Admissions Essay: I Spoon-fed Her Each Day

I Spoon-fed Her Each Day

Watching my grandmother get progressively weaker; not wanting to believe the doctors' diagnosis of terminal cancer and the prediction that she would live only for another year; separated by thousands of miles from my parents, who had moved to the United States while I stayed in China with my grandmother-I lived a life so different from that of the average seventeen-year-old. In addition to caring for my grandmother, I was going to school and preparing for my final exams, the equivalent of the SATs. Grandmother died on the day that I took the exam. Of the one million students who took the exam that day, I was ranked thirty-fourth and won the national merit scholarship. And yet I was in a state of complete shock: my grandmother was gone and I felt paralyzed. But eventually my memories of her inspired me to make a genuine difference in the lives of others. I decided to pursue a career in medicine.

I joined the rest of my family in the U.S. and within six months was enrolled in the honors program at Mississippi State. Since there is no pre-med major, I was able to major in any subject and still complete the pre-med requirements; I was advised to major in Philosophy or Drama to boost my GPA. Instead, I decided to major in Math, a subject I've always enjoyed. Though many people told me I must be crazy and that my background would not have sufficiently prepared me for the difficulty ofthe pre-med classes, I have earned A-plusses in all of the ten math courses I have taken so far, five of which were advanced classes.

I have concentrated on opportunities that will prepare me for studies in clinical medicine, oncology and geriatrics. I learned of a prestigious research fellowship at Harvard and, although it was open only to upperclassmen, I applied and was accepted. I have taken honors classes in biology and have enjoyed the research work I've done.

Keeping in mind that my goal is ultimately to help people, I've also devoted a portion of my time to volunteer opportunities: I tutored math for high school students in my neighborhood and recently became a part-time volunteer at Memorial Hospital. It was terribly difficult for me to leave China and create a completely new life after the death of my grandmother.