Essay Topics (2024 - 2025)
1. The Quillen College of Medicine has a very specific mission. What are your personal and professional goals as a future provider of healthcare? How do your goals align with the Quillen mission? (1500 characters)
2. Quillen College of Medicine's curriculum is uniquely designed to foster excellence in clinical practice through active in-person participation and peer co-learning. This approach demands individual preparation and engagement in participatory class sessions. We believe in the importance of mutual coaching among peers to facilitate deep learning and we recognize that valuable learning experiences extend beyond academic contexts and can be found in all areas of life. We want to know that you can thrive in our community. Please reflect on the significance of this learning model in your personal and professional development. Consider the following points to structure your response (1500 characters):
Feel free to draw on experiences from both academic and non-academic contexts to illustrate your points.
3. Choose one of following questions and indicate the letter (A, B, or C) you are responding to (1500 characters):
A. Quillen College of Medicine recognizes that many barriers exist for those from historically underrepresented communities. As a physician you will have opportunities to foster an environment of change for your patients and community. Please share with us reflections on how your life experiences impacted the development of your values and attitudes towards others, particularly those with backgrounds or values different from your own.
B. The stress of medical school can impact a student’s mental health and emotional well-being. Discuss ways you plan to manage your health and well-being during medical school.
C. Use this space to tell the committee anything else about yourself that you have not had the opportunity to present elsewhere in your application.
Essay Topics (’23 – ’24)
(All max 1500 character counts)
1. What makes you interested in Quillen? Discuss your perceptions on how attending Quillen would align with your future goals and your hopes for how it will shape you into the physician you want to become.
2. Social justice, systemic racism, and equity for all have been at the forefront of national conversations. Quillen College of Medicine recognizes that many barriers still exist for persons of color and those from historically underrepresented communities. As a physician you will have opportunities to foster an environment of change for your patients and community. Please share with us your reflections on how your life experiences have impacted the development of your values and attitudes toward others, particularly those with backgrounds or values different from your own.
3. Applicant choice. Please select only one of the following questions to answer. Be sure to indicate your choice by starting with the number associated with the question:
Essay Topics ('22-'23)
1. What makes you interested in Quillen? Discuss your perceptions on how attending Quillen would align with your future goals and your hopes for how it will shape you into the physician you want to become. (1500 characters)
2. Social justice, systemic racism, and equity for all have been at the forefront of national conversations. Quillen College of Medicine recognizes that many barriers still exist for persons of color and those from historically underrepresented communities. As a physician you will have opportunities to foster an environment of change for your patients and community. Please share with us your reflections on how your life experiences have impacted the development of your values and attitudes toward others, particularly those with backgrounds or values different from your own. (1500 characters)
3. Applicant choice. Please select only one of the following questions to answer. Be sure to indicate your choice by starting with the number associated with the question: (1500 characters)
a. There is no doubt that the level of stress brought on by medical schools can impact a student's mental health and emotional well-being. Discuss the ways you plan to manage your own health and well-being during medical school.
b. Describe an experience you have had during your life that has given you a unique understanding of human suffering and what did you learn from this experience?
c. Use this space to tell the committee anything else about yourself that you have not had the opportunity to present elsewhere in your application
Essay Topics ('21-'22)
1. What obstacles have you faced gaining experiences important to your medical school application and what were your solutions? (1500 characters)
2. Social justice, systemic racism, and equity for all have been at the forefront of national conversations. Quillen College of Medicine recognizes that many barriers still exist for persons of color and those from historically underrepresented communities. As a physician you will have opportunities to foster an environment of change for your patients and community. Please share with us your reflections on how your life experiences have impacted the development of your values and attitudes toward others, particularly those with backgrounds or values different from your own. (3000 characters)
3. Discuss how your attitudes and perceptions will help foster a positive learning environment while in medical school and how they will benefit your future patients through the practice of medicine. (1500 characters)
Essay Topics (’20 – ’21)
1. What about Quillen makes it a good fit for you, and what makes you a good fit for Quillen? (750 characters)
2. How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed what you think medical school should prepare you to do? (750 characters)
3. Describe a personal challenge from which you learned something of enduring value. Explain how you think that will influence your medical education and career. (750 characters)
Essay Topics ('19-'20)
1. Why do you believe training at Quillen College of Medicine would be of particular benefit to you? (750 characters)
2. Why is the primary care physician important in today's world? (750 characters)
3. How will your background, life experiences, and so forth, affect the way you choose your future practice of medicine? (750 characters)
4. What do you view as the largest health issue(s) impacting rural or underserved communities? (750 characters)
5. Apart from treating patients, physicians play important roles in their community. What roles would you see yourself playing in the community you will eventually serve?
