The admissions committee knows almost nothing about you. Sure, your numbers look good; clearly you’re smart, ambitious, hardworking. You’ve aced your science courses and mastered the MCAT. You were chosen for an interview, so you made the first cut. Now, who the heck are you, anyway?

At this point, the playing field is somewhat level, but you’ll begin round two with an edge if you can contribute a variety of experiences and perspectives that could create a good class. You can use the essay to show (not tell) who you really are, what makes you tick, where your passions lie. Interesting, revealing detail is the key to effective writing.

At some point in the application process, you will write about yourself. Indeed, most of the essays gathered for this book did just that. But for this section, we chose several that represent some of the diversity of applicants.

David E. Winchester is something of a Renaissance man, having pursued a range of interests. This doctor’s son makes no apologies for his privileged life; he has “no regrets” in this, his secondary essay. The next writer shows her artistic bent: She’s a singer, actress, musician, and composer. With her undergraduate theater and music experience, she provides an exception to the stereotypical MIT student, and she cleverly intertwines her art with the art of medicine.

We debated about including Robyn Hoelle’s essay here or in the “Turning Points” chapter, but we decided that Robyn’s experience really defined who she was. She uses sharp detail and a narrative style to describe what she learned about herself through her interest in children. Her connection to medical school is implicit rather than explicit and becomes clear in her penultimate sentence: “Witnessing their changes and my faith in these young people has instilled a hope for humanity and a hope that our actions make a difference.”

(CLICK HERE FOR ROBYN HOELLE’S ESSAY.)

Annemarie Stroustrup Smith uses vivid description to let the reader really see the writer’s perspective on important, career-shaping experiences. The eloquence of the composition undoubtedly helped this writer get into Harvard Medical School. Finally, Naveen Pemmaraju gives a well-balanced narrative of the moments in her life when she learned who she was and what she wanted.

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