Diversity essays for those who have a unique, but unrelated talent

[ChrisMack390]

In terms of demographics and whatnot, I am quite vanilla. The only unique thing about me is that before I decided to go to medical school I was moderately successful as a musician. I toured around the east coast a bit, released an album, organized a weekly music night at a local venue, etc.

I have seen similar SDN posts in the past - people who are mostly average but were a great artist or athlete or writer. These people are usually told to definitely write about these topics and may even get @Goro to say they are cool.

My question is - how do we link these things into the diversity questions? The questions typically ask some form of "how do you contribute diversity to our class?" I don't think the intention is to just list a bunch of things that I have done that that other people haven't done, that seems pretty hollow. Should I try to link this stuff to medicine in some way? Things like dedication to practicing my instruments, networking with all kinds of people, acting in a professional and reliable way, etc. seem relevant, but I don't know if I am just forcing it.

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[ofthesaints]

I was a touring musician as well. However, I used the music to medicine theme in my personal statement rather than my diversity essay. Turned out quite well. I think your examples of "dedication to practicing my instruments, networking with all kinds of people, acting in a professional and reliable way" is not the way to go though. Those examples are not powerful enough by themselves. I can help you more if you PM me.

 

[MaxPlancker]

You gotta think about how your talent etc have been meaningful/impactful to you and the people around you. That is part of what you will bring to your future classmates and environment.

 

[DoctorDrewOutsidetheLines]

Um...if I were going to use music as a diversity essay, I'd go with themes like medicine heals the body, music heals the soul...and music is the universal language of our spirits, music brings people together...look at how transformative Prince was, stuff like that.

 

[Dr Tony T. Chopper]

In terms of demographics and whatnot, I am quite vanilla. The only unique thing about me is that before I decided to go to medical school I was moderately successful as a musician. I toured around the east coast a bit, released an album, organized a weekly music night at a local venue, etc.

I have seen similar SDN posts in the past - people who are mostly average but were a great artist or athlete or writer. These people are usually told to definitely write about these topics and may even get @Goro to say they are cool.

My question is - how do we link these things into the diversity questions? The questions typically ask some form of "how do you contribute diversity to our class?" I don't think the intention is to just list a bunch of things that I have done that that other people haven't done, that seems pretty hollow. Should I try to link this stuff to medicine in some way? Things like dedication to practicing my instruments, networking with all kinds of people, acting in a professional and reliable way, etc. seem relevant, but I don't know if I am just forcing it.

Good question. My unrelated talent was movie special effects and prop making. I was able to tie it back to medicine by scoping out a fellowship to Dominican Republic where I could spearhead a local campaign that has never been attempted before. Incidentally I had control in how I implement my talents. Ended up fusing UG middle ear research and prop making skills into a hearing loss education tour around town where I sculpted 3D models of a diseased ear.