Admissions Essay: I Want To Attend Medical School

Throughout our lives, we make choices and decisions that change our lives and others in positive and/or negative ways. It is these decisions that determine how we will be remembered, our legacy. When I graduate high school, I want to be remembered by the qualities that define me as a person and the good I’ve done for others. Throughout the years, I’ve been often been described by my family and friends as bold, confident, outgoing, and hardworking. Not only are these characteristics important to me, but they are important to my family, as they want to leave a legacy in the name of our family. The qualities I have exhibited are the same qualities past family members have shown and are remembered for. Through always putting out my best effort when it comes to work and school, I have shown my dedication and discipline. Through doing what I can to help others, I have displayed my commitment to world peace, the betterment of the world as a whole, and the yearning to make a difference in someone’s life other than my

While reading Ken Bain’s book “What the Best College Students Do” of the five different types of students he describes, I feel like I fall under the label of one having mediocre grades but achieving success. I make good grades, however I do not necessarily believe my grades always reflect my hard work, determination and effort put in, similar to his theory on false hope in standardized testing. Throughout my school career, I have consistently made A and B grades. I can remember only one C grade, which was a quarter grade, and very disappointing, but a lesson learned. At the same time though, and as Bain helped me realize through his text, grades are not everything and making a C is not something that is going to kill me; there is simply more to school than a letter grade. In fact he points out through most of the 1800s schools only used two grades, pass or fail. As seen nowadays, schools have since adopted the letter grade system.

My difficult courses has taught me to always give my best effort no matter how hard the task at hand is. I have taken three advanced placement classes and four honors classes. Taking on these courses I sacrifice leisure time to study. I study between two to three hours a night for these classes so I can do my best. This is exemplified with me getting all A’s in my classes last semester. The monumental lesson I learned from my course load is to

She passed away, prematurely, when I was 19. After her departure, I was at a crossroads: applying to medical school is a lofty goal for anyone, let alone a broke African Nova Scotian who spent the first half of his life living in public housing. I began to reevaluate my position. I come from a low-income, working class family who wanted more for me; medicine could provide an opportuntiy for a more fulfilling life than they had. By pursuing a career in medicine, was I really demonstrating my own values or

A special attribute that sets me apart is my tendency to work hard. I constantly try to do my best in everything that I do. Throughout high school, I’ve always set a high standard for myself by taking rigorous classes, joining sports and clubs, and maintaining a high GPA. Even if certain classes didn’t have any relation to nursing, club meetings were the day before a large exam, or tennis practice was especially grueling, I still worked hard and put in as much effort as I could. With this type of attitude, I was able to maintain Distinguished Honor Roll and a cumulative 4.08 GPA throughout my high school career. I chose to maintain this attitude during senior year instead of taking it easy, as I was able to gain knowledge and experience that

Journal- When I was 9 years old, my Aunt Jennifer died of breast cancer. I remember my mother telling me the news while she was braiding my hair for my brother’s football game. I hadn’t met her many times but we had gone to see her a

If someone told me just five years ago when I was in high school that I would be going to one of the best colleges in New Jersey and taking classes in an effort to go to medical school, I would've said they were crazy. In fact, I'm not, nor have I ever been the student with a 4.0 GPA or near perfect standardized test scores. As a future candidate to medical school, I feel that this Research Associates Program will aid in my journey to becoming a doctor, by virtue of working with other people, interacting with patients, gathering data, and understanding how to accurately obtain valuable data.

“Do you have any history of heart disease?” the cardiologist asked my grandma at her first appointment. “No,” she replied. Fortunately my mom quickly interjected. “Mama you have hypertension!” I could not believe it. My grandma sincerely did not know that her high blood pressure was heart disease. Her and her friends almost treat it as a right of passage. Just as they discuss who’s next to retire or have great grandchildren, they discuss who’s next to get high blood pressure. On her 75th birthday two of my grandma’s friends approached the table where I was serving marble cake. When it was their turn to be served, one of the women said, “Now we’re not supposed to be eating this because of our “sugar,” but give us a both a small piece.” The

In my early childhood my family members probed about my future profession by asking, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” A doctor was not my initial reply. In fact, I remember my parents saying to their inquiry, “Well, we know Monee will not be a doctor.” As a child, I had fears of both blood and hospitals. I remember clinging tightly to my parents as we visited my aunt in the hospital, who unbeknownst to me was recovering from a hysterectomy. I assumed that she had underwent a leg amputation and remained fearful of her even as she walked us down the hallway. What an imagination! However, it was an introduction to a new neighbor, Dr. Melanye Maclin, in adolescence that motivated me to explore my love of science and exposed me to the multifaceted field of medicine through hearing about her patient cases and research. I enrolled in her alma mater as an undergraduate and excelled at biology and chemistry while pursuing research interests of my own; always with the focus of matriculating into medical school.

Most people inherit the same hair or eye color from their parents; however, I’ve acquired something more: passion to make lives better and tenacity without the cost of my integrity. By entering the medical field, I want to make an impact in people's lives. I want to see the change the people undergoes from when I first see them to the last the last time I see them. Despite the hardships in my parents lives, my parents did their best to raise and instill good morals within me.

Today was my last day of serving as a medical apprentice. I woke up and had picked fruit from my courtyard garden to keep me energized for today’s events. I strolled through the agora (marketplace) on my way to the Academy of Plato when I came across three sickly children. As a healer, I had the greatest urge to examine and most of all soothe the children of their pain. However, time did not allow it, so instead I purchased a few loafs of bread, with the loose drachmas I had in my pocket. It is quite tragic that half the children in Athens die before they reach ten years of age. The look of gratitude on their faces reminded me of the reason I aspire to become a doctor. It is my passion to heal the wounded, cure the sick, and discover new treatments. The agora was bustling with people, I saw vendors,

Thank you so much for accepting to write the letter of recommendation for my medical school application.

Ever since I developed an understanding of the concept of ‘The World’ as we know it, I have been fascinated by the way it worked and how we all played our parts in it. This is something that has always pushed me towards thinking that I should give back to mankind, and consequently the world, in a better way- something that the medical profession allowed me to do. While the complexity of biology and the curiosity of ‘what makes us’ has always been there, it has been the desire for wanting to give back to the world which has kept me going towards this all the while.

Only the beginning of junior year, I was afraid to continue the class. I was afraid I was going to flunk out. The class carried on as I sat there day after day with the thought of failing on my mind. However, that only made me even more determined to get a higher grade on the next test. I could not let a bad grade eat me up and demolish my desire to succeed. Later when the second test was passed back, I looked at it, flashed a smile, and flipped through it, noticing only a few minor mistakes. Returning to the front page, I stared at that 92% until the end of class.

Throughout elementary and middle school, I was the star child, earning the honor roll each report card and receiving the highest reading points by reading challenging chapter books. When time came for high school, I was underprepared and shortsighted by what was expected of me. I decided to take on multiple honors/Pre AP courses but due to the lack of information my parents and I had, we thought I would succeed just as I had done in the past. Unfortunately, I encountered many struggles and setbacks in my first year and I was not performing up to par. I stayed up late nights, working hard just to pass my classes but to my dismay, I failed the first semester of Pre AP Biology. Without the proper information on how to develop study skills and guidance as to what challenges come with taking multiple honors/Pre AP courses, I was lost. Regardless of how long I studied, I still did not perform as well as I hoped. After two years of attending that