How do you know when your personal statement is done?

[dujingshu]

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[Anxious Affect]

Wow, you're already pre-writing secondaries?? You're super ahead of the game! I didn't pre-write but I got everything turned in within a 2-week turnaround.

Anyways, my two cents is that you are always going to get conflicting opinions about your P.S. so you have to take each reader's suggestions with a grain of salt. That's kind of how it is during the AMCAS cycle - maybe not every ADCOM will fall in love with your P.S., but the ones that do will be the ones interviewing you. And not every ADCOM should fall in love with your personal statement because, well, it's supposed to be personal and, therefore, will most likely not appeal to absolutely everyone. Don't stress out about pleasing all of your readers; this is your essay about your life, and only you can write it. If you try to incorporate everyone's drastic changes, your P.S. will not end up being about you and will probably end up looking pretty generic.

That being said, I would sincerely consider feedback from those you trust and know best. I did make drastic changes after suggestions from a faculty member with whom I am close. But I definitely did NOT take all of the advice I received.

 

[deleted781806]

It really boils down to taking only some of the advice that is given to you, always be critical of whatever advice is being posed to you and make sure that it makes sense! If you don't agree with the advice and can argue against it fairly convincingly, then leave it, if they might have a point then consider changing up your essay. It's really up to you to sort through everything to see what works and what doesn't work, otherwise it wouldn't be personal!

As for the topic question of the post: you know your PS is done when it's June 1st and you've submitted your AMCAS haha. I think I went through three or four complete rewrites of my PS before I ended up being happy with it, but you've got plenty of time, so don't worry about it too much! Taking a break between rounds of revision will do you good and give you a fresh perspective on what needs to be done.

 

[kamakazi5]

Print it out and light it on fire, if it doesn't burn you're done.

 

[alcoholdehydrogenase69]

Sounds like you need to choose who reviews your PS more carefully. If you are at the beginning of the process, take it to a mentor from research/shadowing who you think will give you an honest opinion. Use that to frame the rest of the advice you've gotten from SDN/Reddit in the right context. Reality is many people reviewing your PS online are likely not great writers.

A PS will never be perfect. You can always change things, let it sit for a week, come back to it, and make additional changes. Mine was done when I went through about 7 revisions after my mentors had read and edited it several times. Judge it's completeness by the responses from those you trust.


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[FCMike11]

Mike underwent ~ 10 revisions over a month or so (i have two close family members who edit for me). Also had a respected pre-med advisor read it and gave some good broad stroke advice ("show me, stop telling me!")

Basically one day I had read my PS so many times I hated it and couldn't read it any further.

Just make sure you do find someone who knows what the structure/content needs to follow, at least once.

You could make tons of corrections/revisions, over and over and stress yourself out. I agree with @alcoholdehydrogenase69

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[caffeinemia]

**don't quote, thank you**

I recently finished a rough draft of my personal statement and sent it out to a bunch of SDN readers and people from the pre-med reddit (thank you so much to everyone who looked at it)! I would say that most of the feedback I got was positive--the draft is rough, but I'm heading in the right direction. However, I also had two reviewers who basically told me it was **** and I needed to completely rewrite it, and one insisted I needed to change my overall writing style.

Or, another example: one reviewer told me that my last paragraph was redundant and didn't need to be included. Another reviewer told me that one of their favorite parts of my essay was the last paragraph, and that it wrapped everything up nicely.

I open with an anecdote in my PS. Some people liked it, some people told me I should absolutely get rid of it.

I've always been rather confident about my writing, and I've almost always received positive feedback. This giant divide in feedback on my PS, however, is really freaking me out. I'm pre-writing secondaries now, and I notice that I'm second guessing pretty much everything I'm saying.

I guess my question is, how do you know what feedback is worth taking and what isn't? I sent my PS out to about 12 people, if 2 hated it, what does that mean if 1/6 of all adcoms who read it hate it? How do you know when your PS is officially finished?

Any insight would be helpful, as I'm very nervous. Thanks!

The problem with asking the anonymous interwebs for writing help is that you don't know who has legitimate credentials to advise you. Their own writing might be piss poor, they may have never even applied to med school, or successfully gained admission. So then it's the blind leading the blind. Did you have the chance to review the work and resume of the people who advised you - probably not, right? Probably cuz it's free and out of others' goodwill.

It's all comes down to how confident you are in your own writing and your ability to evaluate your own writing objectively. It's also about how confident you are in evaluating the advice of others. After all, it's just advice, and on something so subjective, no one can guarantee that they are always correct.

IF you're still concerned about your statement, I'd recommend getting a professional editor/tutor or at least an English professor/writer to advise you. At least then you might be more confident in the quality of their advice. I've advised plenty of people professionally. This may sound arrogant... but when they've seen my educational pedigree, personal writing samples, previous work and success with clients, then they are a lot more confident in the advice.

 

[Toutie]

After looking back at your post looking for readers...it looks to me that most of the people who said they'd read your PS are pre-meds. They have not yet written a PS that was good enough to get them into med school...so take their opinion with a grain of salt. Some of them may be able to offer you quality advice and some will have no idea what they are talking about.

