Essay Topics (2024 - 2025)

1. Use this area to justify and/or explain any academic hardships on your transcripts (any failed and/or repeated courses due to any reason)

2. Use this area to explain exceptions to these prerequisites at your institution.

3. Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please provide details of your activities/employment for the application year. (1200 character limit including spaces)

4. Describe why you would like to attend the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. What values, skills, talents, and life experiences would you contribute to our community? (1600 character limit including spaces)

5. Please share a meaningful community service experience outside of direct patient care that has been meaningful to you. What drew you to this particular experience? How did it contribute to your personal growth and learning? What aspects of your involvement did you find particularly fulfilling? (1600 character limit including spaces)

6. How have your previous experiences, whether in paid roles or volunteer work, shaped the skills and qualities you believe will be essential for success in medical school and as a future physician? These experiences do not necessarily have to involve direct patient care. (1600 character limit including spaces)

7. Describe a situation where you effectively demonstrated your leadership skills by guiding a group or organization towards a common goal or aligning their collective efforts. (1600 character limit including spaces)

8. Share a notable personal challenge that has influenced your personal growth. Discuss the insights gained about yourself and how these lessons will assist you in navigating challenges in medical school and your future career as a physician. Describe the support systems or resources you relied on and their impact on your journey. (1600 character limit including spaces)

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Essay Topics (’23 – ’24)

Prerequisites: (1600 char limit incl spaces)

1. Use this area to justify and/or explain any academic hardships on your transcripts (any failed and/or repeated courses due to any reason)

2. Use this area to explain exceptions to these prerequisites at your institution.

About Self:

3. Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please provide details of your activities/employment for the application year. (1200 char incl spaces)

4. Describe why you would like to attend the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. What values, skills, talents, and life experiences would you contribute to our community? (1600 char incl spaces)

Experience (1600 character limit incl. spaces):

5. Describe your most meaningful community service experience that is unrelated to direct patient care. Why did you select this particular experience? In what way did you grow and learn from this experience? What did you enjoy most?

6. What traits do you feel you have developed through your experiences thus far (such as paid or unpaid work experiences) that will help prepare you to be successful in medical school and a future physician. Experience does not need to be related to patient care.7

. Leadership can be defined in many ways. One way of defining leadership is as a set of behaviors used to help people align their collective direction, or lead a group or an organization. Tell us about a time you executed your leadership skills.

8. Please describe a significant personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped shape you as a person. Focus on what you learned about yourself and how it will help you during challenges you may face during medical school and as a future physician. Describe any support system and/or resources you had available and how you utilized them.

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Essay Topics ('22-'23)‍

1. Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please provide details of your activities/employment for the application year. (1200 characters)

2. Tell us why you would like to be admitted to the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. What makes you a good fit for our College of Medicine? (1600 characters)

3. Tell us about your most meaningful community service experience that is unrelated to direct patient care. How did you grow? What did you learn? What did you enjoy about serving others? (1600 characters)

4. You may have worked during or after college. Having to maintain paid employment can be challenging, yet it can also develop a number of qualities that can help you succeed in medical school, as well as beyond. Tell us about your most meaningful paid employment. What was it about the experience that made it meaningful? What qualities and skills did the job help you develop and strengthen? What traits do you feel you learned while with that employer and/or the work experience? Experience does not need to be related to patient care. If none, please write not applicable. (1600 characters)

5. Tell us about your leadership experience(s) and/or key leadership skills. (Organized a fundraiser, had club/organization officer role, etc.) How do you motivate or influence people? If none, please write not applicable. (1600 characters)

6. Briefly describe a situation where you had to overcome adversity; include lessons learned and how you think it will affect your career as a future physician. If none, please write not applicable. (1600 characters)

7. The Florida Atlantic University Schmidt College of Medicine has made a commitment to foster an inclusive environment in which every person in our medical school community has the ability to achieve their full potential. We are proud to have a medical school rich in cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity. What values, skills, talents, and life experiences would you contribute to our community? (1600 characters)

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Essay Topics ('21-'22)‍

1. Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please provide details of your activities/employment for the application year (1200 characters)

2. Tell us why you would like to be admitted to the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. What makes you a good fit for our College of Medicine? (1600 characters)

3. Your AMCAS application should reflect your community service experiences. However, tell us more about your most meaningful community service involvement, particularly an experience that really inspired you. How did your involvement move you? (Experience does not need to be related to patient care) (1600 characters)

