General question about application narrative/theme

[beachapplicant64]

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Hey all 🙂 I'm in a gap year now and applying 2019-2020. I've been thinking about my extracurricular experiences (a mix of cancer research, HIV research, and clinical volunteering with underserved patient populations) and trying to think about how to tie it all together for my PS and secondaries. For schools that are really searching for future physician-scientists, like Stanford seems to be, how do I frame experiences that were purely clinical/volunteer service? Thanks for any thoughts/ clearing of misconceptions.

 

[the shretiology]

I would frame these 'purely service' experiences as how they fit into your mission as a future physician. There is a reason you are choosing to be a MD/PhD and not just a PhD. Furthermore, there was a drive for you to pursue these experiences. What was it? Why did you do it? Hopefully not to just check the boxes and fill the hours. It's a question to ask yourself.