Is it bad to have all your activities (research, volunteering, etc) focused in one population?

[blinks]

I am very passionate about underserved pediatric populations and have unintentionally targeted almost all of my activities towards this population.

For example, on the community service front, I did BBBS, foster child advocate, homeless kids tutor, etc. My research and publications are all in clinical pediatrics and my motivation for medicine also comes from a personal experience involving sick children.

The only thing that isn't pediatrics related for me is clinical experience, I volunteer in adult hospitals.

My advisor expressed concern that medical schools would think that I am being too narrow-minded and said that this could potentially backfire on me.

Should I branch out my activities? Would this be a "red flag"?

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[chilly_md]

No, that is not something to be concerned about and pediatrics is primary care, so a narrative about your desire to pursue it would actually be a nice thing to have. You've got experience working with adults in a hospital anyways.

 

[Goro]

You're fine, OP, but my school has rejected people who had an almost fanatical focus on specific patient groups (no, I'm not sharing), and our thinking was "not all of your patients during your training will be in that group. You're also going to have to treat Groups X, Y and Z"