The right balance for personal statements

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GummyBeh

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Hi all, I wrote a personal statement that goes "Coupla years ago I dropped out of school because I didn't have ability to deal with ****, but here's who I became when I returned:" and that's it.

I've written other personal statements that dwell more on it was a combination of things: broke, kind of sick, afraid to ask for help, some family issues, overloading coursework to maintain financial help but then losing all the money at ones, and being fresh to real life and a generally incompetent person unable to manage things. Also failed classes, Cs at that time, but really all tying to the same period.

Honestly, the low times were like seven years ago and I've been a pretty competent grownup holding my **** together. I really don't want to dwell on something that happened nearly a decade ago, I want to explain why I want to go into med now and I have a lot to say... is this one half a sentence okay? At the same time I'm worried that my PS will be glib and won't have anything negative to balance things out. How do you strike the right balance?

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A PS should answer two questions:

Who am I
My Medicine.

Don't be gimmicky. PS's do not get people into med school...but they do keep people out.


Hi all, I wrote a personal statement that goes "Coupla years ago I dropped out of school because I didn't have ability to deal with ****, but here's who I became when I returned:" and that's it.

I've written other personal statements that dwell more on it was a combination of things: broke, kind of sick, afraid to ask for help, some family issues, overloading coursework to maintain financial help but then losing all the money at ones, and being fresh to real life and a generally incompetent person unable to manage things. Also failed classes, Cs at that time, but really all tying to the same period.

Honestly, the low times were like seven years ago and I've been a pretty competent grownup holding my **** together. I really don't want to dwell on something that happened nearly a decade ago, I want to explain why I want to go into med now and I have a lot to say... is this one half a sentence okay? At the same time I'm worried that my PS will be glib and won't have anything negative to balance things out. How do you strike the right balance?
 
I concur with my learned colleague and wish to add that mentioning the path one has traveled is perfectly acceptable. Indeed, it can be a criteria that adds to one's packet!


If I may present a slightly different way to view it, as many nontrad stories arent typical and may need more nuance than others.

A medical school application is a coherent, concise, and compelling narrative showing your pattern of motivation, commitment and achievement. Your PS "sets the pattern" and your story, ECs, and Meaningful, are all pieces of the puzzle supporting that pattern. For a nontrad like yourself it would be a pattern of overcoming and maturing. Even a sentence or two setting the tone or pattern then to "who am I" and "why medicine."

My suggestion to most to start is simply write without concern for who will read it, write it for yourself why medicine. Just let it flow like a stream of consciousness. From that you likely get at least a point or two to build upon it. Get to the core for yourself so you can now write it in polished way to tell others.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield the floor (I suddenly want to change my avatar to Foghorn Leghorn)
 
A PS should answer two questions:

Who am I
My Medicine.

Don't be gimmicky. PS's do not get people into med school...but they do keep people out.

Ok thank you guys, my transcript does show that I dropped out of school at a certain point, and my life does make a turnaround at that point... I was wondering however if it should be addressed in any way shape or form, albeit extremely briefly, given that (1) it was so long ago (2) is still on my record surrounded by a cloud of poor academic performance (3) leads to "who am I" but is not in itself "who I am".
 
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