The Long Road to Medicine Medicine College Admissions Essays

The Long Road to Medicine

I have always loved science and had planned a science career from an early age. However, life circumstances required me to follow a longer, less traditional route toward my goal, learning useful skills and gaining valuable experience along the way.

From the time of my parents' divorce, when I was eleven, I have had heavy family responsibilities. Initially, these responsibilities included caring for my three younger brothers and sister, and maintaining our home, while my mother worked.

I began to work as soon as I was able, as my income was required to help support my family. I was fortunate to find work in a picture framing shop, where I was allowed the flexibility to schedule my nearly full-time work hours around my classes in high school, and later, in college.

In 1977, I entered Arizona State University with the goal of pursuing a career in veterinary medicine. However, I found it difficult to achieve good grades, work nearly full-time, and attend to my responsibilities at home. After two years, it was apparent that my grades were not sufficient for veterinary school. Rather than go further into debt without an attainable goal, I left school. I had planned to return as soon as I had decided on new career goals, but such plans were put on hold by a series of family crises, which required my financial support, as well as my time. These crises included the teenage pregnancy of my sister in 1981, and subsequent shared parenting responsibility for my nephew, and my mother's seven-year battle against cancer.

It was through this exposure to cancer that I gained some limited medical experience and first began thinking about becoming a physician. My mother had melanoma and required a great deal of care following numerous surgeries and through various treatment procedures. My responsibilities included wound care and giving injections. Eventually, I worked with a local hospice organization to provide the care required so that my mother could die at home.

Through the years, I had worked various second jobs as needed, but in early 1989, I took a permanent second job so that my mother could quit working completely. After her death, I continued working my second job to help finance my sister's education so that she and her son could become self-sufficient. Eventually, I used the second job to finance my own return to school, attending ASU part-time while working 70 hours per week. Two years ago, with the support of my family, I was able to return to school full-time.

I was no longer interested in becoming a veterinarian. Through the experiences I had had with my mother, and from years of working with the public, I had come to genuinely love people. I wanted a career that would allow me to continue to work with people, and in their behalf. I chose to major in biology because I believed that this would give me the greatest flexibility in choosing a graduate program. I filled in scheduling vacancies with German classes in order to better communicate with family members in Germany. Eventually, I had enough German classes to declare a second major.

I returned to ASU because I never lost my love of science and because I had a strong desire to making a meaningful contribution to humanity - a desire that was not being fulfilled by picture framing. I decided to become a physician because I believe that it would be the most satisfying way to combine my compassionate and caring personality, my love of science, and the skills I have learned through my experiences in life. These skills include performing tasks efficiently, managing my time well, coping with stressful situations, being flexible, and working hard for long hours. Evidence of this is my 3.84 GPA since returning to ASU in 1991, and achieved while maintaining a parenting role with my nephew and working as many as 70 hours per week. In addition, my years of meeting the public in the workplace have allowed me to develop good interpersonal skills. I believe that these qualities, along with my love of science, will enable me to become a competent and humane physician.