AACOMAS personal statement

[trumpetman]

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The area in the aacomas application for "personal statement", is this gonna be THE PERSONAL STATEMENT or do we wait for the secondaries for that. It seems to me after glimpsing over it, that this is simply an area where you could simply explain things a little more from the application. for example, explain a particular BAD grade, or economic hardship.
I guess my real question is should this personal statement be worded in the fashion of a personal essay, or can it be more informal? I am not applying this year, I am just thinking ahead. Thanks

 

[PalCareGrl]

Hi,
Welcome to the forum (oh my gosh, I beat Popoy- he he). The personal statement (from what I've heard, read, and experienced) is kind of a mini-statement, but it still should be formal. On the secondary applications, most of them ask for a more detailed statement as well as asking very detailed questions.
Basically the personal statement provides a glimps (sp?) into why you chose osteopathic medicine and what your goals are in life and becoming a physician. Hope this helps!

Liz

 

[John DO]

That is THE persoanl statement, but you are right: they don't give you much room for it. Some schools allow room for additional comments, but you should sell yourself in that small space! Remember: most of medicine and science is efficiency; say what needs to be said without a lot of filler!

 

[DOtobe]

On my AACOMAS personal statement last year, I think I wrote a brief essay on how I became acquainted with osteopathic medicine and why I wanted to become a D.O. I also somehow explained the trend in my grades in college. You really don't have much room, so you have to make it short and sweet! Good luck! (I think personal statements are the worst... )

 

[OsteoMed02]

Good for you for thinking ahead. It is definitely to your advantage to do that. Insofar as the personal statement is concerned, I think you need to express how you became acquainted w/osteopathy and perhaps write a brief vignette of an experience you had. It has to be very brief (~325 words). I applied this year, early decision to MSUCOM, so I can't tell you whether they are going to like it or not, but this is what the majority of students told me to form my essay around and it is just what I did. Best of luck to you!

 

[Eric714]

In my experience with the ACOMAS I fashioned it to be a personal essay about myself. You want to convey your motivation for becoming a DO. The statement should show your knowledge about osteopathy. The way I did it was doing a little autobiography of the path leading to my desire to pursue medicine. Try to get personal experiences that pointed you in the direction of wanting to become a physician.

The secondaries are going to want to know more about you, but your'e going to find out that they tend to be redundant. So what I did was I kept a bunch of my answers to questions on a master sheet. Then when it came time to answer them, I just tweaked them a little for each question. Remember... by the time you hit the interview, they interviewers will have read everything you said in applications or at least picked something out of them. So be ready to defend what you wrote. I hope this helps!

-Eric
MSII/COMP

 

[EUROdocMOM]

I'm glad to hear we'll have many more opportunities to write. I'm still squeezing my mini-statement into 325 words! ... also not much space to include work and volunteer stuff.
Do the DO schools send automatic secondaries to learn more about us?