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.

I want to share a secret with you. It’s something I discovered last summer, and is the reason I believe my essay was successful in the University of Toronto medical school admissions process.

It began when a friend of mine (who by coincidence, or perhaps not, is also entering UofT medicine this fall) showed me the essay of one of his friends who was accepted into UofT’s medical school last year. The content of the essay was rather unexpected as it went against the common intuition of what the essay should include. I think most applicants think that the essay should be some sort of interesting piece that simply highlights the applicant’s accomplishments and qualifications for medicine – but if anything, this essay had a different overall focus.

Without getting into the specifics of the essay, I remember reading through it, and being rather engrossed in it. And when I finally finished the essay, I had this strong feeling inside of me – the essay made me want to help him get into medical school.

It wasn’t that the applicant was a Rhodes scholar, or published in a million journals, or had a resume that blew my mind. And it’s not like he had some traumatic life changing moment that made him want to be a doctor that moved me to tears. No, nothing like that. In fact, there was nothing particularly outstanding about him on paper that would make him stand out among any other random applicant.

I mean, let’s think about it. If I read that you’re a Rhodes scholar who has been on the front page of Nature magazine, I’m sure as heck going to be really impressed and think you have the sickest resume ever. But that isn’t necessarily going to give me this strong, deep feeling that I want to do whatever possible to help you become a doctor. I’m just going to think you’ve done some crazy cool things.

However, this essay was different – in his own words, he was able to make me, the reader (and potential admissions judges) want to help him get into medical school. And if there’s someone you want to have that feeling, it’s the person deciding whether you get an interview or not.

Why is this so powerful and how was his essay able to make me feel this way?

The fact is that, right now, there are too many qualified applicants for medical school spots. As a result, the admissions committee probably receives a lot of essays that present very qualified applicants – and I’m sure many of these applicants would make good doctors. But with so many applicants who could be “good, competent doctors”, how do you sift through them even further?

Think about it from the admissions committee’s perspective. Training a medical student involves making a significant investment of time and money. So they want to pick students who they think will be good long term investments.

The reason this person’s essay was so powerful was because he was able to demonstrate to the reader that he would go above and beyond as a physician – that he is seriously interested in being the best physician he could be for the long haul. He showed that he has put serious, mature thought into being a doctor, and that he wasn’t applying just for the heck of it. He demonstrated that it really does make sense for him to be a doctor.

When there is an abundance of talent and impressive resumes, “stats” alone aren’t good enough. And from the perspective of medical schools and health care, perhaps that’s rightly so. They want (and as patients, wouldn’t you?) candidates who won’t just be competent at their jobs, but will be dedicated day after day for the unforeseeable future – because dedicated individuals are more likely to make significant impacts in health care and in the community. An essay just focusing on accomplishments and qualifications, while impressive, isn’t enough to create that special feeling in the reader.

And while you might very well be that serious, long-term dedicated individual, as I’ve mentioned countless times before, no one knows that unless you tell them – and the same goes for the telling the admissions committee in your essay.

So how do we show this serious, long term interest and dedication?

Of course, we need to present these ideas in a structured manner in the context of the essay. The UofT admissions committee helps us out by presenting three items they want us to think about and answer within the 1000 word essay. It’s amazing not only how often applicants neglect the guidelines (either absentmindedly, or as if thinking they know better than to answer the actual questions the admissions committee want answered), or don’t spend enough time thinking deeply about those items and why they might be asked. These guidelines are provided for a reason. Without further adieu, here they are:

1. As a general guideline, the statement should address and discuss the applicant’s personal background, including particular interests and extracurricular experiences.
2. Candidates should outline their choice of, and preparation for, a career in medicine.
3. Applicants should also describe their premedical studies, expanding on what they have chosen to pursue and how this has prepared them for their future, including a career in medicine.

In the next three parts of this series, we will analyze each of these questions in terms of what they really mean, figure out why the admissions committee want to know about them, and therefore, what we need to be presenting in the essay. Moreover, we will study how we should be answering these questions in the context of the overarching concept of showing our long term dedication, and thus, making the reader want to help us become physicians.

Part 2: Background, Interests, and Experiences >>