How do I get un-stuck with writing my personal statement?

[ZMan22]

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Hi Guys,

I have been reading all the threads here about personal statement writing and threads about other people being stuck on their statement too. I bought that Barron's "Essays that will get you into medical school" book and even with SDN and the exercises I completed from that book, I am still absolutely stuck with my ridiculously terrible first essay that I want to trash.

I am thinking of giving in and hiring a writing consultant or something. Can anybody offer advice or personal stories about how they got "un-stuck" and turned a terrible statement around? I would really appreciate it.

 

[sliceofbread136]

Form an outline before hand of the points you want to convey and transitions between those points. I personally did a 4 paragraph essay. Think of stories/examples from your life to convey those points (show don't tell). Once you've got all this down it's just an exercise in finding the right wording, which can be easier said than done.

If you need to try and think of subject material to write about, think in the shower. That's where I had all my epiphanies.

 

[Mountaineer12]

Maybe try getting a few people to read through your current draft. They may be able to give you some tips on what to add, what to expand on, what to change, etc. Two heads are always better than one!

 

[RedSox10]

Relax. It's only April. Wait for an inspiration to come to you. Writer's block is not cured by more stress.

Also, forget about reading a book on "good essays". I've never seen such a book for Med School but I have seen those for undergrad and most of the time the essays are cr*p and quite frankly it's hard to parse whether the person got into Harvard because of the essay, or because of a ridiculously high GPA/test scores/extracurricular/demographic/legacy, etc etc.

 

[NeuralNetwork]

Stop trying to fit an essay mold and take the time to truly reflect on what has been important to you in your path to medicine. Jot down those events, values, feelings, etc and then connect them using a unifying theme. You will without a doubt continue to get stuck if you try to follow a writing formula or if you try to copy a certain style that someone else did.

 

[circulus vitios]

Stop trying to fit an essay mold and take the time to truly reflect on what has been important to you in your path to medicine. Jot down those events, values, feelings, etc and then connect them using a unifying theme. You will without a doubt continue to get stuck if you try to follow a writing formula or if you try to copy a certain style that someone else did.

So basically, lie? Most of us want into medicine because it's interesting and it pays well. Or, at least I do.

 

[gumbyj]

After two months of trying to write this stupid thing I finally wrote a draft last night so I completely feel your pain.

For me it was getting something, ANYTHING on the paper in a first draft form and having a trusted mentor, who knows you well read it and give comments.

After this silly first draft (which is terrible I might add) reworking it to make it a stellar PS seems like cake!

 

[Mountaineer12]

So basically, lie? Most of us want into medicine because it's interesting and it pays well. Or, at least I do.

I wouldn't mention the paying well reason, but try to find an interesting way to explain your interest in medicine and how that has developed and how it has influenced your decision to become a physician. Don't lie because they will probably ask you about your motivations of going to medical school in an interview and they will be able to see through you.

 

[circulus vitios]

I wouldn't mention the paying well reason, but try to find an interesting way to explain your interest in medicine and how that has developed and how it has influenced your decision to become a physician. Don't lie because they will probably ask you about your motivations of going to medical school in an interview and they will be able to see through you.

That's what I'm trying to do, but it's hard. I don't have any research experience (my school has an extremely small research budget that only allows science majors to do research), so I can't be like most pre-meds and talk about research and how 'exciting' and 'illuminating' it is.

 

[physcigirl27]

totally know how you feel. Plus I'm a reapplicant so I'm finding it hard to go away from my old PS and move in a different direction. I keep writing (basically) me old personal statement again.
I trashed everything and started trying to do a free flow type thing so now i have 2-3 pages of random ideas...try that. I've managed to find a few good points that I want to mention for sure.

 

[EBTrailRunner]

I think a good approach to writing a PS is to start with a "hook" (e.g., a moment during your clinical volunteering when you realized, "This is what I want to do"). Subsequently, you could travel back through those personal life experiences that led you to decide on a career in medicine, detailing their individual significance and how they've shaped who you are and who you hope to become, both personally and professionally.

I think it's expected that most pre-med students will have the same underlying reasons for pursuing medicine. What's going to help you stand out is how well you express those reasons. You'll be going up against thousands of applicants who likely have identical stats as you, and your PS may well be what gets you an interview. I'm all for brainstorming, but I can't stress how important it is to make sure your PS is meticulously written. Don't rush writing it and show it to anyone and everyone whose opinion you respect. Keep in mind that many students go through 20+ revisions before they have a finalized version, so don't despair if your PS looks like garbage at the moment.