Essay Topics ('18-'19)
1. The AMCAS application is not designed to capture unique, special, or unusual circumstances. With this in mind, what other information would help the Admissions Committee obtain a more comprehensive picture of your candidacy?
2. If there have been breaks in your school attendance since high school, or if you ever carried less than a full-time course load in college, or if you took more than four years to finish college, what did you choose to do with the time and why?
3. What endeavors other than medicine have you abandoned or postponed in order to pursue your current path, and how did you make those decisions?
4. Why would you be a good fit for Quillen?
Essay Topics ('17 - '18)
1. The AMCAS application is not designed to capture unique, special, or unusual circumstances. With this in mind, what other information would help the Admissions Committee obtain a more comprehensive picture of your candidacy?
2. If there have been breaks in your school attendance since high school, or if you ever carried less than a full-time course load in college, or if you took more than four years to finish college, what did you choose to do with the time and why?
3. What endeavors other than medicine have you abandoned or postponed in order to pursue your current path, and how did you make those decisions?
4. Why would you be a good fit for Quillen?
Essay Topics ('16 - '17)
1. The AMCAS application is not designed to capture unique, special, or unusual circumstances. With this in mind, what other information would help the Admissions Committee obtain a more comprehensive picture of your candidacy?
2. If there have been breaks in your school attendance since high school, or if you ever carried less than a full-time course load in college, or if you took more than four years to finish college, what did you choose to do with the time and why?
3. What endeavors other than medicine have you abandoned or postponed in order to pursue your current path, and how did you make those decisions?
4. Why would you be a good fit for Quillen?
Essay Topics ('15 - '16)
1. The AMCAS application is not designed to capture unique, special, or unusual circumstances. With this in mind, what other information would help the Admissions Committee obtain a more comprehensive picture of your candidacy?
2. If there have been breaks in your school attendance since high school, or if you ever carried less than a full-time course load in college, or if you took more than four years to finish college, what did you choose to do with the time and why?
3. What endeavors other than medicine have you abandoned or postponed in order to pursue your current path, and how did you make those decisions?
4. Why would you be a good fit for Quillen?
Essay Topics ('14 - '15)
1. The AMCAS application is not designed to capture unique, special, or unusual circumstances. With this in mind, what other information would help the Admissions Committee obtain a more comprehensive picture of your candidacy?
2. If there have been breaks in your school attendance since high school, or if you ever carried less than a full-time course load in college, or if you took more than four years to finish college, what did you choose to do with the time and why?
3. What endeavors other than medicine have you abandoned or postponed in order to pursue your current path, and how did you make those decisions?
4. Why would you be a good fit for Quillen?
Essay Topics ('13 - '14)
1. "I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug." Without summarizing the literal meaning of this statement, explain what it means to you personally.
2. Two 18 year old boys suffer a badly broken leg on the football field. One is the son of a well-insured businessman, and the other the son of a divorced, convenience store clerk with no health insurance. Both require orthopedic care and follow up. When the insured father calls for ortho appointments, they gladly schedule his son in the next day or so. When the uninsured mom calls for ortho appointments, the office tells her that the next "free clinic" visit they have open is in two weeks, or she could come to the office with $350.00 cash for the initial visit, which she does not have. As a future physician, how will you be a part of the solution to the problem highlighted by this scenario?
3. To which historical figure do you think would you relate well and why?
4. What, other than your faith, family, and career, do you value most and why?
5. People often respond to stress in very different ways based on past experiences and/or personality traits. Whether it be a single, devastating event or a lengthy battle, please describe a stressful experience you have endured and what measures you took to handle it.
6. If overwhelming tragedy were to fall on you today, how would you get through it? Upon whom do you lean when things get unbearably tough?
7. The Quillen College of Medicine routinely receives several hundred applications each year from well-qualified applicants. Please use this space to explain why we should consider you above these other applicants.
.png){kind=spacer}
