Medical Admissions Essay

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Medical admissions essay will teach you how to write an effective admissions essay.

Medical Admissions Essay Categories:

Why Medicine? | How Am I Unique? | How Am I Qualified?

Why Medicine

by EssayEdge.com - The World's Premier Application Essay Editing Service

Note: The below essay was not edited by EssayEdge Editors. It appears as it was initially reviewed by admissions officers.

Because people don't usually make career decisions based on pure reason, it can be difficult to explain why you've chosen the field you have. Moreover, your basic reasons probably look a lot like everyone else's. In this section, you'll learn how to develop your ideas effectively and insightfully while emphasizing your uniqueness.

Here are a few of the common ways that students incorporate this theme:

Lifelong Interest

Medicine requires such a serious commitment that few people stumble across the idea of pursuing it late in life. It's very likely that you have always wanted to be a doctor, and that's not a fact that you should hide. But you also have to watch out for two potential problems:

1. Don't offer your point in such a clichéd, prepackaged way as to make your reader cringe. For example, you shouldn't start your essay, "I have always wanted to be a doctor" or "I've always known that medicine was my calling." Better to describe early experiences and then let the point about your early interest unfold naturally.

2. Don't rely solely on this reason and forget to justify your choice with more recent experiences.

Tell us not only why you want to be a doctor but what you have done to test your decision. Have you had some experience? Have you observed doctors?
-- University of Michigan Medical School

This applicant does state his lifelong interest in the first sentence, but with a twist: "Sometimes I like to tell people that my father knew I wanted to be a doctor long before I did, but the truth is that the idea of becoming a physician has probably been gestating within me in some form or other since an early age."

By the third sentence, however, he moves to details in support of his lifelong interest. Telling a story is the best way to guarantee that your discussion stays grounded in concrete evidence. The second paragraph provides the "test" aspect: how he confirmed his interest in medicine through direct, hands-on experience. In this paragraph he does not tell another story, but still stays focused on details by describing some of his responsibilities and naming procedures he observed.

Although your own details might make the difference between a good and great essay, you can ensure a solid result simply by avoiding the above pitfalls, as this applicant did. On the first issue, he used a specific story to make a typical idea his own personal point. On the second issue, he used his childhood fascination only to describe the roots of what eventually grew into a more mature commitment. The result is a compelling explanation of his motivation to become a doctor.

Parental Influence

Some applicants will cite their parents as reasons for their choice. Here again you have to be careful not to sound juvenile or overly simplistic. The mere fact that one or both of your parents were doctors does not explain why you would want to follow in their footsteps. Some readers might even conclude that you haven't been able to make up your own mind. The above applicant included the following disclaimer: "I idolize my father and admire his commitment and contributions, but this alone would not be enough to make me want to become a doctor myself."

Firsthand Interaction

This is also a standard theme, but potentially a very powerful one. Describing the direct impact a doctor had on your life or the life of someone close to you can be a very effective way to demonstrate what draws you to medicine.

Perhaps someone close to the applicant was very ill once or died, and the experience with that person or with his or her doctors became very significant. After having read many statements, I believe these are the sorts of experiences that make people aware of what they themselves could do in medicine. These experiences can be very powerful material for the statement.
-- School of Medicine, University of Washington

The same caveats apply, however. First, the fact that admissions officers have seen this approach many times means you have to find a unique, personal story to tell. Second, the story you recount should serve only as the original inspiration, and you still need to use recent experiences to show how you've confirmed that first recognition.

One applicant recalled the impression that doctors who treated his mother left on him. He provided useful details, including the illness that afflicted her and the specific qualities that impressed him most about the physicians. Again, the second paragraph shifts to the trial stage, emphasizing action rather than dwelling on passive response: "I also had the chance to gain some firsthand experience in the medical profession when I volunteered for over a year in the emergency room of a regional hospital." You won't necessarily have to follow the exact structure of going from inspiration to action, nor does your inspiration have to come from a dramatic experience, but the relevant details will be present in every good essay.

Joining the Fight

A twist on the "patient's perspective" approach is to describe a time when medicine failed to save or heal someone close to you. The purpose of this tactic would not be to rail against the medical profession, of course, but rather to show how a disappointing loss inspired you to join the struggle against disease and sickness.

This applicant describes the limits of the field he plans to pursue: "However, in time physical therapy became the logical focus of my attention for a number of reasons. For one, I have memories from a very young age of my grandfather in Czechoslovakia, disabled by a stroke, his problems unmitigated by any attempts at physical therapy. I will never forget the devastating consequences of this." He goes on to describe ways in which both he and his grandmother benefited from physical therapy, but by mentioning a failed recovery, he shows that he understands the scope of medicine at a mature level.

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