 

[hmainn]

This is what I did...
Started a crappy first draft that ran a lot longer than the word limit. During that time, I didn't pay too close attention to grammatical or stylistic errors. Let it sit for a couple of days.

Went back and read it, and made sure to note what I wanted to keep/discard. New draft. Let it sit again for a couple of days.

After a couple drafts, I began having good content and some attention grabbing qualities, but it ran too long. I took time trimming the fat - taking words/sentences out that I didn't need.

More drafts and peer reviews... Final draft.

Had about 10 drafts, and in the end was very pleased. I think the trick was to write everything out that was on my mind during the first draft. Having everything out on the table, I could pick what I wanted to keep/discard to develop a good story of my life and aspirations.

 

[Neurosis]

After two months of trying to write this stupid thing I finally wrote a draft last night so I completely feel your pain.

It took you 2 months? I dunno, maybe it's because i have an affinity towards writing, or more likely I rushed, but it only took me about an hour and a half to draft my first copy. I feel kind of dorky about the whole thing---still a freshman (i did the personal statement as a writing assignment for my composition class)

 

[TheMightySmiter]

It depends on your writing style, but I think that a good place to start is by writing a stream-of-consciousness answer to the question, "Why medicine?" Write as though you're explaining your decision to your parents or close friends so you can be completely honest. Once you're finished, go through and pick out the elements that you think represent you the best, and then try to brainstorm a theme that can tie the whole piece together. My theme, for example, was my mom who has MS and is a huge part of my life. It could also be a sport or organization that has been important to you. Start and end your essay with your theme, and maybe mention it once or twice throughout. Then fill the rest of the essay with your story, including some specific anecdotes that represent your reasoning.

This is just one way to approach your personal statement, but it worked for me. Good luck! 🙂 Sometimes just putting it down for two weeks and not thinking about it helps a lot.

 

[The Imprisoned]

The biggest problem is that most of the books out there use a lot of "I" in their personal statements and it comes off as arrogant. You want to switch the sentence structure (read varying sentence structure) so that it is still about you but not so blunt. So overall I would stay away from those books. I know they just lent terrible ideas to my drafts of my personal statements. In the end, it was mostly drafting and using outlines and my premed advisor that helped me to write my personal statement and it came out very well. Best of luck to you.

 

[tenndoc]

i wrote down little things i thought of during the days about why i wanted to be a dr in a little book. compiled my ideas and hammered out a rough draft and left it alone for a month. didnt touch it at all. i slowly went back 2-3 times a month and put 2-3 hours of editing and work into it. by may, i had a pretty good PS to send off to my family, friends, peers to critique. boom... had it done by application time

 

[NeuralNetwork]

So basically, lie? Most of us want into medicine because it's interesting and it pays well. Or, at least I do.

You don't have any special events in your life, or hold any values that might correlate with a successful career in medicine?

As long as we are making very broad generalizations here 🙄, I would add that most people going into medicine have a desire to help others. Take that, along with "because its interesting" and reflect/expand upon those ideas.

Ex:
When did you start taking an interest? Anything that started it?
Why do you find it interesting?
What have you done in your life and in college that shows a development of your curiosity and interests, in science or related fields?

The most successful essays tend to have a lot of reflective writing which allows for adcoms to gain an insight about you as an applicant. I am sure that anyone who takes a good amount of time to reflect will come up with something nice to say.

 

[dunkinkg21]

An english professor in college use to say never use the words, "I", "But" and "Also". there was as 4th word but I'll be damned if I can remember it

isn't it supposed to be good to use "I / me" statements in your personal statement?

 

[Mountaineer12]

That's what I'm trying to do, but it's hard. I don't have any research experience (my school has an extremely small research budget that only allows science majors to do research), so I can't be like most pre-meds and talk about research and how 'exciting' and 'illuminating' it is.

That's okay, I've done lots of research and I barely mention it in PS because honestly it didn't have much influence on my decision to pursue medicine. Just be really honest about where the idea to become a doctor came from. Did it start from a bio class? Or maybe an encounter with a physician? Something started you down this path. Finding that, no matter how small it was, will be the key to unraveling your PS.

