Unusual topic to write about in Personal Statement?

[blkgrnblkylw]

Here's some brief info that I'm thinking I would focus on in my PS

I didn't plan on going to medical school until after I graduated college, quite recently in fact. In college I realized I was by far most interested in brain and mind type stuff. So I started doing neuroscience research and planned on going to grad school for neuroscience. I was accepted into a neuroscience phd program, graduated undergrad in May, started doing research with my intended PI in the grad program during the summer, and withdrew from the program a couple of weeks after classes started. I just realized that basic science research wasn't what interested me, and I couldn't imagine doing it for the rest of my life. Brain/mind stuff is in fact what still fascinates me, but in humans, not in rats or mice. So obviously the main specialties I am interested in are psychiatry and neurology.


So my questions are:
-Is it ok to focus on a specific medical specialty as to the main reason why I am interested in medicine in general? I think I would strongly focus on why psychiatry and neurology interest me, is that acceptable?

-Does talking about how I was interested in neuroscience in undergrad and very briefly pursued it at the graduate level set off any red flags, like since I dropped out of grad school will adcoms think I might drop out of med school or something?

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[Dr. Retractor]

Firstly, I'm sorry about your dad, and your mom.
1) Yes. You seem to have strong reasons for going into those specific specialties so it is okay to focus on them in your PS, but not exclusively.
2) It might, so you will have to convincingly explain your decisions to start the program, and why you dropped it. You need to have very solid reasons. Also you need convincing reasons for your dedication to medicine. Make sure you have extensive clinical volunteering and other types of volunteering.
3) Since your job is largely to explain your decision to go into medicine, you should talk about those experiences to the extent to which you are comfortable. I'm pretty sure what you share with adcoms is confidential, but I'm not sure about that.

Good luck!

 

[Holmwood]

You should focus on the specific experiences you've had that lead you to decide on the physician profession. Your experiences serve as evidence, and evidence can speak volumes.

One purpose of the personal statement is to distinguish you from the other applicants. You can't really do that by talking solely about your interests in a field. Your approach will persuade the reader to be interested in psychiatry. It does not, however, serve the purpose of distinguishing you as an interesting person.

You can mention your parent's situation in order to start your paper, but you have to go beyond that. You can talk about your thought processes during those events and how it has influenced you to do a certain volunteer work, or conduct neurological research. Upon analyzing those experiences, you can then build connections with the medical field to support your resolve to become a physician.

I do not support your approach of criticizing the basic sciences because you're interested in the human brain. We do studies with rat models in order to better understand how the human brain works due to the ethical issues behind human experimentation. The functional overlap is nothing to scoff at either.

Perhaps what you were trying to say is that you would find more satisfaction working with mental patients and supporting them through the grueling recovery process. As such, if you have any clinical experiences that highlight your interest in helping psychiatric patients, include and elaborate on that rather than your dismissal of the PHD program.

The rule of thumb my adviser told me was to focus on the positive experiences that lead you to the physician profession. Don't linger on the negative experiences.

 

[blkgrnblkylw]

Firstly, I'm sorry about your dad, and your mom.
1) Yes. You seem to have strong reasons for going into those specific specialties so it is okay to focus on them in your PS, but not exclusively.
2) It might, so you will have to convincingly explain your decisions to start the program, and why you dropped it. You need to have very solid reasons. Also you need convincing reasons for your dedication to medicine. Make sure you have extensive clinical volunteering and other types of volunteering.
3) Since your job is largely to explain your decision to go into medicine, you should talk about those experiences to the extent to which you are comfortable. I'm pretty sure what you share with adcoms is confidential, but I'm not sure about that.

Good luck!

Thank you. What would you consider a convincing explanation as to why I dropped the program? Basically I just realized that I couldn't get the same level of satisfaction doing research as I thought I could get by treating people. I certainly value the time I spent doing research and what I learned from it, but feel like I would be more satisfied and be better at treating people. Does this seem like a convincing reason? Also, the problem with getting extensive clinical volunteering is that since I wasn't considering medicine throughout undergrad I have little clinical experience, except hospital pharmacy tech throughout some of undergrad. However, I have been doing clinical volunteer at

You should focus on the specific experiences you've had that lead you to decide on the physician profession. Your experiences serve as evidence, and evidence can speak volumes.

