Garage door - Harvard - Example medical school essay
Hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Undergraduate School: Private, Duke University
Major: Neuroscience
GPA: 3.93 out of 4.0
MCAT: 34. PS: 12, V: 11, BS: 11.
Example medical school essay
Curiosity about consciousness instigated my interest in the mind from both a philosophical and biological perspective. Particularly inspiring was work by Monti and colleagues, in which they used brain imaging to both identify residual conscious awareness in vegetative patients and establish a means of communication. The complement of medicine and neuroscience alerted physicians to the patients’ conscious experience, allowing them the opportunity to better it. While enthusiastic early in college about the promise of studying the mind from the perspective of a physician, becoming confident in my fit for medicine was a gradual process.
My parents, a neonatal nurse and an OB/GYN, initially deterred me from entering medicine. I am grateful for this influence as it has helped make my decision to enter medicine informed. I understand the sacrifices required by the field through witnessing the strain on relationships that can build due to long hours cutting into valuable time with loved ones and by hearing the garage door opening at all hours of the night as my dad rushed to the hospital. The relationships cherished by my dad as he sees patients he once delivered as babies years ago, as well as my mom’s pride in the lives of the newborns she saved, are a few of the rewards for these sacrifices.
Making the decision to enter medicine for myself began with analyzing neurological case studies for a neuroanatomy course, when I learned that I enjoy the intellectual challenges physicians face. However, the problems physicians solve belong to people, not to the pages of a textbook. Time spent with hospice patients has provided a better reason to serve as a physician. As a hospice volunteer, all I can offer is a caring presence to people in the twilight of their life; a reminder that they still matter. My first patient’s dementia was so severe that I simply sat by his side for many of the visits, a hand on his arm. Yet, sitting in silence provided time to take in the photos and mementos around his room, and appreciate the meaningful life that he had lived, and continued to live. A life that mattered regardless of its condition. The patient himself made sure to not let me forget his continued significance, punctuating weeks of silent visits by suddenly singing along to a nursery rhyme from his childhood that I was playing for him. I enjoy and find fulfillment in both these exciting moments, and the more frequent quiet moments. The eagerness to spend time with these patients, when all I can give is my company, gives me confidence in the appropriateness of my motivation to serve as a physician, when I will be able to give even more.
The passing of friends from hospice highlights the limits of the medicine and procedures a physician can offer. Providing quality care involves being attentive to more than just a patient’s physical symptoms, as shown by a nurse while I was shadowing an emergency medicine physician. The doctor triaged the patients, but only the nurse was sensitive to one of the patients’ visible signs of guilt and worry. She reassured this patient that the man in the neighboring bed, the man which the patient had injured in a car crash, would be taken good care of. Interacting with people under stress calls for a perceptive approach, as I have learned organizing and leading backpacking trips in Pisgah National Forest for high school students and Duke freshmen. Nervous high schoolers required encouragement, parents concerned about bear safety demanded reassurance, and rain-soaked freshmen needed to see a smile. When visiting hospice patients, there have been times to ask questions, times to talk just for the sake of providing a reprieve from the silence, and times when it was best to embrace the quiet. Most of the people I grew to know through hospice had been robbed of the full use of their mind. Now when I use optogenetics to study the control of behaviors by neural circuits, I look forward to the data not just out of intellectual curiosity, but also because I can see how one day it may help people like those I have met through hospice regain control of their mind and actions. While my passion for research continues to grow with exposure, reinforcing my aspiration for a career in academic medicine, the value I place on patient interaction leads me to pursue an MD instead of the MD/PhD I originally considered. While progress from more limited time spent researching may be more incremental, the quality will benefit from insight gained from greater time spent with the very patients the research is intended to benefit. I want research to supplement my work as a physician, not define it.
Understanding the mind and its conscious experience has significant implications for humanity. Ultimately the goal of medicine is to minimize the painful aspects of this experience and to promote the wellbeing of the body in order to maximize the positive aspects. Progress towards understanding consciousness experience also means progress towards improving it.
Analysis
Ryan discusses the unique value he places on patients’ conscious experience of medicine, which he came to appreciate through his undergraduate studies in neuroscience. He uses this frame to exemplify three positive, personal traits.
He begins by demonstrating his commitment to the work of a physician by exhibiting his awareness and acceptance of the sacrifices that must be made, through examples such as his parents’ round-the-clock working hours. He then illustrates his “motivation to serve as a physician” by describing his experience while volunteering at the hospice where he cared for and gave company to patients; in particular, he describes the care he provided to a patient suffering from consciousness impairment. Last, he highlights his perceptiveness with his experience as an observant and accommodating leader of backpacking trips during his undergraduate career.
Throughout the essay, Ryan communicates the relevance of his qualities to patient interactions and the work of a physician, indicating that he is not only a promising medical school applicant but also a promising future physician.
From 50 Successful Harvard Medical School Essays edited by the Staff of the Harvard Crimson. Copyright (c) 2020 by the authors and reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Publishing Group