Is this a good topic for my common app essay?

College Essays
1

I’m doing prompt #4 which is …Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution…
I was planning on writing about how I went to India and witnessed poverty and lack of medical care for the impoverished. I also want to mention how I want to become a doctor and help people in third world countries gain access to healthcare. I’m not sure if this is a appropriate topic for the prompt so any critiquing and suggestions will be helpful! Thanks

2

IMO that is a fine topic.

3

That’s a great topic! This topic allows you to demonstrate that you are a driven and reflective individual. You could do a lot with an essay topic like that.

4

It sounds compelling.

But just FYI, it sounds almost exactly like an essay I proofread on this site a month or so ago.

Maybe you could zero in on some smaller aspect of how what you saw impacted you?

5

No, it’s not a great topic. It’s an ADEQUATE topic, and not particularly interesting. You do realize that the AdComms will be reading hundreds (if not thousands) of similarly themed “I did a poverty tourism trip, and it inspired me to be a doctor” essays. Even @bjkmom wrote:

Saying you want to “help people in third world countries gain access to healthcare” is a generic motherhood statement like saying, “I want to solve global hunger” or “I want world peace”.

Plus, it sounds more like a “this is the reason I chose this major/profession” essay, rather than a “how I solved a problem/dilemma” essay.

6

Does not really address the prompt in an interesting way.

“Explain…what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution”

Step 1: become doctor.
Step 2: help people.

It’s simple and not very compelling.

7

I was actually going to talk about how I struggled to keep my grades up during fresh. and soph. year and how I took the steps to improve my grades first to prepare me for college/med school