The "future goal" secondaries

[Lifeblood_20]

For secondaries that ask question in the vein of "how do you plan to impact medicine in the future?" I feel like as a pre-med I am still limited in my knowledge of the medical landscape, and although I have a lot of clinical and non-clinical experience, I find myself stumbling to find concrete, ambitious goals to discuss. Rather, I only have broad ideas of what I think I want to do, based on what I have experienced, which is roughly:
I am interested in pediatrics because influencing a child's growth and development feels very rewarding to me (have a lot of experience working with kids); I like internal medicine because from shadowing I saw physicians make diagnoses like piecing together a puzzle and I like that style of thinking; I hope to play a role in improving access to healthcare for low SES patients (but I'm not sure exactly what I can do as a physician on that front, I have tried through leading non-profits serving people in poverty, we have helped people with Medicaid enrollment but that was the extent of it). I am multilingual and I hope to reduce healthcare disparities due to language barriers.

So my question is, what are schools looking for with this question? Would my response above suffice? They say they are looking for "future leaders" in the field of medicine, but how can I claim that I will be a leader if I am not even in the field yet?

Thank you in advance if any adcoms are willing to provide insight. @Goro @gyngyn @LizzyM

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[HouseJC]

I'm not on Adcoms for any school, so to be honest, I am just replying to "follow" the post. Yet, I feel that people who just reply with any answer is not contributing to the community positively in any way.

I am also (pre)-writing this answer in advance of secondaries, but given that you usually have limited words, I feel it's better if you go deeper into a specific topic (i.e. experience in working with kids) rather than go wider. I don't mean to sound rude and I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt that your answer is not refined yet, but your rough response sounds too "messy" and might confuse your reader.

In regards of looking for future leaders, you can claim it based on your shadowing and clinic experience. Yes, I agree that fit is hard to claim because we aren't even in the field yet. But I feel that if you can justify why you believe you will be a good leader based on X volunteering experiences and Y shadowing experiences, it should suffice.

But, yes, I am curious to what the adcoms say!

 

[Lifeblood_20]

I'm not on Adcoms for any school, so to be honest, I am just replying to "follow" the post. Yet, I feel that people who just reply with any answer is not contributing to the community positively in any way.

I am also (pre)-writing this answer in advance of secondaries, but given that you usually have limited words, I feel it's better if you go deeper into a specific topic (i.e. experience in working with kids) rather than go wider. I don't mean to sound rude and I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt that your answer is not refined yet, but your rough response sounds too "messy" and might confuse your reader.

In regards of looking for future leaders, you can claim it based on your shadowing and clinic experience. Yes, I agree that fit is hard to claim because we aren't even in the field yet. But I feel that if you can justify why you believe you will be a good leader based on X volunteering experiences and Y shadowing experiences, it should suffice.

But, yes, I am curious to what the adcoms say!

Appreciate the feedback. I might be able to express intersectionality in my goals, e.g. serving children of low SES.
Wouldn't mind swapping & editing secondaries when the time comes!

 

[HouseJC]

@Flying Penguin , you bet!