Sample Essay - Sample College Admissions Essay - A Dissection

Sample Essay - A Dissection

I think that the first time that science really made sense was in seventh grade, when a frog lay splayed out on the desk in front of me. The stench of formaldehyde made my eyes water and my stomach churn, but I did not really notice, fascinated by the still form, its innards arranged in neat array under the flap I had incised in its abdomen. Inside were the precise engineering marvels, finer than the gearings within a Swiss watch, each perfectly evolved through a process I had only read about and never truly understood. Here was the basis for religion, the faith in a higher power that actually represents faith in the innumerable and incomprehensible wonders of nature.

I have always enjoyed observing patterns: the point and counterpoint in Beethoven's 15th string quartet and the intricate fingerings and crescendo in his Kreutzer sonata, for example, as well as the rise and fall of the empires of history. It is the intricate patterns of life, however, that particularly fascinate me, and my brief surgery on the frog led me to envision a career in medicine. On the surface it seems simple, painless (for the doctor), and rewarding; just put the jigsaw puzzle of life back together in some semblance of order: a drug here, an incision there, and the patient will be cured.

However, the flip side of the coin terrifies me: what if those jigsaw pieces will not fit back into place? What if something goes wrong, an artery bursts, the patient hemorrhages and dies within seconds? Science is beautiful in an abstract sense when dealing with grand theories, words on a page, even the peaceful revelations of the frog, but perhaps the frog was not a good analogy for the experience of medicine. After all, there was no danger; it had already passed on. If I had to explain to a grieving family why they have lost their young daughter, however, the crushing realities might become just a little too real.

Nevertheless, working hands-on would be more satisfying to me than to remain in abstraction, in a world that, while appealing in its lack of emotional trauma, offers relatively little in the way of direct human application and personal reward. Surely in medicine there must exist great triumphs, something to balance the overwhelming defeats. The common medical adage is that "it never gets easy." I suppose this is true. In a way, I hope that it is because, while some might believe that emotions cloud the mind of a superior doctor, I believe that to truly be a good doctor one must live in constant awe and fear. Those are emotions I possess in abundance: awe at the beauty of life and fear at its fragility.

This essay was excerpted from a book written by your Guide.

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