I would wait another couple weeks for the annual Official SDN PS readers thread. You will have a group of more qualified people reading your PS. Also, consider bringing it to your English dept at school and see if you can find some readers there to help.

 

[Endoxifen]

If you wake up to find the PS carved into stone tablets, then you're done.

 

[leagueofDravenMD]

When I reached 1 month after opening day of the primary application with everything ready since that day.... I still hate my PS, but it seemed to do the job.

Just like your reviewers, adcoms will have different opinions as well; even a rec letter seemed to really stand out to one school I interviewed at.

My advice just keep it authentic and apply broadly


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[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

The problem with asking the anonymous interwebs for writing help is that you don't know who has legitimate credentials to advise you. Their own writing might be piss poor, they may have never even applied to med school, or successfully gained admission. So then it's the blind leading the blind. Did you have the chance to review the work and resume of the people who advised you - probably not, right? Probably cuz it's free and out of others' goodwill.

This is exactly why I try to offer my services when I can. I figure most of the people reading PSes have little to no actual writing credentials and are likely to give bad advice.

OP, honestly, a piece of writing is never done. There are always things you can edit or change. When you start to feel like you're just playing around with phrasings or words, call it and put it away. Remember, better is the enemy of good.

 

[Whyamionhere]

When I was sick of looking at it which didn't take too long (wrote it one day, turned it in the next)

 

[Turkishking]

**don't quote, thank you**

I recently finished a rough draft of my personal statement and sent it out to a bunch of SDN readers and people from the pre-med reddit (thank you so much to everyone who looked at it)! I would say that most of the feedback I got was positive--the draft is rough, but I'm heading in the right direction. However, I also had two reviewers who basically told me it was **** and I needed to completely rewrite it, and one insisted I needed to change my overall writing style.

Or, another example: one reviewer told me that my last paragraph was redundant and didn't need to be included. Another reviewer told me that one of their favorite parts of my essay was the last paragraph, and that it wrapped everything up nicely.

I open with an anecdote in my PS. Some people liked it, some people told me I should absolutely get rid of it.

I've always been rather confident about my writing, and I've almost always received positive feedback. This giant divide in feedback on my PS, however, is really freaking me out. I'm pre-writing secondaries now, and I notice that I'm second guessing pretty much everything I'm saying.

I guess my question is, how do you know what feedback is worth taking and what isn't? I sent my PS out to about 12 people, if 2 hated it, what does that mean if 1/6 of all adcoms who read it hate it? How do you know when your PS is officially finished?

Any insight would be helpful, as I'm very nervous. Thanks!

I'm going to quote.
But I'll know when its done, it's done.

 

[libertyyne]

May 1st- done.

 

[Frogger27]

I had a bunch of random SDN people read mine... the responses ranged from one user telling me it brought them to tears to people telling me it was ****. I took everyone's comments and continued to work on it with what I thought sounded good... in the end, YOU are the last person to read it and edit it. As long as it sounds good to you and you have had enough people read it so that there are no grammar issues, it is ready to go.

Not everyone in the world is going to love your personal statement... stop editing once you're sick of edits and it sounds good enough to you

Edit: I worked on/off on mine for 2 months.. I actually found it really helpful to take a week or so off and then work on it again. I always felt like I had gained some new insight

 

[Lost In Transcription]

When you submit to AMCAS.

I'm not joking. I worked on mine until I decided it was time to submit (but then I decided to wait another year entirely ha). I completely rehauled mine at least 3-4 times with significant edits.

Once you feel connected to certain ideas and don't want to get rid of them, and then you make those ideas all support why you are an ideal candidate for becoming a physician, then you are getting closer to being done.

Don't be afraid to massively rewrite a lot. Despite the fact that it is extremely painful.

 

[veebo]

Write it in one day
Submit it
Never reread it

If you don't reread it you will never know there were any mistakes. Have to think outside the box.

 

[BurghStudent]

You don't. That's how writing is. You might have several people review it and each will suggest something different.

When you submit, just be sure of two things: it is genuine and it is you, and that it doesn't have any grammatical errors.

 

[getfat]

You'll never be completely satisfied with it.

Personally I hit a point where I wasn't actively editing (Reviewing every couple days) after I recorded myself reading the entire document and did not cringe while listening.

 

[Aspiring_Future_D.O.]

You'll never be completely satisfied with it.

Personally I hit a point where I wasn't actively editing (Reviewing every couple days) after I recorded myself reading the entire document and did not cringe while listening.

THIS is great advice. Read your statement aloud - if it flows then JUST GO WITH IT, and remember you are 100% responsible for every decision you make because everything you do is your choice. Say that aloud, "EVERYTHING I DO IS MY CHOICE, I AM 100% RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERY DECISION I MAKE."

Medical school is a game, how you play determines the outcome. Focus on how you want your PS to be more than how everyone else want's your PS to be. Knowing how to sort through and discern good advice/feedback from bad is a challenge. I'm not going to lie, my dad gave me the most scathing review from my first drafted PS - it was the perspective I needed to see the bigger picture and purpose of my writing. Be completely honest with yourself in your writing and expect the same from your reviewers. There's always a bit of truth in what people say, so choose your reviewers wisely.

 

[3member]

when you gotta submit it