Unsure about OIE essay

[donaldduckfanatic]

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I’m considering whether to fill out the “Other Impactful Experiences” section on AMCAS. I grew up LGBT in a country where it’s illegal. Even though I hadn’t fully understood my identity at the time, I was bullied and called gay, which made me careful not to let people get too close. I was worried that teachers, mentors, or family members might suspect something, so I avoided forming close relationships. As a result, I never had strong mentorship or guidance around careers. Later, I moved to toronto because of war and civil unrest, and I had to start over without a network. No one in my extended family is a doctor, so I have had to figure out this path on my own.

Does this sound like something appropriate to include in that section, or is it too personal or off-topic?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

The Weather on Your Application Journey | SDN

In many literary epics, the protagonists’ journey is adversely affected by the weather or some force of nature. In Odysseus’s voyage home, Frodo’s quest,

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Other Impactful Experiences Essay: Exploring Your Unique Story | SDN

Beginning with the 2024 cycle, the AAMC allowed AMCAS and ERAS applicants an opportunity to describe Other Impactful Experiences (OIE) that have helped

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If I count correctly, you have three potential areas to focus your OIE, so I think you need to choose. OIE is not a place to dump traumas or disadvantages. However, using any of them as an excuse why you CAN'T have close mentors is not appropriate.

 

[donaldduckfanatic]

Thanks for the reply! Do these seem like valid things to put in an OIE in general? Would you recommend one over any of the others? These are things i had to overcome but i dont wanna sound like im reaching or victimizing myself, but im also going to be a reapplicant so i dont want to leave anything out that could help my chances at all.

Would you say its not appropriate to say that these are reasons I couldnt have close mentors? Mainly the lgbt one

 

[imqine]

As a fellow applicant in the lgbtq+ community from a non-accepting background, I found writing about that (and my experiences being excluded because of it) in my diversity related secondaries to be a good spot to put that information. You'll have plenty of space to cover all three of these topics - I wouldn't try and address them all at once! possible idea: a diversity secondary focusing on your lgbtq+ identity. nearly every school asks about valuable diversity you could bring, and you could discuss that there.

As for OIE, I would maybe try and stay away from solely focusing on the reasons why you don't have close mentors and instead frame it as it was really difficult to get close mentors, but in the meantime, you did X Y and Z to try and do your best too. Moving because of war and civil unrest and the transition of starting over in a new country, if you can explain how, it impacted you, seems like the best topic to focus on IMO.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

What did you write in OIE in your first application?

 

[donaldduckfanatic]

What did you write in OIE in your first application?

I didn’t write one

 

[donaldduckfanatic]

As a fellow applicant in the lgbtq+ community from a non-accepting background, I found writing about that (and my experiences being excluded because of it) in my diversity related secondaries to be a good spot to put that information. You'll have plenty of space to cover all three of these topics - I wouldn't try and address them all at once! possible idea: a diversity secondary focusing on your lgbtq+ identity. nearly every school asks about valuable diversity you could bring, and you could discuss that there.

As for OIE, I would maybe try and stay away from solely focusing on the reasons why you don't have close mentors and instead frame it as it was really difficult to get close mentors, but in the meantime, you did X Y and Z to try and do your best too. Moving because of war and civil unrest and the transition of starting over in a new country, if you can explain how, it impacted you, seems like the best topic to focus on IMO.

Thanks!!

 

[polymerization]

I did write an OIE. A part of it was dedicated to talking about how being outed as gay in my devout Catholic family led me to be disowned just as I was going off to college, which started a chain of snowballing circumstances that led me to drop out of college and become homeless.

It wasn't a story I was telling because I wanted to make implications about how I don't trust my parents or inspire any questions about my ability to form interpersonal relationships.

The point was to convey that what I could accomplish with my journey wasn't just something I did with every comfort and convenience in the world; but rather, something I had to persist and endure and survive to attain. It was a way for me to say that the question isn't just "what did I accomplish and how does it compare to the other 10,000 applicants at this school," but rather "I've had every door slammed in my face—by important people in my life, institutions, even life itself at times. And this is what I was able to make from that. I'm proud of it, warts and all."

The OIE essay goes before Work and Activities and the Personal Comments essay, so it ended up serving as a bit of a prequel to the more nuanced points I make about myself in places throughout the remaining essays. It's a great place to talk about your background and the material and sociocultural consequences of deviating from the average medical student, where being LGBTQ+ and an immigrant are obvious lenses to look at them through.

In general, some may disagree with me but I think everything you choose to divulge should be tied to some specific way in which having that experience changed you. For example, I talk about homelessness not just to have people pity me, I bring it up to tie it to the resourcefulness and creativity you have to have to be able to live under those circumstances; to talk about navigating social services and bureaucracy; and to talk about why that experience specifically shaped the way I saw patients living parallel existences in the exam room at the very same time. It's about a knowing glance that only I can give in that situation, and one that undoubtedly will change the way I approach medicine.

I think the biggest challenge is condensing it into a small format. So what I ended up doing was writing a much longer essay as a diversity secondary, and then asked myself what parts of this broader narrative would give a good taste of my thesis? In other words, if this big essay is the movie, what do I want to put in the trailer? And then take it from there.