Bad Idea to Put Health Struggles in PS?
Started by clindor
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and one more thing... Abby, signing in as a new user (dachsigirl) and agreeing with yourself does not lend validity to any of your points.
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but i know from past esperience here that's how people feel and whether it's mentioned directly, it is an underlining feeling...Flopotomist said:
Maybe I should create a new screen name and agree with myself.dachsigrl said:
Abby disappears, and you appear with a registration date of today. Your first post is on this thread, and you agree with Abby.. Now don't you think a brand new user to SDN would have some other post that would be more relevant to a brand new user? Should we do an IP address look up?dachsigrl said:
Ohnoes! Someone's going to drop a classic SDN "you're going to be a terrible physician if you ever make it that far. I worry for your patients and wish I weren't a colleague" bomb soon!
OP, ask your pre-professional office counselor or anonymously e-mail a med school.
OP, ask your pre-professional office counselor or anonymously e-mail a med school.
Flopotomist said:
She also made her appearance 10 minutes after Abby's last post. On the same thread (as you noted). Agreeing completely. Not even making the customary new poster errors (formatting, typos). No introductions. Just jumping right in.
Abby, take a break. Or start another username - whatever. But it's obvious it's you.
Clindor, I really can't see how it can hurt as long as it is well written, addresses how it affects your desire and drive to be a physician and as long as it is written in a positive light and how it made you stronger and is not asking for a pity party. have others read it and see how they would respond to it. Or post it here and let us help evaluate it.clindor said:
And just b/c one person said it might be your mentioning your health issue in your PS doesn't mean it is, what are your other stats?
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OK Clindor - back to you. I think if anything has been shown here it is that there are different strategies on this thing. Most of us agree that mentioning the history should be SOMEWHERE in your application - some of us just don't think it belongs in the PS.clindor said:
I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about it though. We all wish you luck.
clindor said:
Whatever you do with it, I've heard the best thing to do with your PS (other than writing it well) is to have as many people read it as possible. So no matter which direction you take it in, let friends and family and teachers and LORrs look through it before submitting your AMCAS. The more perspectives you have on an issue, the better.
Good luck :^)
Rafa said:
maybe she accepted between 7:20 and 10:16 PM 😛
I don't know about posting my personal statement, that is really baring your soul and I'm not sure I could handle the same level of criticism on something I spent so much time on and that is such a big part of myself. My stats are not wonderful: 28 on my MCAT and 3.71 overall (3.65 science), so there could definitely be other reasons for me not being accepted yet. Someone mentioned this to me today though so I wanted to get other opinions. Thank you so much for your help everyone. I'll think about the PS thing. I also have this irrational fear of someone taking parts of it and using it in their own essay.
I would include it, but not make it the focus of your personal statement.
My problems were severe, but didn't turn out to be life threatening, but I couldn't really find a place for them in my PS. However, one of the challenges that fit in with the "theme" of my PS was my problem with vocal polyps. I was a singer as a kid and had talked about how the first part of my life was spent singing and doing choir and vocal training and theatre and speech and debate. I was basically all voice and really extroverted, too. but then i mentioned that i developed these vocal polyps my second year of college and suddenly was faced with being unable to do any of the things that made me... me. So I mentioned how I took dance classes in college, and became fluent in sign language rather than stopping being talkative, then i threw in a sentence or two about how my experiences with multiple physicians showed me how important a truly good doctor who listens is. Then, after that paragraph, I moved on to my two major volunteer experiences and conclusion. I don't know if that type of setup helps you, but maybe you could mention what happened, what you did to adjust your life and not stop your life, what you recognized as making a good doctor, and then bam, right into volunteer experiences. It makes a good segueway too -- good doctors this and that... my volunteer experiences were... this and that...
Just one way of going about it, and touching on it without raising any serious red flags. I had oher medical problems too that didn't "fit" into the PS because it focused on my singing. Perhaps if you have a theme, you can pick an aspect of your struggles that fits. Its not downplaying what you've been throught. Its just editing content. its all important, but you don't have to disclose EVERYTHING unless it all fits the overall feeling of the work.
If you'd like an example of how i did mine, feel free to PM me. or if you ever need someone to do a little editing. That offer is open to any pre-med's applying this year, my mailbox is open and i'm willing to look at essays. I write for a living so I promise to be helpful🙂
And to quell your fears - I've already been accepted to med school so there would be no ripping off.... and I had a 28 mcat also 😉
Good luck.
