How do schools know when you are full of BS?

[DOCTAfoHIRE]

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So im an immigrant, and I have an interest in working with underserved and diverse communities during medical school. Im not saying I want to work in these areas for the rest of my life, I just feel that the exposure is important during medical school. How do I seperate myself from the thousands of people who are going to write 'omfg i dont care about money at all and all i want to do is help people and live in my own poop because i dont need a house, i just need the comfort of knowing i helped someone.'

It seems like the 'why this school' secondaries are prone to people writing a TON of BS about helping the poor and all that stuff. How do schools determine who is sincere and who is just trying to write something they think the adcom want to hear? I would think after a while the adcom would become jaded and just assume that everyone is trying to BS their way in.

It also makes me think applying early is important for another reason. Adcom are a lot less likely to call BS on the first app they read about diversy/underserved outreach than they are on the thousandth app.

Thoughts?

 

[DAPI]

If you have a track record of volunteering with the poor/underserved it will likely not come across as BS. If you do not, its going to sound like BS (probably)

Sent from my iPhone.

 

[Jaqen Hghar]

If they truly want to work with the undeserved, their EC's should reflect a good amount of community outreach, etc. If they haven't done anything with undeserved populations during their undergrad career, adcoms will most likely see through them.

 

[DOCTAfoHIRE]

So a person who is genuinely interested, perhaps because they havent had that type of exposure, is instantly seen as trying to BS? That doesnt seem too fair, especially considering that a decent number of premeds who have done work with the underserved have done it solely because they know it will look good on a med school app.

Also, work with the underserved in undergrad usually involves devoting time outside of academics. Whereas some med schools have a strong focus in such fields and allow the med student to perform work with the underserved within the curriculum.

I understand exactly what you mean about how if you dont have any of that type of work you are seeing as making it up. But it just seems silly to automatically assume a person isnt genuine based on the fact that they havent done it before. Just as its silly to assume that everyone who has done it has done it for genuine reasons.

Sorry, just playing devils advocate. I have outreach activities on my app, I was just wondering how schools view these things.

 

[Jaqen Hghar]

So a person who is genuinely interested, perhaps because they havent had that type of exposure, is instantly seen as trying to BS? That doesnt seem too fair, especially considering that a decent number of premeds who have done work with the underserved have done it solely because they know it will look good on a med school app.

Also, work with the underserved in undergrad usually involves devoting time outside of academics. Whereas some med schools have a strong focus in such fields and allow the med student to perform work with the underserved within the curriculum.

I understand exactly what you mean about how if you dont have any of that type of work you are seeing as making it up. But it just seems silly to automatically assume a person isnt genuine based on the fact that they havent done it before. Just as its silly to assume that everyone who has done it has done it for genuine reasons.

Sorry, just playing devils advocate. I have outreach activities on my app, I was just wondering how schools view these things.

Unfortunately, there isn't a way, on paper, to differentiate genuine interest in an activity from a resume booster. I know what you mean. But, I guess it's the same as needing clinical exposure, otherwise how would you know you want to be a physician?

 

[lobo.solo]

I would think that adcoms can gauge if a person is full of BS during an interview. Your LOR can also speak about how genuine you are in terms of serving underserved populations.

 

[ccrone]

I'd say that it's tougher to tell than most people realize. Yes, there are some people who are so transparently full of baloney that they're easy to spot. On the other hand, there are *plenty* of people that are such accomplished liars that it's nearly impossible to pick them out of a crowd.