Homelessness and PS

[premedthrowaway2039428]

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What are people's opinions on including that I was homeless in my ps? It was definitely a huge hurdle I had to hop, and it contributed to why I want to be a doctor, but I've rewritten this thing a million times already and I can't stop but think that the main point of my ps is centered on my past homelessness, and not why I necessarily want to be a doctor. Don't get me wrong, I'm trying to tie everything in together... I guess just seeing the word homeless on a ps is such a eye catching thing that no matter what else I put in it, I just feel like it looks like a sob story about my homelessness, which I definitely don't want it to be. I only have so many characters I can use.. so should I just briefly introduce that I was homeless, not really explain much else, and go onto the why I want to be a doctor spiel? or should I elaborate more on the homelessness? Because it definitely did contribute as to why I want to be a doctor.

Maybe that or I'm just venting because it just feels really uncomfortable to talk about my past homelessness. Not quite sure. Anyway.. any advice?

 

[Stagg737]

If you can give a compelling reason as to why your homelessness, how you overcame it and how it helped you become a better and stronger person, and how it contributed to you wanting to become a physician then it's a great topic for a PS. Definitely not a "typical" PS topic and one which could catch a lot of eyes in a good way. However, if you feel like it's coming off as a sob story then you're likely approaching it wrong. It should be focusing on the positives which you gained from the situation and just touch on some of the actual hardships. Not focusing on the hardships and touching on the positives.

You should also keep in mind that if it's a compelling story or subject (like yours), you will very likely be asked about it at any interviews you get. So if you're not comfortable talking about your past living situations, you may not want to include it. If you can talk about it well though, it sounds like it would be an aspect of you as an applicant and future physician that many med schools would love.

 

[premedthrowaway2039428]

If you can give a compelling reason as to why your homelessness, how you overcame it and how it helped you become a better and stronger person, and how it contributed to you wanting to become a physician then it's a great topic for a PS. Definitely not a "typical" PS topic and one which could catch a lot of eyes in a good way. However, if you feel like it's coming off as a sob story then you're likely approaching it wrong. It should be focusing on the positives which you gained from the situation and just touch on some of the actual hardships. Not focusing on the hardships and touching on the positives.

You should also keep in mind that if it's a compelling story or subject (like yours), you will very likely be asked about it at any interviews you get. So if you're not comfortable talking about your past living situations, you may not want to include it. If you can talk about it well though, it sounds like it would be an aspect of you as an applicant and future physician that many med schools would love.

Wow, thank you so much! I really appreciate the advice. I'll definitely go with that then, since I really do feel like it drove me to want to become a physician. One more question, I'm aware that there is also an adversity essay that we would be expected to write. I would probably include homelessness somewhere in that essay too since it was definitely an adversity for me. However I could probably use something else if that is a bad idea. Could you see that being an issue since I would touch on the same topic for two essays?

Thank you again for the great advice!

 

[curbsideconsult]

Agreed with the above advice. Write whatever is authentic to your wanting to becoming a physician.

Since you'll be using your homelessness as an adversity topic (I would argue that you could definitely use it as a diversity topic as well), you should probably use the adversity space to expand on your time being homeless while leaving your PS for a more holistic read into why you want to be a doctor.

I'd be happy to read over your PS to give some general pointers.

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

I would advise you to critically think about why being homeless made you want to go into medicine. One of the biggest mistakes with people that have had large obstacles in the past is that they just describe, describe, describe- which makes it come off as a sob story. I knew this girl that pretty much wrote about how she was diagnosed with a disease that caused her to be in pain all the time. About 3/4 of her P.S. was just a description about how her GPA suffered because of the pain she was in (in retrospect, the reason her P.S. was so bad is likely also because the pain was just a mild discomfort, which she openly admitted to grossly exaggerating).

 

[RaspberrySlushy]

Agreed with the above advice. Write whatever is authentic to your wanting to becoming a physician.

Since you'll be using your homelessness as an adversity topic (I would argue that you could definitely use it as a diversity topic as well), you should probably use the adversity space to expand on your time being homeless while leaving your PS for a more holistic read into why you want to be a doctor.

I'd be happy to read over your PS to give some general pointers.

This is exactly what I would suggest. Address it briefly in your PS as how it relates to your drive for medicine, and expand on it more in adversity/diversity essays as most secondaries ask for one or both.

 

[premedthrowaway2039428]

Agreed with the above advice. Write whatever is authentic to your wanting to becoming a physician.

Since you'll be using your homelessness as an adversity topic (I would argue that you could definitely use it as a diversity topic as well), you should probably use the adversity space to expand on your time being homeless while leaving your PS for a more holistic read into why you want to be a doctor.

