All those essays you have to write

[orangeman25]

I am planning on applying this upcoming cycle. My number one goal is to submit my primaries the day AAMCAS opens up (probably around June 1-4). For those that have applied early, or intend to, when did you start writing all your essays (including personal statement). Also how important are all these essays? Thanks!

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[CarlosDanger]

There was a thread a few weeks ago about this, and most people (including me) said it took them a few weeks to write their personal statement. It probably took me 6 weeks to complete all the activity descriptions and personal statement, which went through maybe 5 or 6 drafts.

The essays are important. Even if you have great numbers but write a crappy PS/AMCAS, it'll hurt you. Schools like to take pride in telling their interviewees that they reject high stats applicants who either don't have enough ECs, or write about them poorly. They want to know that you have thoughtful, well-articulated reasons for going into medicine. If you can't demonstrate that sufficiently, adcoms will ding you.

 

[solitarius]

So I think it's like this.

If you have absurdly high stats or in the category of person the school heavily recruits, you'll get some slack on the P.S. when decisions are made for interview invites. But for most of us, they can throw darts at a board to pick who they want to interview. So the PS is one way they could subjectively click with you, and subjectivity drives a large part of this process.

 

[orangeman25]

Thanks guys