This week on the blog we’re covering common secondary essay topics. Stay tuned for a new topic each day along with pointers on how to make the most of your response.
What disparities in health will you try to address as a medical student and physician?
A question about health disparities and inequity could be direct like this or the topics could come up in a question about your alignment with a program's mission statement. Many schools' statements tout their commitment to addressing these issues. There are plenty of health disparities to write about; explain why you're passionate about one or two and show your knowledge of them, preferably through previous experiences. Share the steps you have already taken regarding inequities and plot out the steps you plan on taking in the future.
We had a client who went to college where Black maternal healthcare was ranked the worst in the country. While this was attributable to multiple factors, physician bias certainly played a role, she wrote. After college, she participated in several unconscious bias trainings. Discussing implicit bias raised her awareness of how dangerous it is in a healthcare setting and caused her to pause and consider where beliefs she had originated. She's going to take that practice with her throughout her career. And on campus and in her future practice, she plans to organize implicit bias trainings.
What about our mission statement resonates with you? How do or will you embody it?
A version of this question might be phrased in several long-winded ways (you'll see what we mean), but this is what they are all asking. Mission alignment matters to schools. They want to know that you share their values and will be a proactive member of their community.
Schools often hit similar themes: innovation, collaboration, and servant leadership. Health equity and social justice also frequently appear in mission statements. (Some schools have a separate question related to those topics.) Even if you're not drafting this answer yet, think about experiences you've had that involve those themes and jot down some notes. Hit up your brainstorm and find the times where you utilized critical thinking. When were you a leader? How have you been involved in social justice or what's a critical topic that you are making an effort to learn more about?
If a question like this isn't in a school's Secondaries mix, you should be looking to reflect the mission statement back to the school in your other essay responses. For example, if a school especially values collegiality, you might include a story about how you collaborated on a class project in one of your answers. (This is another example of show don't tell.)
While you should be researching schools individually to learn other specifics, AAMC has a tremendously convenient document that rounds up all allopathic schools' mission statements in one place.