Topic for how you would bring diversity to a class?

[John Scotty]

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I am sure this question has been brought up before, but I am interested to hear some opinions on this.

I am torn between a few topics and am curious to see what you guys think for this question:

I could talk about my bicultural background and how that relates to my outlook on medicine

International travel experience (been to 20+ countries and have a few medical related exprience) and just my take on cultural competence

My love of the outdoors and backpacking... not related to medicine but probably one of the most interesting thing about me

What do you guys think?

 

[Danny L]

Side question but somewhat related, is it recommended we discuss one aspect of ourselves that make us unique, or can we cover multiple points about ourselves that we think are unique?

@Goro @gyngyn

 

[Goro]

Side question but somewhat related, is it recommended we discuss one aspect of ourselves that make us unique, or can we cover multiple points about ourselves that we think are unique?

@Goro @gyngyn

What do you think? This isn't Einsteinian physics.

 

[Trust_The_Processs]

As the wise @Goro likes to say, "What makes you cool?"

Just put yourself in the shoes of your future classmates. What type of traits/characteristics in your classmates would you appreciate, and would those traits/characteristics enhance your interactions with said classmates?

 

[hypophora]

John, I'm assuming that you already included some of your travel experience in your AMCAS activities section? Can you give a little more detail about your biculturality? Unless you can frame your background as providing unique challenges you overcame or if you're clever and you can draw some very unique insights from it, I'd probably go with your love of the outdoors. Maybe try to see if you can identify some interesting/valuable character quality in yourself that is exemplified by your connection with nature or your experiences in the wild.

I'm also thinking a lot about how to approach this question, so I'm hijacking, if that's ok.

I feel like it would be boring to talk about ethnicity since I'm an ORM. I'm gay, but I don't want to spend a whole secondary essay talking about it.

Some ideas I was tossing around:

I'm probably more widely read than the average applicant in a lot of non-scientific areas, like philosophy, religion, literature (mostly modernist prose and poetry). This might come off as super pretentious though and it'll be hard to "concretely" demonstrate how fantastically literate I am. I recently read a cool book ("Proust Was a Neuroscientist") about how observations made in great works of literature often contain a kernel of truth about how the brain or mind functions that only gets explicated scientifically decades later.

Or

I'm clinically and academically interested in the blurry intersection between neuroscience and psychiatry. I made this point in my PS though and maybe I don't want to ram it down the adcom's throat.

 

[Toutie]

My love of the outdoors and backpacking... not related to medicine but probably one of the most interesting thing about me

What do you guys think?

Go for it. That would be a great topic if it's something you are passionate about.

 

[John Scotty]

John, I'm assuming that you already included some of your travel experience in your AMCAS activities section? Can you give a little more detail about your biculturality? Unless you can frame your background as providing unique challenges you overcame or if you're clever and you can draw some very unique insights from it, I'd probably go with your love of the outdoors. Maybe try to see if you can identify some interesting/valuable character quality in yourself that is exemplified by your connection with nature or your experiences in the wild.

I'm also thinking a lot about how to approach this question, so I'm hijacking, if that's ok.

I feel like it would be boring to talk about ethnicity since I'm an ORM. I'm gay, but I don't want to spend a whole secondary essay talking about it.

Some ideas I was tossing around:

I'm probably more widely read than the average applicant in a lot of non-scientific areas, like philosophy, religion, literature (mostly modernist prose and poetry). This might come off as super pretentious though and it'll be hard to "concretely" demonstrate how fantastically literate I am. I recently read a cool book ("Proust Was a Neuroscientist") about how observations made in great works of literature often contain a kernel of truth about how the brain or mind functions that only gets explicated scientifically decades later.

Or

I'm clinically and academically interested in the blurry intersection between neuroscience and psychiatry. I made this point in my PS though and maybe I don't want to ram it down the adcom's throat.

I am Russian, was born there and speak the language. Was going to talk about how my family thinks about western medicine and the intersection between eastern and western traditions with regards to healthcare

 

[Danny L]

What do you think? This isn't Einsteinian physics.

I'd say you can talk about however many topics you want. But then there's the question about how much detail an adcom wants in each topic. If each topic should have extensive detail you can't talk about that many subjects

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

John, I'm assuming that you already included some of your travel experience in your AMCAS activities section? Can you give a little more detail about your biculturality? Unless you can frame your background as providing unique challenges you overcame or if you're clever and you can draw some very unique insights from it, I'd probably go with your love of the outdoors. Maybe try to see if you can identify some interesting/valuable character quality in yourself that is exemplified by your connection with nature or your experiences in the wild.

I'm also thinking a lot about how to approach this question, so I'm hijacking, if that's ok.

