zakimran23
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- Joined
- Aug 18, 2023
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Hello everyone, hope you are doing well.
I am currently drafting my diversity/what will you contribute to our class essay and was hoping to get some feedback on topics that could be relevant. I feel like many of us get stuck in the trap of trying to be as "unique as possible" when in reality adcoms have seen it all. There are a lot of meaningful things I have been involved in, however, it is definitely difficult to narrow it down to a few points to hit in an essay.
1. I grew up in a multi-cultural and multi-lingual household (my father spoke to me in six different languages) and my parents were always trying to teach me about my own and other cultures.
2. I attended an international school for a year and was able to meet people from all over the world and learn about them and their backgrounds. I also had the opportunity to talk to so many people about being the "other' in society as a minority and it how it was comforting to know that I wasn't the only one who felt different.
3. In college I was involved in multiple leadership positions and even started an internship program at my school. Leadership and having a direct role in in shaping outcomes and affecting change within my own organization is something that I have come to appreciate, is important to me, and that I want to continue to do in the future in medicine.
4. I won't say too much away so I don't dox myself, but I had some incredible research opportunities that I am extremely grateful for and really shaped my interest in becoming a physician-scientist.
5. I've worked full time as a medical assistant for over three years and have learned a lot in both the clinical and administrative aspects. Having so much direct time with patients has only furthered my interest in pursuing medicine for a multitude of reasons. I could write an entire essay just about this.
6. I had the opportunity to study abroad for six months on scholarship. Living in a new country was definitely scary, especially when I didn't speak the language, but it pushed me to step out of my comfort zone while helping me improve my spanish.
7. I helped to start a free clinic that travels to different parts of the city to serve marginalized communities. There are things you don't understand about the difficulties many of these people go through until you are face to face with them. Its definitely something I want to continue in the future ad I could easily write an entire essay on this as well.
8. For my other impactful experiences essay I talked about struggling to make ends meet during COVID to the point that I had to get medicaid and food stamps to survive. That really opened my eyes to how difficult life can truly be for economically disadvantaged patients and how lucky I am that these types of services are available, but even then I am only scratching the surface of situations that people go through. I feel like this would be more of a COVID essay though.
Like I said, that's a lot of stuff and I have no idea which of these to talk about. I am also not sure if I should end the essay by relating it to medicine or perhaps relating it directly to the school, but then that could fall into the "why us" category. Apologies for the extremely long post. I appreciate the feedback.
I am currently drafting my diversity/what will you contribute to our class essay and was hoping to get some feedback on topics that could be relevant. I feel like many of us get stuck in the trap of trying to be as "unique as possible" when in reality adcoms have seen it all. There are a lot of meaningful things I have been involved in, however, it is definitely difficult to narrow it down to a few points to hit in an essay.
1. I grew up in a multi-cultural and multi-lingual household (my father spoke to me in six different languages) and my parents were always trying to teach me about my own and other cultures.
2. I attended an international school for a year and was able to meet people from all over the world and learn about them and their backgrounds. I also had the opportunity to talk to so many people about being the "other' in society as a minority and it how it was comforting to know that I wasn't the only one who felt different.
3. In college I was involved in multiple leadership positions and even started an internship program at my school. Leadership and having a direct role in in shaping outcomes and affecting change within my own organization is something that I have come to appreciate, is important to me, and that I want to continue to do in the future in medicine.
4. I won't say too much away so I don't dox myself, but I had some incredible research opportunities that I am extremely grateful for and really shaped my interest in becoming a physician-scientist.
5. I've worked full time as a medical assistant for over three years and have learned a lot in both the clinical and administrative aspects. Having so much direct time with patients has only furthered my interest in pursuing medicine for a multitude of reasons. I could write an entire essay just about this.
6. I had the opportunity to study abroad for six months on scholarship. Living in a new country was definitely scary, especially when I didn't speak the language, but it pushed me to step out of my comfort zone while helping me improve my spanish.
7. I helped to start a free clinic that travels to different parts of the city to serve marginalized communities. There are things you don't understand about the difficulties many of these people go through until you are face to face with them. Its definitely something I want to continue in the future ad I could easily write an entire essay on this as well.
8. For my other impactful experiences essay I talked about struggling to make ends meet during COVID to the point that I had to get medicaid and food stamps to survive. That really opened my eyes to how difficult life can truly be for economically disadvantaged patients and how lucky I am that these types of services are available, but even then I am only scratching the surface of situations that people go through. I feel like this would be more of a COVID essay though.
Like I said, that's a lot of stuff and I have no idea which of these to talk about. I am also not sure if I should end the essay by relating it to medicine or perhaps relating it directly to the school, but then that could fall into the "why us" category. Apologies for the extremely long post. I appreciate the feedback.