Hiring someone to go over your application

[LACMA]

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Hello 🙂

I was just wondering if any of you have hired someone from like a company or something to help you out with the application, reading over your essays, etc. I've heard of med school coach.... but that's like the only one I've heard of. Have any of you used it? Do any of the MCAT prep courses like Kaplan or Princeton Review offer this service? Can these people actually help you any more than a premed advisor, friends, and teachers can? Or is it a waste of money?

Thanks !

 

[tantacles]

It really depends. I've gone over several personal statements on this site, and some of them were awful, while some of them were ok and just needed tweaking. If your personal statement is in the former category, you'll need a lot of help, and you might benefit from a service that will go through your personal statement with you line-by-line. If not, write and keep rewriting, and get your most brutally honest (and good at writing) friends to go over it for you. They likely won't mind.

How will you know if your PS is in the former category? Well, remember how I mentioned to give the essay to your most brutally honest friend who is a good writer? That one will tell you. If you can understand why the person thought it was awful and you feel you can make it better, overhaul it. If you just can't understand why in the world your essay is awful, give it to another brutally honest friend. If that second friend indicates that it's awful and you feel you can change your personal statement drastically, do so. If you still don't understand what is wrong, one of these services may be for you; you may just need someone to explain to you, in precise language, what is bad and how best to change it.

Insofar as what service is the best, I truly have no idea, so unfortunately, for that part of it, you're on your own.

 

[EMDO2018]

Why would you waste money like that? Don't be gullible, use SDN.

 

[LACMA]

Why would you waste money like that? Don't be gullible, use SDN.

desperate to get in I guess... haha Their website makes them sound all fancy and s***

 

[Gauss44]

OP: Yes, if you can afford to have someone go over your application, then do so. You can bet that many other people will be doing exactly that. In fact, some schools I believe, have staff that do this for free for their students. Why hold back? (Unless you can't afford it.) This is your application!

...Well, remember how I mentioned to give the essay to your most brutally honest friend who is a good writer? That one will tell you. If you can understand why the person thought it was awful and you feel you can make it better, overhaul it. If you just can't understand why in the world your essay is awful, give it to another brutally honest friend. If that second friend indicates that it's awful and you feel you can change your personal statement drastically, do so. If you still don't understand what is wrong, one of these services may be for you; you may just need someone to explain to you, in precise language, what is bad and how best to change it.

Insofar as what service is the best, I truly have no idea, so unfortunately, for that part of it, you're on your own.

Why "brutal"?

Definition of "brutal": Savagely violent. Synonyms: savage, cruel, vicious, ferocious, brutish, barbaric, barbarous, wicked,murderous, bloodthirsty, cold-blooded, callous, heartless, ruthless,merciless, sadistic;

(Even kindlier definitions suggest unpleasantness, rather than pure directness.)

Source: https://www.google.com/#q=define: brutal

I've never understood why just "honest" or "completely honest" of "frankly honest" won't do. What's up with "brutality?"

 

[tantacles]

desperate to get in I guess... haha Their website makes them sound all fancy and s***

Perhaps they're very good, but exhaust your other options before you use them. It's an expense that, if you're a decent writer, should not be necessary.

 

[tantacles]

OP: Yes, if you can afford to have someone go over your application, then do so. You can bet that many other people will be doing exactly that. In fact, some schools I believe, have staff that do this for free for their students. Why hold back? (Unless you can't afford it.) This is your application!



Why "brutal"?

Definition of "brutal": Savagely violent. Synonyms: savage, cruel, vicious, ferocious, brutish, barbaric, barbarous, wicked,murderous, bloodthirsty, cold-blooded, callous, heartless, ruthless,merciless, sadistic;

Source: https://www.google.com/#q=define: brutal

I've never understood why just "honest" or "completely honest" of "frankly honest" won't do. What's up with "brutality?"

People have a tendency to sugar coat when something is bad. That is absolutely not what you want when someone is critiquing a medical school personal statement. Admissions counselors may look at your PS and say, "Wow. That statement actually makes her sound a little bit irresponsible" and immediately throw out your application not because they're insensitive to your plight, but rather because there are thousands of other applicants who might not have that one small but very noticeable (to an admissions committee) flaw in a personal statement. A brutally honest person who is a good writer will, if they're worth the time, find those flaws and make as big a deal about them as possible, therefore saving you the trouble of submitting your personal statement only to find out that you unknowingly degraded the nursing profession, said something negative about a person who allowed you to shadow them, revealed an extremely unattractive (admissions-wise) characteristic about yourself, or committed any of the other hundreds of faux pas I've seen on myriad personal statements.