Medicine Personal Statement
For me, medicine is one of the most diverse, exciting and difficult professions in the world, where interpersonal skills and scientific dexterity are united and where the potential rewards are unparalleled. This mix of academia and personal care puts medicine far above the rest as the career for me.
The neurosurgery ward at Addenbrooke's Hospital can be a forlorn place to volunteer. I remember three girls - patients - just after I started, so young, not a year older than me. It was heartbreaking. They should have been out with their friends or shopping with their mums, not sick in hospital. I want to do medicine to make people like them better or make them smile when medicine can do no more. I volunteer at disabled swimming classes for children. They are often stubborn about doing the exercises but I have learnt how to get them to cooperate. This ability to step back, observe a situation and then act accordingly I feel will help me as a doctor. Volunteering for Radio Addenbrooke's I gather song requests from the wards. As I was talking to one of the patients, Richard, I noticed something strange about his eyes - they were yellow, as was his face and arms; in fact, all of him was yellow. Seeing the manifestation of a disease that I had only read about was thrilling. Yet, I could not help but think what had happened in this man's life, to his liver, that resulted in that dramatic change of hue. It showed me that medicine is a science of many dimensions; there is always going to be a story, a life and a favourite record, behind the disease.
My favourite part of AS biology was the lymphatic system - passively filling and emptying, taking toxins and white blood cells around the body: our silent army. Every tiny task in the human body is executed by a tailor-made network of chemical signals and cells. Having such intricate webs of energy hidden beneath our skin is riveting. Medicine, being the discipline devoted to these vital processes, is going to be a profound and stimulating study. A highlight of AS chemistry was making aspirin. I was so proud of our little flakes of crystal; it made the drug come alive as something more than a chemical equation. It filled me with excitement that in medicine I will be seeing real diseases, learning the science and putting these drugs to use.
Beside my subjects, I enjoy wider reading. Books I have read include 'The Selfish Gene', 'Six Months In Sudan', 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat' and 'Musicophilia'. I also listen to podcasts. In one of Vilayanur Ramachandran's enticing TED talks he speaks of synesthesia and how it is eight times more common in artistic people. The link between the condition and professions was charming and beautifully logical. The Cambridge Science Festival gave me the opportunity to attend a lecture on photosensitive retinal ganglion cells. I was amazed by how a woman could correctly guess whether the light of a room was on or off despite being completely blind. This was new research, showing me that science will never fail to astound.
Within College, I am a member of the orchestra and choir. This increases my musicality, confidence and improves my team skills. I am also enjoying the International Chemistry Olympiad. I help at College events and am a chemistry mentor for AS students.
Outside of College, I play the clarinet (obtaining my grade 8 this summer), saxophone and piano. I volunteer in a charity shop and am learning British Sign Language. I enjoy photography and to let off steam I play squash and bake.
I have not had to make many life changing decisions but putting A100 on my UCAS form is one of very few I am so sure of. This certainty is not superficial. It comes from reading, studying, sitting in lecture halls and fetching countless copies of 'The Express' for people who can barely stand. Each long word I have to Google, each pain-stricken patient I see only makes me surer that I have what it takes to be a doctor and a fine one at that.
Universities Applied to: Bart's, Oxford, Bristol, Imperial
- Bart's - offer AAA
- Oxford - rejection without interview
- Bristol - rejection after interview
- imperial - rejection after interview
Grades Achieved: A*A*A
- maths (A2) - A*
- chemistry (A2) - A*
- biology (A2) - A
- f maths as - B
- music AS - b
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