I feel like it would be boring to talk about ethnicity since I'm an ORM. I'm gay, but I don't want to spend a whole secondary essay talking about it.

Any particular reason? Other than religious schools, I think being gay could only help you from a diversity standpoint.

Some ideas I was tossing around:

I'm probably more widely read than the average applicant in a lot of non-scientific areas, like philosophy, religion, literature (mostly modernist prose and poetry). This might come off as super pretentious though and it'll be hard to "concretely" demonstrate how fantastically literate I am. I recently read a cool book ("Proust Was a Neuroscientist") about how observations made in great works of literature often contain a kernel of truth about how the brain or mind functions that only gets explicated scientifically decades later.

God no. Please. You may be well read, but this will only come across as super pretentious. Unless you are like super into a specific area of literature. Like you absolutely love Middle English literature like Chaucer and learned Middle English to be able to read it in the original form.

Or

I'm clinically and academically interested in the blurry intersection between neuroscience and psychiatry. I made this point in my PS though and maybe I don't want to ram it down the adcom's throat.

So are literally hundreds of other applicants, if not more.

 

[DBC03]

I am sure this question has been brought up before, but I am interested to hear some opinions on this.

I am torn between a few topics and am curious to see what you guys think for this question:

I could talk about my bicultural background and how that relates to my outlook on medicine

International travel experience (been to 20+ countries and have a few medical related exprience) and just my take on cultural competence

My love of the outdoors and backpacking... not related to medicine but probably one of the most interesting thing about me

What do you guys think?

I honestly feel like it can differ depending on the specific prompt. I'm not sure how many backpackers there are, so that would definitely be an interesting addition to a medical class. International travel experience will provide you with a different perspective on culture, so that can answer a prompt asking how you would relate to different types of patients, etc. I know all of us would love to write one diversity essay, but I've already written two distinct ones. You certainly have interesting choices!

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I am sure this question has been brought up before, but I am interested to hear some opinions on this.

I am torn between a few topics and am curious to see what you guys think for this question:

I could talk about my bicultural background and how that relates to my outlook on medicine

International travel experience (been to 20+ countries and have a few medical related exprience) and just my take on cultural competence

My love of the outdoors and backpacking... not related to medicine but probably one of the most interesting thing about me

What do you guys think?

I think you can probably combine those. Backpacking is definitely cool. The diversity question is about what makes you cool and what you'd add to the student body. It does not have to relate to medicine, and honestly I think it's probably better if it doesn't (of course you should make it obvious that it'll contribute to a better med school class).

 

[Danny L]

I think you can probably combine those. Backpacking is definitely cool. The diversity question is about what makes you cool and what you'd add to the student body. It does not have to relate to medicine, and honestly I think it's probably better if it doesn't (of course you should make it obvious that it'll contribute to a better med school class).

You mind giving feedback on my things as well? I'd say they are some common points but hopefully the takeaways make it unique (I can PM more details if needed)

1.) Perspectives from a multicultural background
2.) How things I have learned as a former athlete and huge football fan have helped in certain aspects of my life
3.) Interest comp sci in medicine (apparently excelling in both computational and biological science is rare according to my PI, usually people are on one end of the spectrum) and how my activities contributed to that

Also does conventional wisdom here recommend picking one and going into great detail or can I sacrifice a little detail and cover all 3? I've been going with all 3 with a little less detail to capture more of myself but I wouldn't be surprised if the recommendation is to pick one..

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

You mind giving feedback on my things as well (don't quote please)? I'd say they are some common points but hopefully the takeaways make it unique (I can PM more details if needed)

1.) Perspectives from a multicultural background
2.) How things I have learned as a former athlete and huge football fan have helped in certain aspects of my life
3.) Interest comp sci in medicine (apparently excelling in both computational and biological science is rare according to my PI, usually people are on one end of the spectrum) and how my activities contributed to that

Also does conventional wisdom here recommend picking one and going into great detail or can I sacrifice a little detail and cover all 3? I've been going with all 3 with a little less detail to capture more of myself but I wouldn't be surprised if the recommendation is to pick one..

Personally, I think they are too disparate to adequately cover all three. Obviously, I'm not an adcom. But I would choose 1 or 2, unless the contributions from each are sufficiently similar to allow you to cover both.

What kind of athlete were you?

 

[Danny L]

Personally, I think they are too disparate to adequately cover all three. Obviously, I'm not an adcom. But I would choose 1 or 2, unless the contributions from each are sufficiently similar to allow you to cover both.

What kind of athlete were you?

