Challenge Essay Idea - Seeking Advice

[hopefullydoc117]

Hi all,

I am usually a lurker, but seeking some thoughts on the personal/professional challenge essay. I am confused between these three options:

1) Immigrated to the U.S. right before college and got accepted to an elite school. Once in college, struggled with spoken English a lot, especially a heavy accent - to the extent that I would be afraid at speaking in dorm socials or classes. Emotionally struggled with self-doubt. Got poor grades during freshman year.

Practiced English, put myself out there, started volunteering with local communities to get to know the city, got over the fear and eventually up performing well academically, secured leadership roles in clubs, got service awards,

I did mention the English issue briefly in my personal statement (1-2 lines), and have been elaborating on this in "any gaps (educational or experiences), discrepancies in academic history, institutional actions, etc." question. It is also addressed in my committee letter.

2) Injured my knee and back during my post-bacc program. I was working part-time and living independently and did not have medical insurance at that time. I had to be innovative to find free clinics, manage competing responsibilities, dealing with accessibility office at work and school. It was a really humbling experience because I experienced a lot of self-doubt but in the end performed well in classes, got an award for work and improved discipline.

3) In my 1st job after college, I helped launch a new department. It was the director and me working for about 10 months before we hired more staff. I had to set out policies, procedures on how to manage projects. We were based off of a large public hospital and a lot fo the employees were not amenable to change. I learned a lot on how to deal with conflicting opinions tactfully and build relationships to get work done. Time was crucial because a lot of funding had a tight start-up period and if we din't get all the processed in place we would have lost funding --> which would heave been a disservice to the patents.

Any thoughts, critiques are welcome. Thank you!

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[vrazzles]

3>1>2

I think 3 in particular shows leadership, organizational ability, and tenacity. If you have already mentioned your struggles with English elsewhere, there is no need to repeat it in adversity essays.

 

[Goro]

3>1>2

I think 3 in particular shows leadership, organizational ability, and tenacity. If you have already mentioned your struggles with English elsewhere, there is no need to repeat it in adversity essays.

I agree!!!

 

[Catalystik]

Hi all,

I am usually a lurker, but seeking some thoughts on the personal/professional challenge essay. I am confused between these three options:

1) Immigrated to the U.S. right before college and got accepted to an elite school. Once in college, struggled with spoken English a lot, especially a heavy accent - to the extent that I would be afraid at speaking in dorm socials or classes. Emotionally struggled with self-doubt. Got poor grades during freshman year.

Practiced English, put myself out there, started volunteering with local communities to get to know the city, got over the fear and eventually up performing well academically, secured leadership roles in clubs, got service awards,

I did mention the English issue briefly in my personal statement (1-2 lines), and have been elaborating on this in "any gaps (educational or experiences), discrepancies in academic history, institutional actions, etc." question. It is also addressed in my committee letter.

2) Injured my knee and back during my post-bacc program. I was working part-time and living independently and did not have medical insurance at that time. I had to be innovative to find free clinics, manage competing responsibilities, dealing with accessibility office at work and school. It was a really humbling experience because I experienced a lot of self-doubt but in the end performed well in classes, got an award for work and improved discipline.

3) In my 1st job after college, I helped launch a new department. It was the director and me working for about 10 months before we hired more staff. I had to set out policies, procedures on how to manage projects. We were based off of a large public hospital and a lot fo the employees were not amenable to change. I learned a lot on how to deal with conflicting opinions tactfully and build relationships to get work done. Time was crucial because a lot of funding had a tight start-up period and if we din't get all the processed in place we would have lost funding --> which would heave been a disservice to the patents.

Any thoughts, critiques are welcome. Thank you!

I like #2 because you've experienced the problem of healthcare disparity in our society, but you strategized to get around the problem of having no health insurance, as well as dealt with mobility issues which face many folks every day of their lives. #3 gives you a chance to blow your own horn on leadership and teamwork, but #2 gives you a gateway to identifying with problems many of your future resource-impaired patients will have. Which you pick depends on how you want to "brand" yourself.

 

[DokterMom]

I think they're all potentially good topics, and elements that should make it into your application somehow. Different schools will have different secondary prompts and some of these topics will flow more naturally into some prompts than others. Overcoming a challenge is one common prompt as is diversity and or leadership. Try to find a way to weave each of these examples into each school's package somehow.

#3 spins easily into challenge or leadership. #2 can spin to challenge or diversity -- your perspective of needing to find free care is not the norm for the mainly privileged med school applicant pool. # 1 spins well for challenge, diversity or courage --

 

[hopefullydoc117]

Thank you!