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Merging with the Personal Statement thread.
Given that you are over by 4000 characters, I think that it may be a bit choppy if you were to just take out almost half of your essay (and still mention all the points you were trying to make originally). How many different ideas do you go into? Understand that in 4500 characters you probably won't be able to say everything you want to talk about.
For example, in mine i spent the 1st third talking about an activity that i am passionate about and how it made me interested in medicine. the 2nd third of it detailing a positive experience in a clinical setting that confirmed my interest; and finally a conclusion that related the two and how they are similar.
I really only touched upon 2 main ideas (a clinical experience and an EC), but I went into detail so that the reader could understand why i want to do medicine. Of course, I have many other experiences that I could've written about that influenced my decision for medicine, but there just isn't the space in the PS. But that's what the secondaries are for, so you can add more details about you as an applicant to their school. (And they will also see everything else you did in the primary)
I know everyone's PS is different, so i'm not saying the way i did it is perfect because its not, but if your PS goes into too many examples you may want to consider trying to rewrite it and limiting yourself to say 3 ideas or so. Because if you had 6 main pts and you edited out all the details (to fit it in 4500 characters) it may come off to the reader as not having any depth or whatnot. Just my 2 cents. I hope this helps somewhat.
In my PS, I talk about instances where certain physicians have: entrusted me with certain tasks, explained test results, pharmacology, pathophys etc. My question is, should I use their full names or abbreviate. For example,
Dr. Y did xyz.
or
Dr. Young did xyz.
Any help would be appreciated!
I discuss three main experiences linking them to an EC that i have been passionate about forever. I guess i go into too much detail with each experience??? I dont know..i read that barron's "get into school with these essays" or something like that, and it kept saying "show us, not tell us." So i have been describing everything to make it very visual...but i probably went to far. Now i dont even like how it sounds and think its very generic!
Hi everyone,
i am applying to DO schools this year. I wrote my PS last year when I completed my committee letter for my undergrad school.
My question is this: Last year when writing my PS, I mentioned my twin brother's battle with Kawasaki's disease when we were five. He was is a coma for about 3 weeks and these were some of my early experiences with medicine. I have done tons of volunteer work and research to solidify my interests since then.
I lost my brother about 2 months ago to drug addiction. We fought as a family to get him into rehab, he went. He probably needed a longer program. He had several hospitalizations this year for Psych issues as well as heart problems (from cocaine).
It is obviously a tremendous loss as he was my twin. I want to mention his death in my statement PRIMARILY because it has taught me so much. I have been in the same shoes many of the patients I saw at the teaching hospital I volunteered. I had to learn how to intervene to the best of my abilities, but still go home and live my own life--and try to do so joyfully. I want to say that my life is not just a culmination of these difficult things, that they will help me relate well to my patients and form appropriate boundaries.
I need some feedback about how to talk about this. What do you all think? How would you talk about it if you were in my shoes. From the practical side, I finished my lab courses from Spring Semester, but took an incomplete grade in Physiology.
Is it okay if I do not put two spaces in between new sentences and only use one?? I am trying to save every character possible!!
Okay so...i re-wrote my personal statement and got it down to 4497 characters, from 8500 characters. Can someone please read/edit it for me? I feel like i have read this thing and rewritten it so many times that it doesnt make sense to me anymore and is beginning to sound boring. I would def appreciate a fresh perspective on it! Thanks so much everyone!
In my personal statement I specifically mention an interest in pathology, and it's a theme in my essay stemming from early experiences seeing diseases. I also do a lot of research studying the pathology of a particular disease process which is a main chunk of my personal statement. However, I do not actually plan on becoming a pathologist and also from looking through these SDN forums I've come to be aware that there arn't any DO pathology residencies.... does anyone think mentioning a love of pathology in a DO personal statement is then a bad idea? I don't know if I should've asked this question here considering all of you are premeds, but if some DO med student reads this, maybe you can give me your opinion. Thanks!
Alright, I am a reapplicant...woohooo!!! I was wondering how to change a personal statement that took me 3 years to perfect. It has everything about me in it but I know I cannot recycle it. Any ideas on a good way to do it?
If I were you, I'd try to rewrite the entire thing anew. If your ps from the first attempt wasn't good enough to get interviews/acceptances, it surely won't help the next time around. But that doesn't mean you can't reuse the same ideas if they are important to you. I wouldn't know how to help more without reading your ps myself. I would just try to work it at a different approach. Oh and it really took you three years to write your ps? wow. Also, are you considering retaking the MCAT? 22 is a bit below the average for DOs.
im on approx my 450th PS draft. still cant nail it down.
no meaningful post from me here, just venting!
Actually, my old PS is very strong. I had about 30 people read it and critique. My advisor told me it was the best he ever read, and he is a pretty serious guy. I started writing it as a sophomore and I truly believe that it helped me get my interviews to LECOM and PCOM, the only two I applied to...dumb I know. I am planning to retake the MCAT this September, but I figure with my GPA (cGPA3.6, sGPA 3.5) I should be considered before having my better (hopefully) MCAT.
I know this has been covered before but I couldn't find any specific threads on it this morning and I'm about to walk out the door.
So, when I cut and pasted my PS into AACOMAS, all my formatting is gone. Will that show up later when schools are reading my PS? I'm thinking its a non-permanent thing that just happens when you review your app before submitting. Anyone know for sure?
Thanks.
Use the same personal statement. Your secondaries will allow you to explain Why DO.
Is it frowned upon to write the PS in a way that addresses the "inadequacies" in healthcare and how you would correct them?
In my PS I presume that the reader has read and is familiar with the descriptions of a few things in my Work/Activities section. Is that OK, or do I have to explain things again?
Specifically, I contrast my experiences working in engineering with interacting with patients as a tech in the psych ward, but without ever explicitly saying, "I used to be a printed circuit board designer and now I work as a behavioral health technician in inpatient psychiatry." I feel like I'm being repetitious if I restate it... plus it completely ruins my intro
Yeah that's fine, a lot of people will use pretty much the same essay for both AACOMAS and AMCAS.
So quick question on the DO personal statement. I just finished writing mine for the 2011 cylce and most of it is answering "why I want to become a physician"
I dont really answer the Osteopathic question since I believe most schools ask that question in the secondary. Does that seem OK?