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Diversity:I'm having a lot of trouble thinking about strong answers to both of these types of prompts. I'm also trying to avoid an overlap with other topics mentioned in my application (mainly research-related). Applying this cycle btw. Any help would be much appreciated! Sorry that these descriptions are so long, I thought it would be more helpful to provide more info to you.
Here are some routes I can take:
Diversity:
- Mom is an education specialist and dad is a software engineer.
----- With the former, the value of education was instilled early in my life and is a source of motivation that continues today, not just with my own aspirations but also in giving back to the community. I've tutored/mentored students in various capacities since my freshman year of high school and have learned how teaching them strategies for success (not just classroom material) and focusing on building rapport with students by understanding their background and interests can yield long-term benefits in their education, beyond my time with them. Inspiring self-efficacy in others is what I hope to do with patients too, by providing them with helpful strategies and information to empower them to take control of their health.
----- With the latter, my dad always wanted to get me into coding and programming early on, emphasizing its value as a skill in various fields. I was incredibly indifferent to this, even more so after taking a computer science class in high school and absolutely hating it. Towards the end of my time in college, I discovered the topic of precision medicine and how deep learning/AI applications can be applied to diagnostic and therapeutic decision making (its use in the field of neuroscience is what really drew my interest). This brought me to my current research position, where I am involved with an AI study (though not the actual coding aspect yet). My initial indifference towards learning coding has turned into a hobby/interest of mine due to its applications in medicine and research. I'm going to take a deep learning course this fall to gain relevant skills and experience with machine learning that I hopefully can use in the future. I strongly believe AI in healthcare has vast potential and would love to continue my involvement and understanding of its applications in the future. This may be a little niche, but hopefully it can contribute to collaborative efforts towards innovation in the medical community. The only issue with this is that I don't have a strong coding background (was a neuro major), so all of this is relatively new to me despite my drive to gain knowledge and skills in this area.
Diversity or adversity, not sure:
- Part of the LGBTQ community, though I haven't come out to my family/friends yet (only to a couple of teachers, through writing pieces/assignments). I'm also South Asian, which means being gay is not a conversation that comes up often, if ever, and if it does it's not usually in a positive light (this has slowly been changing with my generation, but with older parents and relatives this hasn't changed much). It was difficult growing up because I knew I was different, but, at the time, even in my educational environment, it just wasn't a normalized thing to talk about, impacting my confidence and openness in friendships greatly. Also, South Asian LGBTQ representation in mainstream media is very minimal, so I also internalized the belief that I may never be able to come out and have a happy family life in the future. Come college, I was exposed to a LGBTQ-friendly campus environment which dramatically shifted my perspective and gave me hope for coming out in the future. Much of my fear of coming out is due to a fear of judgement and changed relationships, particularly with my family. I had to rely on independently seeking out information online to educate myself on the LGBTQ community and also learn about others' similar experiences through Youtube/forums. I'm still not out yet and that has to do with intentionally deciding to focus my efforts on my medical aspirations, as that is something I had more confidence and control over in college. I also wanted to avoid unnecessary emotional stress at the time. It may be weird to say this, but whenever I thought about my future, the only thing keeping me optimistic and motivated was that I could achieve my professional goals at the very least, even if I don't end up having a partner/family. My perspective has since changed, and I am planning on coming out right before I matriculate into medical school so that I can finally make progress in this area of my life towards a happier, less confined future. Overall, this experience has made me realize more broadly that individuals' life experiences and/or struggles are often not discernable at the surface level. I'm thus more aware of my interactions with people and strive to be non-judgemental and positive in pretty much every conversation I have with strangers. I also really want to be involved in the LGBTQ community in my future medical school, serve this community in diff ways (I know some schools have clinics geared towards this population), and also continue educating myself on LGBTQ health since I still have a lot to learn(!!).
Diversity:
- I was in a community scholars program in college and thus learned a lot about community-based research and the value of forming collaborative relationships within the community. I think this applies at the individual level too, where if your goal is to help someone in the long-term, it's important to get them invested in the process too. I've been involved in a number of volunteering activities aimed at serving and supporting disadvantaged/vulnerable populations (both education and healthwise). Learning from the community through direct involvement and striving to improve basic healthcare access and services to the aforementioned populations is something I hope to continue doing in the future as a medical student and beyond.
Adversity/Challenge:
A number of prompts ask about a challenging situation or problem. There are a few schools (worried about conservative adcoms due to geographic location of schools) where I don't want to mention my LGBTQ identity, so I need to think of an alternative answer to prompts.
- Going back to the South asian thing, I had a relatively "sheltered" upbringing. My parents have always and will always be concerned about my safety in life, which is obviously important. But I think there is a fine line where too much sheltering can hinder personal growth and confidence towards independence. During college, I gained an immense amount of self-confidence due to a variety of reasons related to realizing what I wanted to do career-wise and intentionally stepping out of my comfort zone to pursue personal interests and hobbies. Anyways, one big step towards independence for me was planning and taking my first solo trip to pursue my goal of learning Spanish in an immersive environment. Studying abroad was never a possibility for me, since I wanted to graduate early and also didn't think paying for an expensive summer/winter experience was worth it. So I took it upon myself to research affordable, short-term options. I ended up finding a local school in Guatemala and brought the idea to my parents. They were adamantly against it, but I am also very persistent. I did more research on the safest city to study in and compiled descriptions of others' experiences. After a month of online research and personal planning, I was able to convince my parents to let me take a two-week trip, especially since my desire to learn spanish stems from wanting to comfortably use it with Spanish-speaking patients. Keep in mind, I had never traveled solo domestically in the U.S. either, so this was a big step for me. I can also go into describing the trip itself for this prompt; but I feel like the challenge of being in an unfamiliar, foreign environment is more common than showing my parents that I am capable of independently pursuing my goals in a safe, informed manner. From convincing my parents about this trip in addition to my decision to take two gap years (so that I could fully engage in medicine-related research interests I wanted to explore prior to medical school), I've become more confident and assertive towards independently deciding what my future will entail. I don't know if this situation seems trivial... but I think the confidence I've gained has contributed to my growth as an individual and strengthened my desire to continue on a path of learning and exploring interests both related and unrelated to medicine.
1. Your parents' skillsets can't be used for a diversity essay. Has to be about you.
2. LGBTQ is a great thing to write about in terms of diversity. If you're going to do it, be out and proud in your essay.
3. Being in a scholars program in college probably isn't great for a diversity essay either.
Adversity:
1. Of course, something related to being LGBTQ would work, but if you're not out, I would say that it's hard to make a fantastic essay about being LGBTQ that is truthful and relates to adversity.
2. Going on a trip should really not be your adversity essay. When you're thinking about this essay, think about an interpersonal challenge or some other struggle you had that made life difficult. For example, if you were thrown into (not voluntarily choosing to take a trip to) a situation where you didn't speak the language, that would work. The difficulty has to be out of your control in some way, and your job is to show how you persevered and grew despite the adversity.