"Diversity" Secondary Prompt, Appreciate Input

[ShadowGryffin]

Howdy All,

Like most applicants, I am pre-writing my secondaries and have gotten to the ubiquitous "How will you contribute to the diversity of our incoming class" question. The main issue is that I don't really have a great answer for this, as I have a fairly typical background. I've been able to come up with two possible responses, but neither is very good:

1.) I've spent the past year working full-time as a medical assistant for a small private practice. Due to the small size of the clinic I handle most of the administrative stuff, like authorizations, ICD coding, transcription, billing, EoB checks, etc. in addition to the usual clinical tasks of an MA.

• Pros: It's given me a firsthand perspective on the "behind the scenes" parts of medicine, I can speak personally to how much administrative busywork physicians have to deal with (because I do a lot of it for them). Basically it can show that I know what I'm getting myself into. It's also shown me how many different support jobs are necessary for doctors to be able to see patients in the wonderful world of modern medicine.
• Cons: It's boring (literally nobody can be excited about paperwork and phone trees), I already touched on some of this stuff in my primary app, and I feel like this really isn't that unusual of an activity. I'm sure at least a dozen other applicants have done the same thing. It's also fairly negative, and I don't want to come across as already jaded about medicine before even starting med school.

2.) I've had an unusually large amount of personal experience with death. Without going into too much of the details, there has been at least three times in my life where I should not have survived something, or when I was told that I was likely not going to make it. I've had to actually confront my own mortality and make peace with my eventual end.

• Pros: Medicine, at least in some specialties, has an intimate connection with death for obvious reasons. Going into medicine having had to embrace my impermanence already could make it easier for me to work and emphasize with patients with potentially life-threatening diagnoses.
• Cons: Really depressing (duh). Could also come across as being a try-hard or fishing for pity.

Well now that I've written a small novel unintentionally, could anyone give their perspective on which of the two would be better? Anything helps!

[Please let me know if I posted this in the wrong place and I'll be happy to move it!]

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[SuaveCardigans]

I would recommend the 2nd one. Sounds more unique/interesting and can easily be spun as "this is what I've learned/how my perspective has changed" and can also be tied back into pursuing medicine perhaps.

 

[curbsideconsult]

Definitely no to the first one.

The second one could be really interesting because, oddly enough, many med students haven't been that close to death in any way shape or form. It would also show that you have insight into how precious life is etc. etc.

Based on your previous posts, you're working with the B&G club in an underserved area? That's pretty diverse to me. You can write about how that experience opened your eyes to cultural/socioeconomic situations you weren't used to but you're glad for the experience because working with a diverse population of kids will help you be more understanding and empathetic as a budding physician.

Or maybe you can somehow tie the two together.

 

[ShadowGryffin]

I would recommend the 2nd one. Sounds more unique/interesting and can easily be spun as "this is what I've learned/how my perspective has changed" and can also be tied back into pursuing medicine perhaps.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it! I could definitely write about how my perspective on life (and death) has matured over the years, and how that will make me a more compassionate medical student and physician.

Definitely no to the first one.

The second one could be really interesting because, oddly enough, many med students haven't been that close to death in any way shape or form. It would also show that you have insight into how precious life is etc. etc.

Based on your previous posts, you're working with the B&G club in an underserved area? That's pretty diverse to me. You can write about how that experience opened your eyes to cultural/socioeconomic situations you weren't used to but you're glad for the experience because working with a diverse population of kids will help you be more understanding and empathetic as a budding physician.

Or maybe you can somehow tie the two together.

Thank you too for giving your input! I thought most people going into medicine would have at least a bit of exposure with death, but I guess it depends on what folks were involved with before medical school.

Yep, I've been with the BGC for almost two years now! I could definitely use that as a diversity experience, but I already have it as one of my Most Meaningful activities and talked about it about the same way you did (SES status and social determinants of health). I figured it's best to not repeat myself too much if I can avoid it.

 

[WingedOx]

Smells like Northwestern.