In this blog post, we will look at an exemplary example of an academic plan for admission to medical school.
Write about your academic experience and what you learned from it
I thought that academic knowledge was more important than anything else in becoming the doctor I dreamed of becoming. I thought that the more I knew, the more I could use that knowledge to make accurate diagnoses and provide treatment for patients without misdiagnosis. So, while studying, I would think about what I didn’t know and look it up on my own to solve the problem, but I felt that this method had limitations in terms of the information I could absorb to grow into the kind of doctor I wanted to be.
So, unlike the existing learning methods, I tried to share information by asking questions to teachers and friends, which is a good way to acquire various opinions and information on a single piece of information. At first, I was embarrassed to ask my friends and teachers questions, and I felt uncomfortable teaching my friends the knowledge I knew. So, at first, I wrote down on a piece of paper what I needed to ask the teacher, and I tried to anticipate what my friends didn’t know and prepare answers, but sometimes I couldn’t ask questions. When I asked questions, the teachers and my friends welcomed my questions so warmly that the pressure, embarrassment, and anxiety I felt before asking them disappeared. Also, asking questions actually reduced the time it took to learn the material and made even the most difficult subjects fun. In the process, I learned things from my friends who shared the same dream as me, which helped me improve my grades.
In addition, in order to achieve good results, I realized that it is important to become a doctor who cares for patients by forming a bond with them and sharing their feelings so that I can quickly identify what is difficult and what they need help with. This made me decide that I should have both the basic competencies that a doctor should have to treat a patient’s disease and the ability to understand the feelings of caregivers and patients.
Write about your major school activities and what you learned from them
I learned the importance of communication through sign language.
There are two school activities that I tried to do during my high school years. The first time I learned sign language was as part of an after-school program. At first, I learned sign language just for fun, without putting much significance into it. When I first took a sign language class, I learned how to express words through songs. At first, it was awkward because I had to express words with my hands, and it was also difficult because I couldn’t follow the hand gestures. As I became more familiar with the hand gestures, I was able to sign the first verse of a song, and the class began to focus more on sign language than on speech. In the process, I experienced firsthand the difficulties that people who cannot speak have in expressing themselves, and the frustration that they feel when their expressions are not understood by others. I also realized that people may be in danger of losing their lives if they have difficulty communicating in an emergency. So, I became curious about how people who have difficulty communicating and are forced to use sign language are receiving medical treatment and whether they are receiving the same medical benefits as the general public. I found out that there are only three medical sign language interpreters in Korea. This motivated me to focus on my after-school classes so that I could become a doctor who can help people with disabilities receive medical benefits. Those classes were also very precious to me.
Encouraging interest in learning through club activities
One of the reasons I liked science was because it was more interesting than other subjects because I could learn again what I had only learned in theory by doing the experiments myself. In particular, chemistry and biology were special because they were experiments that could not be easily done because they required the use of chemicals. That’s why I joined the school’s science club. Of course, we also conduct experiments during regular class hours, but we sometimes feel bored because we conduct experiments with textbook content. However, in the club, we are able to conduct the experiments we want to conduct, and we want to try many interesting experiments within the scope of safety rules. And when conducting experiments in groups, we also want to actively express our opinions and lead the experiments. The club I joined because I liked it actually became a motivating factor for me to focus on my studies, so I made a constant effort to learn about the experiments I wanted to do, find out what the precautions were for the experiments, and look up the results of other people’s experiments. Eventually, I became the one leading the experiments four months after joining the club, and by the time I became a sophomore, I even became the one leading the club. It was also a very meaningful time for me, as the club motivated me to improve my science grades and helped me to enjoy learning new things through my studies, which in turn helped me to improve my overall grades.
Caring, Sharing, and Cooperation: Examples and Thoughts
The cooperation and consideration I learned while helping a sick friend
When I was a sophomore in high school, my best friend was in a car accident and had to wear a cast for about a month, making it difficult for her to walk. At first, everyone was worried and helped her by supporting her, carrying her bag, and making sure she had no inconvenience in her school life. However, as time went by, everyone got used to the situation and became annoyed, focusing on their own school life. As a result, my friend’s life became increasingly difficult and it became increasingly difficult for him to go to the bathroom. However, I was his best friend, so I didn’t feel it was difficult or bothersome, so I helped him as much as I could when he asked for help. In the process, we were able to understand each other better about each other’s tastes and values, which were difficult to understand in the past, and learned to be considerate so that he would not be afraid to ask for help. Of course, the actions we took for each other during the process sometimes caused fights, but it was an opportunity to become closer to each other by talking and clearing up misunderstandings.
Helping a friend is not something special or grand. But through this experience, I was reminded of the times when I used to get angry and annoyed because people didn’t understand me, and I was able to reflect on myself. I thought I knew and understood each other more than anyone else, but what I felt was a time to realize that my friend was more considerate, willing to make concessions and share with me, and a time to be grateful for my friend’s heart that was for my sake. I also learned that the heart of caring for others, such as consideration, sharing, and cooperation, is not something grand and special, but starts with the little things, and I also learned that we can grow together through consideration, cooperation, and sharing.
Efforts and preparations related to motivation and career plans
The College of Medicine at ○○ University is the best place for me, as I dream of becoming a doctor with specialized knowledge and the ability to understand and comfort patients. The College of Medicine at ○○ University has three world-class research institutes and an environment that fosters global competence through global programs in Korea and abroad, so I applied because I thought it would be a good place to learn systematic and specialized knowledge and become a talent who can grow together with the university.
In order to become a doctor who grows with the university, I tried to lay a solid foundation of theoretical knowledge by combining theory and experiment while participating in the life science club activities to acquire basic knowledge of biology and the human body that I should naturally know as a doctor in high school. However, there are limits to what a high school student can learn on his or her own, so I tried to read as many medical books as possible that were easy to read. In addition, I thought that it was important to build a relationship of trust between the doctor and the patient in order to make an accurate diagnosis, so I tried to change my passive personality and take an active attitude through learning activities such as asking questions and making presentations.
And I personally learned how to comfort people’s hearts by meeting many people through volunteer work, talking to them and listening to their stories. In particular, my volunteer work at a nursing home left a strong impression on me because I felt lonely when talking to the elderly who were tired from long-term hospital stays and were full of longing for the old days. I think a doctor’s personality is determined by what values he or she has. However, I believe that even a doctor with good personality cannot be called a doctor if he or she cannot perform his or her role as a doctor due to lack of professional knowledge and basic competence. Therefore, in order to become a good doctor, I want to be a student who grows under an excellent professor at the Department of Medicine at University ○○.
