2007-2008 Personal Statement Question Thread

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So Research is pretty important to me, I work full-time doing outcomes research in radiation oncology, and I also mention research on my personal statement. How does this look to osteopathic med schools? Since they are less focused on reserach and more focused on primary care?
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it looks perfectly fine. i mentioned my research in mine. this is a personal statement, so you should for the most part write about what is personal and important to you. and then tweak that to appease the adcom.
 
Be prepared to answer questions about this in an interview. I have a MS in Neurobiology, have been published, and have extensive research/teaching experience in Anatomy and Physiology. I have been told in 3 different interviews "Why not just become a researcher.....It looks like youve done so much work in this field already...." Even after tellng the interviewer that I am commited to medicine and that after all of my reseach experience Im absolutely sure that I want to be a physician, they all have told me " Yeah well medicine has its down sides too maybe academic research is the way to go" Im still not discouraged, and will not stop until I get accepted into Med school, but Im just saying be prepared to answer questions about research during interviews.

Nick
 
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Daydreamer2008 said:
So Research is pretty important to me, I work full-time doing outcomes research in radiation oncology, and I also mention research on my personal statement. How does this look to osteopathic med schools? Since they are less focused on reserach and more focused on primary care?
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MD schools are less focused on treating the patient rather than the disease.

I hope if you apply to MD schools you dont mention any patient care experience you have had. That could be bad.
 
can anyone help me look over my personal statement? Please, it would be greatly helpful
 
Daydreamer2008 said:
So Research is pretty important to me, I work full-time doing outcomes research in radiation oncology, and I also mention research on my personal statement. How does this look to osteopathic med schools? Since they are less focused on reserach and more focused on primary care?
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In all seriousness, I think my extensive research background & experience actually helped. A number of DO schools are putting more emphasis on research. I think these institutions are actively seeking applicants who can contribute to their research programs. Just my experience/opinion, FWIW.
 
Is anybody up now that wants to read a personal statement? I still have some fixing up to do..with grammar and all but any advice now would help!! PM me pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :D
Sorry if this post is annoying...or if I should have posted it elsewhere
 
I can take a look at it. PM it to me. :)
 
surferdoc said:
Is anybody up now that wants to read a personal statement? I still have some fixing up to do..with grammar and all but any advice now would help!! PM me pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :D
Sorry if this post is annoying...or if I should have posted it elsewhere
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PM it to me and I will take a look
 
Thanks all :) esp those with the comic relief ;) I'm just gonna be myself and see what happens.
 
Hey all,
I just finished my PS. I cut it down considerably only to find that I am still over by about 2300 characters. I think I could cut this down a lot more if it were not for the paragraphs with indentation(probably 1000 there). Has anyone submit with just one huge paragraph? I know it is a dumb question, but I am kind of desperate. :confused:

Thanks
 
mastamark said:
Hey all,
I just finished my PS. I cut it down considerably only to find that I am still over by about 2300 characters. I think I could cut this down a lot more if it were not for the paragraphs with indentation(probably 1000 there). Has anyone submit with just one huge paragraph? I know it is a dumb question, but I am kind of desperate. :confused:

Thanks
Click to expand...

I feel you, bro. I remember this time last year. I don't think it's really such a good idea to have one large paragraph as your personal statement. I doubt that admissions folks have that much time to read them in the first place, so making it a bit easier on them is advisable, in my opinion. In this sense, I think that breaking it down in readable and digestable chunks is a good idea. Consolidate where you can and make your writing more succinct, but try not to compromise on readability and clarity. My essay went through quite a bit of rearrangement, fat-cutting, and rephrasing; it went through more than a handful of revisions. Second opinions and feedback from an experienced source are essential.

In the beginning, my writing suffered from too much flowery language and had too much unnecessary detail. A lot of rephrasing was necessary to express my points more clearly. I finally got it all to work for my AMCAS application. However, since the AACOMAS application allows fewer characters, I had to make my essay even more concise. I think it worked out well though. At the end, I had six succinct paragraphs in my AACOMAS personal statement that unified and flowed together quite well.

I didn't indent at all in my personal statement. I opted for the block style with a blank line between paragraphs (like in my post here), since it seemed to look nice.
 
