Tackling the diversity essay for your secondaries on your medical school applications can be a bit intimidating. It’s easy to overthink it and cause yourself a ton of unnecessary stress.
While the diversity essay gives you the opportunity to showcase your unique perspective and experiences, it can also feel like a tricky tightrope walk of wanting to represent yourself authentically without falling into stereotypes or clichés.
However, having been in your shoes, I’m here to tell you that you can easily nail it if you know how! The 2-step strategy I used when applying to medical school will help you approach it with confidence and clarity. You’ll be able to craft a compelling and genuine essay that highlights what makes you stand out.
This post is all about diversity essay for medical school.
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Ultimate Tips in Writing Diversity Essay For Medical School Applications
What’s the Diversity Essay for Medical School?
Medical school secondary applications often provide a diversity essay prompt. It’s a place to share with your prospective medical school how your unique background, experiences, and perspectives can contribute to the school’s diverse and inclusive community.
Similar to your adversity essay, this essay is your chance to show the admissions committee who you are beyond your academic achievements and test scores. You get to talk about your cultural background, personal challenges you’ve overcome, your experiences with diversity and inclusion, and how these have shaped you into the future doctor you aspire to be.
What Medical Schools Want to Know From Your Diversity Essay
Admissions committees prioritize candidates with different perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. Adding a diversity essay to your application shows them how your unique story can contribute to the diverse community they’re trying to build in their med school.
If you take a peek at different medical school websites, you’ll see that words like “diversity” pop up a lot in their mission statements. That’s because they want future doctors who can connect with all kinds of patients and bring fresh ideas to the medical field.
Most schools have separate diversity statements to show just how serious they are about welcoming students from all walks of life – different races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, and more. Plus, they’re also open to non-traditional applicants, such as those coming from non-science backgrounds.
How to Write a Diversity Essay When You’re White
I recently had a fellow pre-med student reach out to me and say, “Hey, I’m a white female, and I’m not bilingual. How can I tackle the diversity question?”
If you’re wondering the same thing, know that diversity isn’t a secret code solely reserved for underrepresented groups. Absolutely, applicants from minority backgrounds are definitely seen as adding to the diverse tapestry of medical schools. But we’re all unique with our own stories, and that’s where the magic lies.
Diversity is more than being from a specific background—it’s about the richness of your experiences and how they shape your perspective. So, if you’re struggling to figure out what makes you diverse, dig deep into your own journey. My strategy will help you with that!
2-Step Strategy for Approaching the Diversity Essay
Skip the writer’s block because I have a simple strategy that will make tackling this essay a whole lot easier. This approach will help streamline the process, save you time, and make sure you stay focused to highlight your strengths and uniqueness.
Step 1: Think of All the Ways You Are Diverse
Of course, there’s ethnicity, culture, speaking multiple languages, and more. But there are tons of other ways you can bring diversity to the table.
Here are some examples that may apply to you.
- Being someone who often “thinks outside the box”
- Having a major that isn’t related to science
- Being a non-traditional applicant (especially if you took more than two gap years!)
- Swapping careers to pursue medicine
- Navigating life with a disability
- Being part of any historically underrepresented group
- Coming from a unique family
- Experiencing a different type of education, such as homeschooling
- Embracing the challenges of being an older student
- Having a military experience background
- Balancing parenting and pursuing your professional goals
- Facing tough times due to your socioeconomic background
Step 2: Use the Same 1-2 Stories for Tons of Prompts
Diversity essay prompts can come at you from all angles. But, pro tip: you can use the same one or two stories and adapt them for most prompts. Simply pick your top two themes of what makes you diverse, craft a noteworthy story around each one, and – bam, you have what you need!
Personally, I had two standout stories that I kept tweaking to fit whatever prompt came my way. I either talked about growing up biracial or finding creative solutions when I was president of the equestrian team. Afterwards, I played around with the length, made sure to hit the stated character limit, and I was all set.
Diversity Essay Example Prompts
Secondary essay prompts on diversity often ask about different aspects of your identity that contribute to your unique perspective and how you would add to the diversity of the medical school. It’s a chance for you to share what makes you, well, you!
Here are several examples of the type of diversity prompts that you’ll likely encounter when applying to medical school.
- How will your background and experiences shape your journey as a future physician and enrich our school community?
- In what ways do your unique attributes, whether that’s your cultural background, life experiences, or work history, bring diversity to our medical school family?
- Do you see yourself as someone who can contribute to the diverse tapestry of the student body?
- Talk about a moment that expanded your perspective or helped you understand different viewpoints, and what you took away from it.
- Reflect on a time when you learned from individuals or a community that was different from your own.
- How will your background and experiences align with the values of our institution and shape your future as a healer?
My Diversity Essay Examples
These are the exact two essays I reused for many diversity prompts, such as the following examples.
- How can you contribute to our diversity and inclusion mission statement?
- Ohio State diversity of thought
- Interacting effectively with people from diverse backgrounds
- Explain a time you interacted with people different from you
- How will your unique attributes add to the diversity of the school community?