My problems were severe, but didn't turn out to be life threatening, but I couldn't really find a place for them in my PS. However, one of the challenges that fit in with the "theme" of my PS was my problem with vocal polyps. I was a singer as a kid and had talked about how the first part of my life was spent singing and doing choir and vocal training and theatre and speech and debate. I was basically all voice and really extroverted, too. but then i mentioned that i developed these vocal polyps my second year of college and suddenly was faced with being unable to do any of the things that made me... me. So I mentioned how I took dance classes in college, and became fluent in sign language rather than stopping being talkative, then i threw in a sentence or two about how my experiences with multiple physicians showed me how important a truly good doctor who listens is. Then, after that paragraph, I moved on to my two major volunteer experiences and conclusion. I don't know if that type of setup helps you, but maybe you could mention what happened, what you did to adjust your life and not stop your life, what you recognized as making a good doctor, and then bam, right into volunteer experiences. It makes a good segueway too -- good doctors this and that... my volunteer experiences were... this and that...
Just one way of going about it, and touching on it without raising any serious red flags. I had oher medical problems too that didn't "fit" into the PS because it focused on my singing. Perhaps if you have a theme, you can pick an aspect of your struggles that fits. Its not downplaying what you've been throught. Its just editing content. its all important, but you don't have to disclose EVERYTHING unless it all fits the overall feeling of the work.
If you'd like an example of how i did mine, feel free to PM me. or if you ever need someone to do a little editing. That offer is open to any pre-med's applying this year, my mailbox is open and i'm willing to look at essays. I write for a living so I promise to be helpful🙂
And to quell your fears - I've already been accepted to med school so there would be no ripping off.... and I had a 28 mcat also 😉
Good luck.
Clindor, if the point is to explain a poor year or semester then I would advise you to give your pre-med committee "permission" to include a mention of your illness/surgery in the LOR. This is usually done in a way that avoids TMI (too much information) but explains that serious illness and a series of surgical procedures during this time frame (_____) made it difficult for you to maintain the academic excellence that you had been known for but that after you recovered from the surgeries, you were able to bounce back academically and that you have what it takes to complete medical school. Also, coming from your committee or an advisor gives some credibility to the story (not that anyone would ever lie about a serious illness but odder things have happened).
This "don't be so emotional" "you're hostile" line of reasoning is a typical response of the dominant party in a dialogue involving those with unequal power (male/female, healthy/sick, etc.) It demeans the value of the experiences the less powerful party has had and is an attempt to return power to the dominant party ( the "rational" one they say). Emotion is knowledge. For example, if a rich person were arguing with a poor one about class, it would be easy for the rich person to remain calm and put forth conventional wisdom/dominant theory. But, the poor person would draw on personal experience (knowledge) and become emotional. Why shouldn't the less powerful members of society be angry? You attempt to silence Abby because she threatens your power. You will likely continue this pattern with your patients and that is unfortunate.
aaahah abby is nowhere to be found
she got busted
you really gotta be pathetic to create a new username just to agree with yourself haha
good catch flop ol boy
she got busted
you really gotta be pathetic to create a new username just to agree with yourself haha
good catch flop ol boy
In essence, medicine is about setting people free from their illness and disease and for us (M.D's), only accepting the truth can set you free. So whatever you went through, write about it because it is the truth and the truth hurts, but you can't escape it.
On the topic of whether to include personal health info in your PS:
I don't have direct experience with this, however I did include the experience of my sister (6 years younger than me) having a heart transplant at the age of 10. She struggled a lot, and her doctors became dear friends of the family. Unfortunately, she died a few months after the transplant. The whole experience taught me a lot about myself and medicine, and thus I thought it was essential to include it in my PS. But it wasn't popular with everyone who read it. I got a range of responses to my PS. Some people were very kind and moved by her story. Others said to me bluntly, "What does that have to do with you wanting to be a doctor? Everyone knows someone who was sick. Don't you have anything else? You know, not all doctors become so invovled with their patients, your story is very unrealistic. If you think that is what it is like to be a doctor, you are mistaken. Will you be able to separate your personal emotions from your professional experience?"
Honestly, I was shocked by some of the negative feedback that I received. BUT, I was the one who opened the can of worms. I provided the personal information and mailed it to over a dozen schools. Just know that if you provide personal information, people may not be respectful or kind about it. You are opening yourself up to criticism about your most personal experiences. But then again, I also had some amazing discussions with interviewers about my sister's story. So in the end, it is up to you of course. Just be careful how much private emotional information you include. There are ways to describe your illness without becoming a target for some hurtful criticism. If I could do it again, I would focus more on what I learned and less of the details of the story. I hope that this helps for your situation!
I don't have direct experience with this, however I did include the experience of my sister (6 years younger than me) having a heart transplant at the age of 10. She struggled a lot, and her doctors became dear friends of the family. Unfortunately, she died a few months after the transplant. The whole experience taught me a lot about myself and medicine, and thus I thought it was essential to include it in my PS. But it wasn't popular with everyone who read it. I got a range of responses to my PS. Some people were very kind and moved by her story. Others said to me bluntly, "What does that have to do with you wanting to be a doctor? Everyone knows someone who was sick. Don't you have anything else? You know, not all doctors become so invovled with their patients, your story is very unrealistic. If you think that is what it is like to be a doctor, you are mistaken. Will you be able to separate your personal emotions from your professional experience?"
