Would you discuss donating (organ/tissue)?

[estradiol9]

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Would you consider discussing any donations you might have done in your application, personal statement, interview, etc? I mean everybody has probably donated blood at some point but what about something more serious or invasive?

As for why I'm asking, I have donated bone marrow and eggs. I also blogged my entire experience. I never thought of mentioning it but a friend suggested it.

 

[2sk0ol4c0ol]

Honestly, I think it would be in bad taste. It's like your saying that you are a better candidate because you donated your marrow and eggs. Honestly, if someone mentioned that in their app I would think
"So she's trying to profit off something that should have been a completely altruistic act. She has some personality." Some might even trivialize it to being akin to donating blood, A LOT of people do it! It doesn't make you special.


Not only that but donating doesn't show how you are committed to being a doctor at all, nor is it becoming or you to say "I donated organs so I wanna be a doctor!" that is not only naive but it's flat out creepy.

In short: I think that it would be tasteless or YOU to mention it. Now if an interviewer ask you than maybe you could work with that but if not than no not at all.

But that's just what I think

 

[Syqers]

I think it depends on how you phrase it. If you are using it to support your obvious passion for being a doctor, I don't see anything wrong with it. Especially if it is a regular occurence that you donate. I just would be careful that you don't come off as superior or snotty. But as a humble side note in an answer to one of the interviewer's questions, I think it's fine.

 

[mystifire]

No. It has no relevance to the extent you did it. Just the fact that you had to ask.. I mean... why would you mention it, really? Be honest here. Donating alone should not be what causes the adcom to think positively of you. Donating personal items, whether they be material or from your own body, has no bearing on whether you should be a doctor.

perhaps it is worth mentioning if you were one of those stories where you donated an organ to someone and saved his/her life and you both met and it was super emotional and whatnot. But only in that extent.

 

[LizzyM]

Did you receive money for your time and trouble? If so, I wouldn't call it a "donation".

About the only sort of thing that might be appropriate to report would be donating a kidney or a portion of one's liver. By law, no compensation is offered for those donations in the US and it is an act of altruism.

I'd go on to address how being a patient informed how you want to practice as a doctor... the things that made a difference for you and how you'd like to emulate those physicians who did a good job. (Best to stay away from criticizing doctors who did poorly and getting all high and mighty about how you'd never be that way.)

 

[Sesom]

doesn't donating bone marrow hurt?

 

[Sesom]

Honestly, I think it would be in bad taste. It's like your saying that you are a better candidate because you donated your marrow and eggs. Honestly, if someone mentioned that in their app I would think
"So she's trying to profit off something that should have been a completely altruistic act. She has some personality." Some might even trivialize it to being akin to donating blood, A LOT of people do it! It doesn't make you special.


Not only that but donating doesn't show how you are committed to being a doctor at all, nor is it becoming or you to say "I donated organs so I wanna be a doctor!" that is not only naive but it's flat out creepy.

In short: I think that it would be tasteless or YOU to mention it. Now if an interviewer ask you than maybe you could work with that but if not than no not at all.

But that's just what I think

There are lots of EC activities that do not show that you will be a good doctor. You have to show that you are a smart, well rounded and caring individual. For example, you might have a passion for the outdoors and you might want to include that in some way because it shows you as a person with interests but that doesn't mean you are going to be a good doctor either.

 

[Kaustikos]

Not only that but donating doesn't show how you are committed to being a doctor at all, nor is it becoming or you to say "I donated organs so I wanna be a doctor!" that is not only naive but it's flat out creepy.

In short: I think that it would be tasteless or YOU to mention it. Now if an interviewer ask you than maybe you could work with that but if not than no not at all.

But that's just what I think

Secondary essay prompts for acts of being unselfish. Realize that it'd have to be more than "Hey, I donated eggs, just sayin..." And your reason why has to be good: saying it's to put it on here would be suicide, and I'm not saying deliberately putting it on there, but having no real reason/doing it for blogging would be stupid.

The one act of being unselfish by me that I mentioned won over interviewers because it was simple and showed I'm capable of going above and beyond if I need to.

 

[2sk0ol4c0ol]

There are lots of EC activities that do not show that you will be a good doctor. You have to show that you are a smart, well rounded and caring individual. For example, you might have a passion for the outdoors and you might want to include that in some way because it shows you as a person with interests but that doesn't mean you are going to be a good doctor either.

I completely understand that but my point was donating does not speak towards your academic abilities, your interest for medicine, or your personal interest (or at least I hope she doesn't consider donating her body parts as a personal interest). I just think the only reason this should ever come up in an application process is if it ties into your interest for medicine or if an interviewer asked her about it (which honestly will probably be the only time your ec's will come up too is if your asked about them)

 

[mvenus929]

Unless you're going to specifically talk about how the process made you want to be a doctor, I would lean on the side of not including it.

 

[Margra]

I absolutely disagree, and would definitely mention that you donated. Frame it in how it feels to help people you don't even know, which is an essential quality in an empathic physician. Knowing people who have needed eggs and bone marrow, it is an incredibly unselfish act, and I commend you for it.

Another sly way (that works) is to mention your blog as an activity. I talked to an admin who interviewed someone with a healthcare related blog, and was really impressed. Even went to check it out after. Overall, I definitely think you should mention it. If it's something you care about, why hide it? I don't think you are being insensitive at all.

If it doesn't flow naturally into the PS, there are ways to incorporate it into secondary essays as well.

 

[estradiol9]

doesn't donating bone marrow hurt?

The process of donating eggs was actually more painful.

 

[NickNaylor]

I think if donating blood/plasma/other bodily fluids is the only "unselfish" thing you can come up with, some adcoms might question the depth of your life experiences. That's not to say that these aren't important and unselfish things, but I'm sure that most people I've impacted someone's life in more significant ways than these.

