1. Most high school seniors are unsure about eventual career choices. What experiences have led you to consider medicine as your future profession? Please describe specifically why you have chosen to apply to the Program in Liberal Medical Education in pursuit of your career in medicine. Also, be sure to indicate your rationale on how the PLME is a "good fit" for your personal, academic, and future professional goals. (Please limit your response to this question to 500 words.)
Medicine has long been a dream of mine. It is where my interests in biology and chemistry are happily married with my affinity for social interaction and helping others. My personal battles, shadowing opportunities, and volunteering experiences have bolstered this passion.
The first time I had an asthma attack, I was only four. As I chased leaves one autumn afternoon, my throat closed and I began to choke, suffocate, and faint. Though weak and terrified, my fear vanished once I arrived in the ER and a doctor hooked me onto a vaporizer. I want to help others overcome the powerlessness that scarred me that day.
Dr. Blue, an interventional radiologist at a local hospital, showed me everything a physician should be. His confidence when he read an MRI scan and his vast knowledge about patients' conditions were as big as his smile. Similarly, cardiologist Dr. Fiengo showed me how to pass wires through a completely blocked femoral artery without injuring or alarming the patient. And even though 17 years of schooling were tough and the job is demanding, both would do it over again. These interactions have inspired me to become someone dedicated to saving lives with compassion, tenacity, and grace.
This past August, I volunteered in a Peruvian children's home filled with disabled kids. One boy, five-year-old Eloy, is stricken with cerebral palsy that impairs his legs and speech. For his weekly trip to therapy, Eloy must be hoisted up into a bus by volunteers. As we bumbled along one ride, his braced legs and bandaged head sunk into my body; in that precious moment I realized here was a child who, against all odds, was healthy and bursting with happiness thanks to the power of therapy and medicine. Each child had a story similar to Eloy's. As I grew to know them, I wanted all the more to help cure their ailments and to give them a better life.
PLME is an incredible opportunity to develop productively and expansively into a well-rounded doctor. Allowed to design my own concentration, I can fulfill a comprehensive medical curriculum and pursue broad interests. Taking unconventional pre-medical courses in the humanities, like economics and ethics of medicine, helps me become a well-rounded doctor. Additionally, PLME students delve into activities that other prospective physicians wouldn't have the luxury of doing. Things like volunteering for Breeze Against Wheeze with the Hasbro Children's Hospital and the Medicine in Action Program that give me valuable shadowing experiences with physicians, along with the opportunity to give back to the community, add breadth and depth to a doctor's background atop the vigorous academics. Furthermore, time needed to prepare for the MCATs and to apply to medical school can be reallocated to research/internship endeavors and the Whole Patient/Physician Programs. This culmination of expansive and active learning will shape me into a knowledgeable, apt, and experienced physician.
PLME fits my personal, academic, and future goals by providing an unparalleled medical education with opportunities to volunteer, to pursue liberal arts interests, and to gain valuable shadowing and patient-relations experience.
This is an excellent essay - probably almost perfect. You definitely have the skills to analyzing your own writing, so consider all of your experiences and the experiences you've written about and make sure you've fit all of the best experiences within the 500 word limit. The only one that can assure that this is your best writing is you.
Your style, tone, diction, and word choice are all amazing and you are very skilled at sharing stories without making the details sound forced or fake.
If the rest of your academic profile is as good as your writing is, you will have no problem getting accepted into the PLME.
You have a great future ahead of you. Enjoy the ride.
Kind words, Th25cc. I feel pretty confident in this essay, as I have spent a lot of time working on my application to Brown (top-choice). There is a certain point where revising any further is fruitless and perhaps even counterproductive, and I believe that I'm almost at that point. Thanks for the comments!
