How to Showcase Diversity in a Med School Essay

U.S. doctors don't always get to cherry-pick the patients they'll care for or the medical conditions they treat.

Hospital emergency room physicians in the U.S. are legally obligated to care for every person who arrives with a medical emergency, regardless of the person's ability to pay for medical treatment. And in nearly every area of medicine, a doctor can expect to encounter patients with varied circumstances, personalities and perspectives.

[Read: Use a Medical School Diversity Statement to Shine.]

Dr. Linton Yee, associate dean for admissions at Duke University School of Medicine, says one of the challenges doctors are often faced with is the need to initiate a conversation about a medical problem with someone they've never met before. "You're going to walk into a room with a total stranger, and somehow you've got to make a connection with this person in order to figure out what's going on," he says.

Doctors must bond with and understand their patients, Yee says. That's one reason why medical schools seek students who demonstrate a willingness to be compassionate towards any individual they treat.

To identify applicants with a nonjudgmental disposition, some med schools ask applicants to give details about their exposure to and interactions with marginalized populations, including those who struggle with poverty. Med schools also sometimes inquire about whether applicants intend to serve as a physician for a medically needy community, such as a poor rural area or inner-city region where doctors are scarce, and there are certain medical school scholarships reserved for applicants who make a commitment to practice medicine in areas of the U.S. with doctor shortages.

In addition, because many medical schools strive to assemble a student body that is diverse in terms of race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, geography and ethnicity, these institutions often inquire about whether an applicant identifies as a minority in U.S. society.

Yee says that empathy is a key quality he looks for when he screens medical school applicants and decides which have the potential to become quality physicians. "We can teach you all about the intricacies of pathology and treating patients and management and all that sort of stuff, but we can't teach you how to care for people," he says. Because of the increasing diversity of the U.S. population, all aspiring doctors should be prepared to deal with a wide array of patients, including patients of multiple races, Yee says.

[Read: 4 Factors Prospective Medical Students Overlook.]

Though Duke University School of Medicine does not require a formal diversity statement, many of its secondary application essay questions give applicants an opportunity to describe their commitment to diversity.

Below are two essays by incoming Duke medical students who impressed Yee with their thoughtful discussion of diversity.

The first essay is by Ariana Paniagua, a student of mixed heritage who described the lessons she learned from the cultural traditions of each of her parents, including her mother, who is a devout Buddhist of Sicilian ancestry, and her father, who immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador. "I really wanted to give a genuine sense of who I was and the most important aspects of my upbringing and family that helped to shape me into the person I am today," she says. "So it was really important to me to express everything accurately, and also to take a lot of time to reflect, because these aren't things that we think about everyday necessarily."

[Read: Highlight Diversity in Medical School Applications.]

The second essay is authored by Drake Sanders, a student of African-American ancestry who says that his race has played a key role in shaping his identity. Sanders says this essay about his core values would have been incomplete if he had shied away from discussing race. "Especially in the times we're living in now, it's such a polarizing issue, and I was trying to make it less polarizing, if that's possible even," he says. "So I was trying to be as clear and as noncombative as possible in describing what it's like growing up black."

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