Tongue-in-cheek - Harvard - Medical school admissions essay tips
Hometown: Tampa, Florida, USA
Undergraduate School: Private, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Major: Mathematics with Computer Science
GPA: 5.0
MCAT: 35. PS: 12, V: 12, BS: 11.
Medical school admissions essay tips
Four years ago, I married my college sweetheart. Just over a year later, Sheldon was found without a pulse on the locker room floor at the gym. He was left in a medically induced coma with very low expectation of survival. For the next forty-eight hours, I watched over Sheldon’s blue-tinged body feeling paralyzed by the weight of uncertainty. I have always been one for plans. And about ten backup plans. None of my plans accounted for cardiac arrest. I was overwhelmed with relief when Sheldon first opened his eyes after being brought out of the coma. I was then devastated when his breathing tube was removed and his first rasping words to me were, “Thank you, Nurse Amy.” As my face fell, he grinned and said, “Just kidding, I love you, Kat.”
We celebrated his recovery and tried our best to return to normal life, yet it was clear our lives had been fundamentally changed. Until then, my intellectual and emotional pursuits had always been separate. I went into finance because the smartest and most interesting people I knew were going into the industry and I sought meaning elsewhere. I built my career at Coatue, a well-respected, Manhattan-based hedge fund. My team of five created all the internal software tools required to run a billion dollar business. I enjoyed the company of intelligent, driven peers, mentally thriving under the competence they demanded of me. Meanwhile I spent my nights and weekends on activities that fulfilled me on a more personal level. I took dance lessons. I went hiking and camping. I volunteered at an animal shelter. I kept in touch with the students that I had tutored in college, continuing to assist them in their studies remotely. When those students went on to careers of their own, I co-founded an educational startup. I prided myself on my ingenuity in finding activities that fulfilled my emotional needs while allowing me to work a job that fulfilled my intellectual needs.
This separation of career and emotional interests had always seemed natural, until I almost lost Sheldon. The story of his tongue-in-cheek coma revival made him a minor hospital celebrity. I would watch the doctors move from room to room in the ICU with heavy steps, faces full of concern. However, when they entered our room, they were transformed. They practically glowed over seeing Sheldon’s success. Doctors who had treated him, even briefly, made excuses to visit him, shake his hand and gush about how patients like him were the reason they had gone into medicine. It was inspiring and infectious to see how much joy Sheldon’s recovery brought them. Suddenly I was surrounded by people who were smart, motivated and working on interesting problems they believed in. Their work was making the world, or at least my world, a better place. During these early months, as my research into Sheldon’s heart condition took me to new intellectual and personal levels, I felt I had found a vocation.
I wanted to be meticulous and well informed about the approach I might take into medicine. To that end, I secured a computational biology research position at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. There, I began bridging the gap between two careers: applying my computational skills to the problem of personalizing medical treatment. After confirming my interest in medicine through this experience, I began a program in pre-medical studies designed for career changers at Columbia University.
Remembering the vibrancy and excellent bedside manner of the staff who had treated Sheldon, I contacted his cardiologist and secured a semi-weekly shadowing slot. Through shadowing, I have learned the basic biology of the heart and, more importantly, formed a somewhat more realistic understanding of being a physician: the pros and the cons, the fascinating cases and substantial frustration of paperwork, the gratitude of patients and the pain of failure.
Dr. Singh specializes in treating adults with congenital heart defects; many are young, like Sheldon. Each time I walk into the clinic I see Dr. Singh throw his whole mind at a patient’s problems. I find him trying to discover who a person is as much as what their symptoms are. I love that the overarching goal of “how can I make it better?” has as many social answers as chemical ones. I love that each patient is “John who just opened a coffee shop in Soho” as well as “John who just had a mitral valve repair.”
Often, these patients have struggled with the specter of premature death for their entire lives. Their resiliency has given me a framework to think about the uncertainty my family faces. Despite his dramatic recovery, Sheldon’s heart condition remains potentially fatal. Part of our treatment is accepting the things we cannot change. Part of it is enjoying the adventure of intentionally changing our lives. Part of it is cherishing the pieces of ourselves that remain unchanged: his playful teasing, our shared love of the outdoors, how I geek out over learning new things.
I have been coming back to the cardiac clinic month after month for two years. This experience, above all others, has soothed my planning mind and given me confidence that I am on the path to a career that feels exactly right: interesting, challenging and personal.
Analysis
Katherine begins by sharing a personal story of her husband’s medical case and how it impacted her. She immediately grabs the reader’s attention in her shocking opening sentences. She continues to captivate the reader in her story by writing in a way that allows the reader to connect on an emotional level and vicariously experience the shock, helplessness, and relief Katherine went through. She reflects on this experience and explains how it played a pivotal role in not only her personal life but also her professional life. She takes the reader along in how her interest in medicine initially sparked, which helps to bring her application to life and show that she is a real and relatable person. By weaving together her personal experiences and her commitment to medicine, she retells an inspiring story of how she began her pursuit of medicine, conveying a genuine passion that highlights her promise as an applicant.
Katherine also elaborates on the measures she has taken to acquire knowledge and prepare herself for a career in the medical field. In doing so, she keeps the reader interested through her narrative style while also showcasing her impressive dedication to medicine. This indicates not only that the medical field will be a great fit for her but also that she will be a great fit to the field.
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