Greatest challenge

[QuinnTheEskimo]

I'm starting to think that the med school application process has been my greatest challenge to date (srs).

The waiting is almost unbearable. I have sacrificed so much to get to this point, and I have no idea if my efforts will actually come to fruition.

How do you think interviewers would view this answer?

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[AquiVoy13]

Adcoms want to see how you dealt with/overcame a personal challenge. It's my understanding that they're more interested in how you dealt with the issue and what you learned than the issue itself.

That being said, I would not use the app process itself. What would you say about how you dealt with the challenge? You studied a lot? went on SDN a lot? sacrificed your social life at points? I really don't see how you could deliver a response that would differentiate you from every other applicant who is also undergoing similar stresses.

I would choose another issue. It doesn't have to be something enormous in magnitude or tragic, but something that shows how you deal with less than ideal situations. These are all my opinions, of course. Perhaps other people on here can share their perspectives.

 

[Reckoner]

How do you think interviewers would view this answer?

 

[QuinnTheEskimo]

Adcoms want to see how you dealt with/overcame a personal challenge. It's my understanding that they're more interested in how you dealt with the issue and what you learned than the issue itself.

That being said, I would not use the app process itself. What would you say about how you dealt with the challenge? You studied a lot? went on SDN a lot? sacrificed your social life at points? I really don't see how you could deliver a response that would differentiate you from every other applicant who is also undergoing similar stresses.

I would choose another issue. It doesn't have to be something enormous in magnitude or tragic, but something that shows how you deal with less than ideal situations. These are all my opinions, of course. Perhaps other people on here can share their perspectives.

It's more because I quit my prior career in order to pursue this, and who knows if that was the right thing to do. It's not about social life and studying, etc.

 

[AquiVoy13]

It's more because I quit my prior career in order to pursue this, and who knows if that was the right thing to do. It's not about social life and studying, etc.

Oh see, now I didn't know that. In that case I think you could discuss that. Just make sure to discuss what you've learned and how this experience has helped you grow.

 

[nemo123]

Lol nevermind. Misread OP's paragraph.

 

[QuinnTheEskimo]

I thought you were applying this cycle? ......

yeah but i still have another interview

 

[Zelda840]

Yikes. Honestly, to me it'd seem like you didn't have much life experience if applying to medical school has been your greatest challenge, but I would prefer honesty to a made-up answer. If you must go with this answer, I'd make sure to serve it with a heaping dose of "I know I'm incredibly lucky and haven't had a lot of challenges that others have faced", etc...

Edit: spelling mistake

 

[QuinnTheEskimo]

Yikes. Honestly, to me it'd seem like you didn't have much life experience if applying to medical school has been your greatest challenge, but I would prefer honesty to a made-up answer. If you must go with this answer, I'd make sure to serve it with a heaping dose of "I know I'm incredibly lucky and haven't had a lot of challenges that others have faced", etc...

Edit: spelling mistake

I guess it's just the freshest thing in my mind. I had a prior career and obviously I have had challenges there, but they are in the past and I don't really dwell on them anymore.

 

[Zelda840]

With a prior career under your belt, I'd try really hard to find something else that made you grow as a person rather than something that just tested your patience. The choice to leave your career to pursue medicine seems like a much better answer when not framed in the context of the application cycle in general. That's just my opinion. I am but a lowly applicant like yourself - not an adcom or anything. I would just think that the phrasing would make all the difference in this answer.

 

[QuinnTheEskimo]

With a prior career under your belt, I'd try really hard to find something else that made you grow as a person rather than something that just tested your patience. The choice to leave your career to pursue medicine seems like a much better answer when not framed in the context of the application cycle in general. That's just my opinion. I am but a lowly applicant like yourself - not an adcom or anything. I would just think that the phrasing would make all the difference in this answer.

Thanks. You are probably right. I have such bad memory for my own life lol.

 

[AquiVoy13]

With a prior career under your belt, I'd try really hard to find something else that made you grow as a person rather than something that just tested your patience. The choice to leave your career to pursue medicine seems like a much better answer when not framed in the context of the application cycle in general. That's just my opinion. I am but a lowly applicant like yourself - not an adcom or anything. I would just think that the phrasing would make all the difference in this answer.

Yeah, I would focus on how you struggled and eventually decided on medicine, instead of the waiting and uncertainty of the application cycle (because we all go through that).