How to Stand Out When Underrepresented in Medicine

Session 117

How should someone who is underrepresented in medicine approach the medical school application process? My advice? Don’t worry about standing out – be yourself!

Listen to this podcast episode with the player above, or keep reading for the highlights and takeaway points.

By the way, the episodes in this podcast are recordings of our Facebook Live that we do at 3 pm Eastern on most weekdays. Check out our Facebook page and like the page to be notified. Also, listen to our other podcasts on MedEd Media. If you have any questions, call me at 617-410-6747.

[0:17] Question of the Day

“As a non-traditional, Underrepresented Minority in Medicine (URiM), should my application narrate all of my experiences and tell my story? Or should it highlight what the admissions committee needs to see? These highlights include challenges that an underrepresented minority in nursing deals with or faces that would make me stand out from other applicants. If so, how would I do that and still look presentable to the admissions committee?”

Your application must not suggest that you should be selected because you’re a black male. When it comes to your personal statement, secondary essay, or interview, highlighting you being a URiM to make you stand out is unnecessary. For instance, filling up race or ethnicity in your AMCAS application will show that you’re underrepresented in medicine.

If left to their own devices, people flock towards those who look and talk like them. Such behavior is human nature.

“Admissions committees don't necessarily go out of their way to get more underrepresented people in medicine and college. This is where affirmative action serves a purpose.”Click To Tweet

But some questions that border on stereotyping need to be asked. Do applicants who are underrepresented in medicine come from a disadvantaged background? Should they fill out the disadvantaged essay on the AMCAS application? On the other hand many applicants — white or Asian men and women — who are not considered URiM also come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

In the personal statement, you discuss why you want to be a doctor. As one who is underrepresented in medicine, wanting to take care of patients who look like you could be a strong motivation why you want to be a physician. You can write a bit about that reason in your personal statement, but nothing more.

The same holds true when you write about your cultural-based extracurricular activities that might sound like something from a “black fraternity.” Or things that suggest you are more underrepresented as students. These points don’t add anything to the application.

Instead, focusing on an agenda distracts from your story. But since you come from an underrepresented background there, you are driven towards discussing many cultural aspects.

And if that’s the case, you must highlight those points in the context of why you want to be a physician. Your story should be focused on why you want to be a physician on who you are as a person.

[5:24] Highlighting Qualities in Personal Statement

Q: “When you’re applying and going through the application process for medical school, it seems that you’re doing everything remotely. You don’t know who these people reading your application are. So, you try to put forth a metaphorical image of yourself that you’re going to be this person with all these qualities. Everything that I want to highlight. But how do I do that without saying, “I am this and that,” as though it’s a double-edged sword?”

A: It’s not a double-edged sword, because that’s not the right way to approach an application. In making their application, many students look at the AAMC core competency lists. In the students’ minds, a good physician is a strong leader, a strong communicator, and is compassionate. Many students will focus their whole application around those traits. But the reviewer will see what they’re doing from a mile away. So avoid saying that just because you have these traits, you should become a physician.

Your goal is to tell your specific story in your personal statement. Focus on who you are, the impact that you’ve made on this world, and the experiences that made you want to be a physician. Avoid saying that you think you have all the qualities necessary to be a physician.

That’s the difference between an average application and a stellar application. The average application would merely say why you think you’re ready to be a physician. A stellar application shows who you are through the experiences that you’ve led.

“Taking every opportunity to say that one is a minority distracts from the essential task of highlighting who the applicant is.”Click To Tweet

Identifying one’s ethnicity or race is already part of the application. It would be a different discussion if such an opportunity wasn’t available.

[11:12] On Listing Non-Medical Activities

Q: “In writing an application, what’s the best way for you to go about describing an activity that is not medically related? In my case, after I finished college, I pursued something that I always wanted to do: martial arts. The experience gave me a lot of personal growth and taught me a lot of perseverance and physical agility, as well as gaining plenty of camaraderie from fellow sports members. But it wasn’t related to my development as a future physician.”

A: Having interests outside of medicine makes you more intriguing as a person. But some students make the mistake of not putting any non-clinical, non-medicine-related activities on their application. And so when I look at that application, I end up asking who are you and what have you been doing with your time?

“Many non-medical-related experiences hone certain skills such as communication and crisis management.”Click To Tweet

In the premed world, there’s this fear that non-medically related experiences will hurt one’s application. It’s completely the opposite. These experiences lead to certain skills and other intangibles that the student is going to bring to medical class.

Again, you need not explain in your application how all these skills and intangibles will be useful to you as a future physician. In your case, just tell a story of why martial arts was so impactful for you as a human being.

[15:00] On Choosing a Specialization

Q: “Can you give a physician’s perspective on seeing premeds who express a strong interest in a particular field early or before medical school starts?”

A: Go to medical school with a specialty in mind, and try to get some experience and research along the way.

For the student, that one specialty will always have an allure, although part of that influence comes from an early mentor. But do keep an open mind as you’re going through the learning process.

Apart from staying true to yourself, don’t fall for the fallacy of sunk costs. That means that since you’ve put in several years in a specialty, you’re not even going to look at anything else. Instead, you should be open and curious about all these other experiences you’re going to have in medical school. Even if you’ve gone so far down a path, see if there’s anything else out there that piques your interest.

From a premed perspective, a lot of times in our early exposure, we resonate with that first interest and latch on to it. But you soon realize that there are many other variations of medicine and specialties out there.

And this is why I do the Specialty Stories Podcast as well as eShadowing because there are things out there that students haven’t been exposed to yet.

[19:08] Minorities in Medicine

This brings us back to the URiM conversation. I often hear similar questions from minorities who want to go into medicine, especially later in life.

A Muslim woman would say they never saw a Muslim physician or a woman wearing a hijab who was practicing medicine. Similarly, a black male would say they never saw a black male physician.

These stories imply that if you haven’t seen something, then you really can’t picture it for yourself, it’s the same thing with specialties. If you haven’t had any exposure to that specialty, you really can’t picture yourself in it.

And so, you pigeonhole yourself into that idea. But if you just take a few steps back, you would find a whole smorgasbord of specialties out there. You just need to take the time to go explore.