Disclaimer:
The following article was originally written in 2009 for the University of Toronto medical school admissions essay. Although the advice here is still useful for general medical school essays, since 2012, the University of Toronto medical school changed its admissions process to require the applicant write 4 Brief Personal Essays instead. Don’t fret – I have a written a new step-by-step guide to help applicants with these new 4 Brief Personal Essays.

Of the three idea the University of Toronto medical admissions committee wants you to address in your essay, I think the guideline referring to how your premedical studies have prepared you for medicine is least important. Not saying that you can neglect it (because you shouldn’t), but rather, it’s the one you should spend the least time and effort on compared to the other aspects. It’s also why this will be the shortest article in the series!

So Don’t Worry About It

The simple reason why you shouldn’t worry about this guideline too much is that good doctors can come from a variety of backgrounds, which is why medical schools have come to realize that it does not make sense to prefer certain undergraduate experiences over others, let alone certain university institutions. Everything you need to know to become a competent physician can be learned in medical school, but the question is which candidates have the best potential for medicine, and of them, who is ready at this point in time.

So don’t fret if your university background is not one of the more “popular” areas of premedical studies. Yes it’s probably easier for someone who is a kinesiology major to talk about their studies in anatomy or a biology major to describe their experience with immunology to demonstrate preparation for medicine, but don’t count yourself out if you come from something completely different, such as music.

There is more to being a doctor than simply basic science knowledge. Being able to work in teams, displaying compassion for your patients, problem solving, etc. are all important skill sets that go beyond knowledge, but are necessary for being a good physician. Some of these skills can definitely be better developed in programs other than kinesiology or biology, and if you’re in that group of applicants, then perhaps that’s something to think about.

Everyone Can Answer this Guideline

My message is simply this: no matter what your prior university studies have been, I’m sure you have learned something that will benefit you in a career for medicine. If you believe me, then the difficult part is already over – believing that you can answer this question. The next part is spending some time thinking about how anything you have learned or experienced in your premedical studies will help you in medicine.

How easy is it? Let me put it this way. In my own admissions essay, I wrote exactly two sentences about how I was attending York University for biomedical studies and how the courses I was taking are related to medicine. That is literally all I wrote for that guideline. I’m sure everyone, no matter what your university background is, can do something similar.

That’s not to say that you should only spend two sentences talking about your undergraduate studies like I did – if yours was very relevant to medicine and health care, and thus had a significant impact on your interest in medicine, then for sure, feel free to write more. For instance, perhaps you studied nursing, and thus already have a significant amount of experience in health care, then it would definitely be worth spending more time exploring this area of your life.

However, if you feel that your undergraduate experience had little impact on your interest in medicine, don’t worry about it. Do what you can, and if two sentences is all you can muster, be rest assured, that’s perfectly fine.

What’s Next

In the upcoming and final parts of the series, we will be looking at how to put our answers to these three guidelines together, and general tips for the overall essay.

Part 5 – Putting it All Together >>