4. Good leaders add value to the healthcare profession. They have passion, motivation, conflict resolution skills and integrity, among other attributes and traits. Tell us about your leadership experience(s) and/or key leadership skills. Have you organized a fund raiser, had a club organization/leadership role? How do you motivate or influence people? (1600 characters)

5. Briefly describe a situation where you had to overcome an obstacle or were faced by a difficult challenge or decision. What valuable lessons did you learn? How do you think the experience prepared you for a career as a future physician? (1600 characters)

6. Diversity means understanding that each individual is unique and recognizing our individual differences. Describe what uniqueness you would bring to the Schmidt COM. We are proud to already have a medical school rich in cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity. What values, skills, talents, and life experiences would you add to our culture? (1600 characters)

7. You may have worked during or after college. Having to maintain paid employment can be challenging, yet it can also develop a number of qualities that can help you succeed in medical school, as well as beyond. Tell us about your most meaningful paid employment. What was it about the experience that made it meaningful? What qualities and skills did the job help you develop and strengthen? (Experience does not need to be related to patient care, if none, please write none) (1600 characters)

8. As a community FAU Schmidt COM has made a commitment to be anti-racist and address systemic racism in education and healthcare. Institutionalized racism can be defined as “macro level systems, social forces, institutions, ideologies, and processes that interact with one another to generate and reinforce inequities among racial and ethnic groups.” As a future medical student at FAU, how can you play an active role in addressing and dismantling systemic racism? (1600 characters)

9. One of the values of the FAU Schmidt College of Medicine is to provide the best medical care for all people. A major challenge for all physicians to provide the best medical care are Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). These can be defined as “conditions in the social, physical, and economic environment in which people are born, live, work, and age.” What will you as a future doctor do to address SDOH? (1600 characters)

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Essay Topics (’20 – ’21)

1. Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please provide details of your activities/employment for the application year (1200 characters)

2. Tell us why you would like to be admitted to the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. What makes you a good fit for our College of Medicine? (1600 characters)

3. Tell us about your most meaningful community service experience. How did you grow? What did you learn? What did you enjoy about serving others? (not related to patient care, if none, please write none) (1600 characters)

4. Tell us about your leadership experience(s) and/or key leadership skills. (Organized a fund raiser, club/organization officer role, how do you motivate or influence people, if none, please write none) (1600 characters)

5. Briefly describe a situation where you had to overcome adversity; include lessons learned and how you think it will affect your career as a future physician (if none, please write none) (1600 characters)

6. Diversity means understanding that each individual is unique and recognizing our individual differences. Describe what uniqueness you would bring to the Schmidt College of Medicine. We are proud to already have a medical school rich in cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity. What values, skills, talents, and life experiences would you add to our culture? (1600 characters)

7. You may have worked during or after college. Having to maintain paid employment can be challenging, yet it can also develop a number of qualities that can help you succeed in medical school, as well as beyond. Tell us about your most meaningful paid employment. What was it about the experience that made it meaningful? What qualities and skills did the job help you develop and strengthen? What traits do you feel you learned while with that employer and/or the work experience? (Experience does not need to be related to patient care, if none, please write none) (1600 characters)

8. As a community Florida Atlantic University Schmidt College of Medicine has made a commitment to be anti-racist and address systemic racism in education and healthcare (http://med.fau.edu/home/diversity/index.php). Institutionalized racism can be defined as "macro level systems, social forces, institutions, ideologies, and processes that interact with one another to generate and reinforce inequities among racial and ethnic groups." As a future medical student at FAU, how can you play an active role in addressing and dismantling systemic racism (https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/health-equity/racism-and-health)? (1600 characters)

9. One of the values of the Florida Atlantic University Schmidt College of Medicine is to provide the best medical care for all people. A major challenge for all physicians to provide the best medical care are Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). These can be defined as "conditions in the social, physical, and economic environment in which people are born, live, work, and age." What will you as a future doctor do to address SDOH? (1600 characters)

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Essay Topics ('19-'20)‍

1. Use this area to justify and/or explain any academic hardships on your transcripts (any failed and/or repeated courses due to any reason) (1600 characters)

2. Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please provide details of your activities/employment for the application year. (1200 characters)

3. What MCAT course and when did you take?

4. Tell us why you would like to be admitted to the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. What makes you a good fit for our College of Medicine? (1600 characters)

5. Your AMCAS application should reflect your community service experiences. However, tell us more about your most meaningful community service involvement, particularly an experience that really inspired you. How did your involvement move you? (Experience does not need to be related to patient care, if none, please write none) (1600 characters)

