creative personal statements?

[freudismyfriend]

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I'm working on my ps and I'm confused as to how creative personal statements should be. My friends who applied to medschool for example wrote anecdotal stories and Asher's book is full of creative responses. Should we be doing the same for Clinical schools? I kind of thought statements were supposed to be the place to talk about research experiences and goals.

 

[KillerDiller]

I imagine that, considering the nature of the field, those who review applications for clinical psych programs get a lot of sob stories in personal statements. It's fine if you want to study depression because you once went through a horrific bout of it in high school, but that's not really going to make you a better clinician, academic, or researcher. Schools don't care so much about why you want to go to school for clinical psychology, they care about what you have done to make yourself a good candidate and a good match for their particular program.

I don't mean to imply that personal stories are taboo in this field, just that they shouldn't override the narrative of your research and academic experience.

 

[RayneeDeigh]

I used an anecdote in my personal statements last year and I wish I hadn't... it's one of those things I had to wonder about when rejections came in.

That said, I did get in somewhere and now that I'm in classes and everything my feeling is that all the profs KNOW that people are usually in psych because they've had direct or indirect experience with mental illness. That's not news to them, they expect it, and that also means they're not that impressed by it.

So... I would say that sob stories should be kept out of the statements. However, I also mentioned how I got interested in my research topic when I was a young teenager by doing a particular research project. That apparently caught the eye of my current advisor because he mentioned it within the first 5 minutes of my interview.

So if it's an anecdote that shows a long-time dedication to the field of psychology, go for it. If it's "my best friend is bipolar and seeing what she goes through made me want to be a Psychologist," leave it out.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I would be very hesitant to disclose that kind of information (sob stories). It tends to suggest that you are looking to fix yourself, and that is not a healthy way to go about the learning process because it removes objectivity from the equation. I'd focus much more on your interests, why their program is a good fit, etc.

I'm going through this process again (for internships) and I'm approaching it with an eye on 'fit' and writing each PS to address their program, so it doesn't look generic, however I don't want to provide them a reason to red flag my application. Both processes are highly competitive, and stuff like that matters.

-t

 

[freudismyfriend]

ok so no sob stories....how about things to make my essay stick out or make me seem unique? Asher's book (Graduate Admissions Essays) had mentioned making your first lines and paragraphs interesting, but saying something like "I'm the sixth of seven children from a large blue-collar irish-catholic family in the midwest" (his example) doesn't seem like something Psych researchers would necessarily care about. Can I just be boring-ish and dole out all my experience and why i'm a good fit or should I try to pep my essay up?

 

[RayneeDeigh]

ok so no sob stories....how about things to make my essay stick out or make me seem unique? Asher's book (Graduate Admissions Essays) had mentioned making your first lines and paragraphs interesting, but saying something like "I'm the sixth of seven children from a large blue-collar irish-catholic family in the midwest" (his example) doesn't seem like something Psych researchers would necessarily care about. Can I just be boring-ish and dole out all my experience and why i'm a good fit or should I try to pep my essay up?

I would say that you talking about why you're the best candidate for their program is all the pep they want/need. If you're right for them, they'll get excited about you.

Med school applications are veeeeery different from clinical psych. For instance, I know of people who have gone for interviews at med schools and talked about politics and history instead of the actual subject of medicine. As a general rule, clinical psych programs care about your brain and your research interests. They'll figure out if you're capable of empathy in the interview and until then they just want to know that you'll work hard in their program and be productive.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Med school applications are veeeeery different from clinical psych. For instance, I know of people who have gone for interviews at med schools and talked about politics and history instead of the actual subject of medicine. As a general rule, clinical psych programs care about your brain and your research interests. They'll figure out if you're capable of empathy in the interview and until then they just want to know that you'll work hard in their program and be productive.

I think clinical psychology programs are MUCH more about fit than med school. Med school is about GPA, MCATs, and connections. You can have great great, great GRE's/Psych GREs, and some connections......and not get an interview, let alone a slot.

I think your PS should address why you are a good fit for THEM, and why they are a good fit for YOU. If your interest in XYZ came from a paper you wrote in college, which led to doing more research with ABC about XYZ.....talk about that.

On INTERVIEW.....then anecdotal stuff is great, because you want them to remember you, but when you are trying to get through the first cut, it may be more of a risk. When you get to the interview stage it is more about you as a person, and less about your ability to complete the work...if you made it that far, they consider you capable enough.

-t

 

[psychanon]

No sob stories, no disclosure of personal mental illness. But, if you have a brief anecdote that you can tie to your research interests, that may be good. For example, "Being sixth of seven children from a large blue-collar irish-catholic family in the midwest instilled a cognizance of the impact of cultural background in family dynamics, etc." "As I watched my mother fight breast cancer, I developed a personal understanding of the interface between optimism and health." "Growing up in a refugee camp, I realized that there are individual differences in how people cope with adversity." Be sure to approach it in an objective, scientific way. Remember that you are writing a statement of how well you match with the program-- if you can effectively use anecdotes to support that, go for it. But tread lightly-- don't go to heavy on it.

 

[razzled]

I was also instructed not to say in your personal statement that you "want to help people" because everyone says that. Focus very heavily on why you are a good fit for the program...and what specifically in your research/ academic/ and personal (if it is really applicable) background has led you to the place where you are.

 

[JockNerd]

I was also instructed not to say in your personal statement that you "want to help people" because everyone says that.

Just as how disclosure of personal of family mental illness isn't the problem so much as what's behind that is (inappropriate explosive self-disclosure and getting into the field for the wrong reasons), I think the specific problem is profession of excessively and unrealistically altruistic motives in any form. But you're definitely right-- "I want to heal the world with love" isn't sexy to admissions committees.

Everyone else is right about focusing on fit, I think. PSes should stress your fit with psych, the program, the program mission, your prof, your prof's lab.

You would have to be a VERY strong writer (as in, professional level) to have creative things be very likely to come off well. It's much more likely they'd be seen as weird or inappropriately silly.

 

[Psychnbc]

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[JockNerd]

Opening a PS with a clear deficit (for my my undergrad GPA) and explaining why (no mental or physical illness involved) and how I've changed, etc. I have to address it, I just don't know where. Thoughts?

Ack! No, I'd say! First impressions! Mention it at the end and spend two sentences on it. Ask your letter writers to mention their awareness of it and how it doesn't reflect your abilities as well as (your research, your psych GPA, your GREs, whatever).

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Of course, there is always the Primacy and Recent Effects. It isn't a huge deal, but people tend to remember the first and last things, so you want to start strong and finish strong. It is akin to the Sandwich Method, if you have bad news, you should always try to bookend it with good news, so you can insulate the fallout. 😀

In the end your experience should speak the loudest, so don't get too caught up with a bump in the road.

-t

 

[terrybug]

Yes, application committees have to sift through a hundred or so personal statements so you should try to do something to make yours stand out from the crowd.

When I applied last year I was really tempted to do a tongue-in-cheek meta-personal statement but my advisor gave me t his advice - the more publications you have, the more you can get away with (because you can point to a track record of serious effort). If you're just starting out then people won't know that there's substance behind your theatrics and they won't take you seriously.

 

[biogirl215]

I was also instructed not to say in your personal statement that you "want to help people" because everyone says that.

I know someone who is on their internship and STILL says that. I was surprised, figuring that all those years of grad school would have beaten that out of them... I guess not.