Personal statement about latino population

[JSReed]

Let me start this by staying that I'm not hispanic at all.

In trying to write my personal statement, one of the things that I've come across is that a lot of my ECs center around the hispanic population, such as:

-worked as an (adhoc) interpreter in an ED for a summer
-Been on medical and public health outreach trips to Nicaragua and Honduras
-Spanish minor
-volunteer at a nonprofit helping hispanic immigrants get legal status/work permits, etc

I've had a lot of great experiences through all of this and am thinking about writing my PS on my desire to help latino people. However, does this raise any red flags in regards to a) not being entirely clinically based b) being specific to only one group of people c) not showing my love for science as well?

thanks

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[StoicJosher]

You say you want to write your PS to say that you want to help latino people. But the personal statement should address the question "why medicine". The topic of helping latino people is moot because that isn't what is being asked. Unless you can relate your motivation for medicine based on the experiences you mentioned (which doesn't seem to be heavily clinical to me) I don't think you should go along this route when writing your PS. Also, it is never a good idea to be narrow with your PS.

Also - check out this thread. Will definitely give you some tips on how to write your PS and what to include in it.

 

[sector9]

If this thread is referring to your personal statement for medical school, I would advise you against using this as your primary theme. You should be focusing on "Why medicine?" not "Why do I enjoy serving the Hispanic community?"

 

[tantacles]

Let me start this by staying that I'm not hispanic at all.

In trying to write my personal statement, one of the things that I've come across is that a lot of my ECs center around the hispanic population, such as:

-worked as an (adhoc) interpreter in an ED for a summer
-Been on medical and public health outreach trips to Nicaragua and Honduras
-Spanish minor
-volunteer at a nonprofit helping hispanic immigrants get legal status/work permits, etc

I've had a lot of great experiences through all of this and am thinking about writing my PS on my desire to help latino people. However, does this raise any red flags in regards to a) not being entirely clinically based b) being specific to only one group of people c) not showing my love for science as well?

thanks

Actually, this all sounds like great content for a personal statement. Not everything in a personal statement has to be directly related to medicine, and the one experience on here you listed that wasn't is a fantastic example of altruism, something that medical school committees really like to see in every application.

To answer your question about only helping "one group of people," know that my personal statement said a lot about how I entered medicine because I wish to care for chronically ill patients. I think if you write it well, you can spin your wish to care for the Latino population as a narrowing down of your general wish to heal patients rather than an aspiration only to help the Latino population; You have a personal connection to their care you might be the best physician out of a million given your unique experiences and skills to be on their medical team. I was never asked during my interviews, "Well, I know you want to care for chronic patients, but what if you have an acutely ill patient?", so I hardly think that you'll be asked about what you'll do if a white patient, one you're "not interested in treating," walks into clinic and you're assigned to him.

Finally, remember that while your experiences have related to medical challenges of latino people, many of these problems are also experienced by other groups. Showing your awareness of the specific needs of the latino population in your personal statement simply indicates that you're looking at these issues critically, maybe more critically than some physicians, and that you've taken a magnifying glass to this microcosmic slice of American medical need.

Your experience should get you noticed positively if you are able to write about it well. Make sure your essay gets edited and revised not only by you, but by people you trust to give you competent writing critique and/or have participated in medical admissions before.

 

[music2doc]

Mine had this as A theme and it garnered plenty of attention (early August application with 50% response rate from schools for interview invites (and 75% first round acceptance rate post interview/25% hold post-interview). I think using a desire to serve underserved Latino communities is totally fine IF you have experience with those populations (locally and abroad), speak Spanish fluently, have worked and studied abroad, are involved in the Latino community(ies) near you, etc.

 

[UTsksk]

Actually, this all sounds like great content for a personal statement. Not everything in a personal statement has to be directly related to medicine, and the one experience on here you listed that wasn't is a fantastic example of altruism, something that medical school committees really like to see in every application.

To answer your question about only helping "one group of people," know that my personal statement said a lot of about how I entered medicine because I wish to care for chronically ill patients. I think if you write it well, you can spin your wish to care for the Latino population as a narrowing down of your general wish to heal patients not because you necessarily want to help only those patients, but because those are patients that you personally have a connection to and you might be the best physician out of a million to be on their medical team. I was never asked during my interviews, "Well, I know you want to care for chronic patients, but what if you have an acute patient?", so I hardly think that you'll be asked about what you'll do if a white patient, one you're "not interested in treating," walks into clinic and you're assigned to him.

Finally, remember that while your experiences have related to medical challenges of latino people, many of these problems are also experienced by other groups. Showing your awareness of the specific needs of the latino population in your personal statement simply indicates that you're looking at these issues critically, maybe more critically than some physicians, and that you've taken a magnifying glass to this microcosmic slice of American medical need.

Your experience should get you noticed positively if you are able to write about it well. Make sure your essay gets edited and revised not only by you, but by people you trust to give you competent writing critique and/or have participated in medical admissions before.

Yup. It all depends on how you word things in your PS. I'm hispanic and I would like to come back to where I live and help the people of my community, which are predominately mexican american. I'll probably try to use "underserved" since it covers all races and focuses on people who don't have the means instead of making it seem like you just want to help one group only.

 

[candav]

The initial draft of my PS had a ton of stuff on international development and how I hoped to change the world through medicine and health policy. Eventually, I scrapped the whole thing. Personally, I feel the PS should be less future-oriented and more retrospective. Anyone can say, "This is the kind of physician I want to be", but most people come out of medical schools with different ambitions than they had going in. I think the more relevant concern here is to describe how you got to where you are -- not only through your past experiences, but also through your thought processes, your feelings -- and relate it all to your pursuit of this profession. My two Canadian pennies.