6. Good leaders add value to the healthcare profession. They have passion, motivation, conflict resolution skills and integrity, among other attributes and traits. Tell us about your leadership experience(s) and/or key leadership skills. Have you organized a fund raiser, had a club/organization officer role? How do you motivate or influence people? (If none, please write none) (1600 characters)

7. Briefly describe a situation where you had to overcome an obstacle or were faced by a difficult challenge or decision. What valuable lessons did you learn? How you think the experience prepared you for a career as a future physician (If none, please write none) (1600 characters)

8. Diversity means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. Describe what uniqueness you would bring to the Schmidt College of Medicine. We are proud to already have a medical school rich in cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity. What values, skills, talents, and life experiences would you add to our culture? (1600 characters)

9. You may have worked during or after college. Having to maintain paid employment can be challenging, yet it can also develop a number of qualities that can help you succeed in medical school, as well as beyond. Tell us about your most meaningful paid employment. What was it about the experience that made it meaningful? What qualities and skills did the job help you develop and strengthen? (Experience does not need to be related to patient care, if none, please write none) (1600 characters)

Essay Topics ('18-'19)‍

1. The colleges mission is to advance the health and well-being of our community by training future generations of humanistic clinicians and scientists and translating discovery to patient-centered care. Therefore, as a community-based medical school, community service is important to the College. What community service activity was your most meaningful and do you currently continue to give your time to the activity? (1600 characters)

2. Our College believes in working collaboratively. Thus being able to work in a team is vital to the success of an FAU Medical Student, yet being able to lead is equally important. Give an example of when you were part of a team and had a leadership role. How did you influence your team members to carry out their tasks within the group? How did you perform in your role within the team? What did you learn from having to lead a team? Did any problems arise? How did you overcome them? What did you learn about being a part of a team, while also holding a leadership position? (1600 characters)

3. The FAU College of Medicine Admissions Committee is interested in learning more about you as a person. Please describe a noteworthy personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped to shape you as a person. Examples may include a moral and/or ethical dilemma, a situation of personal adversity, or a hurdle in your life that you worked hard to overcome. Please include how you got through the experience and what you learned about yourself as a result. (1600 characters)

4. Diversity is an array of things. What unique qualities and/or traits will you bring to our College? What distinctive attributes would you bring to the practice of medicine? What values, skills, talents, and life experiences “ and how you would add to the cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine? (1600 characters)

5. Have you held any type of paid employment? If so, please tell us about your most meaningful employment experience. What traits do you feel you learned while with that employer? (If you have not held paid employment, please write none) (1600 characters)

Essay Topics ('17 - '18)‍

1. Use this area to justify and/or explain any academic hardships on your transcripts (any failed and/or repeated courses due to any reason) (1600 characters)

2. Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please provide details of your activities/employment for the application year. (1200 characters)

3. Tell us why you would like to be admitted to the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. (1600 characters)

4. Tell us about your most meaningful community service experience. (not related to patient care if none, please write none) (1600 characters)

5. Tell us about your leadership experience(s) and/or key leadership skills. (Organized a fund raiser, club/organization officer role, how do you motivate or influence people, if none, please write none) (1600 characters)

6. Briefly describe a situation where you had to overcome adversity; include lessons learned and how you think it will affect your career as a future physician (if none, please write none) (1600 characters)

7. Describe what you would bring to the practice of medicine “ your values, skills, talents, and life experiences “ and how you would add to the cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. (1600 characters)

8. Tell us about your most meaningful employment experience. (not related to patient care, if none, please write none) (1600 characters)

Essay Topics ('16 - '17)‍

1. Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please provide details of your activities for the application year. (1200 characters)

2. In the event that you are accepted to two or more medicals schools, what factors would be most important in determining which school would be the "best fit" for you. (1200 characters)

3. Select an experience unrelated to science or medicine that you've had in each of the categories below. Just name the experience and then write a very brief statement about why you did the experience and/or what was the most important thing(s) you learned about yourself from doing it. You may write about a new experience or one listed in your AMCAS application. An experience may be used more than once. Leaving categories blank will not make your application incomplete. Limit your answers to the spaces provided.
- A community service experience (unrelated to science or patient care). (1200 characters)

- An employment experience (a job you held for pay unrelated to science or medicine). (1200 characters)

- A position of responsibility/authority (in which others depended on you for direction). (1200 characters)

- A creative endeavor (anything that required you to be creative in your approach, e.g. art, dance, music, computer programming, web site design, writing). (1200 characters)

