Medical School Essay
Congratulations on your decision to apply for admission to medical school. The fact that you have the courage to attempt such an exhausting and intense undertaking as getting a degree in medicine says a lot about you, and sets you apart from the vast majority of your peers. Unfortunately, courage and determination, while important, are not enough to get you into medical school. The competition for admission to medical school is fierce, and gets worse every year. It goes without saying that you’ve achieved top notch grades in college as well as an outstanding score on the MCAT. But so have the tens of thousands of other prospective medical students whom you’ll be competing against for a slot in a medical school first year class. You’ll need to set yourself apart and stand out from this highly qualified crowd. At this stage of the process, your best chance of doing this is with a very strong essay. Picking and choosing the best medical school applicants when so many of them are so well qualified is not an easy task. When everyone has a high GPA, a high score on the MCAT, excellent recommendations, etc., the admissions committee must rely on the essay to distinguish the best from the very, very good. Of course, they’ll be looking for the obvious-strong writing and grammar skills, good style, a rich vocabulary. But more importantly, they’ll also be looking for that personal factor, that unique quality or qualities you possess which will lead them to believe you’ll do well in medical school, and that you’ll make a caring, qualified doctor.
They’ll be looking for qualities like compassion, empathy, integrity, commitment to principles, etc. And it won’t be enough to simply state that you have those qualities. You’ll need to write an essay that conveys these things without putting them into so many words. The best way to do that is to write a story that relates in some way to your decision to become a doctor. A story about something that...