One purpose of the personal statement is to distinguish you from the other applicants. You can't really do that by talking solely about your interests in a field. Your approach will persuade the reader to be interested in psychiatry. It does not, however, serve the purpose of distinguishing you as an interesting person.

You can mention your parent's situation in order to start your paper, but you have to go beyond that. You can talk about your thought processes during those events and how it has influenced you to do a certain volunteer work, or conduct neurological research. Upon analyzing those experiences, you can then build connections with the medical field to support your resolve to become a physician.

I do not support your approach of criticizing the basic sciences because you're interested in the human brain. We do studies with rat models in order to better understand how the human brain works due to the ethical issues behind human experimentation. The functional overlap is nothing to scoff at either.

Perhaps what you were trying to say is that you would find more satisfaction working with mental patients and supporting them through the grueling recovery process. As such, if you have any clinical experiences that highlight your interest in helping psychiatric patients, include and elaborate on that rather than your dismissal of the PHD program.

The rule of thumb my adviser told me was to focus on the positive experiences that lead you to the physician profession. Don't linger on the negative experiences.

I in know way meant to come off as criticizing the basic sciences, I don't think anything I said implied I felt that way. I fully understand its importance and will definitely discuss it favorably, but as you said, yes I just find interacting with patients to be more satisfying for me. In terms of clinical experience regarding psychiatry, I am volunteering at a psych center where I mainly tutor some of the younger patients to prepare for the GED. I also plan on shadowing a psychiatrist a bit.

Thanks for the reply, definitely has some good suggestions.

 

[Holmwood]

Thank you. What would you consider a convincing explanation as to why I dropped the program? Basically I just realized that I couldn't get the same level of satisfaction doing research as I thought I could get by treating people. I certainly value the time I spent doing research and what I learned from it, but feel like I would be more satisfied and be better at treating people. Does this seem like a convincing reason? Also, the problem with getting extensive clinical volunteering is that since I wasn't considering medicine throughout undergrad I have little clinical experience, except hospital pharmacy tech throughout some of undergrad. However, I have been doing clinical volunteer at



I in know way meant to come off as criticizing the basic sciences, I don't think anything I said implied I felt that way. I fully understand its importance and will definitely discuss it favorably, but as you said, yes I just find interacting with patients to be more satisfying for me. In terms of clinical experience regarding psychiatry, I am volunteering at a psych center where I mainly tutor some of the younger patients to prepare for the GED. I also plan on shadowing a psychiatrist a bit.

Thanks for the reply, definitely has some good suggestions.

Well plenty of people have tried research and decided it wasn't right for them for the reason you've stated. It's a valid reason, of course. If you can talk about how your research experience has furthered your resolve to become a physician, I think you're in a safe area. If not, then maybe don't mention it in the personal statement. You can talk about your research experience and findings in the "most meaningful" section of the primary application (you get to choose 3 most meaningfuls).

Your volunteer opportunity sounds awesome. You're giving these patients an opportunity to come back to society and become independent. If you can somehow tie your experiences with these patients with your experience coping with your parents' situation, then you've got a solid paper I think.

As others have stated, everything has to come together towards a general theme of why you want to become a physician.

Anyway, that's all I can say for now. It's a work in progress, and seems to be going in the right direction. Good luck!

