personal statement medical school

Sample Admission Essay for Medical School

It is almost time that the expected guests will be starting to arrive, actually I’ve got just an hour more and the doorbell will be kept busy, but I am still busy chopping, sautéing, simmering and boiling things in the kitchen. Cooking is never an easy task as my burn marks would attest to it. My guests, with some few exceptions, probably do not have the slightest idea how much effort has been spent for the meal served upon them, but for every smile and accolade that comes out of their faces as they taste and bite their first chew is the ultimate reward. There is no substitute to the warm camaraderie and cheerfulness that has invaded my dining table, especially that the savory meal is a product of my own efforts.

When it comes to hosting guests, I would always ensure that my efforts to make them feel relaxed and comfortable are not falling short, and I want to have this done without appearing exhausted. My philosophy is that there is beauty when every fine detail is precisely worked out. I observed that even the minutest thing can ruin a work of art, and a single detail missed could mean a disaster or reduce perfection into simply an average achievement. Beauty and precision are two values I carry as I walked through this life, whether it is cooking or academics. Such values serve as a motivation that is driving me towards a career in medicine.

I am lucky to grow up in a family whose great members are several doctors; one of them is my father, Dr. ____________, who passed away while I am pursuing a college degree. My father, a pediatrician, holds the biggest influence in me. He is a paradigm of compassion, selflessness and wisdom, qualities that makes a true blue doctor who can afford to serve for a lifetime. His decades to untiring service to his fellowmen awarded him an exceptional peace with himself, and I have seen that in his eyes before he bowed down accepting defeat in his battle against _____ disease. To emulate his career, I know I can only strive and hope, my journey starts with training myself at the best school that shaped my father’s life, that is his alma mater, _____________ school of medicine.

I have seriously taken my undergraduate course. My grades have been high above average points, proof that I have taken my studies with the best effort I’ve got. I must admit I am not a genius who just skates in through the classroom to earn A’s without exerting any hard effort. But there is price for getting those high grades, most of which are sleep deprivation and missing several once-in-a-lifetime social events. I am hopeful that I can continue this intensity as I pursue my study in medicine, and my vow is to gather every bit of information from the classroom and books for the benefit of my future patients. Having labored to accomplish and publish my undergraduate research, I already experienced how a work moving towards a great science discovery has been most rewarding. My inclination in research would surely take a lot of my time as a future medical doctor.

Being a good host is a role that every doctor must play. Your patients may not know how much effort you have spent to be able to give the best medicine to cure an ailment. A good doctor does not brag about how, as a host, the good meal was cooked. A good doctor will know how his patients appreciate the quality and good spirited service they enjoyed by the smiles in their faces, proving they have felt the relief they wanted. I have been a host who tried such efforts, and I know I will always be a good one when I become a doctor.

Photo Credit : merfam

As long as learning continues, life will remain interesting and new opportunities keep surfacing. My passion for learning keep on expanding my horizons, and I soon discovered myself with a plan to come back to school at an age wherein most adults are concerned about raising money to send their child to college, not themselves.

Our families provide the support most of us depend on. As the most basic unit of society, the family is what all of us cherish above all other things. My wife and my daughter, and also a part of my extended family, became my motivation to pursue this plan. I have seen how family members positively impacted on the patients at the hospice where I work, and this drove me to see education to become a full-pledged family nurse.

Every patient I serve in the hospice is not just another individual that I need to take care of. I see the whole family as my customer in this career. The sickness of one member maybe caused by a sickness of another member, and as such, one person affects the entire family. Our families are integral to our personal well being – a realization that seeped deep in my consciousness, and here I am now, planning to take a career that would make me a reliable health care practitioner that an entire family can depend on.

The field of health care has drawn my interest, not only because of my work in the hospice but due to my unforgettable experience caring for my mother who succumbed to a fatal disease. When my mother is being taken care in a hospice, I saw some outstanding care givers who performed their job with exceptional dedication and commitment. But some are simply not drawing me any inspiration. For a person to enter this job, the right motivation must be there to be so that the sufferings of many families may be eased. I am glad that so far, I have done that in my career.

And as I get to face the prospect of returning to school at the age of 40, the benefits of pursuing my specific career path is very clear. My foundation and experience were shaped by working in a related field, where precious lessons were drawn up. While working in a hospice was rewarding in many ways, I am convinced that serving the less fortunate members of my community is a lot more fulfilling when I take the path of family nursing practice. Many remote areas of Kansas do not have a physician, and a family nursing practitioner fills in the gap. They serve the entire population as the primary health care giver, where patients suffering from varied ailments are attended to regardless of age and gender. Such as responsibility is awesome, and I am willing to rest such load upon my shoulders and strive hard to live that up everyday if given the opportunity.

The importance of continually educating myself is vital to my status as a returning student. I would not see this as an end in my pursuit of higher educational pursuit at _____ University but I would rest on it as a solid foundation to continuously build my education. In a fast changing environment like the medical field, the quality of service depends on how a practitioner stays on top of emerging trends. I have felt the urge of embarking in this new journey to get nearer my life’s goal. My scholastic record gives me confidence that the _____ program will satisfy my expectations, and may even surpass all my prior academic success. I expect that my teenage daughter will be inspired to discover that a person is never too old to achieve new and higher career goals.

Photo Credit : Tracy O

The day I decided to become a doctor was the Christmas when I received my first doll… a Doctor Barbie doll. It was a pediatrician Barbie doll that is equipped with her very own built-in stethoscope that exudes a “lub-dup” sound every time you press the little button on the center. I liked the “lub-dup” sound that I heard from Barbie’s stethoscope so I told myself, “I want to be like her”.

I spent the rest of my childhood pretending I was a doctor every chance I get. I gave self-prescriptions of “an apple a day keeps my whining away” to hoard fruits from our fridge and I perform make-believe treatment procedures to “cure” my brother’s fever. I even tried to inject a home-made syringe to my little sister’s arms but I failed miserably.

As I grew up, I realized that being a doctor is not as easy as making doodles on prescription notes. I learned that I have to memorize inch-thick textbooks and operate months-old cadavers to get pass medical school and that I have to forget the luxury of sleeping to survive medical internship. I tried to absorb all those information and then I asked myself why I want to be a doctor. Do I want to be a doctor just because I want to look glamorous in a lab gown like Barbie or because I want to inject home-made syringes on my sister’s arms?

Most applicants share the same answer of wanting “to help people” every time they are asked why they chose to pursue a career in medicine but I have reasons other than that. Helping people is something that all of us should do regardless of whether we are medical practitioners or not. The reason why I still want to become a doctor is because I know that I have the ability to heal people both physically and emotionally. I will not be contented with just a successful heart surgery. A great doctor, for me, is one who knows how to heal patients from the inside. I want to have that opportunity to help people have another shot at life. I like to make them laugh and feel good about themselves.

I have done my research on the academic system of this school and I was really impressed by the curriculum. Conceptualizing a curriculum that features balance between the theoretical and practical aspects of medicine, I think, is simply amazing. The main reason why I applied for a slot in this medical school is because I think this will give me the best opportunity to improve my education. I’m determined to be a doctor and unlike Barbie, I’m willing to go through all the obstacles on the way to an “M.D.”.

Photo Credit : Biology Big Brother