Honestly, I was shocked by some of the negative feedback that I received. BUT, I was the one who opened the can of worms. I provided the personal information and mailed it to over a dozen schools. Just know that if you provide personal information, people may not be respectful or kind about it. You are opening yourself up to criticism about your most personal experiences. But then again, I also had some amazing discussions with interviewers about my sister's story. So in the end, it is up to you of course. Just be careful how much private emotional information you include. There are ways to describe your illness without becoming a target for some hurtful criticism. If I could do it again, I would focus more on what I learned and less of the details of the story. I hope that this helps for your situation!
This is quite possibly the most ludicrous thing that I have ever read on SDN. Let us not dive into some academic excercise about power dynamics, socioeconomic relationships, gender dynamics, or feminist theory and stick to the topic at hand. Oh - and the ridiculous suggestions about "unfortunate patterns" leading to poor patient care really are unnecessary.MiesVanDerMom said:
Nobody wants to silence Abby. She has an opinion about the OPs question that disagrees with several others. Her opinion is based on anecdotal evidence just as strong as the anecdotal evidence of anybody else on here. Instead of simply sharing our opinions and discussing the facts at hand, she choose to make ad hominum attacks (language like jerk and a$$hole), create fake accounts to bolster support (dachsigirl), lie about her situation (saying she got in, then posting that she has no acceptances), and use rude language towards others (newsflash, for your information, you obviously can't understand etc).
The only thing I want to silence is her message delivery style - but CERTAINLY not her message. It is an important one.
Chill on the rhetoric VanDerMom.
Let me preface this post by saying that I haven't read all the posts in this thread, mainly because there are a few people who are just flat out abrassive jerks, and I didn't care to read anymore. 😡
To the OP and anyone else who cares - I included the struggles with my illness in my PS simply because IT CHANGED MY LIFE. I don't care about sympathy and "cutting me some slack" or other such BS. I was dying for 2 years and it literally changed my life around (for the better). It was, in fact, the event that caused me leave my career to pursue medicine. I also mention that I have been fine for 5 years, you don't want them thinking that you won't be able to make it through their school.
If something affected you profoundly, I think you should include it. The personal statement is to talk about who you are, and this is who I am. I think it would look a bit odd to an admissions panel member who might look at my application and say 'oh I see you were set in your previous career then all the sudden went back to school to pursue medicine, whats up with that?' then reply with something like 'oh well I had a life changing experience that I figured I shouldn't mention'
To the OP and anyone else who cares - I included the struggles with my illness in my PS simply because IT CHANGED MY LIFE. I don't care about sympathy and "cutting me some slack" or other such BS. I was dying for 2 years and it literally changed my life around (for the better). It was, in fact, the event that caused me leave my career to pursue medicine. I also mention that I have been fine for 5 years, you don't want them thinking that you won't be able to make it through their school.
If something affected you profoundly, I think you should include it. The personal statement is to talk about who you are, and this is who I am. I think it would look a bit odd to an admissions panel member who might look at my application and say 'oh I see you were set in your previous career then all the sudden went back to school to pursue medicine, whats up with that?' then reply with something like 'oh well I had a life changing experience that I figured I shouldn't mention'
dilated said:
I think that would depend. For instance if you have cancer and are in remission and have been so for like 10+ years, I think they'd take it into consideration as a significant adversity in your life that you've had to overcome to be where you are. If you are like dying and applying to med school which is often obviously not the case, then yes it would affect you.
If you use it as a pity card it can affect you, but if you use it to show what influenced you to perservere harder and to influence you into medicine and how it has taught you to see things from the patient's perspective, then it probably won't hurt you.
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INTERNET: Serious Business.abby66 said:
abby - it's an internet bulletin board. Not a big deal. Relax a little. As for your advice, here's what our resident adcom member posted a few days ago:
LizzyM said:
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Yeah, her snotty attitude and ad hominem attacks will make her a great classmate too. Can't wait to meet her.Psycho Doctor said:
MiesVanDerMom said:
Now I just have to post the picture:
I also must commend the investigative capabilities of the other users who pinned down the AE shortly after its appearance as well as her obvious lies.
TheProwler said:Yeah, her snotty attitude and ad hominem attacks will make her a great classmate too. Can't wait to meet her.
I also must commend the investigative capabilities of the other users who pinned down the AE shortly after its appearance as well as her obvious lies.
Prowler, that is a hilarious picture...I'm wondering if that would work as someone's avatar...hmm... 
