focus more on my research pursuits and interests. I doubt that going to a top 20 school will hinder my ability to work in rural areas.

 

[LizzyM]

You do you. Good luck.