Mix of neurotic questions

[Adrenaline Junky]

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Hey all, have a bunch of random questions. Thanks in advance for your help

DO NOT QUOTE

1) my committee letter is not guaranteed until mid to late august. Should I use individual letters instead (already have them lined up/ stored on interfolio). I’m planning on having all secondaries pre written way in advance but don’t want to hurt myself by delaying being complete due to the committee letter(it’s a single letter not even a packet)

2) I made a post some time ago about secondary essay ideas, but had a new idea for a diversity essay: I struggled a lot with weight gain since it is a side effect of one of my long term medications. I essentially was able to drop 35 lbs through a strict regimen but it was extremely difficult. Would this make a good topic even though it’s not a crazy amount of weight?

3) I have a pretty research heavy application, but I’m not interested in MD/PhD. I focused my PS and activity description all on patient care (I have a ton of clinical hours as well). Will having a lot of research hurt me since I might be asked why I’m not applying MD/PhD (truth is I only do clinical research and only like it because I get to work with patients, a point im trying to emphasize).

4) for Work and activities, I have around 6 posters and an oral. I don’t have enough room to fit all my poster citations (even when I’m using et al and other shortened citations) in one activity slot. Can I just list let’s say 3 posters and say “as well as 4 posters at the following conferences” or should I use another activity slot

 

[LizzyM]

1) my committee letter is not guaranteed until mid to late august.

As long as the committee letter arrives by the first Monday in September, you are fine. Med schools know when their feeder schools issue committee letters and they plan accordingly to have interview slots for the top candidates from those schools.

For the other questions:

Losing 35 pounds is not really something that brings diversity of life experience/viewpoint to the class.

No one will care that you don't want to do MD/PhD. Having significant experience in clinical research may not help but is unlikely to hurt.

Listing 3 posters and saying "additional posters at x, y and z conferences" sounds fine.

 

[Adrenaline Junky]

As long as the committee letter arrives by the first Monday in September, you are fine. Med schools know when their feeder schools issue committee letters and they plan accordingly to have interview slots for the top candidates from those schools.

For the other questions:

Losing 35 pounds is not really something that brings diversity of life experience/viewpoint to the class.

No one will care that you don't want to do MD/PhD. Having significant experience in clinical research may not help but is unlikely to hurt.

Listing 3 posters and saying "additional posters at x, y and z conferences" sounds fine.

Thanks for the response. I just realized I wrote diversity. I meant is it good as an adversity topic ( I’m still assuming no) but want to be sure

 

[Adrenaline Junky]

1) I would recommend sticking with the committee letter. People have asked this question many times and I understand this to be the consensus. Schools will question why you did not use your committee letter service if one was offered to you (screening question on many secondaries). Though it is not "ideal" to be complete in August, there are many accepted applicants who are and this is just the hand you have been dealt as an applicant. As you said, pre-writing secondaries will be essential to ensuring no further delay.

3) Won't be a problem. I also had a research heavy app and applied MD only. I was never even asked in an interview "why not PhD", but you will be fine so long as you have a well thought out response to this line of inquiry. This is a common situation for many pre-meds.

4) Your plan here is fine, save the extra activity spot for something more meaningful. After a certain point having many smaller research items like poster presentations give diminishing returns to an app. After a few poster presentations they understand what they want to know, which is that you can successfully communicate complex scientific ideas orally.

Thank you for the feedback.

 

[Proudfather94]

For the adversity essay regarding weight it could work if you talk about your back story. If you talk about how the weight made you feel and how you struggled to lose it and ultimately did so that will show your determination to overcome it. Definitely have someone proofread it though because it could come off as complaining about something trivial if not written well.

 

[Goro]

Thanks for the response. I just realized I wrote diversity. I meant is it good as an adversity topic ( I’m still assuming no) but want to be sure

Adversity? No.

Do better

 

[LizzyM]

I'd really need to see the prompt and know whether it is an obligatory or optional essay.

 

[FluffyCat1212]

As someone who also had a research-heavy application, I can attest that it isn't a kiss of death. Your chances just may be better at research-oriented schools. Just make sure it's not research-heavy at the expense of things like service, or that may hurt your chances at service-oriented schools. I also was never asked "why not PhD," but maybe have a good answer prepared just in case.

 

[Crayola227]

No one is really going to ask you why not MD/PhD lol. It's self evident to many why someone even someone with lots of research experience is not pursuing a PhD.

