Explain previous performance in SMP personal statement?

[vanillasky123]

I'm having a lot of trouble writing personal statements for SMPs because I'm not really sure what they are looking for... Would they rather have me explain my previous weak performance and how I plan to improve (aka why I want to attend a SMP) should I focus more on why I want to be a doctor (like a medical school personal statement)? I'm just trying to figure out what the focus of these essays should be. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

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[DrMidlife]

An SMP personal statement is expected to be exactly the same as a med school personal statement unless the program specifically gives you other instructions.

In general you want your personal statement to focus on your strengths, with humility and gratitude. The way to do this for a GPA comeback is to briefly cover the successful interventions you've staged to fix your problems and prevent their recurrence. If you expect an SMP to be where you will fix those problems, then it's harder to sell.

Best of luck to you.

 

[vanillasky123]

In that case, is it necessary to also tailor the statement to each individual school? I just feel like the essay may be trying to deal with too much because in addition to saying you want to go to med school, you also have to say why you want to do that particular SMP. I'm having trouble finding that balance without making the essay too long and unorganized.

 

[DrMidlife]

No, the reasons why you want to go to a particular school never go in a PS unless you are specifically instructed to address them in your PS.

It was a long time ago when I applied to SMPs, but there was always a part in the application for "why this program?" and/or to address academic anomalies.

Regretting that I answered this.