The Accelerated Programs Admission Committee is interested in learning more about you. Please write an essay of no more than 750 words on why you wish to enter the health professions, including what experiences have led you to this decision and what you hope to gain from your chosen profession. Please make sure your essay is completely distinct from the one you submitted on the Common Application.
She was my age, sitting with tears in her eyes, struggling to breathe as the dermatologist injected fluid into five different parts of each hand. It hurt me to see her in pain like that, yet I didn't know if it was my place to try and calm her down. Finally, I spoke up.
Out of curiosity, I had shadowed a dermatologist in ninth grade. Later in that appointment, the girl's mother asked me where I went to medical school, and complimented me for calming down her daughter. We both laughed when she realized that I was nowhere near medical school, but it made me excited knowing that this family valued the initiative I took in comforting the girl. I felt empowered by this feeling of helping others, but found myself wanting to also be able to treat their sickness, and so began looking at the career of being a physician scientist.
With this in mind, I spent the summer of sophomore year working in an oncology lab at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and returned to the bench at Brigham and Women's Hospital junior year to explore the more hypothetical side of biology and try to understand the work 'behind the scenes'. It was an amazing experience being on the "cutting edge" of science, and I was intrigued to find that the lifelessness of collecting data from electrophoresis gels and analyzing the DNA of mice may someday be the basis of life changing vaccines for diseases. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that with successful research, entire populations can be treated.
I also spent two weeks in the Zhongshan Hospital of Shanghai this summer studying the practical application of biology through medicine. After being in operating rooms with surgeons and watching them help patients stitch by stitch, I was overwhelmed by how fine the art of surgery is, and how truly delicate life can be. It was amazing to see how surely a surgeon could remove so much of a patient and still make them better in the end.
As children, we understand that once you put a band aid over a wound, it seems to mysteriously feel better instantly regardless of whether or not the pain has actually gone away. I have always been interested in understanding and alleviating the pain that others feel; in becoming a physician and healing the wound beneath the bandage.
Everywhere I go, I see the strength in the belief that doctors are the people who will walk with you through better and worse and will believe in you when no one else will. For me, the journey I have taken so far in exploring the width and depth of the medical field is out of my hope to become that physician who will help and ask their patients to persevere, fight through, and never give up.
Please give me feedback on what you think I can change or fix, and do not be afraid to be blunt!
Awesome essay! It flows very well and answers all parts of the prompt. I cannot think of any suggestions. You seem to have covered it all! I am apllying to the same program. If you have a minute or two, would you be willing to take a look at my essay? I would be very grateful.
