I'm about to submit my PharmCAS application to schools, and the last element of my application that I need to complete is the personal statement. I've always been the kind of person who stumbles over writer's block, so generally speaking, is there any sort of outline that applicants tend to follow when writing the statement? Like a "skeleton," of sorts? Also, can anyone direct me to any sample statements that are generally regarded as being well-written?
Thanks......
The essay was one of the hardest parts of the application for me. However, I followed the format below and got interviews at every school I applied to.
And please do not ask for "sample statements." The personal essay is based on why you, as an individual, want pharmacy. You cannot use someone else's reasons and experiences into why you chose to pursue pharmacy, only you know why you want it. Good luck!
The essay is broken down into 3 major components (according to the Pharmcas question). Try your best to make sure you discussed EACH component (especially when it says
AND.... you want to try to talk about each part even if it's just one super short sentence.)
1) Why you selected pharmacy as a career
2)How does a Doctor of Pharmacy degree relate to your immediate
AND long-term professional goals
3)How does your personal, educational ,
AND professional background help you achieve these goals.
I copied the #1-3 part below from an earlier SDN post years ago and it helped a lot in formatting the actual essay.
(The bold part is my personal addition to the guy's post to give you some ideas for each area.)
3 paragraphs, one from each part.
#1) How I decided I wanted to pursue a career in pharmacy (CREDITS TO EARLIER SDN POST)
Here you can literally put anything that made you want to go into pharmacy. You can discuss your interest in chemistry (Org Chem YAY!!........ ), interest in the drug field and the direction it's going in healthcare, personal experiences (watching grandma take her meds to stay alive 10-15 years longer), etc. Try to have a valid, strong, and preferably unique reason into why you want pharmacy. $$$$ IS NOT A VALID REASON!!
#2) Explained my volunteer and work experiences and why I think they reinforced my decision to pursue a career in pharmacy (CREDITS TO EARLIER SDN POST)
Generally shadowing/working as a pharm tech is what to talk about here. Talk about the positive great things you saw pharmacists do while you shadowed/worked with them. Depending on the work environment, you saw different scenarios into what pharmacists do (doing clinical rotations with doctors, discussing chemo drugs with patients when they pick-up from the compounding pharmacy, counseling patients in retail). Try to make the examples very specific and in detail. DO NOT add in negative situations (please exclude "watching the pharmacist yell at the drive thru window at CVS" in your examples) Also, any type of healthcare volunteer work that shows compassion and empathy towards patients is also good to add here.
#3) My plans for employment/residency once my PharmD is completed and my general goals for the future (CREDITS TO EARLIER SDN POST)
This part was a little tough for me. But discuss certain pharmaceutical fields that personally interest you. Definitely add in a residency if that's the direction you want to go and why you want the residency (do NOT state it's because it can help you get a job more easily ) Although you may just do retail when you're done, try to add something unique and different that may set you apart from other applicants (since majority of students usually end up in retail anyways).
It took me a good month of editing, re-editing to get a solid essay for my application (but I started very early like mid/late summer for my application). Since you are kind of late in this application process, follow these steps and you should have a decent essay. Good luck!
