In this article, we will be showing you how to write the ‘adversity essay’ for medical school. This is quite a common secondary application essay question to come across. It’s also one of the most important in the medical school application process.

The med school adversity essay sometimes comes in different forms. You may see it as one of the following.

1. What has been your biggest challenge in pursuing medicine? What have you learned as a result?
2. Share with us a difficult or challenging situation you have encountered and how you dealt with it. In your response, identify both the coping skills you called upon to resolve the dilemma and the support person(s) from whom you sought advice.
3. The admissions committee is interested in gaining more insight into you as a person. Please describe a significant personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped to shape you as a person. Examples may include a moral or ethical dilemma, a situation of personal adversity, or a hurdle in your life that you worked hard to overcome. Please include how you got through the experience and what you learned about yourself as a result.
4. Please describe to the Admissions Committee a challenge you have overcome and what you learned about yourself from that experience.
5. Tell us about a challenging problem you faced and how you resolved it.
6. Discuss a time in your life in which you have failed at something other than an academic experience. How did you confront the failure and what did you learn from it? Please describe how you typically approach challenges that you face in your life.
7. Describe a major problem you have had to deal with at some time in your life. Include how you dealt with it and how it influenced your growth.

So, why is the adversity question in the medical school secondary applications important? It can be quite self-explanatory, but let’s lay down a few reasons.

Writing the adversity essay for medical school helps admissions officers understand more of your strengths that were not already stated in the application. It shows what sort of person you are under stress, and it helps determine your fit for the medical world.

In other words, the adversity essay for medical school helps determine if you will be a good fit for medicine.

Oftentimes, you’ll also be asked how you overcame your issue. This shows the admissions officers just exactly how you come to solutions, and whether your problem-solving skills would make you a good fit for the program.

When writing the adversity essay for medical school, keep these questions in mind:

1. How do I manage my mental stress during situations?
2. Can I handle the unpredictable? What about when unpredictable things happen on the job?
3. How do you fix problems? Do you do it with a group or alone? Are you a “maximize efficiency” sort of person?
4. What did you learn from the challenge?
5. How has the experience changed your character?
6. Are there ways this topic can make me look bad?
7. How do your experiences shape your approach to medicine?

Think about how your essay answers these questions. The admissions officers will be keeping these considerations in mind, especially when they want to sort through what makes up the best students.

With that said, let’s get right to our guide. Here’s our ultimate guide on how to write the adversity essay for medical school.

Table of Contents

1. Pay attention to the details.
2. Articulate your ideas well.
3. I don’t know what to write about in my medical school essay!
4. Is my college essay topic good enough?
5. What does the adversity essay for medical school say about YOU?

Pay attention to the details.

Make no mistake: the adversity essay for medical school also serves as a litmus test. So, what is it testing? Well, a whole host of personality traits! However, one of them is your proclivity for attention to detail.

An essay for admissions into medical school, especially one that can only judge you on a few factors such as GPA, MCAT scores, is going to be absolutely vital to your ability to stand out.

If you are careless enough to make a few grammar or sentence structure mistakes, it shows you are not dedicated enough to perfect your essays for medical school. It also shows that people who reviewed and edited their essays care more about their career in medicine, or at least handle it with more care, than you.

So, don’t make silly mistakes in your essays. Get them edited and revised, with at least one advisor. This shows the admissions officers you at least care enough to send them something that is polished, instead of roughly puy together.

Also, be sure not to make your essay sound like it was done at the last minute –even if it was! We understand that this can be quite hard, but if you are struggling with giving the essay a good tone that doesn’t sound like the essay was rushed, you may want to speak with an expert. Contact us for a free consultation! We will get back to you within 24 hours to help you with your essay!

Articulate your ideas well.

One of the most important things about the adversity essay for medical school is your ability for articulation. This means how well you can communicate the ideas in your head. Does what you’re saying sound foggy and vague, or specific and concise? If your words are specific and concise –especially easy to understand– then you have a well-articulated essay.

You can very easily leave a bad impression if you are not articulating your ideas well. An essay that is hard to understand and unclear in its overarching implications demonstrates that you may not be as invested in medicine as you think.

I don’t know what to write about in my medical school essays!

It’s quite a big problem for students not to know what to write about in their med school essays. They usually fall under the ‘just like everyone else’ student. They studied hard, attended lectures, and probably participated in an internship. In other words, they’re plain average.

To understand how to write the adversity essay for medical school, it’s important to know this fundamental rule: you probably do have something to write about.

When students come to us for help, they often cite the same problem. They claim they have nothing to write about because they didn’t hold any important leadership positions or work experiences. What most of them discover is that adversity and struggle are everywhere. You only need to scratch a little bit under the surface of your life to discover adversity in your life.

Here are a few example topics that work well for the med school adversity essay.

1. Family disagreements
2. Friendship struggles
3. Mental health and depression
4. Health issues
5. Choosing sides
6. Moral choices

Is my college essay topic good enough?

Before we get to this section, we want to say that there are rarely any bad topics to write about. Most if not all adversities are valid, and admissions officers recognize this. However, struggles and adversities that reach a level of absurdity beyond the norm will be a red flag.

Example: your father didn’t buy you a car, so you begged and begged until he did; this shows your struggle of perseverance. This is a bad topic because it only shows that you’re spoiled.

Another problem many of our clients come across when trying to answer the medical school adversity essay prompt is whether their topic is good enough. There are those who write about simple topics, and those who write about severe ones. Perhaps you wanted to write about having to learn to become more assertive in your life, but you know of others writing about great adversities like the death of a loved one.

Obviously, you may feel that assertiveness training can’t outcompete the death of a loved one. That may put you at a disadvantage in the medical school process.

However, remember this: the admissions officers do a lot to ensure they give a fair and just process to everyone. Not everyone has difficult issues in their lives, and they understand that. The important thing is not just the weight of your adversity, but how it defines you as a person in the admissions process.

Maybe the death of a loved one is deeper than the need for assertiveness training. However, your need for assertiveness training may also show you’ve overcome obstacles and can stand your ground better than before. This may give you the personality and temperament needed to succeed in the brutal academic world of medicine that others may not have had. Sure, it’s not as strong as hearing about someone’s grandma die.

However, the admissions officers care more about what they can infer about you –not what happened to you. This brings us to the next point.

What does the adversity essay for medical school say about YOU?

This is one of the most important points. Show the med school admissions officers what your adversity essay says about you.

This doesn’t mean you should get specific about the details of your topic –though, you still should! It means that you need to help the admissions officers see how the topic you’re writing about shows a characteristic or personality trait about you. Then, you need to show how that connects with your place in medicine.

Does your adversity help you become a better doctor? Has your struggle taught you the beauty of empathy, and influenced your motivation for nursing? Think about your essay topic and its relationship with your place in medicine.

Here is a thought exercise you should use when trying to answer the adversity essay for medical school.

1. What is my adversity?
2. Why exactly was my adversity hard?
3. How did I overcome it?
4. Is this experience a unique med school topic to write about in my essay?
5. What does this adversity and my overcoming it show about me as a person?
6. How does that make me a good applicant for medical school?

If you are still struggling to understand how to write the adversity essay for medical school, consider scheduling a free phone consultation. We will help you with all aspects of the medical school adversity essay, and help you stand out amongst the rest of the applicant pool.