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[deleted1041777]

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[anniekat2025]

I'm not an adcom, so take all of this with a grain of salt...but I think it's best to write about your most impactful experiences rather than try to "invent" a more "medical" narrative. Authenticity goes a long way. The fact that you have taken steps to go to medical school (prereqs, clinical volunteer, etc) even after obtaining an MS in a challenging field shows that you are truly committed to pursuing a career as a physician. As a fellow nontrad (engineering undergrad) I can relate to the amount of work that goes into a pivot like that. It's not easy and based on my experiences this application cycle (5 acceptances) adcoms tend to understand and appreciate that.

Edit: I think if you can use your experiences in Asia to articulate WHY you want to become a physician, then you are golden. Besides, most secondary applications will have questions that allow you to describe your clinical experiences or your specific attractions to medicine in greater detail. Your PS is just one part of the application.

 

[LunaOri]

It's fine to focus on your time in Asia, but do include a line or two about what first piqued your interest in medicine, so that it is clear that you are moving towards medicine rather than running away from computer science.

 

[SavoirFaire87]

I'm very much a non-trad. I was a humanities major and followed work in a natural extension of that degree for multiple years before considering medicine. I think that you can have a paragraph or two about your background and what you learned about why you want to go into medicine -- and why you didn't find satisfaction in CS -- through your experiences in Asia. But for the remainder of the essay, focus on experiences that you have had in the medical field (friend's health issues, volunteering, shadowing, clinical) that show that you have explored medicine and the issues that patients face. I don't see anything wrong with more recent experiences.

 

[KnightDoc]

Hello. I am a non-traditional student with B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science. During my Master's, I had a small glimpse into medicine doing CS research for medical applications which gave me the initial idea of pursuing medicine. After graduating in Dec. 2018, I spent a year teaching English in Asia where my interest in medicine peaked due to my experiences in a foreign healthcare system and medical emergencies that happened to my friends and students. I decided to apply to medical school in Feb. 2020 and plan to apply this June. Currently work as a computer science researcher in nuclear physics/AI.

I am thinking of writing my personal statement mainly on my time in Asia. However, I'm worried that it may emphasize to the adcoms a lack of commitment to medicine in my application since my PS takes place in 2019. Adcoms will see that in 2020, I squeezed in all of my pre-reqs (at a very high unit workload but with A's) and got clinical volunteering and shadowing with no clinical experience beforehand, so it's obvious that I changed careers and didn't think about pursuing medicine until last year. I'm not sure if I'm thinking too deeply over nothing. Would you advise writing about my most impactful experiences (even if they're very recent) or try looking for a memory farther in my past to show a potentially longer commitment to medicine?

I'm also not an adcom, but I think you will probably be okay. I agree with the advice that you should be authentic rather than stretching to say what you think they want to hear. That said, your recent epiphany and ability to squeeze everything into one year very well might cause your commitment to be called into question. The only answer to that, however, will be time rather than trying to BS your way into demonstrating a longer commitment than what actually exists.

Good luck -- your ability to excel on an accelerated timetable bodes well as an indicator of your ability to ultimately be successful, even if you need a little more time to satisfy adcoms.

 

[deleted1041777]

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