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Anyone ever try contacting their high school English and History teachers to help edit their personal statements? How did it go? Did they agree? Were their comments helpful?
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Their comments will be of no help. By the time you are getting to applying to medical school, remember that you are as well educated now as your high school teachers are. Crazy to think about, but you will get much higher yield advice from your peers and college advisers.
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I don't think it's necessarily a matter of education though? Learning is a life long-process. And high school teachers have decades of experience grading essays and helping students improve their writing.
High school English teachers in particular tend to be extremely passionate about their jobs.
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I definitely am not looking to denigrate the work of high school teachers because, as you say, they are very passionate about their jobs and they tend to be good at it. However, they have spent decades reading and grading essays for 14 - 17 years olds. In the vast majority of cases, the worst essay you could produce will be better than the best essay most high school students could produce. A high school english teacher knows english, yes. But they will likely not be very familiar with providing any constructive criticism on a graduate school/professional school personal statement. They certainly can provide feedback, but if the majority of premed advisers can barely provide that kind of feedback, I have a difficult time believing that a high school english teacher could produce better results.
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I don't know, I still think having a few good colleagues and maybe a physician going over it would be more beneficial, but then again having as many eyes on it as possible would be beneficial in some capacity.
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No, that totally sounds right. Most first draft personal statements are utter nonsense. Now, if that is what most college students produce, imagine what these high school teachers are used to?
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Having someone who writes well review your personal statement makes all the sense in the world. As to whether a HS humanities teacher fits that bill, that likely varies by individual. Personally, I would be inclined to seek review at a college writing center, or from someone who writes for a living (attorney, journalist, etc.), rather than a HS teacher.
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Maybe I'm just being naive by thinking that high school teachers have excellent writing skills. Or maybe you guys are just a tad bit pretentious 
Lol jk.
I'll send it over and look at what they have to say and report back on here regarding how useful their comments were!
Lol jk.I'll send it over and look at what they have to say and report back on here regarding how useful their comments were!
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This group (of which I am a member) is surely a bit pretentious; however, it is also often accurate.Maybe I'm just being naive by thinking that high school teachers have excellent writing skills. Or maybe you guys are just a tad bit pretentious
I'll send it over and look at what they have to say and report back on here regarding how useful their comments were!
Like every profession, there are teachers that are great and those that are not. Many high school English teachers can offer excellent guidance and edits, but they are likely not proficient in personal statements for medical school. However, their grammatical and spelling edits would likely be on point, just not the message you are trying to get across. I think AAMC offers a personal statement reviewer guide/checklist that might help them.
As for types of papers high school teachers read, my sister told me that quite a few students turned in papers written like this: ThIs Is HoW hIgH sChOoLeRs WrItE. Granted, that was nearly a decade ago and it was likely a macro/add-on to Word, but come on.
As for types of papers high school teachers read, my sister told me that quite a few students turned in papers written like this: ThIs Is HoW hIgH sChOoLeRs WrItE. Granted, that was nearly a decade ago and it was likely a macro/add-on to Word, but come on.
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You must be thinking of someone else.
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Wasn't me either. Most PS's gel after a while.
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I don't think it's a good idea. HS teachers read a lot of HS papers. What's riveting to someone who reads a ton of high school seniors' essays may not be riveting to someone who reads a lot of professional school essays.
Go to your premed advisor, or even research mentors who need to admit graduate students. You want people who read essays at your level. "Life experience" has little to do with it. You need someone who understands how an adcom works and what they want.
And I think just maybe you're looking for an excuse to call up your favorite teacher and say "look at me! I'm applying to medical school!" .. no shame in that of course.
Go to your premed advisor, or even research mentors who need to admit graduate students. You want people who read essays at your level. "Life experience" has little to do with it. You need someone who understands how an adcom works and what they want.
And I think just maybe you're looking for an excuse to call up your favorite teacher and say "look at me! I'm applying to medical school!" .. no shame in that of course.
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Am I the only one who is friends on Facebook with my high school robotics coach and physics teacher? Can’t be the only one lol
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And I think just maybe you're looking for an excuse to call up your favorite teacher and say "look at me! I'm applying to medical school!" .. no shame in that of course.
That didn’t even cross my mind lol
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History teacher lol. As someone else mentioned, sounds like you definitely have a thing for wanting to impress your high schools teachers, and from the looks of it, the history teacher.
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We had a lot of essays in history class.
You can believe what you want. I'm sorry that you think so poorly of the people you interact with.
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I dont think poor of people I interact with, but sometimes their sense of humor can be poor, or absent.
As in, maybe you liked your history teacher specifically and this could warrant that interaction. Its harmless theorizing.
More of a playful tone, but alright, we can turn up the serious dial.
1.) I'm not being pretentious.
2.) It is generally well-known that high school teachers are not the most reliable bunch when looking over personal statements, not entirely due to lack of writing ability, but also due to not doing it often or as part of their career.
3.) Serious advice would warrant you to even try having pre-med advisers look over it, real med school staff look over it, med. school peers look over, etc. before out branching more than that.
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What made you think I haven't done that already?
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It's a universal statement I would give to anyone looking for help, not an assumption good sir.
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I've had multiple people look over my personal statement, including med students, residents, and my pre med advisor. I thought of sending it to my high school teachers because they taught me well and were excellent writers. I made this thread to see if anyone else did that as well. That's all there is to it.
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I'm sure plenty do for college admissions essays. But this is a whole new game.
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Try research mentors, college professors and also, they should be familiar with the context of what you are writing about. PS essays are hardly like regular english papers and so its ideal if the person is familiar with grad school admissions writing.
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LOLOLOLOL I had like 30 people edit my PS....RIP.
On a serious note, what I did with my PS was receive feedback from 4 or 5 people all on the same draft, read through all of their comments to gain a general idea of where to improve, then edited it based on the amalgamation of their feedback, then sent it out to 4 or 5 new people, rinse and repeat. Send it back to the same people 2 or 3 drafts later to get some "check up" feedback.
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Haha wow. That's certainly one way of doing it. I literally wrote mine in over a day and had 2-3 ppl read it and then send it out for verification
I’d definitely ask my hs English teachers for editing advice (if I was close to any of them, which I’m not). So many of the PSs I have read have straight forward issues in basic composition skills: paragraphs that aren’t organized properly, main ideas that aren’t emphasized, statements that aren’t given supporting evidence, horrendous grammar. Maybe I went to a really good high school but these were all things that were taught. I’d likewise trust anyone with an English degree or similar background to review my professional writing (though perhaps not like, if I were writing a science paper).
