essay

Hey y’all! I’m a little confused on what to write about for the "optional" essay for TMDSAS and have been told pretty contradictory things about the purpose of this essay. One TMDSAS ADCOM told me that it was a truly “free for all” essay where you could talk about literally anything, including...

When crafting application essays – whether for graduate school, business school, or any other competitive program – applicants often focus on highlighting their accomplishments. And it’s easy to understand why. Most candidates are eager to share their significant achievements, such as leading a...

So you’ve sat down and brainstormed, and you’re now ready to hit the ground running with your essays. Great! You might be wondering how to best convey your reasons for pursuing graduate school to the admissions committees. What kind of tone or approach should you use? A good rule of thumb is to...

I'm having trouble on thinking what to finalize for each essay. I have written one and have an outline for the other. For personal characteristics I was writing about how moving as a child, and especially close to my senior year gave me a love for new environments, inclusivity, adaptability, and...

A speaker recently told a story about traveling in Asia, where he saw a stunning emerald. Enchanted by the stone’s beauty, he decided to buy it on the spot. He returned home and took the emerald to a jeweler for appraisal. The jeweler began examining the stone through his magnifier, and as he...

So I have four ideas with which to write my diversity essay. I can't seem to decide which one sounds to best: 1) My parents were hesitant towards modern medicine for cultural reasons, and I was treated with homeopathy for post-operative care as a child until we went back to a physician. I need...

I know this has been asked before, but I have a slightly more specific question. I noticed that some schools just ask "Do you have any additional comments to add" while other schools are more specific "Do you have any additional comments to add such as X, Y, Z..." For the ones that specify...

Hello, I'm currently struggling to write my personal statement, as I'm sure many pre-MD students are, and was hoping for some feedback on my rough draft. Writing isn't my strong suit and I welcome any advice! Thank you and best of luck to everyone in the same position! :)

I'm working on the quote on quote diversity essay and I'm struggling to find a topic that I can tie in with medicine. I'm a pretty privileged person so there is no reason to go down that path. I've also a traditional med student so I haven't had any cool jobs either. I do have a hobby of art and...

I have a couple prompts that asks about my biggest failure and how I learned from that failure, etc. The thing is, I've never actually failed at anything because it's simply not accepted by my family and there's a lot of cultural pressure to be perfect. If I know I'll fail at something, I simply...

After talking to a number of residents and program directors, I've gotten conflicting advice with almost an even split regarding where to address a board failure on ERAS. Half say to mention it in the personal statement, and half say the personal statement should only be positive and to address...

Guess I'll go ahead and get this thread going a few days early. Please post all your VMCAS questions and rants here for ease of finding information for the 2019 application cycle. Good luck all!! For questions redirected to VMCAS: VMCAS Customer Service (Help with the application)...

Hey guys, I'm applying this coming cycle and was brainstorming a couple ideas for the failure/unsuccessful experience secondary essays. I have two ideas I've kinda narrowed down to: Talk about my tutoring experience and how I failed to get through to one of my first students and motivate/help...

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Hi everyone! Is anyone willing to look over my personal statement, and give some feedback! Would really appreciate it! Thanks

Thanks in advance for reading. I'll try to keep this short - essentially I am an otherwise well-qualified applicant with no MCAT score. (feel free to skip specifics in bullet points, only showing this to demonstrate MCAT truly is the rate-limiting step for me) . TLDR at bottom - 3.88/3.94...

I'm applying as disadvantaged, but I'm kind of unsure how to go about the essay? Am I supposed to just say how my circumstances effected me (in school/psychologically/socially/etc)? Is this supposed to be on the side of creative writing (like the PS) or just listing facts? If anyone can link...

Hi all, thanks for reading! I am having a lot of trouble writing different essays for the primary application Personal Statement and MD/PhD essay. For me, I have one narrative: how I've bounced between meaningful clinical inspiration and taken those experiences into basic research on the...

Hello SDN, this is my first post here, though I've been lurking for some time. Personal statements are hard because it's extremely difficult to capture your personality in words. Even if you have a great idea, or a fascinating experience, or a unique background, your essay will still look like...

So I've seen a lot about personal statements for AMCAS, but that's slightly ahead of where I am now. Applying to universities from community college. I guess I don't want my personal statement to look/sound too much like it was written for med school.