Example 1
Prompt: What perspectives or experiences do you bring that would enrich the class?
My mother is Caucasian and my father is African American. Growing up biracial, I constantly felt like I did not belong. My hometown in Ohio lacked diversity; I could often count on being the only minority in my school classes.
For a long time, I never even spoke about race or the color of my skin. When I heard people talking about anything along those lines, I avoided the conversation or pretended like I was not listening. These feelings caused me to be shy and confused about a large part of what made me, “me”. When I began college things slowly started to change. I was still shy talking about race and discussing my skin color, but as each year passed the shyness faded.
Today, I have accepted my light brown skin and no longer think about whether I am the only biracial person in the room. As I continue to grow as a person, I hope to become someone who positively impacts those struggling on their own journey to acceptance and who makes others feel comfortable to be themselves around me.
This personal experience is what I believe I can bring to enrich the class. I would love to have open conversations with my future classmates about the perspectives I have regarding race and implicit bias. Additionally, I want to learn about my classmate’s diverse experiences so I can develop into a physician who is culturally competent.
Example 2
Prompt: How will your unique attributes add to the diversity of the school community?
I believe many of my unique attributes are a result of the lessons learned as an equestrian. I started riding in the 3rd grade and have experienced both the highs and lows of working towards lofty goals. When I was younger, I was happy when I won and irrationally upset if I did not.
By high school, I had learned how to handle failure more gracefully. For instance, my biggest goal during my four years on the equestrian team was to qualify for Regionals. During my senior year at our last show of the season, a small mistake prevented me from earning the one point I needed to finally qualify.
It was a painful but transient moment and the rest of the day I was able to focus on my accomplishments during my four years on the team. I think experiences such as this will help me relate to my fellow classmates and be the student they come to for words of encouragement and help finding the positives in an upsetting situation.
Additionally, being passionate about something inspires me to find creative solutions when faced with a problem. In my senior year, I came up with an idea to start a monthly newsletter for the equestrian team. We had over twenty members and we all had riding lessons at different times. We had monthly meetings, but there were always a handful of members with schedule conflicts. As a result, we lacked an effective way to ensure that each member was informed about upcoming events. I thought a newsletter might help centralize all the information we needed members to have and eliminate the issue of scheduling conflicts.
Eager to send the first one as soon as possible, I recruited help from my teammates, Bailey and Kayla. We stayed up late for a few nights creating the first newsletter and the end result was better than expected. Coach Mandi loved the idea and we implemented it for the rest of the year. One day as a medical student, I am eager to promote a collaborative environment with my classmates by sharing my enthusiasm for creative solutions.
3 Tips for Nailing Your Diversity Essay
Your diversity essay is your chance to showcase your unique perspectives or skills. Here are three things to keep in mind as you write your first draft.
Share Your Stories Through Anecdotes
Whether you share your cultural roots by describing a special meal with your grandparents, recount a patient interaction that left a lasting impact, or detail a leadership challenge you overcame, let your experiences shine through. Remember, it’s these stories that make you unique and shape your journey to become a doctor.
Link Your Experiences to Medicine
How will the qualities you’ve developed help you excel in the medical field? Whether it’s through patient advocacy, teamwork, resilience, or leadership skills, explain how these traits will benefit you in your medical career. Show admissions committees how your diverse background will make you a valuable asset to their school and the medical community.
Customize Your Essay for Each School
Research each medical school you’re applying to and tailor your essay to their values and mission. Add an extra sentence or two that ties your story to an issue valued by the medical school you’re applying to. Also, pay attention to the details outlined by each different school, such as character limit and how to structure your essay.
Want to Craft “Interview-Worthy” Secondary Essays in a Fraction of the Time?
The first time I applied to medical school, I didn’t even know secondaries existed! I was so caught off guard and clueless, I took forever to submit just 4 of the 6 secondary applications I received. Needless to say, I only got one interview invite and was never pulled off their waitlist.
The second time around, I was SO well prepared that I was able to submit 28 secondary applications. This is just within days of receiving them (and my strategy didn’t even involve pre-writing). This earned me 15 interview invites which led to not just one but TEN medical school acceptances. Granted, my secondary essays weren’t the only reason since I improved so many aspects of my application to maximize my chances. But they surely made a big difference to get me foot into the door for interviews.
Inside my course Mastering Secondaries, I will teach you how to write unique essays for every school, brainstorming techniques, 70+ real-life essay examples and a step-by-step process to get your writing done in a fraction of the time.
The Bottom Line on the Diversity Essay for Medical School
Remember, diversity in medical schools is not just about race or ethnicity but also different perspectives, beliefs, and life experiences. So, don’t be afraid to share your story and highlight what makes you stand out!
Just be honest and authentic, and be yourself. Talk about how you have actively contributed to promoting diversity and inclusivity in your community. And, most of all, show how you’re not just a great candidate for medical school but also a future doctor who’s ready to make a difference. Good luck writing!
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