Depakote's Personal Statement Guide/Tips

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Since spaces count toward max character number, can I not space after each sentence? is it going to look weird?
:laugh:

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Hey fam,

Question regarding the "3 most meaningful experiences" we get to write about in the work/activities section.
How important is it to pre-write those 3 experiences? I know we get something like 1400 characters with spaces, (if someone can verify the correct amount please), but really how much time should we be spending pre-writing those compared to our personal statement.

Obviously focus on the PS. But is it critical to pre-write those experiences months in advance as well? or are those experiences not so heavily weighted compared to the PS and other things on the application?
if anyone can offer some insight on this thanks so much!
 
Not sure if this is the appropriate place to add my two cents, but here it is:

-Don't edit in your head. Edit on paper (or on computer), and save everything. You'll come up with good material that doesn't fit in with your PS, but it will come in handy when you're writing secondaries.

-Talk about yourself. I don't think adcoms really care about the doctors you shadowed or the patients you met. These topics can be great, IF you relate them back to why you should be a doctor.

-I found it helpful to think about the whole application as a coherent narrative. Take a couple days and just think about how you got where you are. If you have a strong sense of your path and motivations, you will write a much more convincing essay. (This is probably especially important for non-trads.)

-There are many ways to frame an essay, chronological probably being the most common. There's nothing wrong with chronology (if it's done well), but try to experiment with other frameworks.

-Show, don't tell. When the characters are so strictly limited, it's easy to fall into the trap of "telling." Just writing "I have strong leadership skills" is weak. Back up your points with examples.

-Find an editor who doesn't care about hurting your feelings. Most parents don't fit the bill. I'm lucky (unlucky?) enough to have parents who had no problem ripping my essay to shreds. From what I've seen, other parents are less...brutal.
 
I'm doing a chronological overview of how I arrived to medicine. This leaves me at where I am today (well, where I will be next May) - applying to medical school. What should my conclusion look like? "I really want to be a doctor. Accept me!" I'm really at a loss. :laugh:
 
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Thanks for your advice. I find myself falling for the activities trap where I talk about the qualities Iike in a physician I shadowed, but I try to tie it back to why I am motivated. Also, I speak about a patient feeling comfortable talking to me but I tried to showcase why being a good listener is ideal as a physician. I still don't have a central theme and it is getting me in trouble with character limit.

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to add my two cents, but here it is:

-Don't edit in your head. Edit on paper (or on computer), and save everything. You'll come up with good material that doesn't fit in with your PS, but it will come in handy when you're writing secondaries.

-Talk about yourself. I don't think adcoms really care about the doctors you shadowed or the patients you met. These topics can be great, IF you relate them back to why you should be a doctor.

-I found it helpful to think about the whole application as a coherent narrative. Take a couple days and just think about how you got where you are. If you have a strong sense of your path and motivations, you will write a much more convincing essay. (This is probably especially important for non-trads.)

-There are many ways to frame an essay, chronological probably being the most common. There's nothing wrong with chronology (if it's done well), but try to experiment with other frameworks.

-Show, don't tell. When the characters are so strictly limited, it's easy to fall into the trap of "telling." Just writing "I have strong leadership skills" is weak. Back up your points with examples.

-Find an editor who doesn't care about hurting your feelings. Most parents don't fit the bill. I'm lucky (unlucky?) enough to have parents who had no problem ripping my essay to shreds. From what I've seen, other parents are less...brutal.
 
1. Getting started is often the hardest part of the essay. Sit down for a few hours and write whatever comes to your head. Often times you will find at least one narrative that you can polish and work with the develop the rest of the PS.

2. Don't feel required to use every character allotted. You can write a strong PS that uses only 3/4 of the allotment and then ruin it by trying to add more. Often times trying to include more stuff leads to the activities/research trap.
 
-How 'dramatic' must a story be in order for us to use it as our prompt? Mine was pretty minor, and I even address that, but it's had a lasting impact. Is that appropriate? Accordingly, I wasn't dramatic enough to say 'oh my god the ambulance came roaring in with lights flashing WEE-OOO-WEE-OOO'

-Is the story format really abused badly enough where it's a bad idea to instate it as our prompt? How would you suggest attention-grabbing without it? The imagery it provides I think would be the most important part, and I can't think of another style to invoke that.

-Should we spoon feed our traits in any way, or should we assume that if we write about an experience they'll be able to pull the positives out of them (within reason)? I am aware these are very intelligent people reading them, but I wouldn't want to go about not having them get the point of why I included my experiences.

Really regretting not starting my PS until now... could be rough getting everything completed by the June 5th date. I'm usually a great writer, but this is still pretty difficult to crank out (easy to get distracted...)
 
If you feel like you keep rereading your PS and don't know what to change (whether you've hit a rut, its bad, or just needs polishing), have a friend read your entire PS out loud to you. Or if you cringe at the thought of that, find a text-to-speech reader and have your computer read it to you (Mac's is super simple.)

