Hey everyone, hope all is well. I just have a small question; since I mentioned my extracurricular activities in the work and activities area of my AMCAS in detail, can I VERY BRIEFLY mention them again in the personal statement as a way to introduce my qualities and strengths? Like I would mention that I worked in that area but with no explanation as to when with who...etc at all since they are mentioned in my application already. I figured I needed to introduce them as well as my achievements (like scholarships and college awards) in order to describe my strengths. Thanks to anyone who is willing to help.
AMCAS personal statement question
- Thread starter MShopes
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I don't know about including achievements MShopes. The PS is for your motivations to pursue medicine. The rest of your primary highlights your awesome achievements. KEep it on the motivation path. Good luck!
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I don't know about including achievements MShopes. The PS is for your motivations to pursue medicine. The rest of your primary highlights your awesome achievements. KEep it on the motivation path. Good luck!
You know CodeBlu, I always listen to your advice even if it is going against mine lol. Can I mention my specialty goal from now as one of the reasons that motivated me to be a doctor and go to medical school? Like I have always liked the heart and the study of it and I hopefully want to be a cardiologist later on. Can I be specific about the specialty or that would be a turn off?
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I already answered two questions. Why medicine and what qualities would make me a qualifying physician and what strengths makes me a competitive applicant? I plan to take off the achievements and activities and substitute with what motivates me to continue into medicine? Maybe I can mention that my experience with shadowing a doctor made me more interested into medicine and being a doctor? I don't have to get near the maximum letters allowed to make a good essay right?
Sorry for the dump questions but I'm sure you have more experience than me with these stuff.
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If you're having trouble making the maximum letters, there is a chance you're doing it wrong, in my opinion. On my first draft, I had that problem and even probably in my 4th draft, but if you dig deep enough and talk about what really empowers you to pursue medicine, you should have more of a problem with going OVER the maximum. A friend of mine who was helping me with my personal statement gave me some really good advice. I spent the whole day writing my personal statement and he said "cool, now rewrite it and dig deeper. Do that about 3 more times and you should be good to go." He was right.
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Actually I'm having the problem of going over the maximum letters allowed but I just asked to see if making the essay near the maximum letters (which is my case) would make it a good essay or the shorter and more concise the better. I had to cut down some sentences in order to not go over the maximum letters allowed. 5300 letters is pretty small range; it is only approx a page. However, my main question was about talking about shadowing a doctor was a big reason to motivate me more into becoming a doctor and if it would be a good idea to mention that?
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Try to avoid just dropping random experiences into a personal statement, especially if they don't add to your central theme whatsoever. You want a unified story that's going to show how you're awesome without saying "look at how awesome I am!" Putting in "and I was a baseball captain which is totally hardcore leadership skills!" doesn't impress. If it's elsewhere in your AMCAS, assume it will be read. Your personal statement should be a bit more centralized and focused. With that being said, it's perfectly acceptable to use a few extracurricular as the central idea if they work together. Coercion should be avoided.
Perfectly put. I'm finally planning to only use the shadowing of a doctor as a reason for my motivation more to pursue medicine and be a doctor. I'm not going to go into details about shadowing since it is already mentioned in my application but I will briefly mention it and then mention that it increased my interest toward medicine after I have seen a real experience with my own eyes of a doctor dealing with patients...etc. Other than shadowing, I'm probably not going to mention anything else.
