Personal cancer scare in PS?

[karlat]

During my sophomore year, I had a cancer scare, which turned out to be a huge benign tumor. It affected a summer class, which I ended up getting a C in... But I had about 6 months of waiting till my surgery to fully confirm that it was benign and I was still attending school at that time. Should I be discrete about the tumor situation or should I be more specific about the biopsy procedures and all the complications that interrupted my semester?
I have a huge interest in oncology and much of my undergrad was based on cancer research and shadowing oncologists, so I want my story to strengthen my PS.

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[Redpancreas]

During my sophomore year, I had a cancer scare, which turned out to be a huge benign tumor. It affected a summer class, which I ended up getting a C in... But I had about 6 months of waiting till my surgery to fully confirm that it was benign and I was still attending school at that time. Should I be discrete about the tumor situation or should I be more specific about the biopsy procedures and all the complications that interrupted my semester?
I have a huge interest in oncology and much of my undergrad was based on cancer research and shadowing oncologists, so I want my story to strengthen my PS.

Be brief when describing the medical problem, explain more deeply on how the problem scared you and maybe influenced you to pursue medicine. Also, be brief with how this affected your performance (don't make it sound like an excuse).

 

[NickNaylor]

I would NOT make this a significant point of focus in your PS. Sure, mention it if it was extremely important in your decision to become a physician, but do not make it the key theme to what you discuss. Your other experiences should really take the focus. Something like this makes a good explanation for your initial interest in medicine, but I would be weary of making it the reason for your decision to become a physician.

 

[Uafl112]

you might be able to use it to open your PS and catch the attention of the reader and briefly describe how it motivated you to study medicine. However, there are greater things to be discussed on your PS so dont make it the primary topic

 

[allantois]

I don't even know how I would feel in your situation (extremely anxious for sure). I think it's definitely worth mentioning, especially if you can tie it to your other experiences.

 

[LizzyM]

To the extent that an application reviewer might look at your grades and say, "whoa, what happened there?... that C is uncharacteristic" a brief explanation about the work-up of what turned out to be a huge benign tumor might be in order. Whether your experience preceeded or followed your other experiences with onc research could be part of a narrative about your interest in medicine. It would be nice to combine your interest in the science of cancer biology with your empathy for patients with suspected cancers and those with cancer diagnoses based on your own experiences as a patient.

 

[Goro]

As usual, my learned colleague hits it out of the park.

It would be nice to combine your interest in the science of cancer biology with your empathy for patients with suspected cancers and those with cancer diagnoses based on your own experiences as a patient.

 

[hmockingbird]

Agree with what has been said, just wanted to add that I would be careful to make sure you don't make your PS too oncology-focused - show you are interested in medicine in general too.

 

[Mars41]

Sorry to hear about the cancer scare. Definitely a life changing event. The exact same thing happened to me as well. At the time it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me but it played a huge role in my interest to pursue medicine.

As far as your ps goes... I agree with Goro's advice on how your personal experiences as a patient will help you empathize with others.

Leave out the grade excuses though. There will be plenty of time for that in interviews etc.

Your PS is your time to shine so concentrate on your strengths and leave out anything negative.

Good luck mate.

 

[karlat]

Be brief when describing the medical problem, explain more deeply on how the problem scared you and maybe influenced you to pursue medicine. Also, be brief with how this affected your performance (don't make it sound like an excuse).

I would NOT make this a significant point of focus in your PS. Sure, mention it if it was extremely important in your decision to become a physician, but do not make it the key theme to what you discuss. Your other experiences should really take the focus. Something like this makes a good explanation for your initial interest in medicine, but I would be weary of making it the reason for your decision to become a physician.

To the extent that an application reviewer might look at your grades and say, "whoa, what happened there?... that C is uncharacteristic" a brief explanation about the work-up of what turned out to be a huge benign tumor might be in order. Whether your experience preceeded or followed your other experiences with onc research could be part of a narrative about your interest in medicine. It would be nice to combine your interest in the science of cancer biology with your empathy for patients with suspected cancers and those with cancer diagnoses based on your own experiences as a patient.

Thank you all! I definitely don't want it to sound like an excuse for my bad grade.. I have other experiences in my life that impacted me before this cancer scare came up, so that's why I was wondering how to mention it in my PS.. which I'm still in the middle of writing. I'll definitely mention the empathy factor. Helps a lot. Good luck to all

 

[karlat]

Sorry to hear about the cancer scare. Definitely a life changing event. The exact same thing happened to me as well. At the time it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me but it played a huge role in my interest to pursue medicine.

As far as your ps goes... I agree with Goro's advice on how your personal experiences as a patient will help you empathize with others.

Leave out the grade excuses though. There will be plenty of time for that in interviews etc.

Your PS is your time to shine so concentrate on your strengths and leave out anything negative.

Good luck mate.

Hope everything is all clear for you now! It definitely was a struggle... How did you mention it in your PS? I haven't gotten far in the app yet, but I know there's a section to mention events that may have impacted you life..should I save this story for that? Or just briefly mention it in my PS and then expand in the other sections?

 

[karlat]

Agree with what has been said, just wanted to add that I would be careful to make sure you don't make your PS too oncology-focused - show you are interested in medicine in general too.

Good point! I was trying to find a way to not make it so oncology focused. Pretty much all my extracurriculars/shadowing are oncology based :/

 

[LizzyM]

Thank you all! I definitely don't want it to sound like an excuse for my bad grade.. I have other experiences in my life that impacted me before this cancer scare came up, so that's why I was wondering how to mention it in my PS.. which I'm still in the middle of writing. I'll definitely mention the empathy factor. Helps a lot. Good luck to all

You don't need to mention the grade in your essay... just mention the time frame during which you were worked up for that tumor. The curioius adcom member will be able to put two and two together based on the date of the class you took.

 

[NTheo91]

During my sophomore year, I had a cancer scare, which turned out to be a huge benign tumor. It affected a summer class, which I ended up getting a C in... But I had about 6 months of waiting till my surgery to fully confirm that it was benign and I was still attending school at that time. Should I be discrete about the tumor situation or should I be more specific about the biopsy procedures and all the complications that interrupted my semester?
I have a huge interest in oncology and much of my undergrad was based on cancer research and shadowing oncologists, so I want my story to strengthen my PS.

Like others said, mention it if it impacted you in any way. If it negatively impacted your grades, you may want to mention it as a reason you didn't do so hot (however, don't make it sound like an excuse). I only spent 1-2 sentences explaining my poor grades early on(it was my 1st semester freshman year and was because my transition to college was rough).

I always felt that you shouldn't mention a specialty in your PS. I think you should talk more about how it made you want to be an MD in general, not an oncologist. I don't see any harm in stating an interest, you just don't want to sound closed minded about other specialties.