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Another trick is to eliminate the two spaces after periods (if you do that). It suprisingly saves space.
 
Jpc984 said:
Another trick is to eliminate the two spaces after periods (if you do that). It suprisingly saves space.
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This is the correct format for most writing these days anyways, at least for the associated press. You shouldn't only do this when trying to save space.
 
Thanks guys,
I am all done, I think. I don't think it flows the way I intended, but it may work. Anyone mind giving feedback?
 
mastamark said:
Thanks guys,
I am all done, I think. I don't think it flows the way I intended, but it may work. Anyone mind giving feedback?
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you can PM it to me - I will take a look. I think a lot of the essays dont look as intended due to the way AACOMAS formats it. I am sure you will be fine.
 
if youre personal statement is already about why you want to be a doctor and not specific towards md or do then do you think it would be fine for D.O. personal statement.

Or do they want something that says why you like the D.O. approach to medicine
 
BrutusBuckeyeMD said:
if youre personal statement is already about why you want to be a doctor and not specific towards md or do then do you think it would be fine for D.O. personal statement.

Or do they want something that says why you like the D.O. approach to medicine
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Your PS may address why medicine is right for you. You don't need to address osteopathic medicine specificaly... there will be plenty of time for that on your secondaries.
 
Anyone willing to give my personal statement a quick read through before I submit my AACOMAS? Thanks in advance. :cool:
 
Hello,
I turned in my AMCAS app. in a few days ago. The PS is about 5291 characters while the one for AACOMAS can't be longer than 4500 characters. This may sound vague but what should i knock out?
 
woodhorse22 said:
Hello,
I turned in my AMCAS app. in a few days ago. The PS is about 5291 characters while the one for AACOMAS can't be longer than 4500 characters. This may sound vague but what should i knock out?
Click to expand...

I had the same issue. For me, I had to knock out the stuff that "didn't say the most." I knew I was trying to convey an overall theme, right?? "Why did I want to be a physician....???" was the question to be answered. So, I had to cut to the chase a little more by keeping the stuff that stayed with my overall theme and answered that question. Do that. I acutally ended up using my DO personal statement in AMCAS for the one school that I applied to that was an allopathic school. It flowed much better.

If your PS still makes sense in the end (have a few people read it), then you did it right.

On that note, make sure you save your original copy. :thumbup:
 
I just got my personal statement down to 4500 characters. To decipher between paragraphs I used two spaces at the beginning of each paragraph (instead of the standard 5). When I clicked on the “preview” button it doesn’t show my paragraphs as being separate, it looks like one huge long paper. I don’t want to put a whole line of blank space between each paragraph because that used characters. Does anyone know what I’m talking about? Any suggestions please?? :mad:
 
Check to see if you used the work "that" at all in your PS. "That" is a junk word usually easily removed from the majority of most sentences. If you can do this & then cut down on some verbosity in places, it should fit pretty easily.

Your problem is quite common. Looking back, I'm glad I wrote my PS for AACOMAS & then just submitted the same one to AMCAS. Saved a headache it appears.
 
Go through your PS... cut everything and anything that is not absoultely critical to your message. Extra detail, tangential experiences.

Make everything you say count. Use the smallest words and the shortest phrasing possible.
 
Ditto me; I had an essay describing my interest in medicine which evolved into my osteopathic PS. I edited out my special interest in osteopathy for the AMCAS version.

I suggest you have multiple friends and colleagues read it over and suggest ways to shorten/reword; it's really difficult to self-edit these things.
 
I don't know if they changed anything, but when I did my PS no matter WHAT I tried it all came out one big huge paragraph. After 3 days of trying everything new I could find/think of/dream up, I gave up and submitted the monstrosity just the way it was.

Anyone else have help for this issue?
 
It's my experience, after interviewing about 50+ applicants & subsequently reading many PS's, special interest in osteopathic medicine not essential in a PS. If you are adding it just to add it b/c you think that the adcom/interviewers care about it...DON'T.

I would say that there have only been about 3-5 PS's (that I've read) that have included osteopathic intent that have been beneficial to their application. The vast majority of the time it comes off as an obligatory remark that can actually turn me off to an application.

