Diversity essay topic?

[laffingdead]

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[HouseJC]

I suggest you go away from that topic, as there are probably a lot of ORMs who immigrated from China, learned English as a second language but have become very proficient (i.e. native). For example, I'm one of them in Canada and there are TONS of people fitting this profile at University of Toronto (which is where I'm attending school). Diversity doesn't have to be include race, gender, SES etc, although this is a prominent definition if you google "diversity". Instead, I would like to think about diversity in terms of what makes you special. Sorry for being a downer.

The fact that you mention early wiring is unique to me, maybe because I'm doing a neuroscience PhD, but if I was in your shoes, I would go in that direction.

 

[Rachapkis]

Contrary to the poster above, I find your journey to be compelling. Remember that many, many people applying to medical schools are not minorities in the traditional sense of the word. The key is to show how you are unique, what you have learned from your unique experiences, and why your unique traits and experiences will help to make you an excellent medical student/doctor.

 

[HouseJC]

That's fair and I thank Rachapkis for his/her opinion! This just goes to show why people should apply to a lot of schools, as Adcoms from different institutions will have different perspectives; also why is it important that multiple reviewers will assess a single application to avoid bias 🙂

 

[Rachapkis]

That's fair and I thank Rachapkis for his/her opinion! This just goes to show why people should apply to a lot of schools, as Adcoms from different institutions will have different perspectives; also why is it important that multiple reviewers will assess a single application to avoid bias 🙂

HouseJC, I value your opinion and agree that reasonable minds can differ.

 

[Goro]

I wanted to get some input on a possible diversity essay topic that I could write about. I am a straight male ORM that just graduated with a biomedical engineering degree so I am not that demographically diverse. Instead, I want to talk about something interesting about me:

1. I was born in the US and my parents immigrated from China, but English was not my first language. My grandparents did a lot of raising while my parents worked a lot to provide for my family. As a result, Chinese was my first language and I have an interesting perspective going through early schooling while learning English. I sought to "fit in" better and played football, lacrosse, and wrestling in middle and high school and did Model UN to improve my speaking. I had a hard time reconciling my traditional culture with my "American" life. My English now is perfectly normal, and you would have a hard time believing that I'm a nonnative English speaker if you met me today. Some times that "early wiring" still causes me to stumble over my words when I talk but serve as a reminder of how far I have come.

I'm kind of hesitant to write about this because being an ORM Asian minority isn't particularly special, however, I want to put more focus on the language aspect of my early life. Any thoughts or possible tweaks to this idea?

Way, way too common. Like about 30-40% of all medical students common.

You can do better.

 

[Lifeblood_20]

Way, way too common. Like about 30-40% of all medical students common.

You can do better.

Well, think of it a different way: if that many accepted students share that background, then that means it must help you get in, right?🙄

 

[Goro]

Well, think of it a different way: if that many accepted students share that background, then that means it must help you get in, right?🙄

But not with that diversity essay topic.

 

[laffingdead]

Thanks for the feedback! After more introspection about what makes me cool, I have come up with a new idea:

1. I have a decent amount of coding experience both professionally and recreationally. More specifically, I have experience using machine learning (ML) for various applications. For a past bioinformatics internship, I modeled protein folding using Python, ML, and other Softwares. Programming has also been crucial in streamlining my research. Recreationally, I have used neural networks (machine learning technique) to program my own stock trading algorithm as well as a tool to evaluate fantasy football team composition and trades.

Basically I want to sell my ability to code as technology will continue to be a critical part of medical advancements. We're kind of in a golden era of machine learning and I am passionate about applying it in medicine. I feel like not many applicants have machine learning experience nor appreciate the incredible possible applications it has for medicine (e.g. cancer screening, image reading, speech dictation to EMR). I'm a recent biomedical engineering grad at a top engineering school with project experience in this space so I hope that adds some validity.

Thoughts?
@Goro

 

[jhmmd]

Diversity essays are not really about asking "what makes you unique." They are about showing how you can get along with all types of people.