Med School Personal Statement

The following is a draft of my med school personal statement. I hope it will make you think: This person wrote something slightly less boring than the million other personal statements I have read, and it is clear why they want to be a physician. I would like to interview this handsome gentleman for a position in my medical school.

It all started, just another day in the life of Ken Noguchi. Kicking back on the picturesque quad of Kenyon College. Lush green grass, tossing a Frisbee with friends, and passing the hours drinking cheap beers…

Actually, reality was more like: long days holed up in the stuffy science quad, tearing through stack after stack of flash cards, and bonding through suffering with my fellow pre-med friends. One spring day, we took a study break to check our PO boxes. I was hoping for a care package from my mom, some candy to fuel my late night studying.

Instead I found a small postcard. It was a notification to attend Kenyon College Honors Day, the yearly awards ceremony, so I could receive an award.

Fast forward to the day of the ceremony. I was shaking in my seat. The short postcard told me to expect an award, but I couldn’t help thinking it was one big joke. Being a self-proclaimed late-bloomer, this was my first time ever receiving an award without the word “participation.”

In the first half of the ceremony, the dean presented the departmental awards. I received the Robert Bowen Jr. Prize, the top Biology award, and I was zoned out in my own world after receiving such a high honor from my professors in the Biology department. Before I knew it, we were at the last part of the awards ceremony, when the dean began announcing the prestigious collegiate awards, reserved for those taking a leadership role in influencing the actions of the student body. Still a little zoned out, I started hearing these words:

“The Humanitarian Award is given to a student who has made a significant contribution to the general welfare of others. Described as being “radically transformed” in the past year, our winner became involved in the community through Justice Week, a week of programming dedicated to service in the global community.

He found himself inspired by the work of Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health, an organization dedicated to providing healthcare for the less fortunate in Haiti. With that in mind, he began planning a student service trip to Haiti for Spring Break 2010. In the midst of fundraising for this trip, a massive earthquake hit Haiti. Despite cancelling the trip, he shifted his focus to education and fundraising for Haiti. He quickly organized a well-attended forum focusing on global, political, and economic injustices at work before the earthquake. He continued to connect the entire Kenyon Community to the Haitian plight, raising over $2,000 to send to Partners in Health.

In the past year, he also served as a student leader for the Koinonia Programming Board and brought four panels of the AIDS Quilt to Kenyon for World AIDS Day.

Please join me in congratulating Ken Noguchi, the first winner of the Humanitarian Award.”

I was only half-listening in the beginning, but as I started hearing about Haiti, I realized, “Whoa, they’re talking about me.” I took a breath to recount my radical transformation.

I thought about my past.

I kicked off my first Kenyon semester with a 2.7 GPA. That year was a reality check. Seeing my other pre-med classmates fly past me with honor rolls and distinctions, I realized that if I was serious about medical school, I couldn’t just cruise through on natural intelligence.

I slowly got my act together, studied how to excel at college, and worked hard. From there, my GPA improved every semester until I reached a 4.0 in the fall semester of my senior year, I wrote and published a bench science honors thesis on bacterial physiology, and I became a campus leader for social justice. I attached my identity to becoming an advocate for Haiti, a country decimated by global injustices.

I thought about my future.

I love medicine, and its ability to give people hope.

I remembered a patient I met while shadowing Dr. Simon Robson in a liver clinic. She was a drug addict, hoping to prolong her life and take care of her two kids. She was slowly making positive life changes, but she also had endstage liver disease. Without a new liver, those small steps were all going out the window.

I remembered all the patients I saw with Dr. Catherine Allan in the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. Many of her patients hadn’t even been given a first chance at life. They were victims of mutant genes, born with structural defects in their hearts. Dr. Allan told me that she saw very few happy endings. If her patients survived their stay at the hospital, they would still be in and out of the hospital for the rest of their lives.

I knew that I had been lucky. I never struggled with anything as difficult as drug addiction, nor had I ever been diagnosed with a life-threatening genetic disorder. Sometimes I wondered why I had been fortunate enough to have Biochemistry be my greatest struggle. Dr. Robson’s patient would have to be incredibly lucky to get a rare liver transplant. Dr. Allan’s patients would have to be similarly lucky and show an unexpected improvement from heart surgery.

That moment, sitting in the auditorium, at Kenyon College Honors Day, when I heard the words, “Please join me in congratulating Ken Noguchi…” I was proud of how hard I had worked. But I also knew that the gods of fate must be smiling. I hoped my life could be about helping others feel lucky.

from ken

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