Question-how much to say?

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Sprockette

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This may seem like an odd question, but it is something I have been pondering for awhile, and if any of you can give me some advice, I would be very appreciative.

Anyway, so I have an interview in a few days at my top choice school (yay!). And, I am quite certain that they might ask me why I want to go there. Now, I have many, many reasons why I want to attend this school, but one of them is that it would enable me to be very close to my family. The reason I'd like to be close to my family is because my mother was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, and I would prefer to be close by should something happen.

My problem is that I don't know how an admissions committee will look at this information. Should I tell them why I'd like to be close to my family? Will they see it as something that will be a huge distraction and thus detract from my overall application? I don't see it that way at all and if anything, it has strengthened my desire to go into medicine. But I guess I'm not sure how they will take this information.

So, if you were in my position, would you say anything about this? Or would you not mention it at all? :(

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I think we once discussed this in the chat room, but I though't I'd post anyway. In my opinion, you should tell them that you want to be close to your family, but leave your mother out of the situation. My concern is that they will think the ONLY reason you want to go to ABC School of Med if because of your mother - I know that this is not the case with you but I think it would seem like that to an adcom. On the other hand, if you are able to make sure that you communicate effectively the other reasons you want to go to ABC along with your mother, you might not have a problem. Sorry, but the answer depends on you...how comfortable are you disclosing that info, and talking about it quite possibly at length? If I were you I wouldn't say anything about it. It's too personal - I wouldn't want to be putting a potential guilt trip on my interviewer. But that's just my opinion. Good luck. :p
 
I'm sorry to hear about your mother Sprocket. I sincerely hope she gets better.

I'd go with what jargon says; say that you want to be close to your family and how important they are to you, but don't mention your mother's diagnosis. However unfair, it could be interpreted as a red flag. My advisor told me this during a mock interview when I mentioned something similar. Her reasoning was that most adcoms want to know that their students will be stable and happy and most importantly, aren't likely to be dropping out to take care of people (oh, the irony). Best of luck.
 
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Sprocket,

I found myself in a somewhat similar situation this fall. My mother had knee surgery that went badly wrong last year (she's not totally laid up or anything, but I do her shopping and stuff a lot); My Grandmother is recovering from liver cancer surgery at my Mother's house; and my little brother has returned home to recover from burn injuries. Anyway, in my interview for my local school, I DID mention that I wanted to stay close to my family, and that it was important to me to be around for support and help. I didn't make a huge deal out of it or go into great detail, but I included it in my list of reasons because...well, it IS a reason! The school accepted me, by the way.
 
Good Points! I agree that the reasons why you want to be close to your family should probably remain private. My top choice school(s) are close to both mine and my husband's families - we hope to use grandma's and grandpa's to help with childcare when I'm in school (we're planning on starting a family while I'm in school!) I wrestled with the idea of mentioning this during interviews, after all, it's a pertinent reason for choosing ABC School of Med. But then wecdecided that our reproductive decisions were our business. While most folks are enlightned to the idea of students having and raising a family, I know that there are a few dinosaurs out there who would probably put a big fat REJECT stamp on my file if they knew I wanted to have kids during school.
Regardless, good luck at your interview!
 
Thanks to all of you who have replied so far, your comments, and kind words, are much appreciated.

(If anyone else has anything to say, or has been in a similar situation, I'd still be interested in hearing about it....)
 
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