Secondary Diversity/Adversity Topics

[Adrenaline Junky]

Hey SDN, looking for feedback on the following topics so I can start pre writing. Not sure if these are viable or just cliche. Thanks in advance


Diversity:

1) My passion for making the pre Med culture more collaborative and less competitive. I helped start an outreach organization that connects premeds with mentors and other opportunities


2) My experience as a patient with a chronic disease and working with similar patients has given me a unique insight on details of patient care that often go unnoticed but mean a lot to patients

3)My Time working in fast food as a manager(6 years) and how it’s taught me to excel in customer service and how it’ll allow me to put myself in my patients and colleagues shoes to better understand them.


Adversity:

1) in highschool I was in charge of leading a team at my job to redesign a website, we all put our best into it but the owner didn’t like the end product (issue I see is this is from high school and not one of my listed activities)

2)Struggling with my identity and culture since I went to a predominantly white and wealthy high school and lived in a non diverse town.

3) If I don’t use it for diversity , I can discuss overcoming the challenges associated with my chronic illness and how I used to hide it instead of accepting it.

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[jhmmd]

Hey SDN, looking for feedback on the following topics so I can start pre writing. Not sure if these are viable or just cliche. Thanks in advance


Diversity:

1) My passion for making the pre Med culture more collaborative and less competitive. I helped start an outreach organization that connects premeds with mentors and other opportunities


2) My experience as a patient with a chronic disease and working with similar patients has given me a unique insight on details of patient care that often go unnoticed but mean a lot to patients

3)My Time working in fast food as a manager(6 years) and how it’s taught me to excel in customer service and how it’ll allow me to put myself in my patients and colleagues shoes to better understand them.


Adversity:

1) in highschool I was in charge of leading a team at my job to redesign a website, we all put our best into it but the owner didn’t like the end product (issue I see is this is from high school and not one of my listed activities)

2)Struggling with my identity and culture since I went to a predominantly white and wealthy high school and lived in a non diverse town.

3) If I don’t use it for diversity , I can discuss overcoming the challenges associated with my chronic illness and how I used to hide it instead of accepting it.

Are you looking for constructive criticism? I hope so cuz here's what I have to say:

Diversity
1. Does not address diversity but is a great leadership/volunteer activity
2. Does not address diversity but could be a good PS topic & tie into your reasons for wanting to become a physician
3. You will need to connect the dots. Medicine isn't really as much about customer service these days as some would like it to be (despite increasing feedback from pts related to things like PG scores, RVU output, etc.). If you dealt with lots of different "types" of people and/or people w/backgrounds different than yours then this could be a good diversity topic.

Adversity
1. I really don't see this as something that you had to OVERCOME but it could be a great work/EC activity that you discuss in an interview
2. I don't see this as adversity (or diversity, in case you were wondering). If you are African-American and went to a pre-dominantly white school, I don't really see it as adversity but URM status. You will need to delineate how this aspect of your background made things difficult for you (and what you did to overcome it).
3. I don't feel like being open about a chronic illness is an adversity topic. However, you could tie this facet back into what I said for diversity topic #2 above.

I hope this helped and good luck! 🙂

 

[Goro]

Diversity:

1) My passion for making the pre Med culture more collaborative and less competitive. I helped start an outreach organization that connects premeds with mentors and other opportunities

Nope. Try harder

2) My experience as a patient with a chronic disease and working with similar patients has given me a unique insight on details of patient care that often go unnoticed but mean a lot to patients

Tons of premeds have these same issues

3)My Time working in fast food as a manager(6 years) and how it’s taught me to excel in customer service and how it’ll allow me to put myself in my patients and colleagues shoes to better understand them.

Bingo!!!

Adversity:

1) in highschool I was in charge of leading a team at my job to redesign a website, we all put our best into it but the owner didn’t like the end product (issue I see is this is from high school and not one of my listed activities)

No, just no.

2)Struggling with my identity and culture since I went to a predominantly white and wealthy high school and lived in a non diverse town.

Please elaborate. You might have something here.

3) If I don’t use it for diversity , I can discuss overcoming the challenges associated with my chronic illness and how I used to hide it instead of accepting it.

This would definitely work here.

