Creighton usually asks its applicants to describe how they’re going to carry out the school’s mission. It’s a somewhat annoying essay because it’s difficult to reuse one of your other essays here, and it’s usually one of the longer ones. I provided my response below from a couple of years ago.
How will you use your specific attributes and experiences to reinforce the Creighton University School of Medicine Mission? (2000 Characters)
Mission: In the Jesuit, Catholic tradition of Creighton University, the mission of the School of Medicine is to improve the human condition with a diverse body of students, faculty, and staff who provide excellence in educating students, physicians and the public, advancing knowledge and providing comprehensive patient care.
My passion for educating others, conducting research, and caring for the “whole person” will allow me to reinforce the mission of Creighton University School of Medicine.
My passion for education began in college and continues to this day. After taking and enjoying science classes in college, I decided to tutor another undergraduate student in the areas of physics, organic chemistry, and physiology. Through these tutoring sessions, I realized how rewarding it felt to help another person gain a deeper understanding of science. As a physician, I hope to continue to educate others by helping patients understand the diseases that afflict them.
In addition to education, I am also passionate about advancing our current level of knowledge through research. When working as an undergraduate researcher, I enjoyed attempting to find solutions to unanswered questions in science, planning out my experiments, and analyzing data to support or refute my hypotheses. I hope to be able to use the analytical and critical thinking skills that I learned from this experience in future research projects as a medical student and physician.
Other experiences in college have shown me the importance of providing patients with comprehensive care. Recently, I watched a friend’s health deteriorate. His social life, ability concentrate and work, and his general outlook on life have all been affected. After seeing how a physical condition can negatively impact so many aspects of a person’s life, I have realized the necessity in caring for the social, psychological, and spiritual well being of a patient, in addition to addressing his or her physical symptoms.
As a physician, I hope to continue to educate others, advance knowledge through research, and provide patients with comprehensive care. Through these three acts, I believe I can make the most impact as a physician.
Analyzing this secondary response
It’s hard to fit three points (science, research, and comprehensive care) into this essay due to the character count. Ideally, though, I would have liked to have gone into more depth on the three points if I could have. Maybe focusing on one point instead of three would have been better.