 

[Dr. Retractor]

Thank you. What would you consider a convincing explanation as to why I dropped the program? Basically I just realized that I couldn't get the same level of satisfaction doing research as I thought I could get by treating people. I certainly value the time I spent doing research and what I learned from it, but feel like I would be more satisfied and be better at treating people. Does this seem like a convincing reason? Also, the problem with getting extensive clinical volunteering is that since I wasn't considering medicine throughout undergrad I have little clinical experience, except hospital pharmacy tech throughout some of undergrad. However, I have been doing clinical volunteer at



I in know way meant to come off as criticizing the basic sciences, I don't think anything I said implied I felt that way. I fully understand its importance and will definitely discuss it favorably, but as you said, yes I just find interacting with patients to be more satisfying for me. In terms of clinical experience regarding psychiatry, I am volunteering at a psych center where I mainly tutor some of the younger patients to prepare for the GED. I also plan on shadowing a psychiatrist a bit.

Thanks for the reply, definitely has some good suggestions.

That's an absolutely valid reason. If I'm reading that right, what you wanted to do was help people with neurological and psychological disorders and thought you could do that via research in a lab. You found that wasn't the case and medicine is better suited for your career goals. Very legitimate reason. Shadowing + volunteer tutoring + another form of patient contact (hospice, hospital etc) will surely be a good set of ECs. Do you have any leadership experience (clubs, groups, whatever)? If not, try to get some. Regarding what you said about not criticizing the basic sciences, medical school is based on basic science and its application to the direct care of people, so you want to make sure you explicitly state how you know it's important but you just didn't think you would be happy doing it.

 

[blkgrnblkylw]

That's an absolutely valid reason. If I'm reading that right, what you wanted to do was help people with neurological and psychological disorders and thought you could do that via research in a lab. You found that wasn't the case and medicine is better suited for your career goals. Very legitimate reason. Shadowing + volunteer tutoring + another form of patient contact (hospice, hospital etc) will surely be a good set of ECs. Do you have any leadership experience (clubs, groups, whatever)? If not, try to get some. Regarding what you said about not criticizing the basic sciences, medical school is based on basic science and its application to the direct care of people, so you want to make sure you explicitly state how you know it's important but you just didn't think you would be happy doing it.

The one thing I really don't have is anything that I would consider leadership experience. I was in some clubs, but not a leadership position. I helped in organizing of some events to some extent, but didn't really orchestrate anything. Also, for workstudy I was in charge of selling tickets and other things to students and keeping track of the money (maybe this could count?). For research I trained and supervised a couple of new students to some extent (maybe this could count too?). I play guitar and was in a band for a long time, that required some leadership skills I guess haha. None of this I really consider to be leadership though, and most of it would probably fit better into some other area of the application. Would you count any of this, or should I look for something else. I've gathered that leadership experience isn't as important as many other aspects of an application, but having nothing is probably not a good sign.

 

[Goro]

I need to make a sticky on this. The PS should be: "why you should invite me for an interview".

Here's some brief info that I'm thinking I would focus on in my PS

I didn't plan on going to medical school until after I graduated college, quite recently in fact. In college I realized I was by far most interested in brain and mind type stuff. So I started doing neuroscience research and planned on going to grad school for neuroscience. I was accepted into a neuroscience phd program, graduated undergrad in May, started doing research with my intended PI in the grad program during the summer, and withdrew from the program a couple of weeks after classes started. I just realized that basic science research wasn't what interested me, and I couldn't imagine doing it for the rest of my life. Brain/mind stuff is in fact what still fascinates me, but in humans, not in rats or mice. So obviously the main specialties I am interested in are psychiatry and neurology. Also, to add to why these topics interest me, other than just an innate interest, are that my dad committed suicide when I was 19, and my mom has multiple sclerosis.


So my questions are:
-Is it ok to focus on a specific medical specialty as to the main reason why I am interested in medicine in general? I think I would strongly focus on why psychiatry and neurology interest me, is that acceptable?

-Does talking about how I was interested in neuroscience in undergrad and very briefly pursued it at the graduate level set off any red flags, like since I dropped out of grad school will adcoms think I might drop out of med school or something?

-Lastly, does including the stuff about my mom's MS and dad's suicide seem like a good or bad idea. Obviously it has impacted me a lot, and plays a big role in my decision to pursue medicine and more specifically neuropsych specialties. I do feel kind of uncomfortable talking about it, but if it will helps adcoms gain a better understanding of me then I'll do it.