Prompt by scholarship committee about my goals for the future

Briefly describe your short-term and long-term goals related to your career (limit 300)

My research goals - the foundation for my urology career

Over the course of my first year in medical school, I have learned a great deal about the various fields within medicine. However, the field of urology in particular, has really fascinated me. With its advanced robotic procedures and unique pathology, urology is a field that offers physicians the chance to be at the forefront of medical innovation, while also helping patients deal with complex problems like prostate cancer and more sensitive issues like male infertility. Collectively, experiences like shadowing urologists and working on urology projects, have guided me to a career in urology. Specifically, as someone with an interest in sexual health (SH), I hope to pursue a fellowship in Andrology and eventually work in an academic hospital where I can practice urology, conduct research, and teach students. In order to achieve my end goal of becoming an academic urologist, I have short-term goals, which will help me to continue to explore the field and refine my abilities as a clinician, researcher, and SH education advocate. Currently, as a leader for a men's clinic, I have been working on developing a SH questionnaire, which will help medical students take more thorough sexual histories, so that they can provide effective SH interventions. Through the process of setting up this initiative, I also realized how little SH education the medical school curriculum emphasizes. To combat this, I have been working on a SH elective course that will bring in a variety of SH professionals, who will speak about topics ranging from STIs to working with the LGBTQA community. Finally, I am also researching the genetic mechanisms underlying prostate cancer and novel ways to treat erectile dysfunction, so that I better understand these conditions and the scientific method. My research goals, like my clinical and SH education goals, will be the foundation for my urology career.

You are saying a lot of things of interest in your essay but none of these responses directly respond to the question of your short and long term career goals. The prompt is asking for definitive plans. For example, your short term goal is to become an academic urologist. Focus the first part of your essay on explaining how you hope to make that happen. Your long term career goal is to create a breakthrough treatment or single diagnosis system for numerous urology problems. Explain how your next 5 years as a student will be focused on researching and developing that system. Your essay keeps speaking of the past experiences, what you hope to learn, what your civic activities are, and all of these are not part and parcel of the expected response. Just because you mention the keywords a few times in the essay does not mean that you responded properly to the question. You need to rethink what your academic and / or professional short and long term goals actually are in a definitive manner then come up with a new essay response.