Five Essays on the Trail to Medical School

Abstract

This collection of essays provide advice and guidance to students, especially Peer Leaders (PLs), seeking to apply to graduate or professional schools. These essays were inspired by my experiences as a leader and helped me craft my medical school applications. These essays exemplify how journaling the opportunities encountered as a PL proves to be of extreme value. In addition to the essays, my PL experiences helped to provide meaningful insights which I could share and reflect on throughout the interview process. When faced with provocative questions (e.g., Describe a challenge you have faced; discuss the importance of diversity; tell us about a time you failed), I continuously found myself able to rely on lessons learned from working as a Peer Leader. I am pleased to describe a variety of special experiences that enabled me to present different aspects of my character to interviewers and to clearly personify the traits that appealed to them in my written application. “Working as a peer leader stands as one of my most treasured undergraduate experiences! Sharing my experiences as a peer leader throughout the interview trail reaffirmed everything I enjoyed about being part of the program, and I look forward to taking what I learned and applying it to my future at Columbia University, Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons.”.