- A situation in which you interacted with individuals who were different from you. (1200 characters)

- Sports, travel, pets, hobbies: Choose one of the following and write about it as you did in 1-5 above: a) a sport in which you participate or follow); b) your most memorable travel experience; c) pet(s) for which you provided care; or d) an avocation (most important thing you do for distraction). (1200 characters)

4. Describe any compelling reason you have to attend our College of Medicine. If none, leave blank. (1200 characters)

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Essay Topics ('15 - '16)

1. Whether or not you will be a full-time student, please provide details of your activities for the application year. (1200 characters)

2. In the event that you are accepted to two or more medicals schools, what factors would be most important in determining which school would be the "best fit" for you. (1200 characters)

3. Select an experience unrelated to science or medicine that you've had in each of the categories below. Just name the experience and then write a very brief statement about why you did the experience and/or what was the most important thing(s) you learned about yourself from doing it. You may write about a new experience or one listed in your AMCAS application. An experience may be used more than once. Leaving categories blank will not make your application incomplete. Limit your answers to the spaces provided.
- A community service experience (unrelated to science or patient care). (1200 characters)

- An employment experience (a job you held for pay unrelated to science or medicine). (1200 characters)

- A position of responsibility/authority (in which others depended on you for direction). (1200 characters)

- A creative endeavor (anything that required you to be creative in your approach, e.g. art, dance, music, computer programming, web site design, writing). (1200 characters)

- A situation in which you interacted with individuals who were different from you. (1200 characters)

- Sports, travel, pets, hobbies: Choose one of the following and write about it as you did in 1-5 above: a) a sport in which you participate or follow); b) your most memorable travel experience; c) pet(s) for which you provided care; or d) an avocation (most important thing you do for distraction). (1200 characters)

4. Describe any compelling reason you have to attend our College of Medicine. If none, leave blank. (1200 characters)

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Essay Topics ('14 - '15)

1. In the event that you are accepted to two or more medicals schools, what factors would be most important in determining which school would be the "best fit" for you. (1200 characters)

2. Select an experience unrelated to science or medicine that youve had in each of the categories below. Just name the experience and then write a very brief statement about why you did the experience and/or what was the most important thing(s) you learned about yourself from doing it. You may write about a new experience or one listed in your AMCAS application. An experience may be used more than once. Leaving categories blank will not make your application incomplete. Limit your answers to the spaces provided.

- A community service experience (unrelated to science or patient care). (1200 characters)

- An employment experience (a job you held for pay unrelated to science or medicine). (1200 characters)

- A position of responsibility/authority (in which others depended on you for direction). (1200 characters)

- A creative endeavor (anything that required you to be creative in your approach, e.g. art, dance, music, computer programming, web site design, writing). (1200 characters)

- A situation in which you interacted with individuals who were different from you. (1200 characters)  

- Sports, travel, pets, hobbies: Choose one of the following and write about it as you did in 1-5 above: a) a sport in which you participate or follow); b) your most memorable travel experience; c) pet(s) for which you provided care; or d) an avocation (most important thing you do for distraction). (1200 characters)

3. Describe any compelling humanitarian reason you have to attend our College of Medicine. If none, leave blank. (1200 characters limit)

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Essay Topics ('13 - '14)

1. In the event that you are accepted to two or more medicals schools, what factors would be most important in determining which school would be the "best fit" for you. (1200 characters limit)

2. Select an experience unrelated to science or medicine that you've had in each of the categories below. Just name the experience and then write a very brief statement about why you did the experience and/or what was the most important thing(s) you learned about yourself from doing it. You may write about a new experience or one listed in your AMCAS application. An experience may be used more than once. Leaving categories blank will not make your application incomplete. Limit your answers to the spaces provided.

- A community service experience (unrelated to science or patient care). (1200 characters)

 - An employment experience (a job you held for pay unrelated to science or medicine). (1200 characters)

 - A position of responsibility/authority (in which others depended on you for direction). (1200 characters)

- A creative endeavor (anything that required you to be creative in your approach, e.g. art, dance, music, computer programming, web site design, writing). (1200 characters)

- A situation in which you interacted with individuals who were different from you. (1200 characters)

  - Sports, travel, pets, hobbies: Choose one of the following and write about it as you did in 1-5 above: a) a sport in which you participate or follow); b) your most memorable travel experience; c) pet(s) for which you provided care; or d) an avocation (most important thing you do for distraction). (1200 characters)

3. Describe any compelling humanitarian reason you have to attend our College of Medicine. If none, leave blank. (1200 characters)