addressing medical interests in personal statement

[theonlytycrane]

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Should medical interests be addressed in a personal statement, at least in a broad sense? I.e. I am interested in pediatric medicine because...

Depakote's PS guide/tips mentions that it would be unwise to base a PS on a career goal. Though the example used is specific (pediatric cardio-thoracic surgery).

Any thoughts are appreciated 🙂

Link to Depakote's PS guide / tips: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/depakotes-personal-statement-guide-tips.536199/

 

[halcyonpage]

Unless you can make a decent story out of some previous experience you've had with children, I'd say leave it out. The PS needs to address your fit for the entire field of medicine. You can probably talk about it in secondaries or interviews.

 

[caffeinemia]

It's almost impossible not to be a bit naive with personal statements. I'd say it's unwise if you have poor rationale for why you want to do what you want to do. If you say it's because kids are so cute or you're good with kids or something, most of us will vom...

 

[Dr. Death]

I agree. It is very dependent on context. This can either be viewed positively (he wants to go into primary care and has great reasons why) or negatively (he's telling us he wants peds but has crappy reasons) make sure you have people read it over and give feedback on that part specifically.

 

[theonlytycrane]

Thanks for the input! It sounds like it comes down to my reasoning and experiences to accurately justify my interests.

I was thinking that schools would be interested to know that I have been actively thinking about what type of medicine that I would be interested in (though I understand this is at best a naive thought as a pre-med), in addition to my interest in the medical field as a whole.