My Favorite Subject: College Admission Essay Sample

The physician didn't have to say a word for me to understand that foreboding news was to come. I had seen that expression before: unseeing eyes, unmoving lips.

“Your uncle has been diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer.”

Images of patients undergoing chemotherapy flashed through my mind, yet I failed to comprehend the correlation between those debilitated patients and my uncle. Weeks passed and cancer took my uncle hostage. With each round of chemotherapy, I watched him slip further away from me. It was then that I realized that medicine is not perfect. Medicine — the field I have worshipped since my childhood — had failed my uncle. In that moment, I knew I wanted to join this field to challenge its limits and prevent the loss of other lives.

The passing of my uncle was the catalyst for my exploration, inspiring me to seek out and question the shortcomings of science. Hoping to understand what plagued my uncle, I read Cancer: Science and Society. What began as a simple inquiry expanded into an interminable quest, as I spent hours probing the PubMed archives. Enthralled by the prospect of research, I sought more ways to immerse myself. Science fairs became playgrounds for my thoughts, as I delved into renal physiology. Over the summer, I interned for the Stanford Institutes of Medicine Research program, collecting data for my first publication as a co-author with my mentor. Each day brought new challenges that pushed me to grow as an independent thinker as I sought answers to questions that have no definitive solutions.

The lab surpassed the bounds of the classroom atmosphere I was accustomed to; I extended upon lessons I learned in AP Biology, as I applied my knowledge to the real world context. Under the guidance of Dr. Bhalla, I investigated the synergistic relationship between diabetes and hypertension. Little by little, we mend the flaws of medicine, working towards a time when imperfections are anomalies. Though medicine may be a world of imperfection, it is a world that I have embraced, and it is the one I am impelled to contribute to.