Anybody feel they're not interesting enough?

[RUc10]

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I have to rewrite my Personal Statement for this pre-med group I'm in and I can't think of what I can do to make myself stand out at all. When I sit back and just think about my life, it's pretty mundane. I haven't done anything extraordinary. No real life changing event occured that made me want to become a doctor, it's just something I've always wanted to do after being exposed to the field of healthcare.

The first draft that I got back didn't get a good review... I wrote it in an hour though before the deadline so I knew that was coming but I thought I talked about some good things.

What can you put in your personal statement to give it substance if there's no real big thing you can build off of? And it seems like most applicants these days are pretty aware of the fact that your personal statement needs to stand out so everyone is doing something over the top. I read and heard of a couple other peoples in the group I'm in and it seems like everyone started there's off talking about some catastrophic event or made the PS have a theme or even presented a majority of the PS as a story.

I feel like if I did one of those things not only would it not be genuine but adcoms probably don't even view those things as unique now since so many people do it.

Any advice?

 

[funkydrmonkey]

I have to rewrite my Personal Statement for this pre-med group I'm in and I can't think of what I can do to make myself stand out at all. When I sit back and just think about my life, it's pretty mundane. I haven't done anything extraordinary. No real life changing event occured that made me want to become a doctor, it's just something I've always wanted to do after being exposed to the field of healthcare.

The first draft that I got back didn't get a good review... I wrote it in an hour though before the deadline so I knew that was coming but I thought I talked about some good things.

What can you put in your personal statement to give it substance if there's no real big thing you can build off of? And it seems like most applicants these days are pretty aware of the fact that your personal statement needs to stand out so everyone is doing something over the top. I read and heard of a couple other peoples in the group I'm in and it seems like everyone started there's off talking about some catastrophic event or made the PT have a theme or even presented a majority of the PT as a story.

I feel like if I did one of those things not only would it not be genuine but adcoms probably don't even view those things as unique now since so many people do it.

Any advice?

Actually I interspersed my love for art into my PS, and many interviewers have asked me about it, and it has lead to some very interesting conversations.

 

[poiuyt123]

This is off topic but...do you go to Rutgers New Brunswick by any chance?

 

[RUc10]

Actually I interspersed my love for art into my PS, and many interviewers have asked me about it, and it has lead to some very interesting conversations.

I thought about just writing about interests and what caused my passion to become a physician but it seems like that would take up too much of my PS since I don't have much else to talk about.

This is off topic but...do you go to Rutgers New Brunswick by any chance?

Yuppp. I'm assuming you do too? lol you in PDE?

 

[funkydrmonkey]

I thought about just writing about interests and what caused my passion to become a physician but it seems like that would take up too much of my PS since I don't have much else to talk about.


Yuppp. I'm assuming you do too? lol you in PDE?

Yah, that is the reason there are so many drafts. My initial PS was 9400 characters. It took a month to bring that down to the 5300 character limit. Just write down everything and then you can decide to pick and choose later.

 

[JackInTheBox]

If you have to ask if you're interesting enough, you probably aren't.

Seriously though, not everybody is going to have a story about finding the cure for cancer, feeding the homeless, and saving African babies. Just talk about why medicine is relevant for you, not why it's desirable in an abstract sense. Show, don't tell. It's called a personal statement for a reason.

 

[jeaneous]

I have to rewrite my Personal Statement for this pre-med group I'm in and I can't think of what I can do to make myself stand out at all. When I sit back and just think about my life, it's pretty mundane. I haven't done anything extraordinary. No real life changing event occured that made me want to become a doctor, it's just something I've always wanted to do after being exposed to the field of healthcare.

The first draft that I got back didn't get a good review... I wrote it in an hour though before the deadline so I knew that was coming but I thought I talked about some good things.

What can you put in your personal statement to give it substance if there's no real big thing you can build off of? And it seems like most applicants these days are pretty aware of the fact that your personal statement needs to stand out so everyone is doing something over the top. I read and heard of a couple other peoples in the group I'm in and it seems like everyone started there's off talking about some catastrophic event or made the PS have a theme or even presented a majority of the PS as a story.

I feel like if I did one of those things not only would it not be genuine but adcoms probably don't even view those things as unique now since so many people do it.

Any advice?

Just put the above in your PS. Done and done.

 

[RUc10]

If you have to ask if you're interesting enough, you probably aren't.

