Overcoming homesickness response

[shadow12345]

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For the "describe your biggest challenge and how you overcame it" and/or "describe your biggest personal accomplishment" prompts - is it dangerous to write about overcoming homesickness after moving cross country for college? I have seen a lot of posts about avoiding this because it may be a red flag to med schools, as you may very well have to make a big move for school again. But at the same time, it was a big challenge for me originally and I think I definitely matured/grew from feeling homesick, overcoming it, and sticking through it. So for medical school if I did have to move again, I definitely do not think I would be as homesick and even if I was, I would know how to handle it better. Can anybody offer some advice?

 

[1nside]

I am not an adcom, but I think it really just depends on how you frame it. If you can adequately explain why this was meaningful for your growth through concrete examples and how it better prepares you to be a better doctor, then I think that can show your perspective and strengthen the case for if you had to move again.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

I wouldn't.

 

[Phoebus Apollo]

My first reaction is that this sounds like a dangerous topic, and pretty underwhelming as a “biggest challenge.”

That said, homesickness can come in many different packages. It can be a kid at summer camp crying for his mom, or a grown adult who hasn’t been able to return to their home country for 20 yrs because of civil strife at home.

The way you’ve explained it makes it sound a little more like the former, which gives me serious pause.

 

[Goro]

For the "describe your biggest challenge and how you overcame it" and/or "describe your biggest personal accomplishment" prompts - is it dangerous to write about overcoming homesickness after moving cross country for college? I have seen a lot of posts about avoiding this because it may be a red flag to med schools, as you may very well have to make a big move for school again. But at the same time, it was a big challenge for me originally and I think I definitely matured/grew from feeling homesick, overcoming it, and sticking through it. So for medical school if I did have to move again, I definitely do not think I would be as homesick and even if I was, I would know how to handle it better. Can anybody offer some advice?

This should be fine.

 

[DK0828]

Yea no. Not at all. Your biggest challenge shouldn’t be what the majority of Americans have experienced and “survived” without issue.

 

[shadow12345]

what about for biggest personal accomplishment? I thought of a better example for biggest challenge (and I do realize the homesick example was pretty underwhelming for the biggest challenge on but I was struggling haha) but for biggest personal accomplishment I feel like it's so similar and one of the schools I'm applying to asks both questions. Does anybody have examples of what they did for biggest personal accomplishment?

 

[DK0828]

what about for biggest personal accomplishment? I thought of a better example for biggest challenge (and I do realize the homesick example was pretty underwhelming for the biggest challenge on but I was struggling haha) but for biggest personal accomplishment I feel like it's so similar and one of the schools I'm applying to asks both questions. Does anybody have examples of what they did for biggest personal accomplishment?

Not dying of homesickness isn’t not a challenge or accomplishment.

Edit. Felt guilty for being insensitive. ...not a challenge of accomplishment worth writing about and risking your admission on something most everyone has experienced. I'm sure you have had people die, become sick, bad happen to them or you at some point. You got over it and moved on to this point in your life. I don't know you and although you seem to have had a relatively easy life (which is a great thing, just not when writing to an adcom lol), no ones life is absent at least one bad/challenging event.