 

[Adrenaline Junky]

Are you looking for constructive criticism? I hope so cuz here's what I have to say:

Diversity
1. Does not address diversity but is a great leadership/volunteer activity
2. Does not address diversity but could be a good PS topic & tie into your reasons for wanting to become a physician
3. You will need to connect the dots. Medicine isn't really as much about customer service these days as some would like it to be (despite increasing feedback from pts related to things like PG scores, RVU output, etc.). If you dealt with lots of different "types" of people and/or people w/backgrounds different than yours then this could be a good diversity topic.

Adversity
1. I really don't see this as something that you had to OVERCOME but it could be a great work/EC activity that you discuss in an interview
2. I don't see this as adversity (or diversity, in case you were wondering). If you are African-American and went to a pre-dominantly white school, I don't really see it as adversity but URM status. You will need to delineate how this aspect of your background made things difficult for you (and what you did to overcome it).
3. I don't feel like being open about a chronic illness is an adversity topic. However, you could tie this facet back into what I said for diversity topic #2 above.

I hope this helped and good luck! 🙂

Thank you so much for the feedback, definitely going to go back to the drawing board

 

[Adrenaline Junky]

Nope. Try harder

Tons of premeds have these same issues


Bingo!!!

No, just no.


Please elaborate. You might have something here.

This would definitely work here.

Thanks for the feedback Goro, I’ll keep the ones you approved as backup and see if I can come up with something better

 

[jhmmd]

Thanks for the feedback Goro, I’ll keep the ones you approved as backup and see if I can come up with something better

You know, if you don't already have these kinds of experiences, now is the time to build them. Volunteer at a soup kitchen/a free clinic. Join the campus LGTBQ-straight alliance club. Get involved in activites that expose you to people who are different than you, and TALK TO THEM. Ask about their interests, and get to know them. If you feel like this is boring and/or you don't care, then medicine may not be right for you.

As far as adversity goes...some people have to fall back on the "I had a bad experience with a course in college" plan. This only works if you turned your performance around halfway through the course and pulled a B, or retook the course and got an A, or something. Don't be afraid to use academic failures/mishaps as adversity, cuz we are all under stress to make perfect grades. But do try to stand out in your secondaries (in a positive way!) as much as possible. Remember, everybody is unique. 😉 😆

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

#3 imo. Think it shows a mix of being able to balance premed course load + work and also shows miles traveled in that a lot of applicants from wealthy families would be unlikely to have such an experience.

 

[Adrenaline Junky]

You know, if you don't already have these kinds of experiences, now is the time to build them. Volunteer at a soup kitchen/a free clinic. Join the campus LGTBQ-straight alliance club. Get involved in activites that expose you to people who are different than you, and TALK TO THEM. Ask about their interests, and get to know them. If you feel like this is boring and/or you don't care, then medicine may not be right for you.

As far as adversity goes...some people have to fall back on the "I had a bad experience with a course in college" plan. This only works if you turned your performance around halfway through the course and pulled a B, or retook the course and got an A, or something. Don't be afraid to use academic failures/mishaps as adversity, cuz we are all under stress to make perfect grades. But do try to stand out in your secondaries (in a positive way!) as much as possible. Remember, everybody is unique. 😉 😆

I feel like I’ve had a lot of experiences interacting with people completely different from myself (I volunteer at a soup kitchen , met a lot of patients with different backgrounds through volunteer EMS, I volunteer for make a wish etc). I was just under the impression that the diversity topic should be about me, not the people I’ve interacted with (aka what can I bring to the table that’s unique).

For adversity I’ve only struggled in one class so far which turned out into a B, I feel that would just be tone deaf. I’ve struggled with patient deaths/difficult and combative patients. Only other thing is struggling with my research projects and having to redo my study for it to get accepted, but this also seems weak.

 

[jhmmd]

I feel like I’ve had a lot of experiences interacting with people completely different from myself (I volunteer at a soup kitchen , met a lot of patients with different backgrounds through volunteer EMS, I volunteer for make a wish etc). I was just under the impression that the diversity topic should be about me, not the people I’ve interacted with (aka what can I bring to the table that’s unique).

For adversity I’ve only struggled in one class so far which turned out into a B, I feel that would just be tone deaf. I’ve struggled with patient deaths/difficult and combative patients. Only other thing is struggling with my research projects and having to redo my study for it to get accepted, but this also seems weak.

Hmm. For adversity I'd keep thinking.
I really feel like diversity should pertain to how you relate to other people, not the other way around. Just my $.02.

 

[LunaOri]

3 for diversity. 2 or 3 for adversity.