Seriously though, not everybody is going to have a story about finding the cure for cancer, feeding the homeless, and saving African babies. Just talk about why medicine is relevant for you, not why it's desirable in an abstract sense. Show, don't tell. It's called a personal statement for a reason.

Haha. The thing is, I do feel that way. But those are the things that pretty much every applicant has in common and even if they don't believe it are still going to say anyway so it won't make me stand out.

Thanks anyway though, I think I just figured out where I can go with it.

 

[JackInTheBox]

Haha. The thing is, I do feel that way. But those are the things that pretty much every applicant has in common and even if they don't believe it are still going to say anyway so it won't make me stand out.

Thanks anyway though, I think I just figured out where I can go with it.

Every applicant has a variation on the same general themes for why they're interested in medicine, but the experiences that got them there are vastly different.

I second the advice that the best thing to do now is just write. Write and write until you've brainstormed and dumped out every possible valid experience, then work from there on cutting it down. Chances are you have more interesting experiences than you give yourself credit for, and you'll end up cutting out a lot of them (you can reuse them for secondary essays). My personal statement went through a half dozen drafts for TMDSAS, and then another half dozen before I submitted my AMCAS application. The essay I ended up with bears almost no resemblance to the one I started with, but I know that the time and effort was worth it because my first draft was awful.

 

[lord_jeebus]

Any personal statement that is genuine will stand out more than the gimmicky dramatic crap that so many applicants write.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Haha. The thing is, I do feel that way. But those are the things that pretty much every applicant has in common and even if they don't believe it are still going to say anyway so it won't make me stand out.

Thanks anyway though, I think I just figured out where I can go with it.

PM me if you want to share 😉 Seriously though, I also can't think of anything that really stands out. Honestly, my childhood dream was to be an astronaut. As a kid, I read autobiographies of Air Force test pilots (and some sci-fi/horror). I had no inclination towards medicine until I began volunteering in a hospital, and I was only volunteering because I had some time to spare.

 

[lord_jeebus]

Honestly, my childhood dream was to be an astronaut. As a kid, I read autobiographies of Air Force test pilots (and some sci-fi/horror). I had no inclination towards medicine until I began volunteering in a hospital, and I was only volunteering because I had some time to spare.

Start your PS with this 🙂

 

[MadEvans]

Any advice?

Nope. The first essay I wrote was the one I sent in to AMCAS.

Yep, I'm that interesting.



But seriously the first essay I wrote was the one I included, BUT I revised and perfected it quite a bit. Just keep working on it, and go do something interesting for God's sake.

 

[HeatherMD]

do all schools require a personal statement?

I've never heard about this before.. what is it that you have to write exactly?

 

[julyjones]

Just write about something you love doing and are deeply passionate about. My friend wrote about her research experience (which she loves) while I wrote about tutoring little kids. Both of these experiences are pretty standard, but we both have interviews. What makes personal statements interesting is your passion and voice. If volunteering in a hospital made you want to be a doctor, and you feel really strongly about it, write about that. Write about what's important to you and for right now don't worry about what admissions committees want to hear (you can worry about that when you edit!).

 

[DrYoda]

do all schools require a personal statement?

I've never heard about this before.. what is it that you have to write exactly?

You have to write it for your primary application (AMCAS app), you yes every school requires it.

There is no hard-and-fast guidline of what to write. I think most people use it to write why they want to go to medical school. But you have alot of leeway(?) in what you can write.

 

[secants]

How many pages in MS word does 5300 character limit come out to be?

 

[mmmcdowe]

How many pages in MS word does 5300 character limit come out to be?

About 1.5 pages single spaced.

 

[Adam Smasher]

ttt

 

[mmmcdowe]

Want to be interesting? Want your personal statement to stand out?

Go into a kintergarden classroom and open fire. You'll be unmistakeable after that.😉

"My first inklings that I wished to practice medicine occurred as I surveyed the tiny little bodies around me."

Garunteed John's Hopkins material. Money back garuntee, after you get out of jail

 

[DrYoda]

Want to be interesting? Want your personal statement to stand out?

Go into a kintergarden classroom and open fire. You'll be unmistakeable after that.😉

"My first inklings that I wished to practice medicine occurred as I surveyed the tiny little bodies around me."

Garunteed John's Hopkins material. Money back garuntee, after you get out of jail

 

[pianola]

It helps if you know how to write.

I took a pretty mundane event and explained why it was symptomatic of my concerns (i.e. what I'm interested in/who I am) and of the larger problems facing healthcare.

