Parent in medicine?

[BoilerWolverine]

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My mother is a radiologist and I used to spend hours with her at the hospital. (As a kid) However, for years I never really considered med school. Recently (Last 3 years) I decided to go and was wondering if I should mention this in my personal statement? It seems too hokey to me personally.

Also, do adcoms have something against people that have "recently" decided to become docs? (As opposed to those who has ALWAYS wanted to be e doctor)

Any thoughts?

 

[cuponoodles]

I'm not sure they care about when you decided, as long as you've got informed, well thought out, convincing reasons for pursuing medicine.

at least, that's what I'd want to hear if I was on adcom.

 

[JRockdown]

Seems to me a fair number of ADCOM's ask in the application if your parents are doctors. Outside of filling that out, telling them in your personal statement is a choice. I would advise it, if you have a good reason to include it, ie you are making it part of your reason to become a doctor, yadda yadda. Other than being a detail to the meat and potatoes of what should be in the PS (see all other forums for that,) I think you can do without talking about the parental MD.

 

[PreMed4Dummies]

in some ways i feel as thought having a parent in medicine (my father is a pathologist) can work against you if you aren't careful. when you mention that your parent is in medicine, the ADCOM will hit you with questions to make sure that this is really what you want to do and its not just "i have to follow in my parent's footsteps" type deal. as long as you make clear what YOUR reasons for going into medicine are, you shouldn't have any problems. a lot of people decide to go into medicine even later in life after working in other fields so it won't hurt you that you haven't always wanted to go into medicine.

 

[katester25]

Funny, my mother's also a radiologist, and I applied last year as a non-traditional applicant after realizing that I wanted to go to med school a couple of years after I finished college. The opening paragraph of my personal statement was about always admiring what my mom did, but only deciding that I wanted to be a physician after pursuing other academic and volunteer interests and participating in public health research and interventions (which I then discussed in the rest of the ps). It seemed to work for me - 7 interview invites, 3 acceptances and a few waitlists.

 

[Abilene85]

Also, do adcoms have something against people that have "recently" decided to become docs? (As opposed to those who has ALWAYS wanted to be e doctor)

It all depends on your experience and exploration of the field, and also your consideration of other medically related specialties. If you have experience and know why you want to be a doctor and not a PA, pharmacist, nurse, etc., adcoms won't care if you have wanted to be a doctor since you were a fetus or if you just made the decision in the middle of college. The danger of having a physician parent is that those applicants might be stereotyped as just wanting to follow in mommy or daddy's footsteps and being blinded by the glamour of the big house they grew up in etc. But if you sincerely made the choice for yourself after exploration, you'll be fine.

I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was a kid - a classical musician senior year of high school - then it was between research and medicine for 2 years in college. I'm starting school in a month.

 

[diosa428]

If your mother's career somehow influenced your decision to go into medicine, include it. If you spent time in the hospital as a kid, but decided on medicine through other means (which is what it sounds like) then don't include it.

 

[MossPoh]

My mother is a radiologist and I used to spend hours with her at the hospital. (As a kid) However, for years I never really considered med school. Recently (Last 3 years) I decided to go and was wondering if I should mention this in my personal statement? It seems too hokey to me personally.

Also, do adcoms have something against people that have "recently" decided to become docs? (As opposed to those who has ALWAYS wanted to be e doctor)

Any thoughts?

I'm in the exact same situation as you. My dad is a radiologist. My goal as a kid was to be a doctor, but it faded away especially during college. Then it dawned on me it was what I wanted to do. It can be very good material, if you are a strong writer and can twist it. Be weary of what was already mentioned about the following the footsteps deal.

I do feel it is hard to just ignore those hours in the hospital. If you are like me, god only knows how many hours you were in the hospital or behind your parent. I used to scan through ct's on the computer before my dad came to check, watched procedures in middle school, slept in the doctor's lounge...That is a fairly large impact on one's life. The only other thing that has really influenced me more was witnessing some of the stuff in the ER and gut feeling.