How do people show the one thing they are passionate about if activities are different from each other?

[futuredocn]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I am interested in medical physics, but I did not start doing medical physics related activities up until I was a junior in college. I have done a physics research, a biomedical engineering research on heart valves, a radiology research, taught math and physics at a middle school and did some science experiments to entertain residents at a skilled nursing facility. However, I am not a physics major (only took two physics classes with both A's). I recently heard someone say that top medical schools want students who are deeply passionate about something and go all they way in to pursue this passion while they are undergrads. With all other parts of my application being good, does it sound *fake* if I say I am passionate about medical physics and emphasize on this?

 

[allseasons]

I am interested in medical physics, but I did not start doing medical physics related activities up until I was a junior in college. I have done a physics research, a biomedical engineering research on heart valves, a radiology research, taught math and physics at a middle school and did some science experiments to entertain residents at a skilled nursing facility. However, I am not a physics major (only took two physics classes with both A's). I recently heard someone say that top medical schools want students who are deeply passionate about something and go all they way in to pursue this passion while they are undergrads. With all other parts of my application being good, does it sound *fake* if I say I am passionate about medical physics and emphasize on this?

I think that's enough for non T20 schools, but for if you're aiming for the top, then I would say physics is one of those things you can't really claim as a "passion" in a worthwhile way without a formal education. Something like CS or Data Science in medicine, you can learn through experience (which is why a lot of CS/DS jobs value experience over degrees) so doing related research and saying you were involved with programming X part or Y data analysis will suffice, but for physics it's not as easy. If you would like to demonstrate that as your passion for application purposes, then I recommend an easy strategy that would only work if you plan on not taking a gap year- take two easier upper level physics courses in your senior year and declare a physics minor (or certificate if offered), then talk about that minor as you discuss your interest in medical physics. Med schools don't make minors or certificates conditional for acceptance usually, so you can just drop the minor before graduation. The other harder strategy is to actually do a physics minor, but if you are currently a junior or senior in college that's probably not possible.

 

[deleted1114112]

You can definitely swing something cohesive together from your current list.

Instead of physics or something as specific as 'medical physics' (which I think is a graduate school program, not even MD, maybe MD/PhD) you can try to be more generalized and just focus on your overall narrative. You clearly like to integrate some sort of math or engineering into aspects of health and treatment, and you are also going as far as to teach others about such things. I have no idea about the rest of your story or how in-depth each of your research experiences were, but you can definitely still have the 'biomedical eng' route going.

Like you could always say you started as a physics major, realized you enjoyed the medical side of 'physics and math' more, then went into bioengineering, and now you're here after doing x, y, z, etc. Again I have no idea what your plans are or if you're applying MD/PhD but that could change things. Being interested in radiology and medical physics are two very different things, Im pretty sure you legitimately need a formal education in some sort of physics field or even medical physics outright (beyond undergrad) if you want to do this in your career.

 

[wysdoc]

I think your pattern of activities in and out of college does show your interest well.
There are several medical schools which combine medicine and engineering type interests, such as:
Carle Illinois Home - Carle Illinois College of Medicine
the Texas A&M EnMed program ENMED – Engineering & Medicine
and a new program at Texas Tech Lubbock called MD and E Medicine and Engineering

Later as a specialty Radiation Oncology requires a good understanding of physics and also Radiology, cardiology, lots of ways you could take your interests.

 

[futuredocn]

You guys are wonderful! Thank you so much for the feedback! I will definitely take these into consideration when writing my story on my app. <3