including getting rejected from med school previously in personal statement?

[dedicated1989]

Being a re applicant I obviously was rejected the first time around.

As this was part of my growth to where I am now I was wondering if I should state it at all in my personal statement. I basically have a line that goes something like this:

" Four years of undergrad pasand the time had finally come to apply to medical school. Unfortunately, my first application cycle did not result in an acceptance."

This continues onto what I did next…

I have received mixed feedback so I was hoping if someone from ADCOM could shed some light?

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[dedicated1989]

passed by quickly and **

 

[dedicated1989]

Thanks! I am not going to include it!

 

[woltej1]

yea, just about every secondary will ask that. You PS should show why you want to be a physician, so that should've been present before your first application anyways.

 

[knightman13]

I personally included it on mine and discussed it in many interviews this cycle. Never had any negative feedback towards it and I have been admitted to 8 schools.

 

[Spicegirl07]

No need to draw unnecessary attention to your reapplication imo. Yes it could add to show your "growth" but most people grow and change in a year, regardless of reapplication.

I did not mention it in my PS and wouldn't suggest it. I did mention it in secondaries to discuss what I did after to improve my app however.

^ agreed. You will have plenty of opportunity to explain how you changed on your app both on secondaries and interviews and on the off chance you apply to a different school you will not be labeled a re-applicant as , they will wonder why you didn't apply to them in the last cycle.

 

[QofQuimica]

No. The PS should answer the question, "why medicine?" Hopefully you have a better answer than, "Four years of undergrad pass and the time had finally come to apply to medical school."

 

[AliciaAccepted]

Being a re applicant I obviously was rejected the first time around.

As this was part of my growth to where I am now I was wondering if I should state it at all in my personal statement. I basically have a line that goes something like this:

" Four years of undergrad pasand the time had finally come to apply to medical school. Unfortunately, my first application cycle did not result in an acceptance."

This continues onto what I did next…

I have received mixed feedback so I was hoping if someone from ADCOM could shed some light?

After reviewing applications for five years for the UC Davis School of Medicine Postbaccalaureate Program, I actually really appreciated it when applicants were comfortable discussing their rejection in their personal statements, secondary essays and interviews. It takes a lot of courage to talk about receiving a rejection. The decisions you make after experiencing such a setback can be very inspirational. I recommend including it in your personal statement. Adcoms love honesty and applicants who overcome any obstacles to reach their academic goals. Some questions for you to consider when writing about your rejection:

1. Why did you decide to reapply to medical school?
2. What did you do to improve your application?
3. How has this experience changed the way that you will approach your life goals?

The brain processes rejection like physical injury. If you recently received the rejection, you may need to give yourself some time before writing about it. Be kind to yourself. Learn from the experience by requesting feedback on your application. Change as much as you can before reapplying!

For more information on evaluating your application after receiving a rejection, please see this article.

 

[dedicated1989]

@AliciaAccepted great link you posted! thanks for the insight

 

[QofQuimica]

After reviewing applications for five years for the UC Davis School of Medicine Postbaccalaureate Program, I actually really appreciated it when applicants were comfortable discussing their rejection in their personal statements, secondary essays and interviews. It takes a lot of courage to talk about receiving a rejection. The decisions you make after experiencing such a setback can be very inspirational. I recommend including it in your personal statement. Adcoms love honesty and applicants who overcome any obstacles to reach their academic goals. Some questions for you to consider when writing about your rejection:

1. Why did you decide to reapply to medical school?
2. What did you do to improve your application?
3. How has this experience changed the way that you will approach your life goals?

The brain processes rejection like physical injury. If you recently received the rejection, you may need to give yourself some time before writing about it. Be kind to yourself. Learn from the experience by requesting feedback on your application. Change as much as you can before reapplying!

For more information on evaluating your application after receiving a rejection, please see this article.

