DO personal statement concern

SDN Members don't see this ad. (About Ads)

...

if you have really good legit personal experiences it may not hurt you at al. I would look at the mission of each school first though and see what they're looking for. But all these people that lie about having passion in primary care on their PS...if you guys get called out, i hope you guys can BS on your feet. When you get asked "why surgery" youll have some real good reasons. DO general surgery is becoming popular.

Originally Posted by jbscharping

Hello everyone,

I had experiences early on that led me to want to become a physician, but more specifically, a surgeon. But since the OM philosophy is more directed towards primary care, do you think it could hurt me to be specific by writing that I see myself becoming a surgeon?

Thank you!

If it's general surgery it should be fine. General surgery is sometimes considered primary care and plenty of DOs match GS. However, I wouldn't say you want to be s.neurosurgeon or urologist.

Its my feeling that the PS is a bit more about motives for medicine in general. I don't think they want to hear what you'd like to specialize in as much as why medicine in general.

If you have a good story, which happens to involve surgery, even a sub specialty (I did as well), then Id focus more on why that experience motivated you to help people as a physician in general. Chances are, we'll all change our minds a few times as we progress through medical training and education.

Good luck

Concur with this; if you put the best possible spin that you're highly motivated about primary care (which is where the AOA wants you to go), then you'll be fine.

Originally Posted by cliquesh

If it's general surgery it should be fine. General surgery is sometimes considered primary care and plenty of DOs match GS. However, I wouldn't say you want to be s.neurosurgeon or urologist.

...

Originally Posted by jbscharping

I think that I'm pretty convincingly showing that I love connecting with each person I meet and am good at it as well. In my opinion, this is the foundation of primary care. What do you guys think?

That sounds like the foundation of any medical specialty, except pathology of course.

No, absolutely not.

Believe it or not, some adcoms for DO schools actually wanted your genuine reason as to why you'd want to attend DO school instead of just throwing the same generic reason( Oh, because DO is holistic). (I got this vibe a lot from just going to the interviews)

It is true that DO schools compared to MD are sometimes at disadvantages when providing students chances of getting into top specialties like something in surgery.
But they give you that chance of becoming a physician nonetheless and you still have a shot at being a surgeon.

Originally Posted by qwerty2012

No, absolutely not.

Believe it or not, some adcoms for DO schools actually wanted your genuine reason as to why you'd want to attend DO school instead of just throwing the same generic reason( Oh, because DO is holistic). (I got this vibe a lot from just going to the interviews)

It is true that DO schools compared to MD are sometimes at disadvantages when providing students chances of getting into top specialties like something in surgery.
But they give you that chance of becoming a physician nonetheless and you still have a shot at being a surgeon.

Since this is for the PS, I think its more of a general, why medicine, as opposed to why DO, which will come in the secondary essays.


Thats my opinion at least

There is no real right way to write a personal statement. I wrote about the speciality I was interested in at the time. I think as long as its coherent it should be fine.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=536199

I found this thread to be helpful. Its old but its a good starting guide.

...