It's called a Personal Statement for a reason; unless osteopathic medicine is something that makes you who you are, leave it out. Goals, drives, motivations, triumphs, downfalls...those are the things, IMO, that make a person who they are & something that many more people would enjoy reading about than some obligatory remark about "I believe in the Osteopathic 'philosophy' of being 'holistic' & 'treating the whole person'..." If I read that one more freaking time, I am going to puke.
 
Krazykritter said:
It's my experience, after interviewing about 50+ applicants & subsequently reading many PS's, special interest in osteopathic medicine not essential in a PS. If you are adding it just to add it b/c you think that the adcom/interviewers care about it...DON'T.

I would say that there have only been about 3-5 PS's (that I've read) that have included osteopathic intent that have been beneficial to their application. The vast majority of the time it comes off as an obligatory remark that can actually turn me off to an application.

It's called a Personal Statement for a reason; unless osteopathic medicine is something that makes you who you are, leave it out. Goals, drives, motivations, triumphs, downfalls...those are the things, IMO, that make a person who they are & something that many more people would enjoy reading about than some obligatory remark about "I believe in the Osteopathic 'philosophy' of being 'holistic' & 'treating the whole person'..." If I read that one more freaking time, I am going to puke.
Click to expand...
I must remember this post for the next time I'm editing a DO PS and I see that...
 
I did the same thing last year. You leave a line of spacing b/t paragraphs by pressing enter. I also think that it only took up two characters total.
 
Krazykritter said:
It's my experience, after interviewing about 50+ applicants & subsequently reading many PS's, special interest in osteopathic medicine not essential in a PS. If you are adding it just to add it b/c you think that the adcom/interviewers care about it...DON'T.

I would say that there have only been about 3-5 PS's (that I've read) that have included osteopathic intent that have been beneficial to their application. The vast majority of the time it comes off as an obligatory remark that can actually turn me off to an application.

It's called a Personal Statement for a reason; unless osteopathic medicine is something that makes you who you are, leave it out. Goals, drives, motivations, triumphs, downfalls...those are the things, IMO, that make a person who they are & something that many more people would enjoy reading about than some obligatory remark about "I believe in the Osteopathic 'philosophy' of being 'holistic' & 'treating the whole person'..." If I read that one more freaking time, I am going to puke.
Click to expand...

Gee, I'm glad you didn't sit on any of my committees. I agree with you about avoiding meaningless cliches, but I wouldn't tell people not to mention osteopathy at all. Some of us are really intrigued and excited about the the unique elements of osteopathic training and it would be counter-productive to leave out any mention. For example, I have a massage therapy background and I'm really interested in family practice medicine; osteopathy's emphasis on hands-on treatment and primary care are critical selling points for me and you can bet I talked about that in my PS. The results were not too bad: 8 interview invites, 5 acceptances out of 6 interviews. Sure, I edited my PS down for AMCAS, but by that point I was only going through the motions anyway.
 
Theraball,

I don't really see the point of your post other than pumping your own tire w/ the number of acceptances you gained. In my original post I specified not to add anything about osteopathic medicine specifically just b/c you think that's what the adcom/interviewers want to hear. Mentioning osteopathic medicine just for the sake of mentioning it comes across as very obviously fake (e.g. just adding the word 'osteopathic' in front of each time you use the word medicine in your PS).

You situation & reasons are part of what I included by saying that your PS should be about your motivations, drives, and influences (which appear to be genuine, in your case). You would be surprised how often you see the the line that I wrote above about "the Osteopathic philosophy...more holistic approach to medicine...treating the whole patient." I can't begin to tell you the number of times I read/heard that this year during interviews. BTW, the clinicians & faculty present in the interviews made much worse comments about that cliche than I shared here.

*Edit -- So I guess w/ your PS that would put it at 4-6 of 50+ PS's that have been 'osteopathically inclined'
 
Depakote said:
I didn't bother trying to indent. I hit enter and gave full line space. I think this only counts as 2 characters. IIRC.
Click to expand...

