Medical What should I go with for adversity and diversity secondary topics?

[tantacles]

I'm struggling to decide on a topic for the common adversity and diversity essays. I have several ideas for each, but I'm unsure if they would be too cliche or weak. Any advice is appreciated!!

Adversity:
1. My parents did not want me to pursue medicine. They are both engineers, and so wanted me to study engineering or computer science, which they felt was more "worthy". It was difficult not to have their support, especially because they are a strong part of my support system and it was challenging having to navigate without them. However, this did push me to be sure what I was getting myself into and led me to a lot of clinical experiences that I really value. So overall, this taught me how to be strong in my interests and deal with losing a support person (only career wise- they still support me in other things).

2. I had deteriorating vision last year, and I wasn't sure what it was caused by (I'm all better now.) My doctor told me it was because of a corneal abrasion, but the treatment didn't work and my vision kept getting worse. I was really freaked out, because I wouldn't be able to do a lot of thing (including medicine) if I lost my sight. Eventually, I figured out it was from a case of pinkeye I had and everything cleared up and my sight went back to normal. However, the process was super stressful and I had to consider what I would do if I lost my sight and my entire future was in turmoil.

3. One of my friends suffers from depression and suicidal thoughts, and she took a really bad turn a couple years ago. I was afraid of saying something or doing something that would trigger her, but I still wanted to be there to support her. The issue is that I wouldn't want to disclose too much info, since it's a really personal issue. But I did inform myself about mental health and the connection with physical health and learn how to broach sensitive issues with respect.

Diversity:
1. My parents are both immigrants, and so I grew up bicultural. This inspired me to expose myself to other cultures, especially underserved populations. I volunteer as a Spanish translator, and have also worked with black, homeless, and drug addicted people. I feel like this has helped me understand various patient perspectives and would lead to me being a more compassionate and open minded physician.

2. I have always been interested in more creative things, such as art, magic, and piano. All of those I started when I was 8 or younger and I'm still doing them. They all require patience, dedication, and detail orientation, which would be super applicable to medicine. For art, I do have an art related clinical volunteer activity. For magic, I can talk about being adaptable and reading an audience or dealing with skeptical or uncooperative participants. Piano is more of a personal thing, not really any interactions.

Long post, but please answer with any thoughts! Don't be afraid of being brutally honest with me - that would actually be super helpful

Actually, #2 for adversity sounds interesting, and I'd love to see it spun into an essay.

#1 for diversity sounds like the better option, specifically your work as a Spanish interpreter. That alone will make you extremely desirable to many medical schools where there is a Spanish speaking population. You don't even have to include the part about your family if you can just talk about being a Spanish interpreter.

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[Goro]

#2 for diversity. Magic is especially cool! Your patients will love you!

1 and 2 sound OK for adversity

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Adversity: #2 is better among those choices, but I don't think you sold me on this being a real sacrifice that you had to overcome. When I think of adversity, I'm thinking of overcoming significant financial, educational, or cultural barriers in order to survive or thrive.

Diversity: Given that you have a choice between #1 and #2, #1 would check more boxes for me even if #2 would be more about how unique you can be (but it doesn't really hit diversity in my book).

 

[tantacles]

Hmm I do recognize that I am privileged not to have encountered significant barriers that threatened by ability to survive.

For #2, I do want to stress that the whole process took around a month, and I was still in school trying to keep up during lectures even though I couldn't see the slides and continuing extracurriculars. I did have to step back from research for a while, because I couldn't use the microscopes. I also had trouble getting an appointment with an ophthalmologist, which is why the process took so long. I went to urgent care first and was misdiagnosed, and then they told me to see a specialist when I didn't get better, but they were booked up a couple weeks out. So I was just stuck there, losing my vision, not really able to do anything about it, and that feeling of helplessness was tough.

If I explained it like that, of having to overcome my feeling of powerlessness and possibly not being able to achieve what I had envisioned for myself (I was struggling in class, with other activities I enjoyed like art and magic, and I didn't think I could pursue medicine), would that lend more weight to the experience?

I personally like your take on it. Every admissions committee member will respond to your answers differently. All of our advice should be taken with a grain of salt.

If you can spin this difficulty you had into an essay that will show how you will be a better physician, go for it.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Also, I always thought of the diversity prompt as asking how you were unique and how that would contribute to the school. If that isn't what they're asking, could you clarify what they are looking for?

As noted, this is my personal opinion, but my original impressions stand. Your first suggested prompt fits more people's worldview about the concept of diversity, and one should be especially attentive in the BLM post-George Floyd stage. #2 highlights particular entering competencies a bit better. So while every single person may get a different impression, I'm just saying the odds are better with #1 in terms of meeting expectations.