How to orient my PS?

[radioactive15]

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For my PS, do I write about :

1)Why I want to be a doctor (anecdote of what first got me interested, how my shadowing, clinical volunteering, etc confirmed it)

2) Why I would be well suited to become a doctor (anecdotes of some activities showing lessons and skills I learned. Ex: How activity X taught me about Y skill, which is relevant to a doctor's work)

3) combination of both 1 & 2. (If so, would you have a majority of #1 or #2?)

4) other (please explain)

My PS right now is about 90% of #1 and 10% of #2. Should I distribute it more evenly before finalizing it?

What options from above did other MD applicants focus on for their PS?

 

[To be MD]

1. Why have you selected the field of medicine?
2. What motivates you to learn more about medicine?
3. What do you want medical schools to know about you that hasn't been disclosed in other sections of the application?

In addition, you may wish to include information such as:

• Unique hardships, challenges, or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits.
• Commentary on significant fluctuations in your academic record that are not explained elsewhere in your application.

And my extra PS tip, for heaven's sakes, don't be dreadfully dull.

 

[radioactive15]

1. Why have you selected the field of medicine?
2. What motivates you to learn more about medicine?
3. What do you want medical schools to know about you that hasn't been disclosed in other sections of the application?

In addition, you may wish to include information such as:

• Unique hardships, challenges, or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits.
• Commentary on significant fluctuations in your academic record that are not explained elsewhere in your application.

And my extra PS tip, for heaven's sakes, don't be dreadfully dull.

Yes, I saw this on the AMCAS but there isn't 1 specific prompt for the PS and it's more open-to-interpretation on how you want to address any/all of those questions.

Based on this, I'm thinking of focusing on #1 from my original post and leaving #2 for most meaningful activities?

 

[LizzyM]

What got you interested in medicine as a career? How old were you? What had you observed or experienced that made you think that it would be a good choice for you? (one paragraph) This is also a good place to touch on things that might have precluded you from going directly into college or that created a hardship(you were a teen mom or you enlisted after HS graduation, etc)
What have you done since then that has helped confirm that medicine is a good choice for you? (three paragraphs)
Have a theme for each paragraph perhaps focusing on clinical experiences, research experience and volunteerism
Sum up how your experience and motivation have prepared you to go into the field (one paragraph)

 

[To be MD]

What got you interested in medicine as a career? How old were you? What had you observed or experienced that made you think that it would be a good choice for you? (one paragraph) This is also a good place to touch on things that might have precluded you from going directly into college or that created a hardship(you were a teen mom or you enlisted after HS graduation, etc)
What have you done since then that has helped confirm that medicine is a good choice for you? (three paragraphs)
Have a theme for each paragraph perhaps focusing on clinical experiences, research experience and volunteerism
Sum up how your experience and motivation have prepared you to go into the field (one paragraph)

Do that. She beat me 🙂.

 

[radioactive15]

What got you interested in medicine as a career? How old were you? What had you observed or experienced that made you think that it would be a good choice for you? (one paragraph) This is also a good place to touch on things that might have precluded you from going directly into college or that created a hardship(you were a teen mom or you enlisted after HS graduation, etc)
What have you done since then that has helped confirm that medicine is a good choice for you? (three paragraphs)
Have a theme for each paragraph perhaps focusing on clinical experiences, research experience and volunteerism
Sum up how your experience and motivation have prepared you to go into the field (one paragraph)

Thank you for this helpful guideline.

However, my anthropology research has nothing to do with medicine, so do you think I could use a 2-2-1 format based on your outline instead of a 1-3-1?

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Thank you for this helpful guideline.

However, my anthropology research has nothing to do with medicine, so do you think I could use a 2-2-1 format based on your outline instead of a 1-3-1?

Your research topic doesn't have to be related to medicine in the slightest. It is more about the process of research that you enjoy, or your accomplishments in it, that are important.

 

[radioactive15]

Your research topic doesn't have to be related to medicine in the slightest. It is more about the process of research that you enjoy, or your accomplishments in it, that are important.

Do you think it would be beneficial to include my process/accomplishments of research in my PS or save it for secondaries/primary activity description. My research didn't contribute to my interest in medicine but if I do mention it in my PS, I would be saying how the scientific skills can be applied in the future as a doctor. It wouldn't tie in with my current PS theme, but I could attempt to make it relevant if it's recommended

 

[LizzyM]

Do you think it would be beneficial to include my process/accomplishments of research in my PS or save it for secondaries/primary activity description. My research didn't contribute to my interest in medicine but if I do mention it in my PS, I would be saying how the scientific skills can be applied in the future as a doctor. It wouldn't tie in with my current PS theme, but I could attempt to make it relevant if it's recommended

Find three things that you want to highlight. It could be research or it could be the teamwork you found in a team sport or a job, it could be the communications skills you built speaking with people who are non-native speakers of English.

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Do you think it would be beneficial to include my process/accomplishments of research in my PS or save it for secondaries/primary activity description. My research didn't contribute to my interest in medicine but if I do mention it in my PS, I would be saying how the scientific skills can be applied in the future as a doctor. It wouldn't tie in with my current PS theme, but I could attempt to make it relevant if it's recommended

Whatever works best for you (I don't know your application well enough to give you any advice on that), my point though was that you don't have to make everything explicitly relevant to medicine. I have no idea if this is what you are trying to do here, but one of the worst things I see in PSs is people trying inelegantly to connect an activity to medicine. I think you can respect the ADCOMs' reading comprehension a bit and allow them to make the connection.

 

[LizzyM]

Thank you for this helpful guideline.

However, my anthropology research has nothing to do with medicine, so do you think I could use a 2-2-1 format based on your outline instead of a 1-3-1?

Another thought: you can use the 2nd or 3rd paragraph to describe a digression from your interest in a career in medicine; show how you pursued your interest in x but ended up deciding that medicine was a better choice. But, as mentioned earlier, you can always focus on the underlying reason for all research, to learn more about the world and to generate new knowledge, your curiosity about many things and interest in many areas of inquiry, and the practice of exploring, proposing hypotheses, and testing them, then drawing conclusions and generating more questions to be answered.

 

[caffeinemia]

Also, don't feel limited by a specific format man. The only rule is that it has to be cogent.