Before you begin work on your medical school application, we recommend that you create a brainstorm document where you will explore your formative experiences—what you thought, felt, said, and did. This brainstorm will be your touchstone for everything about this application process. It will help you discover what meaningful experiences and qualities you want to highlight in your Work and Activities, Personal Statement, and Secondary essays, and discuss during your interviews.
This brainstorm could end up being seven pages or 25—you want to be free and generous in your writing. While your brainstorm text does not need to be polished, your unfinished thoughts should be organized for greater ease when writing. Putting meaningful experiences into different "buckets" helps a lot. You might have some crossover with experiences technically fitting into two buckets or more—don't worry about that; put them in one bucket, for now, to keep things grouped. Maybe write: "This is also a leadership experience" or "Integrity/Critical Thinking" in your notes.
An important note: Eighty percent of these experiences should be from adulthood (college and beyond). Twenty percent can be from before then if they established foundational skills or led to evolutions in perspective. For example, if you taught wilderness first aid as an Eagle Scout. If your interest in medicine sprung from your prolonged childhood illness, that is relevant information.
Bucket 1: A-ha Moments: What meaningful experiences changed your mind about or expanded your perspective on something? Some could be spectacular successes, others, catastrophic failures. Have you learned from a mistake? What skills of yours did you discover in a challenging time? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? (Prepare yourself, we're going to ask those last two repeatedly.)
Bucket 2: Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving: In what meaningful experiences did you utilize critical thinking and problem-solving skills? How did you determine the best course of action? Did you approach something one way at first and then correct yourself? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel?
Bucket 3: Leadership Abilities: In what meaningful experiences did you show your leadership abilities? Did leadership come naturally to you, or did you work to get to this place? (Both things are great!) How did you support your team? Did you encourage collaboration or independence? Did you feel supported by your team? Did you experience any pushback, and how did you handle that if you did? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel?
Bucket 4: Teamwork and Collaboration: During what meaningful experiences did you work with a team or collaborate with others? Were you working with people unlike yourself? Was there a struggle for balance in the beginning? Any confusion? What did you appreciate about your team members? How did they influence and impact you and your actions? Did one or two team members step up in a way you admired? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel?
Bucket 5: Empathy and Connection: Fill this bucket. You must have multiple experiences that touch on empathy and connection somewhere in your application. In what meaningful experiences did you empathize and connect with others? What effect did you have on others? What effect did they have on you? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel?
Bucket 6: Experiences that Reinforced Your Commitment to Medicine: What meaningful experiences reinforced your commitment to studying medicine? You've probably known that you've wanted to be a doctor for some time—what let you know you were on the right track? Was it meeting a doctor you admired? Was it accomplishing something academically or in research work? While volunteering abroad? What did you think of these things at the time? How did you feel?
Bucket 7: Miscellaneous: What experiences have you had that you can't quite categorize? What else should we know about you? What do you think we don't necessarily have to know? Don’t be afraid to expose some vulnerability and use everything you’ve got. You should even include things about yourself and what you care about that you don't imagine will be a factor in an essay. You might be able to weave aspects of your personality or some fun facts into your Personal Statement, Work and Activities, or Secondaries to add some color—or something even better.
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