What do you think about this essay idea?

[elizams17]

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I'm a pre-med student at the moment and I'm really passionate about helping patients in the future. I'm thinking about going into the Air force after medical school and become an ER physician or cardiac surgeon. One of the main reasons I want to go to medical school is because when I was 10 years old, two days before Christmas, my dad passed away from a heart attack/car accident. Ever since then I wanted to be able to help people that are put in life or death situations.

Here comes the advice part. I'm asking my mom to find out who my dad's doctor was and to see if I can shadow him specifically. It would really mean a lot to me, even though I know he wont specifically remember my dad. I'd want to write about this experience in the essay portion for my med school application. Does this sound like a good idea? I'm worried they might think of this as me just trying to use my past situation to my advantage, which is not the case. So any thoughts?

 

[Catalystik]

I think it would be better if you were to shadow a doc with whom you do not have this particular emotional connection. Writing about the insights gained would be fine.

 

[mcloaf]

I think it would be better if you were to shadow a doc with whom you do not have this particular emotional connection. Writing about the insights gained would be fine.

+1. Honestly I feel like asking to shadow that doc puts him/her in a really uncomfortable and unfair position.

 

[Oogieboogie]

I'm a pre-med student at the moment and I'm really passionate about helping patients in the future. I'm thinking about going into the Air force after medical school and become an ER physician or cardiac surgeon. One of the main reasons I want to go to medical school is because when I was 10 years old, two days before Christmas, my dad passed away from a heart attack/car accident. Ever since then I wanted to be able to help people that are put in life or death situations.

Here comes the advice part. I'm asking my mom to find out who my dad's doctor was and to see if I can shadow him specifically. It would really mean a lot to me, even though I know he wont specifically remember my dad. I'd want to write about this experience in the essay portion for my med school application. Does this sound like a good idea? I'm worried they might think of this as me just trying to use my past situation to my advantage, which is not the case. So any thoughts?

I think you should shadow an ER physician and a cardiac surgeon first. Also, what part of your dad's death really motivates you to become a physician?

Why do you need to be a doctor and not a PA, Nurse, or engineer? A PA/nurse would give you more patient contact. Honestly, being a nurse is an extremely rewarding career that helps patients really appreciate the work you do for them because you are directly in charge of their care. A doctor sees their patients once, maybe twice, a day. As a nurse, you could be by their bedside for 8 hours. An engineer would give you the knowledge to build instruments to prevent car accidents and improve upon bio mechanical tools for people who have heart disease. I hypothesize that the adcom committee really wants to know why you need an MD to achieve what you want in life.

I agree with others in that I do not think it is necessary to hunt down the doctor that helped your dad, though I do not think the adcom will think you are using your unfortunate situation to your benefit.

As far as writing an essay goes... just write it. Whatever you want to write, go ahead and write it. It will not look the same by the time you've drafted it 100 times. My essay went through 10 re-dos before I gave up and just submitted it. I felt the people who were the most helpful were the people who were already medical students, who were residents, and who were graduate students.