How much did you edit your personal statement?

[EnergyDrink]

---

Members do not see this ad.

For those that have submitted, how much did you edit your personals statement? At what point did you feel comfortable to submit?

I had mine reviewed by about 8 people now, but I'm still not sure I'm ready to submit. Now it is becoming difficult to find people to review it 😛

I think I'm on draft 25

 

[Frazier]

You are likely overdoing it.

In most cases, your PS is likely going to be read by the reader in under 5 minutes. There isn't going to be some round-table seminar of adcoms where they discuss their abstract interpretation and appreciation of your prose.

This isn't profound Shakespearean work or legal documents where "every comma counts".

Simply get your message across while remaining coherent and get over it.

Weirdo. 🙂

 

[Ismet]

I had 5 drafts, 4th draft was a complete re-write using the same examples and anecdotes but with a well-defined theme. I had 4 readers - my pre-med advisor, 2 close friends, and a friend who was about to enter MS1. Make sure your readers will give you honest feedback, but also understand that you don't have to use all of their feedback. I knew I was ready to submit when my pre-med advisor told me that she liked it and that it was very moving.

With 25 drafts and 8 readers, unless your readers had some glaring criticisms, I'm sure you'd be fine to submit. What makes you reluctant to send it?

 

[syoung]

I had about 8 readers too, first go around, they all said it needed huge work. next go around, all are commenting similarly (much better, more improved). So that's given me confidence (not sure of the statistics) that I've moved in the right direction and haven't written baloney.

 

[thlaxer]

I had ~9 drafts. I was happy with my 8th draft but my mentor told me it was total crap, so I rewrote it. 😛

 

[Ruhroh]

I rewrote it a lot. My original version was a regurgitation of my activities, and talked too much about my family, their experiences, etc. I basically rewrote the whole thing and focused it more on me and made it tell more of a cohesive story. I think more important than the number of drafts is being able to step away from it for a few days at a time. You would be surprised how bad your own writing will look if you forget about it for a week and then come back to it.

 

[EnergyDrink]

Weirdo. 🙂

Oddly enough, thanks for this. I don't want to be a neurotic pre-med about this anymore. I think I'll be submitting Monday.

What makes you reluctant to send it?

It's the one thing of my application I have the power to change. My MCAT, GPA, and ECs are all set. My letter writers are all writing. I guess, why not make it as perfect as possible?

 

[CodeRedDew]

I went through about 5 drafts and then I realized that it will probably be as mediocre as the other thousands of premeds applying, so I just left it as is. After about 5 drafts, I believe it was as good as it was ever going to get anyway. If you don't have a really compelling "I saved an African village" type of story (or if you aren't an incredibly persuasive writer) then your PS is going to likely be just like the thousands of other premed students.


Sent from my iPhone