How much poor me, I've overcome, do you include in PS?

[ArmyWife1153]

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I'm on a ask too many questions roll tonight, but here goes:
So not to get a pity party, but there's lots of crap that I've dealt with in life. How much do you include/not include in the PS?

1) I'm the first generation college graduate.
2) I grew up in a severely abusive home. Literally saw my mother beaten to almost death in front of me, shot at in front of me, christmas presents thrown out in the street and run over, etc...
3) Molested as a child and teenager
4) In 2007, I got divorced and my grandfather died. My grandfather was my rock and it was an extremely traumatic time for me. But I continued on with school and took 16-19 hours a semester while maintaing A's and graduated cum laude.
5) My mother got breast cancer and had to have a double mastectomy and I was with her through all of that. A 3.5 year ordeal. My mother's mother had the same thing.
6) My husband is active duty military and was deployed for all of 2010.

What is good for PS and expansion of how it plays into me wanting to be a DR and what is overkill?

Thanks.

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

Maybe people will disagree with me but....

If any of that is what is propelling you to become a doctor, then it can be included... If none of it propels you to become a doctor, then NONE of it should be included. You will have a more than ample discussion for 'overcoming an obstacle' but likely this doesn't belong in "Why medicine is the career for me" which is what your personal statement should be...

http://sdnfamilyaerospace.blogspot.com/2011/03/family-aerospaces-suggestions-on.html

 

[mauberley]

Maybe people will disagree with me but....

If any of that is what is propelling you to become a doctor, then it can be included... If none of it propels you to become a doctor, then NONE of it should be included. You will have a more than ample discussion for 'overcoming an obstacle' but likely this doesn't belong in "Why medicine is the career for me" which is what your personal statement should be...

No, I'd agree with this.

If you do want to include this somewhere in your application, it might be appropriate as part of the secondary essays, where often there will be a question asking whether there's anything else you wish the admissions committee to be aware of.

 

[Scottish Chap]

I'm on a ask too many questions roll tonight, but here goes:
So not to get a pity party, but there's lots of crap that I've dealt with in life. How much do you include/not include in the PS?

1) I'm the first generation college graduate.
2) I grew up in a severely abusive home. Literally saw my mother beaten to almost death in front of me, shot at in front of me, christmas presents thrown out in the street and run over, etc...
3) Molested as a child and teenager
4) In 2007, I got divorced and my grandfather died. My grandfather was my rock and it was an extremely traumatic time for me. But I continued on with school and took 16-19 hours a semester while maintaing A's and graduated cum laude.
5) My mother got breast cancer and had to have a double mastectomy and I was with her through all of that. A 3.5 year ordeal. My mother's mother had the same thing.
6) My husband is active duty military and was deployed for all of 2010.

What is good for PS and expansion of how it plays into me wanting to be a DR and what is overkill?

Thanks.

Don't do it. It will be a mistake of massive proportions. The PS is a place where you want to be as positive as possible. I'll say it again: you must stay positive. Not that I am suggesting you convey something that you are not, but select details from your past can be tastefully weaved into a compelling PS that admissions committees can engage.

 

[felixthekat]

Just a thought...It sounds as if you might qualify for disadvantaged status. On AMCAS, you have a chance to say why you think you were disadvantaged...this might be a better place to mention some of that...you only get 1325 characters though

 

[Damia]

Just a thought...It sounds as if you might qualify for disadvantaged status. On AMCAS, you have a chance to say why you think you were disadvantaged...this might be a better place to mention some of that...you only get 1325 characters though

I vote for this. Don't waste your personal statement on it.

The most you can/should do is reference that you've overcome a lot of life obstacles, and despite them all you succeeded.

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

Unfortunately I don't know that this qualifies for 'disadvantaged' status. It MAY, but disadvantaged status specifically refers to economics, medical availability, and educational resources. If your family was on welfare, food stamps, etc, you had no medical facilities for 50 miles, or if you had limited schooling. I (as many did) grew up in an abusive home, but I was told that is an "overcoming an obstacle" statement, not disadvantaged... Look into this in AMCAS it gives a fairly clear definition of it...

 

[eablackwell]

I don't think any poor me should be in there, but you can use how perhaps some of those things strengthened your resolve as far as medicine is concerned. You can definitely talk about how a situation has caused personal growth, but be very careful to stay away from what may look like a "give me a pity acceptance" PS.

I was on bed rest for nearly a year after my freshman year, and while I did include it in my PS, I phrased it in such a way that it was a paragraph about how it gave me time to look back over previous mistakes and move forward toward my goal of becoming a doctor.

I also included the accident that led to my being paralyzed at 3 months old, but I spun it to show how learning that doctors had worked so hard to save my life made me respect and want to enter the medical profession that much more. This is one of the main reasons I am so interested in pediatrics.

Make sure you have legitimate reasons and aren't trying too hard to relate things back to medicine, as it will likely show.

Of course, your PS should not be just a list of events and how they affected you, but a nice, flowing piece of writing with the overall point of "Why medicine?" and something I thought was important as a nontrad was "Why now?"

*warning: I am not an expert on the PS. This is just an opinion. 🙂

Good luck!

 

[mafunk]

I agree with several comments made here. Specifically:

• Do not get on the 'poor me' pity pot in your PS
• You can touch upon these issues in the 'overcoming an obstacle' essay. Just remember to make it inspirational, not a Greek Tragedy
• If you have a poor academic record or something to explain you can briefly touch upon the challenges you overcame in your PS, but don't be to graphic, explicit or spend to much time on it.

 

[Eik Ooc]

But what if it was a traumatic event which caused you to switch career paths?

