Writing about physician parents in secondaries?
Started by vk77
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Keep it to a minimum and I imagine it doesn't hurt to mention. My personal observation is that a massive chunk (dare I day majority?) of my classmates have physician parent(s). I dunno, I may be way of base there--but it surprises me whenever I hear it (mine aren't)
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...But Goro would know better than I.
You can mention them if seeing their jobs/lives taught you more about the field and had an effect on you pursuing medicine. They shouldn't be your primary source of clinical exposure though. I think you have the right idea.
The majority of med students are of upper middle class backgrounds, so your post makes no sense.
The majority of med students are of upper middle class backgrounds, so your post makes no sense.
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I wrote about my MD/PhD parent, as living with them for 20+ years is certainly one of the biggest influences. Kept it to a paragraph though, as it was the seed, then I went out and invested my time in getting other exposures. Hard to say it isn't a factor. They see who your parents are on the primary, and your household income, why try to hide it?? I just didn't write anything about my traveling.
I see, this all makes a lot of sense. I was actually planning to use my parents as the "seed" for some of these essays, since their interactions with their patients outside of the clinic as a child (at restaurants, grocery stores, etc.) got me a lot more interested in preventative/community medicine and the physician-patient relationship. Maybe I could add something else about observing a similar dynamic when shadowing other physicians as well.
You need not draw too mucb attention to this. Adcoms will all see it as extremely privileged, and probably hold it against you. If it's brought up at an interview, yea talk briefly about it then, but don't advertise that you come from a family of doctors (even though so many med students do hahaha).
Now, if it really makes your essays markedly better than another topic you could come up with, and it makes your essays good quality, then you might as well mention it, but, like you said, emphasize your endeavors with other physicians.
edit: wording
Now, if it really makes your essays markedly better than another topic you could come up with, and it makes your essays good quality, then you might as well mention it, but, like you said, emphasize your endeavors with other physicians.
edit: wording
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Yes, for real. Do you realize a large percentage of med students are children of physicians?? It is not our privilege, but what we do with our privilege.
I said, indeed, that I knew a lot of med students came from doctors. Honestly, I think having physician parent is an invaluable asset, benefits med students greatly, and has a positive impact on their later medical careers, but I'm just trying to think from an adcom perspective. The conferred privilege may overshadow the strong potential.