Once you hear someone else is reading it, it's like listening to a children's story and things will stick out! It should grasp you from the beginning, make sense at a normal reading pace, and keep you interested, and have a good feeling at the end. This literally helped me out a LOT. Takes notes as you go too.
 
Not sure if this is the appropriate place to add my two cents, but here it is:

-There are many ways to frame an essay, chronological probably being the most common. There's nothing wrong with chronology (if it's done well), but try to experiment with other frameworks.
.

like what other frameworks? :confused: sorry, I'm a scientist not a writer.:p

also...I have some old paragraphs about how research has taught me to be patient in the face of things not working the first time (ever!) and also how I've had chances recently to teach others (i.e. leadership and good with people!), but I don't want to get caught in the extracurricular trap. ideas?
 
Hi a quick question, for my ending, should I write about how watching and meeting physicians allowed me to understand the art of medicine or should I reflect on what being a patient is using my own experiences from the past? which is a better topic?
 
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I was wondering if it would be okay to start out with a significant event in my life that set the tone for the next few years of my life and how it built my character/strengthened my interest in pursuing medicine. Basically, I got laid off, had no success in finding jobs, found a job that I have worked at for the last few years but still think about missed opportunities during undergrad (poor academic/MCAT performance), and how my recent life experience has been a character builder and more importantly to make the case that I NEED to become a doctor after exploring some other career opportunities over the last few years.

I am trying really hard to avoid themes like rolling up on a horrific car accident scene and wanting to become a doctor because I felt helpless at not being able to help/had some profound spiritual experience that I felt compelled from that point to study medicine etc... Such essays make me cringe and I can't imagine what it would do for an adcom who reads these things on a regular basis.

Thanks for any advice you're able to give.
 
Not sure if people are still responding here but here I go:

Is the issue that some people essentially base their entire essay on my parent(s) = MD, therefore, I want to = MD, or something equally shallow. Or should these types of topics not be mentioned at all?
The way I approached mine, I set up the intro with a little story about growing up in a healthcare environment. I finished my intro saying that while these formative experiences sparked my initial interest in medicine, my real reflection on why exactly I want to pursue med was catalyzed by more recent experiences. Then in 3 body paragraphs, I give reasonable responses to "why medicine?" then finish off with the concluding paragraph framed as: my childhood interest in med has become more focused; then I reiterate the specific answers to "why medicine?" from each of my body paragraphs; then I mention that I would like to explore whatever specialties may be best suited to my interests. (Of course, all this is with slightly more interesting prose than suggested above :p)

So I use the opening story format, and mention that my interest in med has been affected by the fact that I grew up around it, but these ideas are not the meat of my essay. Now, I'm wondering if I've really escaped the cliché trap as I'd like to think...
 
Not sure if people are still responding here but here I go:

Is the issue that some people essentially base their entire essay on my parent(s) = MD, therefore, I want to = MD, or something equally shallow. Or should these types of topics not be mentioned at all?
The way I approached mine, I set up the intro with a little story about growing up in a healthcare environment. I finished my intro saying that while these formative experiences sparked my initial interest in medicine, my real reflection on why exactly I want to pursue med was catalyzed by more recent experiences. Then in 3 body paragraphs, I give reasonable responses to "why medicine?" then finish off with the concluding paragraph framed as: my childhood interest in med has become more focused; then I reiterate the specific answers to "why medicine?" from each of my body paragraphs; then I mention that I would like to explore whatever specialties may be best suited to my interests. (Of course, all this is with slightly more interesting prose than suggested above :p)

So I use the opening story format, and mention that my interest in med has been affected by the fact that I grew up around it, but these ideas are not the meat of my essay. Now, I'm wondering if I've really escaped the cliché trap as I'd like to think...
in the first place, i never thought it should be held against you if your parents are physicians. that's not something you can help. your outline sounds good though
 
in the first place, i never thought it should be held against you if your parents are physicians. that's not something you can help. your outline sounds good though

Unfortunately, "cookie-cutter" stories get a bad rap. We can't choose where we come from - there are plenty of suburban white kids who would make great doctors, but our current culture somewhat devalues that background. Just have to do the best we can and understand why it is medical schools often emphasize the backgrounds that they do.
 
Ahhh so useful... this is great. Thank you so much Depakote and others for this!!
 
I am not sure if anyone has asked this, but what do you all recommend we use to write our personal statements? I know there is a character limit and that we'll have to insert page breaks and such so I am trying to determine what I should use to write my personal statement.
 
Hi everyone, I know this is a very old post, but I'm having issues writing my personal statement (like everyone else)....Would anyone be interested in reading it? I need help with wording/avoiding cliches or unnecessary words.

Thanks!
 
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Thank you! This is very helpful.
 
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