Just met with a great pre-med student. I have had him in two classes and he is excellent. He carries a 3.9 GPA, has a great personality and a great work ethic. Here is the problem. He has a deformed left hand, from birth. He was born with no fingers. Several surgerys as a child put two small digits on his fist, about a cm or so long. One at about the index finger and one at about the little finger. I will write our med school letter for him and it will be a very strong letter. We discussed this problem and I really was unsure of how a med school would view this. I should add that I had him in two lab courses (micro and cell biology) and he was able to do everything others could, although a little slower. He also works at a hospital here, mainly in the ER, doing a lot of different things. He is going to get certified to put in catheters.
1. How would a med school view this in its admission process?
2. Should he mention this in his personal statement, as it has influenced his career path?
Thomas Lynch
We had a similar student just graduate from FP residency. She had to
develop some ways to deal with this during education and labs and this
continued into her medical school. Some of the procedures were a challenge,
and some were impossible.
These were not essential to her becoming a good physician and caring for
patients. She continues to do well as a physician and as a mother. If this
student needs more help, I could put her in contact with you.
Hopefully the school will concentrate on the 99% of things that this
student can do well and not focus on the 1% that this student will have a
challenge with, and will likely be able to avoid by career choice in
medicine.
rbowman@unmc.edu
Education - the entire pipeline