I'm applying next cycle, but writing a personal statement now to submit as an assignment in a course I am currently taking in undergrad. My intro focuses on one moment that initiated my interest in medicine, and then I was going to choose three most memorable experiences (pretty much two...

Hey guys, So, I just realized that PTCAS says that you must compose your essay "without personal assistance from others." What does this mean? I can't have somebody review my essay to fix grammatical errors? The word 'Assistance' is so vague. Thank you

Hey everyone! I wanted to reach out to current PT students and alumni who attended DMU. I would like to get your insight on the program. Any feedback helps!

I am having trouble answering this question. I am a middle class white male whose parents have lived in Illinois for generations. Here are some things that may set me apart from other students. Let me know what you guys think is the best topic: I was a tutor (helped students of different...

Hey guys, There is a question on many PT applications that asks what type of diversity I can bring to their school. Being a white American male, I found this question difficult to answer at first. But I thought, maybe I could talk about how I majored in cellular and molecular biology, and...

Hey guys, Just wanted a little insight on a few topics I had for my failure essay. This one has definitely stumped me the most. Not because I haven't had any failures, but just finding ones interesting enough to talk about. Friendship: Visited a long-distance friend of 5 years recently, which...

Hello all! Struggling on some of the supplemental essays... Having a hard time with the significant impact and odds against me situation ones. It’s suprisingly hard to think of responses Wondering if anyone else could shed some light on what they wrote about

NYU’s Medical School is consistently ranked very high by physicians and students. The program is focused on developing physicians who are innovative and prepared to be leaders for the next generation of healthcare providers. NYU med students tend to be creative and diverse as well as...

I'm struggling with the topic of my optional essay and would love to hear everyone's input on it! I've heard mixed opinions about using the optional essay to write about GPA. I understand that you don't want to highlight the "zit" of the application. But here's my situation: I didn't do so great...

Hi, been brainstorming a couple of ideas: - overcoming social anxiety over the course of ~10 years (started as the weird girl reading books in the corner of a classroom and then migrated to being someone that could talk to anyone by the end of college) - growing up in an area that had security...

I am a little unsure about how to approach these essays. Should i treat them as a writing assignment, such as having an intro, thesis, body, conclusion? what about formatting, should i format my paragraphs in the textbox? or do i just start typing and answer the questions directly? I am asking...

Please post essay questions when you receive them. Good luck to everyone!

Hi All! I'm finishing up my research experience essay for AMCAS, and I was wondering about the formality and structure of it. I've summarized my research experiences clearly and succinctly. Are we supposed to present this as a formal essay? Are we expected to begin with an introduction and end...

Hi, I'm applying for schools this summer and having a lot of trouble writing my personal statement/essay for optomcas. Any tips for writing a personal statement? Should I focus only on my experiences in the field or should I talk about everything? Having major problems putting things into...

I applied in the 2016-2017 cycle during my senior year of college but didn't get in due to a low MCAT. Took it again, but didn't get as high as I wanted so I am retaking for a 3rd time in June. I am applying this cycle but I want to know how much I need to change for my personal statement. From...

For many secondaries, prompts asking about a time you failed or a challenge you overcame are quite common. I was wondering if it was okay to use academic failures from high school (such as failing everything freshman year of high school and being expelled then having to go to another school and...

To any ADCOM members, Pre-Med Advisors, Doctors, Med students, etc. who have experience reading personal statements for medical school: think back to specific statements that have stood out to you, either for good or bad reasons. What about those letters made them stand out? What did the writer...

Comparing EMS and scribing: "While physicians always seemed happy to see you made connections or were following their line of thinking about complicated issues in the note, it so happens many people in EMS would usually consider you a smartass for saying something to the effect of "neurological...

Hey guys! I know the USC DPT essay has a maximum character count of 4500, but I've written the bulk of my essay and I'm sitting at around 2000-3000 words. Anyone know if this is acceptable or if they prefer that you fill up the essay until you've reached the maximum? Also, how is everyone...

Hey there guys! This is the first year I am applying through OTCAS. I am wondering if anyone has any comments about the format/length for the personal statement? Also, if our school asks for letters of recommendation, then the evaluations under the supplemental portion of the application is...