 

[music2doc]

The initial draft of my PS had a ton of stuff on international development and how I hoped to change the world through medicine and health policy. Eventually, I scrapped the whole thing. Personally, I feel the PS should be less future-oriented and more retrospective. Anyone can say, "This is the kind of physician I want to be", but most people come out of medical schools with different ambitions than they had going in. I think the more relevant concern here is to describe how you got to where you are -- not only through your past experiences, but also through your thought processes, your feelings -- and relate it all to your pursuit of this profession. My two Canadian pennies.

Absolutely, but if the OP has a large wealth of experience with Latino populations already THEN it makes sense to use this. I agree that if s/he has little experience with them, saying what s/he would like to do is a bit of a moot point. Go with where you've been and where it naturally leads you to.

 

[nuance]

I think you definitely *could* include it in your PS, but have you thought about what are you going to write in your secondaries?

Specifically I'm referring to the common secondary question "why this school?". I'm guessing you are planning on applying to schools that have large hispanic patient populations, so you could talk about your desire to work with that group and how it led you to the school you are applying to.

I know that schools like USC and Mount Sinai have a large hispanic patient population, but schools like University of Utah might not. I think that writing your main personal statement about wanting to serve the hispanic population could make the schools that do not have many latino patients wonder why you are applying there. However, if you aren't planning on applying to any schools that don't have a large hispanic patient population then I think it would be fine.

 

[music2doc]

I think you definitely *could* include it in your PS, but have you thought about what are you going to write in your secondaries?

Specifically I'm referring to the common secondary question "why this school?". I'm guessing you are planning on applying to schools that have large hispanic patient populations, so you could talk about your desire to work with that group and how it led you to the school you are applying to.

I know that schools like USC and Mount Sinai have a large hispanic patient population, but schools like University of Utah might not. I think that writing your main personal statement about wanting to serve the hispanic population could make the schools that do not have many latino patients wonder why you are applying there. However, if you aren't planning on applying to any schools that don't have a large hispanic patient population then I think it would be fine.

Honestly, I didn't find this to be the case. My first two acceptances were in locations with almost no Latino influence. (They both have extremely large African American populations with <5% Hispanic/Latino.)

 

[JSReed]

My main idea with the hispanic theme was to stand out from every other kid who loves science and wants to help people. I can certainly write it in the direction of "why I love to help hispanic people in a medical context" or "the experiences i've had with hispanic patients and how that has made me want to do medicine". But I also have a lot of non-medical experience with these populations, specifically indigenous populations of guatemala, chile, etc.

nuance, the other vibe i'm getting (from others and you) is that I should use the latino thing as a representative of a desire to work in underserved populations (which is factual and accurate), so that I'm not closing myself off in terms of the rest of my app. Does that sound right?

Music2doc, you said you used this as A theme? how did you create a personal statement with multiple themes that still seemed like one cohesive piece?

In regards to it being future oriented, Im not necessarily trying to go in that direction. Its more of looking at the experiences i've had and reflecting on why they made me want to be a doctor. Due to a mix of coincidence and my spanish knowledge, a lot of these experiences happen to be with hispanic patients/people. So should I include/focus on that, or leave it out entirely?

thanks guys

 

[music2doc]

My main idea with the hispanic theme was to stand out from every other kid who loves science and wants to help people. I can certainly write it in the direction of "why I love to help hispanic people in a medical context" or "the experiences i've had with hispanic patients and how that has made me want to do medicine". But I also have a lot of non-medical experience with these populations, specifically indigenous populations of guatemala, chile, etc.

nuance, the other vibe i'm getting (from others and you) is that I should use the latino thing as a representative of a desire to work in underserved populations (which is factual and accurate), so that I'm not closing myself off in terms of the rest of my app. Does that sound right?

Music2doc, you said you used this as A theme? how did you create a personal statement with multiple themes that still seemed like one cohesive piece?

In regards to it being future oriented, Im not necessarily trying to go in that direction. Its more of looking at the experiences i've had and reflecting on why they made me want to be a doctor. Due to a mix of coincidence and my spanish knowledge, a lot of these experiences happen to be with hispanic patients/people. So should I include/focus on that, or leave it out entirely?

thanks guys

Lots of questions here, so I'll focus on the one directed to me and let others answer your other questions.

When it comes to themes, none of us is (or should be) single-faceted. You are (hopefully) a multifaceted person. And hopefully those facets of you fit well together. In my case, my educational/professional background (psych/music) and populations of interest (Latino/underserved) fit well together. My 15 ECs tend to build on one another and be both related and diverse. I wound them together through a series of short stories (actual examples of work with patients from my own experience) in my PS with each showing different aspects of "why medicine" and "who I am" as a person and a professional. The first story was analogous to my interests and desire to go into medicine. The second demonstrated my transition into medicine. And the third integrated my interest in Latino populations (which is largely found throughout my ECs). The overall theme, I would say, could be summed up as "my journey to medicine" but legs of the trip included psych and Latino/underserved patient populations (locally and globally). Without giving you a copy of my PS, that's probably about the best I can really describe it, unfortunately. My suggestion is to talk about your journey to medicine and allow the underserved populations to be expressed as areas of interest and inspiration. I also included them in my conclusion paragraph, which strongly implies a desire to continue working with those populations in the future and pulls in a few of my other ECs (mentioned in the Experiences section) to provide further inspiration and a jumping off point for interviews.