Experience is Key: College Admission Essay Sample

As I walk down the bustling streets, merchants are shouting for me to buy their various goods and children zoom by me as they play with one another. I attempt crossing the busy street to be confronted by the incessant honking of horns. I smile inwardly at how chaotic this could seem to an outsider, but to me, this is Alexandria, my second home. Every summer, my parents and I travel to Egypt to visit our family for a few months. As I grow older, I learn to appreciate my family’s annual trip which allows me to connect to my heritage in a way that no book or story can possibly do. Egypt is a beautiful, exotic country filled with utterly breath-taking and historically ancient sites. While I'm in Egypt, however, I do not just spend my time sight-seeing; I also visit the local orphanage once a week and spend time with orphans. My mother and I ask the director of the orphanage what supplies are needed and then we supply those necessities, and I give my time to spend reading and talking to the little ones. Beyond this, I also travel with my mother to local hospitals to help update them with new medical equipment that my mother has brought with us. Being involved in these experiences has made me eternally grateful for the blessings that I have and has also made me want to pursue a degree in the medical field.

Since I knew that medicine was the field that I wanted to be in, I applied to and was accepted in the Medical Mentorship program at Trinitas Regional Hospital in Elizabeth, NJ this past summer. During my training, I shadowed doctors and nurses of various departments in order to experience a wide range of medical specialties. My favorite experience here was in the Cardiac Cath Lab where I watched the doctor insert a catheter into the chamber of a patient’s heart who recently had a myocardial infarction. In the OR, I observed a doctor implant a pacemaker in order to treat arrhythmia which is an abnormal heart rhythm of a patient. During my weeks of training, I also attended Morbidity and Mortality conferences in which residents educated their peers on the complications that occurred during the care of the patient. Around seven o'clock every morning, I attended rounds with the residents to learn more about the diagnosis and treatment of the patients in the ICU. In the ER, I took the vital signs of patients along with their history and physical examination, which were recorded in their charts. While shadowing an ER technician, I was allowed to perform an electrocardiogram on a patient who had history of previous heart problems. Also through this program, I am now CPR certified in accordance with the curriculum of the AHA for Healthcare Providers. This program was a valuable hands-on experience which cemented my decision to pursue a career in Medicine. I am now fully determined to become a medical doctor, and to provide relief to individuals who are in critical conditions.

My mentorship at the hospital taught me that knowledge is one of the most powerful tools any individual could possibly attain in life. I want to take advantage of my education in order to help alleviate the affliction a patient has to endure. During my Mentorship at the hospital, one of the patients I was tracking was an elderly man who was terminally ill with small-cell carcinoma, a type of lung cancer. After a check-up, this man expressed how proud he was of the time and effort I was dedicating to this program. I remember the exact words he said: "Put your education before anything else in your life, and you"ll succeed."His words rang true and I plan on bringing my various cultural and personal experiences to Rutgers University where I will benefit educationally from the distinguished pre-medical program and personally from the diverse cultural environment.