I did the same thing.
 
woodhorse22 said:
Hello,
I turned in my AMCAS app. in a few days ago. The PS is about 5291 characters while the one for AACOMAS can't be longer than 4500 characters. This may sound vague but what should i knock out?
Click to expand...

You can try by taking out redundant words or phrases that repeat themselves or show up over and over and say the same thing all over again...
 
Hey, I had a similar issue. Basically, find the paragraph that is the least important, number them from 1 to 5 if necessary, and delete the lowest priority one! Read it over, might need to add a few transition words. Also, tabs don't really look good so I skipped a line between paragraphs, that counts as extra characters. So try to keep it lower than 4500 so you can format it otherwise you'll be looking for more words to delete. Good luck!
 
I did the same thing, you have to do some re-editing. Check characters over, if you use copyright, trademark, etc. Those will not transfer to AACOMAS. I just skipped a line between paragraphs.
 
Hello,
I have my PS done from AMCAS, but I am having a tough time cutting it down to AACOMAS' limit. Is someone willing to take a look? I could PM. THANKS
 
Depends on your time constraints. I would be happy to look it over & give you feedback & help shorten, but I have USMLE on Friday. If you can wait till this weekend...I could take a look then. PM me & I can give you an email to send it to.
 
woodhorse22 said:
Hello,
I have my PS done from AMCAS, but I am having a tough time cutting it down to AACOMAS' limit. Is someone willing to take a look? I could PM. THANKS
Click to expand...


Hey,

i'm in the same boat as you, with my PS being over well over the limit for AACOMAS. If you want, I can send you my PS and I will gladly read over yours.
 
Green6936 said:
I just got my personal statement down to 4500 characters. To decipher between paragraphs I used two spaces at the beginning of each paragraph (instead of the standard 5). When I clicked on the “preview” button it doesn’t show my paragraphs as being separate, it looks like one huge long paper. I don’t want to put a whole line of blank space between each paragraph because that used characters. Does anyone know what I’m talking about? Any suggestions please?? :mad:
Click to expand...

You are using Word! It enters a different format when you transfer it over. AACOM says to use wordpad, or something else so that the format doesn't change when submitting it. It should indent if you use that. Hope that helps.
 
Krazykritter said:
Theraball,

I don't really see the point of your post other than pumping your own tire w/ the number of acceptances you gained. In my original post I specified not to add anything about osteopathic medicine specifically just b/c you think that's what the adcom/interviewers want to hear. Mentioning osteopathic medicine just for the sake of mentioning it comes across as very obviously fake (e.g. just adding the word 'osteopathic' in front of each time you use the word medicine in your PS).

You situation & reasons are part of what I included by saying that your PS should be about your motivations, drives, and influences (which appear to be genuine, in your case). You would be surprised how often you see the the line that I wrote above about "the Osteopathic philosophy...more holistic approach to medicine...treating the whole patient." I can't begin to tell you the number of times I read/heard that this year during interviews. BTW, the clinicians & faculty present in the interviews made much worse comments about that cliche than I shared here.

*Edit -- So I guess w/ your PS that would put it at 4-6 of 50+ PS's that have been 'osteopathically inclined'
Click to expand...

OK point taken.


By the way I wasn't trying to "pump my own tire" (whatever that means :) ), just illustrating my point--my credentials are pretty humble compared to many of the posters on this forum.
 
woodhorse22 said:
Hello,
I turned in my AMCAS app. in a few days ago. The PS is about 5291 characters while the one for AACOMAS can't be longer than 4500 characters. This may sound vague but what should i knock out?
Click to expand...

If your undergrad institution has a Writing Center available in the summer take it there, or find an old English professor to work with you. Most people are way too wordy in their writing. A good writing consultant can easily cut 10% out of your essay in no time.

The other thing to remember is that most people try to put way too much in their essays in the first place. Your essay shouldn't tell everything. What it should do is increase the interest of the reader so that they want to hear more. It should be a lot like a movie preview. You want to hit the highlights, enough to draw out their interest, but save the big story for when you have a captive audience-- the interview. If they are intrigued by your PS, they will have lots of questions to ask-- questions that you should be able to easily answer.
 
I just reworked my AMCAS essay, cut down research part and few other things.
 
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