I am applying for a masters degree program(MPH) in Global health, and i am having a little difficulty with essay. I am a foreign medical grad, and i worked as a medical officer in a missionary hospital for 7 years before comming to the US in 2004. I have not written an admission essay before, i need some pointers.
I looked up application essay and found this helpful website: quintcareers.com/college_application_essay.html
When you have written an essay, be sure to post it here so we can help you! (besides, I'd love to hear more about your missionary hospital experience! :} ) Best of luck!
Show them your serious and purposeful attitude. Explain your plan in a succinct but specific way. Look at other admissions essays and see what ideas arise in your mind.
The most important advice, in my opinion, is to write something tailored to the school you are sending it to. You show how serious you are when you explain you plan. What is your plan now?
Whatever your plan is, you have a solid background with those 7 years of service. I think you should present yourself as a single-minded, idealistic professionals with high aspirations. I think that because of your impressive real-world experience, you will do well to write the essay as a matter of course, as if this specific school is a component in your well-thought out plan.
Is there a prompt or question for the essay you are supposed to write?
Hi guys
Kevin and Saira thank you for responding to my post.
I have pested my first draft below. Please feel free to comment and edit it for me.
Draft Admission Essay
The world is closest to a viral pandemic now than at any other time since "Hong Kong influenza" in 1968. Swine flu epidemics in Mexico, an avian flu epidemic in Asia are all serious public health threats in the US and Globally. As the world becomes a global community so also are the public health challenges
Communicable diseases like Malaria, Tuberculosis, Meningitis, HIV/AIDS, STIs, Salmonella/Shigella, intestinal parasites, none communicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes, cancers and obesity-related conditions and none disease health issues like poverty, malnutrition, infant and maternal morbidity and mortality and road safety, are global health challenges of the 21st century
There is the need now more than ever to treat public health concerns in any country as a global health concern and to devise an integrated coordinated worldwide approach to dealing with such concerns. This is why global health as a profession is the future of public health and the reason I want to be a global health professional
For seven years, I worked as a Medical officer in rural Nigeria, with first hand knowledge and exposure to the most common and destructive of these conditions.
I grew up in a rural community in eastern Nigeria, amidst poverty and ailments from preventable causes, spread from the environment, from person to person, and those linked to the foods we ate and the water we drank.
My first personal exposure to food borne infection was at the age of seven when I almost died from gastroenteritis. Though the causative agent was never determined, it took the lives of some other less fortunate kids in my village. Malaria remains a major cause of death in my local community while illnesses like tuberculosis tetanus measles and a host of other preventable disease remain prevalent and on the rise.
My desire to make a positive impact in health and healthcare delivery in my community informed my decision to pursue a medical education. I received my medical Diploma from the University of Calabar in Nigeria.
Upon graduation in 1998, I did one-year rotating internship with Abia state University Teaching Hospital Aba and one year of National service, working with government agencies in developing and implementing preventive health measures in rural Communities in Ekiti State in Nigeria in the areas of childhood immunization maternal and child health and communicable disease prevention.
From March 2000 to August 2004, I worked first at The Nigerian Christian hospital Onicha Ngwa Abia State as a medical officer and thereafter at Palmer memorial hospital Ikot Usen Akwa Ibom State as the Chief medical Officer. Both hospitals are rural missionary hospitals in Eastern Nigeria.
I had very busy maternal and child health clinics and started a health promotion and disease prevention out reach programs to surrounding communities teaching basic hygiene, water treatment, safe food preparation and healthy food choices.
We started a mosquito net program and distributed insectiticide-impregnated mosquito nets to needy families. This effort was supported by funds from the international health care foundation, a medical missionary foundation based in Searcy Arkansas.
We adopted and implemented the National Program on immunization, and conducted community surveys on the utilization of immunization services
I had the privilege of teaching medical and nursing students including some nursing students from Harding University School of Nursing in Searcy Arkansas, on rural rotations to these hospitals.
My professional and personal exposure to public health, my believe in preventive medicine as the future of health care and in global approach to public health informed my decision to pursue a career in public health and especially global health.
A master's degree in global health will provide a springboard to advancing my career objectives.
Why Loma Linda? The General definition of health is "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity". The definition of health to which I subscribe is "a state of complete physical, Spiritual, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity".
In my years of medical practice, I have always viewed spiritual health as an integral part of overall health. The mission statement of Loma Linda University "To participate in Jesus Christ's ministry "to make man whole" by bringing health, healing, wholeness, and hope to humanity through education, health care, and research" is a source of Hope and encouragement to me as a Christian in the medical profession.
On a personal note, I am married with two children and I am a reservist with the US army. I love to run, play gulf and tennis. I am active in my church community and a practicing Christian
It will be my honored to join your academic community, and I plan to add one more record of academic and professional excellence to your already esteemed record
The world is closer to a viral pandemic now than at any other ...
non-communicable
...type two diabetes, cancers and obesity-related conditions and none disease other health issues like...
It would be great to build these ideas into a well-structured essay. As it is now, it is like a list of ideas. I think it is important to use a topic sentence for each paragraph, and make each paragraph contain three or four sentences. Your history is impressive!!