Simply saying that you're an organ donor is even more trite IMO.

 

[estradiol9]

Secondary essay prompts for acts of being unselfish. Realize that it'd have to be more than "Hey, I donated eggs, just sayin..." And your reason why has to be good: saying it's to put it on here would be suicide, and I'm not saying deliberately putting it on there, but having no real reason/doing it for blogging would be stupid.

The one act of being unselfish by me that I mentioned won over interviewers because it was simple and showed I'm capable of going above and beyond if I need to.

What was your act of being unselfish if you don't mind my asking?

Also.. I chose to donate was for altruistic reasons. I decided to blog my experience because when I became interested in being an egg donor, I had a hard time finding any testimonial information by egg donors. The web has a lot of information on the actual procedure but I wanted to hear more from actual donors rather than just cold facts. So, I blogged my experience and gave my blog information to the clinic I donated at so that future/potential egg donors could read more about the experience first hand.

 

[estradiol9]

I think if donating blood/plasma/other bodily fluids is the only "unselfish" thing you can come up with, some adcoms might question the depth of your life experiences. That's not to say that these aren't important and unselfish things, but I'm sure that most people I've impacted someone's life in more significant ways than these.

Simply saying that you're an organ donor is even more trite IMO.

It's not the only "unselfish" thing I've done. But I've always thought that they were important though. Women who seek egg donors usually do so as a last resort to have their own family. Donating bone marrow can save somebody's life.

I never thought about mentioning it until a friend of mine suggested it. Now that I've asked the question here, I see that people have mixed feelings about it. For those of you who feel that it is distasteful, why do you feel so? People discuss volunteering experiences in applications all the time. How is this really any different? I donated bone marrow/eggs to help benefit another individual. People (myself included) volunteer in soup kitchens, hospitals, as emts, in research labs etc all the time to benefit others as well? We don't do these things to put them down on our medical school applications and make ourselves look good or superior... well at least I hope not, right?

 

[NickNaylor]

It's not the only "unselfish" thing I've done. But I've always thought that they were important though. Women who seek egg donors usually do so as a last resort to have their own family. Donating bone marrow can save somebody's life.

I never thought about mentioning it until a friend of mine suggested it. Now that I've asked the question here, I see that people have mixed feelings about it. For those of you who feel that it is distasteful, why do you feel so? People discuss volunteering experiences in applications all the time. How is this really any different? I donated bone marrow/eggs to help benefit another individual. People (myself included) volunteer in soup kitchens, hospitals, as emts, in research labs etc all the time to benefit others as well? We don't do these things to put them down on our medical school applications and make ourselves look good or superior... well at least I hope not, right?

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[LizzyM]

Most people aren't paid $5,000-10,000 or more to work in a soup kitchen.

 

[aSagacious]

Most people aren't paid $5,000-10,000 or more to work in a soup kitchen.

 

[farrago]

They're getting cheap - they used to pay a lot more, now it's down to about 8K. Lots of ads on Craigslist

 

[estradiol9]

Most people aren't paid $5,000-10,000 or more to work in a soup kitchen.

And I wasn't paid to donate bone marrow.

 

[LizzyM]

And I wasn't paid to donate bone marrow.

But egg donation is another story....

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

Thanks Lizzy, I was about to ask that, sorry, but most egg "dontations" come with a considerable amount of money, and in essence is no longer a donation, it's selling them...

 

[mvenus929]

I would lean on the side of not including it because if you got paid for it, then it wasn't really an altruistic act. If you didn't get paid for it... donating bone marrow is more involved than donating blood, but in general you don't have to go through any wild and crazy procedures to have it done.

You can mention it in passing your PS if you're using it as evidence to support you becoming a physician (got you interested in women's health, leukemia, etc), and if you really want, you could include your blog, since the intent of the blog is to educate, but I really don't think listing donations such as those on your activities or talking about them extensively in your PS is the way to bring them up.

 

[non trad]

.

 

[estradiol9]

I would lean on the side of not including it because if you got paid for it, then it wasn't really an altruistic act. If you didn't get paid for it... donating bone marrow is more involved than donating blood, but in general you don't have to go through any wild and crazy procedures to have it done.

You can mention it in passing your PS if you're using it as evidence to support you becoming a physician (got you interested in women's health, leukemia, etc), and if you really want, you could include your blog, since the intent of the blog is to educate, but I really don't think listing donations such as those on your activities or talking about them extensively in your PS is the way to bring them up.

Thanks. I'm not interested in listing the donations in my activities. I MIGHT mention donating bone marrow in my personal statement somewhere but I'm not sure about that yet either. I don't want to make it out to be a bigger deal than it really is. They were important and valuable experiences to me, yes, but I don't want anybody to think I did these things to benefit my medical school application rather than for altruistic reasons.

But I am considering including the blogging as an activity. I suppose that may lead to an adcom bringing it up during an interview (what did you blog about, etc). The only thing I'm worried about in doing this is if they frown upon it for some reason. I know a lot of other individuals who weren't really supportive of me donating eggs but they weren't medical professionals and they mostly were not supportive because of religious/moral reasons. How do you think an adcom would react in this type of situation (me not listing the donation as an activity, but mentioning the blogging)?

 

[mvenus929]

How do you think an adcom would react in this type of situation (me not listing the donation as an activity, but mentioning the blogging)?

So, I run a blogging website. I listed it on my job application when I was applying for jobs a few years ago, and also on my AMCAS application. I did talk about my blog at a couple interviews and the adcoms seemed okay about it. I think if you emphasize that the reason you had the blog was for education, then it won't be a problem, regardless of whether the adcom members agree or disagree with your reasons for donation.