 

[soundnin]

That's what I'm trying to do, but it's hard. I don't have any research experience (my school has an extremely small research budget that only allows science majors to do research), so I can't be like most pre-meds and talk about research and how 'exciting' and 'illuminating' it is.

you realize you are applying to med school and not graduate school for a phd right? 😛

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk

 

[Narmerguy]

I find that it usually takes me just writing a bunch of crap (usually delirious at night) and then waking up the next day and finding little phrases that I liked or approaches that I thought were effective. Just keep getting stuff on the page, most of the time you'll eventually hit a few inspiring streaks.

 

[Xcited392]

I find that it usually takes me just writing a bunch of crap (usually delirious at night) and then waking up the next day and finding little phrases that I liked or approaches that I thought were effective. Just keep getting stuff on the page, most of the time you'll eventually hit a few inspiring streaks.

Same here.

For a couple of weeks, I had pages of random sentences and paragraphs. It was a great brainstorming technique. Just write whatever comes to your mind (and heart). After you understand what it is you want to say, organize it and get rid of unnecessary sentences, no matter how good you think it sounds.

Early on, I knew there was a particular theme that I wanted to have, so it was easier to brainstorm from there.

 

[vayntraubinator]

I read that essays book. It was pretty good because you could see the weaknesses and strengths of an essay, and then I realized the key to a good PS for me:

Unifying idea in catchy intro ==> 3 anecdotes ==> Unifying idea and why Doctor

5 paragraphs but it works for me so far. Still gotta edit it by ~150 characters.
I think it's a more powerful essay because the anecdotes I used demonstrate the emotion within me and how I work. Also, my work & activities will corroborate the kinds of activities I did and who portray myself as in my PS, so there's no need to mention all of them.

I was in your position and for 5-6 days just brainstormed what would be the most powerful examples that describe me and the most powerful examples that led me to medicine. I outlined one day. Wrote it all down in one day and cut only one paragraph. Been editing it for several weeks and still am doing so.

Realize that this will help you reaffirm why medicine. And that reaffirmation is invaluable.

 

[LizzyM]

An english professor in college use to say never use the words, "I", "But" and "Also". there was as 4th word but I'll be damned if I can remember it

Me? As in "Me and the doctor I was shadowing..."

It is absurd to write a personal statement without the word "I". I just looked over a successful PS from last cycle; it used "I" 17 times! Another I looked at used it 28 times including 12 times to start a sentence!

 

[ljpm8224]

I just looked over a successful PS from last cycle; it used "I" 17 times! Another I looked at used it 28 times including 12 times to start a sentence!

^^ Sorry, far too many "I"s in these sentences. 😉

OP- one thing that really helps me with writers block type stuff is to work on the essay for about half an hour before bed. Then when I'm lying there about to fall asleep, I ALWAYS think up nice, moving, eloquent things to say. Annoyingly I then have to turn on the light and put pen to paper or drag out the laptop, but that is when inspiration and genius always strike!

 

[thelaw986]

Hey guys, for those who are thinking about what to write or how to approach the personal essay, here's a great place to start. It's very informative and helpful.

enjoy!

http://web.jhu.edu/prepro/health/Applicants/personal.html

 

[TheMightySmiter]

isn't it supposed to be good to use "I / me" statements in your personal statement?

Definitely. It's one thing to vary sentence structure so your statement is easy to read, but it's a personal statement, not an analytical essay. You have to use "I".

 

[Aerus]

An english professor in college use to say never use the words, "I", "But" and "Also". there was as 4th word but I'll be damned if I can remember it

"I" is perfectly fine. "But" and "also" might be tricky. Still, using them is perfectly fine. Any word is okay to use, as long as it's used effectively.

You don't want to bombard your personal statements with "I" for no reason, but if you use "I" to relate the reasons and experiences to yourself personally and your own values, that is an excellent reason to use "I".

@OP: As the others have said, I find it most effective to just force yourself to start a draft, putting in a bunch of ideas and structure, let it sit for a couple hours, then come back to it and revise. You NEED to start a draft in order to edit one.

Even if your first draft smells worst than the rotting feces on a sunny day, you need to get it out there. Then, start adding, deleting, revising, etc. It's MUCH easier to edit than to start. So get the "start" out of the way now.