Mentioning plastic surgery interest in personal statement?

[Surgeon45]

The main reason I want to go into medicine is to become a reconstructive plastic surgeon. I have had plastic surgery as a child, shadowed numerous plastic surgeons (as well as doctors in ED, pediatrics, orthopedics, internal medicine, podiatry), and have been an artist for most of my life.

I strongly feel the desire to become a plastic surgeon (not cosmetics, but reconstruction/burn/trauma) and have had exposure to this field (I've also lived with my aunt, who's a plastic surgeon) as well as to other fields.

I am aware that this field is extremely competitive, and would be happy in another field, as long as I know that I'm doing the best I can utilizing my skills to help others and that I tried my best to get into plastics.

Ideally, I'd like to mention this interest in my personal statement to express myself as authentically and sincerely as possible.

Would this be a bad idea? Would it come across as "immature", "close-minded", "naive"?

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[HybridEarth]

First, I'm sorry you had to get plastic surgery as a child, and I hope it wasn't anything too serious. In all regards, I hope you're doing well.

To answer your question, I think most users on here would agree that your perspective is valid as long as you don't come across as "the only thing I want to do is plastic surgery." That will undoubtedly come off as close minded, and may draw some red flags. I think it's OK to talk about it, but for your own sake please don't make it seem like you have all your eggs in one basket. I think that would definitely hurt you in the admissions process.

 

[NeuResurgens]

What matters is your ability to highlight your personalized answer to the question, "why medicine for me?" If this figures in, write a draft which incorporates this and have some trusted advisers read it and give feedback. Sometimes picking a specialty early on can look immature ("I wanna be a brain surgeon, cuz you know, it's brain surgery!"). If you can articulate how your background led you to this interest and how this interest will influence you as a doctor, it should be a good PS.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

What we need in society is more plastic surgeons that are not in it just for the cosmetics, and if I were to come across a personal statement with someone that has childhood experience of it, I'd definitely see it as positive. You're being honest about why you want to do medicine and you are one of the few that is likely to do it for the right reasons. I say include it.

 

[whitemagic]

Personally, I think its all in the wording. If you go into the high school SDN threads above, there are hundreds of naive high school kids who want to be neurosurgeons because that's the only physician they know and I'm sure adcoms are used to seeing these romanticized views of medicine. Your connection to plastics seems like a much deeper one so I'm sure you could word it in such a way that shows your genuine interest in it without coming off as one of those guys.

 

[Womb Raider]

What we need in society is more plastic surgeons that are not in it just for the cosmetics...

How many (rough estimate) plastic surgeons would you say are in it just for the cosmetics?

 

[caffeinemia]

As someone who is actually living through the plastic surgery training right now, I can tell you will find it to be an exciting, creative, and fun field. If you truly care about becoming a plastic surgeon and have a good reason, then feel free to write about it! Please don't tell me it's just so you can "help people" though. Probably more interesting to tell me why helping people in that way is appealing to you. Anyway, just my 2 cents.

Also, if you are hot, you can be my intern someday . But with that childhood recon -- I dunno.... ;P

 

[Mad Jack]

What we need in society is more plastic surgeons that are not in it just for the cosmetics, and if I were to come across a personal statement with someone that has childhood experience of it, I'd definitely see it as positive. You're being honest about why you want to do medicine and you are one of the few that is likely to do it for the right reasons. I say include it.

Most of the plastic surgeons I have met are wonderful people that do largely reconstructive work. The cosmetic surgeons are more the exception than the norm.

As to the OP's post, write up a PS about it and have someone with an experienced eye give it a read. It could be the best PS someone's read in a while, or terrible, depending on how you word it.

 

[caffeinemia]

Most of the plastic surgeons I have met are wonderful people that do largely reconstructive work. The cosmetic surgeons are more the exception than the norm.

As to the OP's post, write up a PS about it and have someone with an experienced eye give it a read. It could be the best PS someone's read in a while, or terrible, depending on how you word it.

Most of the 50+ PRS surgeons I've met or operated with typically do a mix of both. There is art and worthiness in both pursuits.

 

[tvelocity514]

I think talking about your experiences and what you had to go through with plastics is a great idea. Talk about what you learned and how it shaped you. I would be wary of outright declaring your desire for PRS. Why not instead say how it has made you want to be a physician (note: Not specified) so that you can help others who are going through similar problems since you can empathize etc? Unfortunately, you will find on the interview trail that some physicians say things like "why not my specialty... are you saying it's not good enough etc?". I always went with a non specified version of what I wanted to do. I still think you can definitely get in by specifying that you want to do PRS, but I think it would be wise to just say a physician is what you want to do instead on the PS. When asked about it in interviews, say you want to do PRS, but I would also advise you to say that you are open to other options (as Hybrid Earth said) as well. Good luck!

 

[Surgeon45]

I've decided to make my personal statement a bit more open-ended without stating plastic surgery is definitely what I want to do. Thank you so much everyone for your feedback!!