At many of the medical schools I interviewed at, I noticed an interesting trend. The nontraditional applicants outnumbered the traditional applicants, who’d taken the traditional college to medical school route.
Given that the term nontraditional can be equivocal, I’d like to clarify that I use the term to refer to individuals who choose an unconventional path or took some time off during or after graduating college for personal reasons: to raise a family, discover themselves, improve their application et cetera.
Intrigued by this, I spoke to several friends who’d interviewed at different schools about my observation; they’d also noticed a similar trend. While I may not have the data to prove this [most medical schools don’t keep track of the number of nontraditional students admitted] and my evidence is purely anecdotal, I believe the face of the typical medical school applicant may be changing. …show more content…
I’d like to clarify that medical schools define diversity not only in terms of race but in socioeconomic status, culture, gender identity and life experience.
The goal is to train physicians who are ready to humanely take care of patients …show more content…
Thus, there’s also a need to recruit applicants with a myriad of interest to bring new perspectives and voices to medicine. Thus, applicants coming from diverse backgrounds are highly sought after. As it happens, many the non-trads have these qualities given that they have work experience in different areas. On my interviews, I saw evidence of this. There was an interviewee who had his own startup company, another who had been teaching for 3 years, one who worked as a consultant in NY, the list goes on and
Given that the term nontraditional can be equivocal, I’d like to clarify that I use the term to refer to individuals who choose an unconventional path or took some time off during or after graduating college for personal reasons: to raise a family, discover themselves, improve their application et cetera.
Intrigued by this, I spoke to several friends who’d interviewed at different schools about my observation; they’d also noticed a similar trend. While I may not have the data to prove this [most medical schools don’t keep track of the number of nontraditional students admitted] and my evidence is purely anecdotal, I believe the face of the typical medical school applicant may be changing. …show more content…
I’d like to clarify that medical schools define diversity not only in terms of race but in socioeconomic status, culture, gender identity and life experience.
The goal is to train physicians who are ready to humanely take care of patients …show more content…
Thus, there’s also a need to recruit applicants with a myriad of interest to bring new perspectives and voices to medicine. Thus, applicants coming from diverse backgrounds are highly sought after. As it happens, many the non-trads have these qualities given that they have work experience in different areas. On my interviews, I saw evidence of this. There was an interviewee who had his own startup company, another who had been teaching for 3 years, one who worked as a consultant in NY, the list goes on and