Research (or lackthereof) in personal statement for MD-PhD apps

[applyingthiscycle]

I'm currently writing my personal statement. The version I've drafted focuses on clinical and volunteering experiences that pushed me towards medicine/doctor and I feel like the experiences answer the prompt well. However, I didn't mention research in the personal statement. Is this advised against?

I've seen many different takes on this question. Since we have two essays dedicated to why dual degree and significant research, I've been more under the impression that the personal statement doesn't necessarily need to mention of research (unless informative to why medicine). But maybe I'm wrong. fyi- I've done research in UG + current postbacc

Open to hear from anyone with knowledge about it. Thanks.

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[SailboatJ]

What I did this past cycle (and was successful) is not mention research whatsoever in my PS. The advice I received was that the PS should focus on one question alone: why medicine? If research is relevant to that question, then absolutely talk about it. However, my motivations specifically for the dual degree were covered in the why MD/PhD essay. This is obviously N=1, so others may offer different advice. Good luck!

 

[applyingthiscycle]

What I did this past cycle (and was successful) is not mention research whatsoever in my PS. The advice I received was that the PS should focus on one question alone: why medicine? If research is relevant to that question, then absolutely talk about it. However, my motivations specifically for the dual degree were covered in the why MD/PhD essay. This is obviously N=1, so others may offer different advice. Good luck!

Great, thanks a lot for your advice. did you have a lot of research hours?

 

[SailboatJ]

Great, thanks a lot for your advice. did you have a lot of research hours?

If I recall correctly I think it was ~2300 at time of application with another ~2000 projected. Not sure if that qualifies as a lot - my impression is that it was just about the minimum acceptable amount to get looked at.

 

[DataDiva]

I completely agree and had the same experience as @SailboatJ! I applied MD PhD (accepted to an MSTP in December). My personal comments essay was 100% why medicine (did not write about research at all) and MD PhD essay was why both degrees and my research experiences was more a dry “bare-bones” of some (but not all of) my prior research.

I am happy to share a copy of my writing with you if you DM me!

 

[applyingthiscycle]

I completely agree and had the same experience as @SailboatJ! I applied MD PhD (accepted to an MSTP in December). My personal comments essay was 100% why medicine (did not write about research at all) and MD PhD essay was why both degrees and my research experiences was more a dry “bare-bones” of some (but not all of) my prior research.

I am happy to share a copy of my writing with you if you DM me!

Hey, yeah that would be great! Thanks for the feedback- I'll DM you today.