How much do PS/activities actually matter?

[vacilando]

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Working on my app right now... feeling like I can get all my writing to a point where it is good, but not perfect and amazing. If I have good stats and a variety of long-term experiences, does having a perfectly written PS and activities section really matter? Do adcoms just basically put things into a "good enough" vs. "not good enough" pile?

 

[efle]

Not an adcom, but here's my take.

Incredible, standout personal statements tend to be incredible and standout because of their content, not the quality of the writing as it is conveyed.

Imagine two students. Student A grew up in extreme poverty, cared for siblings between their schooling and their evening shifts at work, etc and they lay this out in very plain language.

Student B lived an average unremarkable middle class life, and spent a lot of time and effort crafting a very well written statement, describing how they had a good shadowing experience and then did some volunteering etc to further explore pre-med.

Guess which one is in the 5% that makes the app reader really want you to get interviewed. It's A, and what makes it an important part of their app is the content of their life they are describing, not how many rounds of editing they did before submitting it. For most, the PS is a box to check. It can't be terrible, like describing something inappropriate or full of errors, but if your narrative is a typical cookie cutter narrative then your goal is just to be normal--you probably won't get into the "memorable in a good way" pile with any amount of revising how the statement flows, so your job is just to avoid the "memorable in a bad way" pile.

 

[Lucca]

Also not an adcom but to add to efle’s remarks, I think it’s beneficial to have a coherent narrative all throughout the app (primary and secondary and interview) and the Ps and activities section are the core sections where you start laying that out.

For example, my PS doesn’t talk about any one activity in particular detail but it hits on some highlights that were important to my decision to apply. I also don’t think it’s perfectly written but it’s at least solid and answers the question directly. Those “highlights” are also my most meaningful activities. For each most meaningful, I have a LOR from a person/faculty related to it to back it up. I didn’t mention them at all in my secondary but I answered the questions in ways consistent with the ideas I expressed in my primary. I’ve only been to one interview so far but like clockwork those activities were precisely the parts of my app that they asked me to elaborate on in the interview. The activities themselves were chosen precisely to communicate 1) my commitment to research (im applying MD/PhD), 2) my leadership ability, and 3) what i got out of my clinical experience. No activity on my list was chosen at random, I didn’t use every space or list absolutely every little thing I did as a premed.

What I’m saying is that you shouldn’t necessarily be thinking about “how can this one part of my app be perfect” but to always be thinking about your app as *a single contiguous product* and think “how can I make this one part of my app reinforce the parts of myself I want my entire application to convey?”

 

[Catalystik]

Working on my app right now... feeling like I can get all my writing to a point where it is good, but not perfect and amazing. If I have good stats and a variety of long-term experiences, does having a perfectly written PS and activities section really matter? Do adcoms just basically put things into a "good enough" vs. "not good enough" pile?

If we expected "perfect and amazing" we'd require applicants to use professional premed application editors. I'm happy with competently written and straightforward.

 

[efle]

I'm happy with competently written and straightforward.

I believe it was @gyngyn who recommended students ask themselves, "does this sound like something I would say out loud?" That rule helped me a lot when I wrote mine. It's not an english lit or philosophy final exam, no need to get creative or bust out the thesaurus

 

[vacilando]

Thank you all for the quick and thorough advice. I feel a lot better now since I know have a common theme that I thought about during each piece that I wrote. I guess they also can't expect you to be extremely eloquent when you are 1) writing in such a small space 2) not applying for an advanced writing degree and 3) they are going through many applications and likely appreciate conciseness (as many of you noted).

Thanks again for your time. I'll go forward more confidently now!