Runner (varsity+captain if it matters to demonstrate level of passion?) in HS (that's why former, am not on an official college team), and I am in a club sport now (frisbee). Nothing really rare about those either unfortunately. I don't really specify in what I've written though

The contributions are not really related which is my concern, but I also don't know if there's enough substance to make each a standalone essay (maybe for pt 2 about sports, pt 3 was touched on slightly in the PS but not extensively and with this perspective).

I think the multicultural background is the weakest since I'm ORM. I think sports is the strongest because it helped me out in a way that's not on my app, although the comp sci point is a big potential career direction and relevant in future research

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Runner (varsity+captain if it matters to demonstrate level of passion?) in HS (that's why former, am not on an official college team), and I am in a club sport now (frisbee). Nothing really rare about those either unfortunately. I don't really specify in what I've written though

The contributions are not really related which is my concern, but I also don't know if there's enough substance to make each a standalone essay (maybe for pt 2 about sports, pt 3 was touched on slightly in the PS but not extensively and with this perspective).

I think the multicultural background is the weakest since I'm ORM. I think sports is the strongest because it helped me out in a way that's not on my app, although the comp sci point is a big potential career direction and relevant in future research

edit/another possible pt of interest: the comp sci stemmed from interest in video games from which I learned a lot about efficiency and long term planning (which helped in school and research). Not sure how interesting that is though

Hopefully the adcoms will give you a more informed opinion. I'd go with the athlete angle though, including the club sport.

 

[Danny L]

Hopefully the adcoms will give you a more informed opinion. I'd go with the athlete angle though, including the club sport.

Thanks!

 

[John Scotty]

I think you can probably combine those. Backpacking is definitely cool. The diversity question is about what makes you cool and what you'd add to the student body. It does not have to relate to medicine, and honestly I think it's probably better if it doesn't (of course you should make it obvious that it'll contribute to a better med school class).

Thanks! I think I'll do something like that. would probably combine travel and backpacking. Save bicultural for something else. Thanks!

 

[hypophora]

Any particular reason? Other than religious schools, I think being gay could only help you from a diversity standpoint.

Well, maybe I'm being stubborn because some of my friends have told me to definitely go ahead and talk about being gay in my diversity essay. It just almost seems like a cop out to me. Like I'm taking the obvious easy direction. Also I'm terrified of using this topic in all of my secondaries (not applying to religious schools) and then coincidentally running into a spate of conservative adcom members. I'm probably just working myself into a lather, but I feel like using this topic would be a risk.

God no. Please. You may be well read, but this will only come across as super pretentious. Unless you are like super into a specific area of literature. Like you absolutely love Middle English literature like Chaucer and learned Middle English to be able to read it in the original form.

Yeah that's what I was thinking too. Dammit. It sucks because this really is a big part of my identity, but I cannot think of a way to use it without sounding like a blowhard.

So are literally hundreds of other applicants, if not more.

Well sure, but there are also literally hundreds of other applicants that are probably gay too... Given the size of the applicant pool these days, can anyone come up with a totally unique diversity point?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Well, maybe I'm being stubborn because some of my friends have told me to definitely go ahead and talk about being gay in my diversity essay. It just almost seems like a cop out to me. Like I'm taking the obvious easy direction. Also I'm terrified of using this topic in all of my secondaries (not applying to religious schools) and then coincidentally running into a spate of conservative adcom members. I'm probably just working myself into a lather, but I feel like using this topic would be a risk.



Yeah that's what I was thinking too. Dammit. It sucks because this really is a big part of my identity, but I cannot think of a way to use it without sounding like a blowhard.



Well sure, but there are also literally hundreds of other applicants that are probably gay too... Given the size of the applicant pool these days, can anyone come up with a totally unique diversity point?

Anyone can be interested in that stuff. Most people are not gay and do not have personal growth associated with realizing they are gay and everything involved with that. Being gay has waaaay more potential to be interesting from a diversity standpoint than liking neuroscience.

 

[DameJulie]

I would also like some insights on how to reflect your diversity to a medical school. Some applicants are immigrants, speak multiple languages, and have some artistic credential. However, when it comes to admission, aren't most folks are like that?


How does a average pre-med profile student stand out in terms of diversity?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I would also like some insights on how to reflect your diversity to a medical school. Some applicants are immigrants, speak multiple languages, and have some artistic credential. However, when it comes to admission, aren't most folks are like that?


How does a average pre-med profile student stand out in terms of diversity?

I really don't think SDN is a representative sample of the applicant pool. Most premeds are probably pretty boring by SDN standards. And even if a lot of applicants are/have those things, that doesn't make those things worthless. You shouldn't just be saying, "I'm an immigrant--diversity!" The prompt is about how you will add diversity. How does you being an immigrant, polylingual didgeridoo player add diversity to the class?