Secondary Essay Prompt Help

[TakingItOneDayAtATime]

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[Mr.Smile12]

Hello all!

I am struggling with two common secondary essay prompts...

The first one that I am having a little bit of difficulty with is, essentially, "what is a time you faced a conflict, and how did you resolve it - how would this translate to being a doctor?"

For the conflict prompt, I am planning on writing about a relationship I had with a roommate who was self-medicating with drugs and alcohol following the loss of one of his closest childhood friends. He was verbally abusive to the rest of us roommates and would often break things in the house and was creating a lot of conflict. To resolve this, I worked with him to seek therapy, would talk with him for hours on end about what is really causing his depression and outbursts, etc. and continue to work with him to ensure that he made his therapy appointments on schedule. I feel that this would tie in well to being a physician when interacting with patients who do not adhere to treatment plans or do self-medicate themselves.

My opinion: yeah, this is a conflict, but I think you're really making your answer more complicated. I think you're trying to show more about your skills being a doctor as opposed to skills resolving a real conflict (at least the way you present it here). Is the conflict about the roommate being abusive to others? About self-medicating? About not seeking therapy? Maybe work on clarifying this description for me, but I'm not sure what you specifically did to have your friend follow your lead or trust you.

The second, and more difficult prompt for me, is a diversity essay prompt along the lines of "what do you feel you would bring to your incoming class?"

For the diversity essay prompt, I was entertaining the idea of writing about a leadership position I had in which I was in charge of mentoring a class of first-year students at my college. It was a very unique experience and it allowed me to interact with students from all walks of life. Because of this position, I gained experience and an ability to better unify a group with a large degree of diversity so they could work together and find success as a group navigating their first year of college. (Obvious relationship to being a first-year medical student in a class with lots of diversity....)

I don't think your answer works. How does this contribute to the diversity of the class? (Is this the actual prompt?) I don't really see anything about your own experience that points to a greater understanding of inclusion based on what you provided here.

 

[TakingItOneDayAtATime]

My opinion: yeah, this is a conflict, but I think you're really making your answer more complicated. I think you're trying to show more about your skills being a doctor as opposed to skills resolving a real conflict (at least the way you present it here). Is the conflict about the roommate being abusive to others? About self-medicating? About not seeking therapy? Maybe work on clarifying this description for me, but I'm not sure what you specifically did to have your friend follow your lead or trust you.


I don't think your answer works. How does this contribute to the diversity of the class? (Is this the actual prompt?) I don't really see anything about your own experience that points to a greater understanding of inclusion based on what you provided here.

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