I'd be happy to read over your PS to give some general pointers.

Gosh you're all so helpful. Thank you so much! Yes I'd love if you were able to do that. I still have a couple more days until I'm finished with it but I can definitely send it to you then. I'm new to SDN.. do I just PM you?

Thank you again! Your help is greatly appreciated

 

[863168]

@premedthrowaway2039428 As you probably already have experienced, homelessness is a very hard topic to discuss with people who haven't gone through it. The reason why you have trouble angling your homeless experience to your motivation for being a physician is because it takes a Herculean effort to paint a picture of what being homeless is like through experience, rather than relying on canned imagery or analogies. Doing the topic justice will likely be the PS itself unless you choose to compromise in order to cater to the topic.

 

[PursuingHappy]

Hi OP. I was also homeless for most of my life. Just to share a little bit, I touched on it in my beginning paragraph and a little in the 3rd. I knew that I would talk about it in my disadvantaged essay, so I didn't want to put too much emphasis on my PS. I'm also choosing a different obstacle for the adversity essay but will mention it briefly there.

I know the experience of being homeless all too well so I also want to say congratulations to you for overcoming it and making it this far. I hope you have a very successful cycle!

 

[PursuingHappy]

Also, I had sort of the same problem of noticing that it was a lot about a healthdisparities, which is related to why I was homeless. It was very difficult to re-structure it but getting feedback very different people was very helpful. So having at least 3 others read over it should prove helpful to see if your concern is valid.

 

[Stagg737]

@premedthrowaway2039428 As you probably already have experienced, homelessness is a very hard topic to discuss with people who haven't gone through it. The reason why you have trouble angling your homeless experience to your motivation for being a physician is because it takes a Herculean effort to paint a picture of what being homeless is like through experience, rather than relying on canned imagery or analogies. Doing the topic justice will likely be the PS itself unless you choose to compromise in order to cater to the topic.

I don't think you need for it to dominate the PS though, or even to completely do it justice in the PS. If being homeless really had an impact on an individual's desire to be a physician (or even if they mention they were homeless at all), I can almost guarantee it will be brought up in an interview. That would be a time to elaborate more and really engage the interviewer about the subject and paint a better picture.

 

[863168]

I don't think you need for it to dominate the PS though, or even to completely do it justice in the PS. If being homeless really had an impact on an individual's desire to be a physician (or even if they mention they were homeless at all), I can almost guarantee it will be brought up in an interview. That would be a time to elaborate more and really engage the interviewer about the subject and paint a better picture.

No offense. You've clearly never been homeless. No one wants to really hear about how you scum about and take showers in the public bathrooms. Lots of people I'm around want to vicariously live through the lives of other people because they think their lives are bland or miserable. To be quite honest, they hear about a couple of months living in the back of a car and they remember that one time they did it after a long shift and think its some sort of camping experience.

@premedthrowaway2039428 I'm sorry for hijacking your thread and will stop commenting.

 

[Stagg737]

No offense. You've clearly never been homeless. No one wants to really hear about how you scum about and take showers in the public bathrooms. Lots of people I'm around want to vicariously live through the lives of other people because they think their lives are bland or miserable. To be quite honest, they hear about a couple of months living in the back of a car and they remember that one time they did it after a long shift and think its some sort of camping experience.

@premedthrowaway2039428 I'm sorry for hijacking your thread and will stop commenting.

You really thing ADCOM members don't want to ask about how you overcame that hardship and what you got out of it? Because that's what I was saying. If you don't think so, then you're very, very mistaken (I say that as someone who worked with my school's admissions office). I also wasn't talking about telling every little detail about being homeless, I was saying that the interview is a time to give deeper meaning as to how it impacted that individual. To NOT expect that at an interview after mentioning being homeless earlier in the app is just poor preparation.

 

[Stagg737]

Since @Pina Colada seems to think I'm misrepresenting their words and that I'm giving bad advice, why not we just ask the actual ADCOM members on the site if they'd find a PS about how homelessness played a role in a person's desire to become a physician worth writing about. I'd also ask them if they saw a PS with homelessness in it, would they ask about it during an actual interview?

So @Goro , @gyngyn , @gonnif , what say you?

Also, @premedthrowaway2039428 , sorry if this thread has gotten off topic, but I'd like you to get the best advice on this subject as possible without obvious trolls (Pina) leading you down a poor path.

 

[gyngyn]

Distance traveled is an important part of any journey.
To the degree that any experience contributed to a desire to be of service, it can figure in a PS.
Such a significant hardship would surely be a discussion point in an interview.