 

[mafunk]

But what if it was a traumatic event which caused you to switch career paths?

I don't know. I have had more than my fair of drama and trauma and...

...even though it has made me the compassionate person I am
... even though it has made me want to help the poor, the immigrants, and those people see as the 'throw aways' of society
... even though it is a huge factor in me wanting to get into medicine
.... even though I had to fight like heck to get to where I am
.... even though mine is a story of triumph
... even though it has made it so that I can relate to anyone (and I do mean anyone), from any walk of life

I do not want to call attention to it. I do not want to paint myself as a victim or to dramatize my life. I prefer to look as 'normal' as possible. That's just my opinion.

 

[Eik Ooc]

I don't know. I have had more than my fair of drama and trauma and...
I do not want to call attention to it. I do not want to paint myself as a victim or to dramatize my life. I prefer to look as 'normal' as possible. That's just my opinion.

I disagree with this concensus even if I'm wrong. In my case there was a particular event which halted my current lifepath. It was transformative. I just can't imagine writing a non-traditional second-career personal statement without explaining why I've chosen to walk away from successful, established Path A for a shot at starting completely unrelated Path B.

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

I think this goes back to the "if it caused you to choose medicine it fits" premise... the point of the personal statement is to say "this is why medicine for me" if some trauma caused you to decide medicine is the right path, then use it, but in a positive manner... "I lost my job, which caused me to file bankruptcy, so I decided I should be a doctor because I'll never be out of work" isn't a good one... and make sure you put it in a positive light. "my brothers fight with colon cancer showed me what a tremendous difference doctors make in their patients lives, I too want to be able to affect peoples' lives in such a positive manner" etc...

 

[mafunk]

I also think if it is something like is fine

I survived a car crash and got a new perspective on life. This led me to...

But something like this bad (obviously I'm being a bit cheeky here...)
I was born in a brothel and my mother rented me out to gents until I was 15 when I ran away. Then I married a guy who beat me for ten years, and I got addicted to heroine. Now I'm all better and I want to be a doctor...

 

[n3xa]

http://sdnfamilyaerospace.blogspot.com/2011/03/family-aerospaces-suggestions-on.html

For serious, this.

The biggest "complaint" people had with my PS was that it didn't really answer the question "WHY MEDICINE FOR LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY N3XA?!"

So I literally typed "WHY MEDICINE FOR LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY WHEN YOU CAN 'HELP PEOPLE' DOING SOMETHING ELSE?" in giant, neon pink font at the top of my page, fleshed out my responses, cut and pasted activities from my previous essays into it, and made sure my responses matched with my activities.



It sounds like you have some time before you submit your application. I would vomit anything and everything that comes to mind on a word document or piece of paper from now until it is time to apply for med school.
Granted some people are total wordsmiths and can pump out great essays in minutes. I know I am not.

Best of luck to you.

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

If any of that is what is propelling you to become a doctor, then it can be included... If none of it propels you to become a doctor, then NONE of it should be included.

I 90% agree with this.

If something contributed significantly to your decision to become a physician, then you can put it in there, but you don't want to sound like you're overly dwelling on your past or overly troubled by your past.

You want to tell the truth without having the reader feel unusually sorry for you... some readers will resent you if they feel like you're playing off their emotions, so you want to avoid that.

So let's say being molested is a big part of your reason for wanting to be a physician. Rather than say you were "molested" as a child, I'd suggest that you say you were "abused." There are lots of horrible forms of abuse, and it doesn't matter much which one happened to you in terms of how it's going to make you a better physician. If you are blunt and say "I was abused" it sounds like you have scars that have healed, not open wounds or scabs that are ready to break at any minute... if you dwell on the specific form of abuse I think it sounds like you're damaged.

So say what you need to say about being abused as a lead-in to your reasons for being a physician. But you better have something to follow it up.

 

[mnoon1]

I'm on a ask too many questions roll tonight, but here goes:
So not to get a pity party, but there's lots of crap that I've dealt with in life. How much do you include/not include in the PS?

1) I'm the first generation college graduate.
2) I grew up in a severely abusive home. Literally saw my mother beaten to almost death in front of me, shot at in front of me, christmas presents thrown out in the street and run over, etc...
3) Molested as a child and teenager
4) In 2007, I got divorced and my grandfather died. My grandfather was my rock and it was an extremely traumatic time for me. But I continued on with school and took 16-19 hours a semester while maintaing A's and graduated cum laude.
5) My mother got breast cancer and had to have a double mastectomy and I was with her through all of that. A 3.5 year ordeal. My mother's mother had the same thing.
6) My husband is active duty military and was deployed for all of 2010.

What is good for PS and expansion of how it plays into me wanting to be a DR and what is overkill?

Thanks.

the bold ones you can definitely use: 4 and 6 can be turned into "I'm a strong individual who can balance college and difficult situations" and 5 is a great opportunity to talk about experiencing this medical situation with your mother.

as for 1- lots of us are first generation high school/ college graduates, but I'm not sure how that makes you a better physician than someone who's parents attended college.

2 and 3 you would have to be careful with. you can talk about how you are a strong person and since you had such a rough childhood, now you take things in stride. but honestly if I met someone for the first time (interview or not) I wouldn't want to know such private information. On the other hand, I had a friend tell me that being abused as a child was a part of who she was and she couldn't imagine not adding it into her personal statement. Just be very tasteful about it and vague and reiterate how it made you a strong, caring, compassionate(etc.) adult.

like everyone else has said: keep your ps POSITIVE and good luck! if you need any help feel free to pm me. I'm an ok writer and got a Q on the written part of the mcat (for whatever thats worth)