Help - Writing Diversity/Adversity Secondary

[writerpremed]

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I was looking for some feedback as I start pre-writing my secondaries for the 2022-2023 cycle. I understand the basic definition for an adversity essay to be something that just happens to you, and then focusing on how it affected you but mostly reflecting upon how you overcame it and how the struggle to overcame it and the subsequent results make you someone who would be a good MD candidate for that school. On the other hand, challenge essays are more short-term and stem from something you chose to pursue, like a goal or a project for example. And diversity is how you stand out from your incoming med school class. Again, please feel free to add to this or correct me if I'm wrong on any of these.

Adversity Essay Ideas:
-coming from a South Asian background, growing up picked on for my culture and trying to shy away from it, blend in and become like everyone else. As I grew up and went to college, participated in culture-based activities and worked with those from diverse backgrounds as a peer mentor, as a tutor for immigrants, by volunteering at a soup kitchen - fell into a love for different cultures and now want to become a physician focused particularly on immigrant health and wellness (idk if this comes off too generic, it seems like it's an important part of my growth and who I am but it might seem a bit sloppy)
-the death of my grandmother after a long battle with diabetes/chronic illness. I was very close to her and she played an integral part in raising me and making me who I am. I'll connect this back to myself, I won't write the essay about her, if that makes sense
-being in an emotionally abusive relationship in college, finding the strength to leave, why this makes me want to be an advocate for women and girls and those whose voices are pushed aside/marginalized, focus on mental health. (idk if this is a taboo topic to talk about, I would feel comfortable discussing it in interviews if I were to get any).

Challenge Essay Ideas:
-held a prominent E-Board position in a sorority when a girl reached out and said she was going to attempt suicide. It was challenging to be the one to speak to her and make her feel better, the aftermath is that I figured out a situation centering around bullying/exclusion and worked to advocate for the girl and help her connect to the right resources for her mental health. if I think about challenges I've had in college, this was one of the scariest and one of the biggest catalysts for how I viewed mental health and even interacted with others now knowing what they might be going through behind closed doors.

Diversity Essay Ideas:
-big interest in humanities/creative writing: founder of a medical humanities magazine/blog, got a Certificate in Creative Writing with a focus on trauma and resilience in college, but one of my most meaningful activities was also about creative writing and my love for it. I want to tie this in to how I'm able to look at different perspectives and how I want to be a physician-writer.
-my religion: I don't know how much of a red flag it is to write about religion in an application but I'm a Christian but also Indian, which is not very common. My faith is a very large part of my identity (not in a way that I would ever use it to impose my values on a patient or show bias because of someone else's beliefs/culture) but I wanted to stress that even though being both Christian and Indian sometimes made me an outlier among those in my community, it's certain values in the Christian religion that I use a backbone for how I want to be an empathetic and humanistic physician.

 

[Goro]

Adversity Essay Ideas:

-being in an emotionally abusive relationship in college, finding the strength to leave, why this makes me want to be an advocate for women and girls and those whose voices are pushed aside/marginalized, focus on mental health. (idk if this is a taboo topic to talk about, I would feel comfortable discussing it in interviews if I were to get any).

This is the better one here, but see below.

Challenge Essay Ideas:
-held a prominent E-Board position in a sorority when a girl reached out and said she was going to attempt suicide. It was challenging to be the one to speak to her and make her feel better, the aftermath is that I figured out a situation centering around bullying/exclusion and worked to advocate for the girl and help her connect to the right resources for her mental health. if I think about challenges I've had in college, this was one of the scariest and one of the biggest catalysts for how I viewed mental health and even interacted with others now knowing what they might be going through behind closed doors.

You are not understanding the point of these prompts. It's not about what you bring to Medicine; it's about how you have displayed coping skills and grit.

Diversity Essay Ideas:
-big interest in humanities/creative writing: founder of a medical humanities magazine/blog, got a Certificate in Creative Writing with a focus on trauma and resilience in college, but one of my most meaningful activities was also about creative writing and my love for it. I want to tie this in to how I'm able to look at different perspectives and how I want to be a physician-writer.

This might work.

But again, not everything in your app needs to be associated with Medicine. This prompt is about "what's cool about you?" What useful thing to you bring to your Class?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

The other three ideas under "adversity" are diversity topics; they work better than your two suggested diversity topics.

Abusive relationships would be adversity, but make sure you can discuss this on any interview follow-up without getting triggered. The Challenge suggested topic fits any "advocacy" prompts.

The prompts will guide you on how much they want you to talk about being a future physician or just being yourself.

 

[writerpremed]

This is the better one here, but see below.

You are not understanding the point of these prompts. It's not about what you bring to Medicine; it's about how you have displayed coping skills and grit.


This might work.

But again, not everything in your app needs to be associated with Medicine. This prompt is about "what's cool about you?" What useful thing to you bring to your Class?

Thank you so much for your feedback! I feel like either the religion, the interest in creative writing, or my advanced studies as a pianist all help set me apart - I didn't realize it didn't have to be so much about medicine. I've repeatedly seen that people tailor these diversity essays towards why the medical school should consider them as a great potential candidate.

 

[writerpremed]

The other three ideas under "adversity" are diversity topics; they work better than your two suggested diversity topics.

Abusive relationships would be adversity, but make sure you can discuss this on any interview follow-up without getting triggered. The Challenge suggested topic fits any "advocacy" prompts.

The prompts will guide you on how much they want you to talk about being a future physician or just being yourself.

Thank you so much for your feedback! Would you mind clarifying why the challenge essay bit I wrote above would count more towards advocacy than for a challenge itself? I consider that incident & the aftermath to be a pretty challenging part of my college experience. Is it because it discusses suicide?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you so much for your feedback! Would you mind clarifying why the challenge essay bit I wrote above would count more towards advocacy than for a challenge itself? I consider that incident & the aftermath to be a pretty challenging part of my college experience. Is it because it discusses suicide?

I think for me it's a preference that it speaks of you advocating for her mental wellness. When I think of confronting a challenge, I determine a plan to resolve the problem with milestones indicating progress. If I interpret this, you served to help her get professional help... thus be a supporter or advocate, not face a challenge together for both of you to work on.

If the person was complaining that your organization had a bullying problem, then that's a challenge to resolve regarding training, dialogue, accountability...