Maybe that will help a little or not at all.

 

[poiuyt123]

Yuppp. I'm assuming you do too? lol you in PDE?

Yea I go to Rutgers NB...whats PDE?

 

[Heathrow6]

Start your PS with this 🙂

I agree. I would talk about my journey to medicine. Mention how you volunteered because you had some free time and what it was about that experience that reordered your priorities and career goals. And you could try relating your desire to be an astronaut with your desire to be a "pioneer" in medicine.. Or something.

 

[mmmcdowe]

😴😴😴😴Yawn, man you're so boring I'm falling asleep!

 

[Loon]

Just write down everything and then you can decide to pick and choose later.

I second the advice that the best thing to do now is just write. Write and write until you've brainstormed and dumped out every possible valid experience, then work from there on cutting it down.

This.

Once you've done that, look at it with the eye of "How does this make them want to train me? " or "How does this make me a good doctor?"

Then revise, revise, revise.

 

[HeatherMD]

You have to write it for your primary application (AMCAS app), you yes every school requires it.

There is no hard-and-fast guidline of what to write. I think most people use it to write why they want to go to medical school. But you have alot of leeway(?) in what you can write.

Oh.

That sucks.

 

[mizzbee]

If you are having trouble writing about yourself you should ask people close to you what they would say about you. I find that I forget about a lot of things that I have done and people that are close to me remember certain things that I wouldn't even consider mentioning.

 

[brianmartin]

The PS is just part of the game. Obviously not everyone has cured cancer or saved lives in a third world country. The trick is spinning your ordinary life experiences into a meaningful timeline of why you want to practice medicine. Using a story is a good idea because it draws the reader in and makes them remember you. You say "It's just something I've always wanted to do since being exposed to healthcare." What was that exposure?

 

[Greonis]

Furthermore (expanding on the above), don't worry about whether or not it is "unique" or "interesting" out of all the applications. Asides from the fact that you have no way of knowing, everyone's statement is going to be somewhat similar in that they all want to enter medical school.

The battle is less about being "unique" (or "interesting") than it is having a solid, well-explained motivation for entering medicine. If you do that, then it won't matter what others write, even if they are out curing cancer or traveling throughout the world to save lives.

 

[akinetopsia]

Everyone is unique, and you have to consider your audience. The intended readers have read just about every kind of personal statement that can be composed. They know all the tricks, they've been to the magic show backstage.

Be true to yourself in your PS - represent yourself accurately, don't tell them what you *think* they want to hear, but what makes you *you* and what makes you a good candidate for their school. You're selling yourself. How did you come to make the decision that this is the career and life for you?

Tell them. As much as I hate the cliche "it is what it is" it's definitely true regarding personal statements. Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be and make sure you get plenty of people to read/proofread and offer some construction criticism as you move from a rough draft to a finalized version.

 

[RUc10]

PM me if you want to share 😉 Seriously though, I also can't think of anything that really stands out. Honestly, my childhood dream was to be an astronaut. As a kid, I read autobiographies of Air Force test pilots (and some sci-fi/horror). I had no inclination towards medicine until I began volunteering in a hospital, and I was only volunteering because I had some time to spare.

Thanks man. I'm going to PM you the one I wrote already.

Yea I go to Rutgers NB...whats PDE?

Oh ok. What year? Phi Delta Epsilon. It's the pre-med fraternity that I had to write it for and I thought you assumed I went to RU based on that but I guess it was just because I'm from NJ.

 

[poiuyt123]

Oh ok. What year? Phi Delta Epsilon. It's the pre-med fraternity that I had to write it for and I thought you assumed I went to RU based on that but I guess it was just because I'm from NJ.

oh alright. I'm actually a freshman. I guessed that you went to RU because your username had RU in it and your location says NJ. Do you mind if I send you a couple of PMs? I have to decide what classes I have to register for the spring semester and I was going to ask you for some advice.

 

[RUc10]

If you are having trouble writing about yourself you should ask people close to you what they would say about you. I find that I forget about a lot of things that I have done and people that are close to me remember certain things that I wouldn't even consider mentioning.

I considered this but now it actually sounds like a better idea now that I've heard some one else mention it too.

oh alright. I'm actually a freshman. I guessed that you went to RU because your username had RU in it and your location says NJ. Do you mind if I send you a couple of PMs? I have to decide what classes I have to register for the spring semester and I was going to ask you for some advice.

haha well that does make sense. Yea, no problem.