Admissions Essay: I Wish to Study Medicine :: Medicine College Admissions Essays

Admissions Essay: I Wish to Study Medicine    I have not always wanted to be a physician like many people who apply to medical school; instead my decision to enter medicine has been the culmination of experience and self-discovery. When I was fifteen I was stricken with a cryptic illness. After several years of suffering and many doctors visits I was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythramatosis. The Lupus diagnosis would changed my life in almost every aspect and was the beginning of the path that has led me towards medicine.    It was hard for me to deal with the diagnosis and even harder to learn my body's limitations. Every waking moment was a reminder that I was sick, and there was no comfort to be found in the medical world as there is still no cure for the disease. By this point in my life I had considered going into medicine. I had been a patient enough to know what it takes to be a good doctor. During the period before my diagnosis I had a few good doctors but I had also been faced with doctor's who didn't listen, who had no bedside manner, and who made incorrect assumptions. I knew that I would be better at these things for having suffered them. Unfortunately, at this point in my life I also knew that I was not healthy enough to be capable of withstanding the stressful years of medical school. I wanted to work near the human body, and my own personal research about lupus led me to seek out a degree in public health.    I've spent the past year going to school, working, and volunteering and I've learned through various ways that medicine is not only a path that I'm capable of, but one that I want more than anything in the world. As a full time student I have successfully taken many challenging courses. I have been working part time in a psychobiology lab learning how to perform research first hand. It was here that I discovered that although I love research, in many ways it is too disconnected from the people it is helping to be my ideal career. I spend a great deal of time in the clinics and the hospital at Boston University Medical Center and there I have observed the patient-doctor interaction and realized that I want to be involved with the people I'm helping.