There's a big difference between applying to postbac programs versus applying to med school. Most people who do postbacs are either trying to redeem a subpar GPA or else need to complete the prereqs. The former group in particular is a less competitive applicant pool trying to improve their competitiveness, and it makes sense for a postbac applicant to tell the postbac selection committee that they are committed and serious about doing well in the postbac, as well as doing what it takes to get into medical school. However, that is *not* the function of a med school adcom. Since nearly everyone who gets accepted to medical school will eventually become a licensed practicing physician, the adcom is selecting future colleagues. Thus, the adcom is primarily looking for evidence of the applicant's commitment to a career in medicine.

When I was reading med school apps and interviewing students, I mainly only cared about why they got rejected last time in the context of what they had done to improve their app in the interim. In general, I wanted to see that the applicant did all of the following:
A) showed strong commitment to a career in medicine, with ECs to back that up (by far the most important role of the PS)
B) took full responsibility for any problems mentioned, including prior poor grades (blaming others is always a negative)
C) had taken concrete steps to improve any deficiencies in their app, especially if the Admissions Dean had given them advice on how to improve their app from the prior year

While it's not a cardinal sin to mention a failed application in the PS, again, explaining prior failures is not the PS's primary purpose. Using your PS to explain in detail why you didn't get into med school last year is not the best use of your precious essay space. You are much better off discussing your reapplicant status (what went wrong, how you've improved/grown from the experience) in your secondary essays or at the interview.

 

[AliciaAccepted]

There's a big difference between applying to postbac programs versus applying to med school. Most people who do postbacs are either trying to redeem a subpar GPA or else need to complete the prereqs. The former group in particular is a less competitive applicant pool trying to improve their competitiveness, and it makes sense for a postbac applicant to tell the postbac selection committee that they are committed and serious about doing well in the postbac, as well as doing what it takes to get into medical school. However, that is *not* the function of a med school adcom. Since nearly everyone who gets accepted to medical school will eventually become a licensed practicing physician, the adcom is selecting future colleagues. Thus, the adcom is primarily looking for evidence of the applicant's commitment to a career in medicine.

When I was reading med school apps and interviewing students, I mainly only cared about why they got rejected last time in the context of what they had done to improve their app in the interim. In general, I wanted to see that the applicant did all of the following:
A) showed strong commitment to a career in medicine, with ECs to back that up (by far the most important role of the PS)
B) took full responsibility for any problems mentioned, including prior poor grades (blaming others is always a negative)
C) had taken concrete steps to improve any deficiencies in their app, especially if the Admissions Dean had given them advice on how to improve their app from the prior year

While it's not a cardinal sin to mention a failed application in the PS, again, explaining prior failures is not the PS's primary purpose. Using your PS to explain in detail why you didn't get into med school last year is not the best use of your precious essay space. You are much better off discussing your reapplicant status (what went wrong, how you've improved/grown from the experience) in your secondary essays or at the interview.

After students completed our postbac program, I worked individually with each person to help them get accepted into medical school. By the time I left the program, I had the highest percentage of students accepted per cohort into medical school for any program like it in the state of California, as well as the highest GPA's per cohort in the history of the program. I have seven years of experience in helping students to get accepted into medical schools across the country.

If a student used their rejection from medical school to inspire them to work harder and to improve their grades, activities, MCAT score, etc than I do recommend they mention it in their personal statement as a motivating factor. Often, this demonstrates dedication and perseverance.

I think the best personal statements anticipate any questions or issues that the adcom may have and directly addresses them. As you pointed out, you "mainly only cared about why they got rejected last time in the context of what they had done to improve their app in the interim." It would be necessary to mention the rejection to fully explain how they responded to this setback and what they did to improve their application. I see it as a sign of strength, not weakness, when a reapplicant is brave enough to discuss the rejection and how they decided to respond to it. It provides a measure of character.

 

[QofQuimica]

I don't think we're really disagreeing too much here. Mentioning a reapp is fine, but waxing eloquent about what went wrong last time shouldn't be the primary focus of the essay. And while it might be a bit of overkill to call someone brave for mentioning a reapp in their essay, I think we are both arguing in favor of applicants taking responsibility for their weaknesses and taking concrete steps to improve them.