Hi all, thanks for reading!
I am having a lot of trouble writing different essays for the primary application Personal Statement and MD/PhD essay. For me, I have one narrative: how I've bounced between meaningful clinical inspiration and taken those experiences into basic research on the same/similar disease. Through these several experiences, I was inspired by resilient patients who gave me meaningful insight about their experiences and illnesses and by physician-scientists who were research mentors or who I shadowed. These experiences helped me evolve and narrow exactly the disease and scientific sub-field I want to devote my life to.
My problem is whenever I sit down to outline or write one of the two essays I end up telling that same narrative. For the past five years it's been clear to me that I want to be a physician-scientist and this is the only career I can see myself. It's the only career where I can have meaningful experiences with inspiring humans, be able to give back to the fullest of my ability, have a creative career where I can investigate the science of interesting questions and hopefully contribute to the knowledge and well-being of humanity. So, for me there isn't a way to talk about why I want to and would make a good physician without talking about being a physician-scientist.
How do I write these two separate essays? Are there ways they should be different in tone or content? Can I tell the same narrative but use different experiences (each of my most meaningful experiences happened sequentially, inspired by the previous, exacerbating my struggle to separate them) or different stories from each experience. If anyone would like to share their essays with me that would be super helpful. Or just some guidance about the focus/themes/structure for each?
Thank you!
I am having a lot of trouble writing different essays for the primary application Personal Statement and MD/PhD essay. For me, I have one narrative: how I've bounced between meaningful clinical inspiration and taken those experiences into basic research on the same/similar disease. Through these several experiences, I was inspired by resilient patients who gave me meaningful insight about their experiences and illnesses and by physician-scientists who were research mentors or who I shadowed. These experiences helped me evolve and narrow exactly the disease and scientific sub-field I want to devote my life to.
My problem is whenever I sit down to outline or write one of the two essays I end up telling that same narrative. For the past five years it's been clear to me that I want to be a physician-scientist and this is the only career I can see myself. It's the only career where I can have meaningful experiences with inspiring humans, be able to give back to the fullest of my ability, have a creative career where I can investigate the science of interesting questions and hopefully contribute to the knowledge and well-being of humanity. So, for me there isn't a way to talk about why I want to and would make a good physician without talking about being a physician-scientist.
How do I write these two separate essays? Are there ways they should be different in tone or content? Can I tell the same narrative but use different experiences (each of my most meaningful experiences happened sequentially, inspired by the previous, exacerbating my struggle to separate them) or different stories from each experience. If anyone would like to share their essays with me that would be super helpful. Or just some guidance about the focus/themes/structure for each?
Thank you!