OTOH, you may get asked if you are interested in research and how much and if you intend to pursue it more in med school or beyond. People forget somehow that MDs participate A LOT in research and other academic activity (unless you've gone to med school or work for one, then you're quite aware this is a thing).

It's even essentially a pre-requisite for applying and getting into some specialties or fellowships.

To know the best way to answer, depends a lot on your application, what research you've done, what your interests are in medicine, and the school itself.

It's OK to say that you are more clinically focussed, but depending on the school, you probably don't want to sound like you don't give a fig about research or other academic activity, especially if they like that part of your app. So you don't have to say that you live for research or bench research particularly, but if you said you were interested in say ophthalmology or ortho or something that basically demands research, then you want to say that you look forward to research opportunities that will support your interests and career goals.

My situation was that I majored in Chemistry, and if you want to be maximally employable in that after undergrad or go to grad school, you need research, and everyone should see to it that "box checking" for med school also helps you with your back up plan if you never get accepted. Otherwise I did it to get into med school. It wasn't something I loved and it was something I was willing to do to meet career goals (employment after college or med school acceptance) plus made some money in college. AND I wasn't sure what I wanted to do in med school but was probably leaning to primary care or a generalist field without ruling out more specialized fields.

So for me, I replied saying that I did enjoy doing research and I looked forward to what opportunities there would be in med school and beyond. I looked forward to bringing my research skills to clinical work or clinical research since I have a real love of working with patients, and my experience with bench research, while rewarding, sort of showed me my real passion was working with patients and not being at the bench. But I could see myself doing more research and using those skills.

So basically, you don't want to discount that part of your app and what you can bring to the school, but if you don't like research and just sorta do it because you have to, you don't want to say that, nor do you want to try to sell yourself to this school as some kind of future hardcore researcher extraordinaire.

They know lots of people do research in undergrad and then go on to do very little. But academic activity is desirable and for some students a necessity. So the issue is not presenting yourself as a dead end. But it is OK to have done a lot of research yet indicate that you are more clinically focused as a result of your experiences.

 

[Adrenaline Junky]

Adversity? No.

Do better

Thanks goro and LizzyM , appreciate the feedback

 

[Adrenaline Junky]

No one is really going to ask you why not MD/PhD lol. It's self evident to many why someone even someone with lots of research experience is not pursuing a PhD.

OTOH, you may get asked if you are interested in research and how much and if you intend to pursue it more in med school or beyond. People forget somehow that MDs participate A LOT in research and other academic activity (unless you've gone to med school or work for one, then you're quite aware this is a thing).

It's even essentially a pre-requisite for applying and getting into some specialties or fellowships.

To know the best way to answer, depends a lot on your application, what research you've done, what your interests are in medicine, and the school itself.

It's OK to say that you are more clinically focussed, but depending on the school, you probably don't want to sound like you don't give a fig about research or other academic activity, especially if they like that part of your app. So you don't have to say that you live for research or bench research particularly, but if you said you were interested in say ophthalmology or ortho or something that basically demands research, then you want to say that you look forward to research opportunities that will support your interests and career goals.

My situation was that I majored in Chemistry, and if you want to be maximally employable in that after undergrad or go to grad school, you need research, and everyone should see to it that "box checking" for med school also helps you with your back up plan if you never get accepted. Otherwise I did it to get into med school. It wasn't something I loved and it was something I was willing to do to meet career goals (employment after college or med school acceptance) plus made some money in college. AND I wasn't sure what I wanted to do in med school but was probably leaning to primary care or a generalist field without ruling out more specialized fields.

So for me, I replied saying that I did enjoy doing research and I looked forward to what opportunities there would be in med school and beyond. I looked forward to bringing my research skills to clinical work or clinical research since I have a real love of working with patients, and my experience with bench research, while rewarding, sort of showed me my real passion was working with patients and not being at the bench. But I could see myself doing more research and using those skills.

So basically, you don't want to discount that part of your app and what you can bring to the school, but if you don't like research and just sorta do it because you have to, you don't want to say that, nor do you want to try to sell yourself to this school as some kind of future hardcore researcher extraordinaire.

They know lots of people do research in undergrad and then go on to do very little. But academic activity is desirable and for some students a necessity. So the issue is not presenting yourself as a dead end. But it is OK to have done a lot of research yet indicate that you are more clinically focused as a result of your experiences.

Fantastic, thank you so much for the detailed response!