UT College of Medicine and Life Sciences offers an education that emphasizes the importance of treating patients as individuals and incorporating the latest research available in their training. After the first year, students have the opportunity to participate in paid summer research positions. Students complete clerkships during their third and fourth years with the option of serving patients abroad in the fourth year.
Their mission statement is, “The mission of The University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences is to improve health in the communities and region we serve. We do this by educating excellent clinicians and scientists, by providing patient centered and high-quality care and by producing nationally recognized research in focused areas.”
University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences 2022-23 secondary application essay questions
UToledo COM essay #1
One of the AAMC Core Competencies for entering medical students involves cultural competence. The competency involves several distinct domains, including:
a. Demonstrating knowledge of socio-cultural factors that affect interactions and behaviors;
b. Showing an appreciation and respect for multiple dimensions of diversity;
c. Recognizing and acting on the obligation to inform one’s own judgment;
d. Engaging diverse and competing perspectives as a resource for learning, citizenship, and work;
e. Recognizing and appropriately addressing bias in selves and others;
f. Interacting effectively with people from diverse backgrounds.
Discuss a specific experience from your life that you feel demonstrates your level of competence in one of the above domains. (Clearly indicate which of the six domains above that you are responding to.) As part of your discussion, explain how you feel this experience will impact your future contribution to the culture of diversity and inclusion at The University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences and later in your career as a physician.
This is quite an involved prompt. It is, essentially, their diversity question. It’s likely they provide these prompts to foster more explicit responses over vague or generalizing “pro-diversity” responses. To answer any one of the domains, one needs to engage diversity from a position of awareness and understanding of diversity as a necessary value for physicians. If you haven’t done so yet, take a little time to educate yourself on medicine and diversity, and on the key words in the domain you feel speaks to you.
For instance, upon answering domain a or b, select a story in which you played an active role in alleviating language or cultural barriers. Can you highlight the interpersonal communication skills that you have and any additional languages that you speak? Effective examples would include translating for people who don’t speak the same language or communicating religious or cultural differences that could cause confusion for others. For example, a student from a Hmong or Laotian background who understands this community’s lack of trust for Western Medicine could describe how they successfully helped organize and host free health clinics through a church in the community to provide health check-ups.
There are many different examples that would fit well for this essay question. The key will be answering one domain prompt with a story that demonstrates your level of awareness and sensitivity to others, building bridges rather than isolating one perspective to prioritize another.
UToledo COM essay #2
One of the AAMC Core Competencies for entering medical students involves resilience and adaptability. This competency involves the ability to tolerate stressful or changing environments or situations and adapt effectively to them. Additional characteristics of this competency are persistence and the ability to recover from setbacks.
Discuss a specific experience from your life that you feel demonstrates your level of competence in resilience and adaptability as described above. As part of your discussion, explain how you feel this experience will help you meet new challenges you may face in medical school.
Choose an experience that did not go according to your plans or expectations. How did you carry on? How did you rebound, find an alternative path, change course, go to plan B?
How does the story you tell demonstrate how you will be resilient or adaptable in medical school? Feel free to talk about teamwork here, and consider utilizing resources, chains of command, peer and community resources, if relevant, to help frame your answer not as an isolated individual resolving a problem, but someone who is already part of a team, community, culture or cohort.
UToledo COM essay #3 (Optional)
Please use the space below for anything you might wish to discuss related to the corona virus (COVID-19) public health crisis. Possible topics might include, for example: your biggest lessons and insights from the pandemic; creative ways in which you were able to serve your community during the crisis; hardships you may have faced as a result of the virus or quarantine. (You will have an opportunity to specifically discuss impacts to your coursework/grades in a separate item.) (600 words)
Many schools ask a question like this one this year. However, there is a distinct difference between this COVID-19 question and what many other schools ask. Most ask what is in the parenthesis. This prompt is about the broader learning, insight and inspiration — and about how this insight brought you to serve a community, an organization, or your family (if you were personally affected) during the pandemic. How did your knowledge of health and health care change due to the pandemic?
Has this blog post helped you feel more confident about approaching your UToledo secondary application? We hope so. It’s our mission to help smart, talented applicants like you gain acceptance to your top choice medical school. With so much at stake, why not hire a consultant whose expertise and personalized guidance can help you make your dream come true? We have several flexible consulting options— check out Accepted’s Medical School Admissions Consulting and Editing Services.
University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences 2022-23 application timeline
| AMCAS submission deadlines | November 15 |
| Preliminary processing of AMCAS applications | Mid-July – November 1 |
Source: University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences website
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