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How do I even start?
The process of writing a personal statement is something which every pharmacy applicant frets over at the start of the official application season. Without a doubt, it needs to be 4500 characters (including spaces) of well-crafted writing which resonates with the admissions officer reading it, explicating your qualifications and motivation for your candidacy while not appearing cheesy or boring. It doesn't help the situation if you do not consider yourself a very strong writer. How do you measure up to this monumental task?
First of all, take a deep breath. Your personal statement, to put it simply, is about you. Not the pharmacists you've been shadowing, not your professors who assigned you your grades, not your research mentor who watched over you as you poured PCR gels. You are the star of that glorious 4500-character masterpiece you will be crafting. You yourself know your strengths and your reasons for desiring to be a pharmacist. As you think about what to put in your personal statement, consider your experiences and your strengths, because those are what matter.
What should I talk about in my statement then?
Your statement can be filled with whatever you feel you need to say! Take a sheet of paper and start off by listing work and volunteer experiences, academic achievements, and even hobbies about yourself. Write down everyone who has made an impact in your life. Finally, consider your reasons for pursuing a degree in pharmacy and short- and long-term career goals. All of this is pure raw ammunition for your personal statement. Obviously, you don't have room to talk about everything you've ever done, so you will definitely need to shorten that list down. Better to start out with something than nothing, however.
Can I talk about [insert topic here]?
You can talk about anything you want! In my own personal statement, I drew examples from my full-time job, my volunteering experiences, and even discussed my role as a dorm resident assistant. As long as you gained something meaningful from that experience that you can talk about which relates to your desire to go to pharmacy school, then go for it.
Formatting
Everyone frets about the perfect format for their personal statement. People will tell you that you should start off with a hook story and proceed from there with standard paragraphs about 1) your experiences 2) why you are qualified for pharmacy school and 3) what you plan to do with the degree and close with a reference to your hook story. While this format works and you should incorporate those three items above, you don't have to follow this format at all! Writing is just writing. You're putting words down on paper so that someone else (in this case your admissions officer reading your essay) can understand YOU.
However, there are some guidelines to think about while writing the essay. Just because you can write in any fashion you want doesn't mean you can just list bullet points and be done with it. Because you are trying to capture the attention of your reader, you will need to be creative to make your essay stand out. Remember admissions committees read thousands of applications; it will take good writing or a unique experience to make sure they remember your application favorably.
1) Make your essay flow smoothly
This takes some explanation. Many of the personal statements I have edited tend to start out in what I call the storyboard format. Sentence structures tend to emulate the "I did this" or "I did that". While it explicates what you accomplished very clearly, it tends to become monotonous after a while and not very appealing. Think about how presidential candidates speak about their achievements in their candidacy speeches. Their prepared speeches very rarely list their accomplishments in this fashion; instead, they speak in a way which astounds us with their eloquence while conveying their amazing achievements in a less pronounced manner.
This isn't to say that you can't use "I" in your essay. This essay is about you, so feel free to use it. However, feel free to experiment with mixing up your syntax. For example, these sentences here "I worked alongside medical and dental faculty and was trusted with my own research project. I was very accurate and precise in my work, as needed to be a pharmacist. I hope to allow my future patients to trust me, because this career is the last direct link between patients and medication." While they're very clear in describing my achievements and my qualifications, they are very uniform in structure. Here are the revised sentences so you can see what I mean. "Being trusted with my own research project as well as working alongside medical and dental faculty is testament to the trust my supervisors and mentors have in me. I wish to offer this same trust to future patients; the importance of precision and accuracy is critical in this profession, especially since pharmacists are the last direct link between patients and medication."
2) Answer the prompt.
PharmCAS prompt is fairly broad. Here's what it says. "Your Personal Essay should address why you selected pharmacy as a career and how the Doctor of Pharmacy degree relates to your immediate and long-term professional goals. Describe how your personal, educational, and professional background will help you achieve your goals."
That pretty much explains what you have to talk about in your essay. That does not mean you can talk about your reasons for the career as well as your background while not talking about your goals. As the prompt asks for all of these components, you need to be sure to address all of them. Not one, not two, and not wishy-washy on the third. Just like your college English composition class, not addressing the prompt is grounds for docking points. As you're up against other candidates who will address the prompt as asked, you want to be sure you do too.
To summarize, that means, talk about
1) why you selected pharmacy as a career
2) how does a Doctor of Pharmacy degree relate to your immediate AND long-term professional goals
3) How does your personal, educational, AND professional background help you achieve these goals.
Notice the capitalized and bolded AND. "And" means "and", not "or." In other words, it's not optional.
3) Stay positive and motivating
If you elect to use a personal story in your essay, be cautious. Sob stories are a double-edged sword here. Remember your writing is aimed at influencing your reader; as a result, sob stories will transfer negative emotions and thoughts into your reader. You do not want your reader to feel awful having read a long paragraph about your mother's battle with cancer or your grandfather's struggle with diabetes. If you plan to use a sob story, keep it light and focus heavily on the positive aspects of the experience. If you are positive and motivating in your essay, your reader will feel the same way. As a future health professional, it is your job to be positive and motivating while being realistic. Your job is not to depress the patient and their families; it will make your job and the job of your coworkers very miserable.
4) Stand out!
If there's one goal you want to achieve while writing this essay, it's this one. If you don't stand out, then there's no point. You want to pick experiences and stories to talk about which are memorable, unique, and important. Your reader wants to know about you and what you have done which set you apart from the next candidate. This is not a carte blanc to brag about your latest achievements without restraint. They are also evaluating your personality to determine what type of pharmacist you will be. Be candid and be sure to address issues you feel they will want to know about. They do want to know the skills and mentality you acquired through doing research and how it applies to your future interests in pharmacy. They aren't really as interested in how many mice you dissected or how many grants you won. Leave the major details for the interview; you can be sure they will come up then.
Revising
As with all writing assignments, revisions and edits are critical. This post is not an example of excellent writing for your essay. Write like this and you're likely shooting yourself in the foot. Bananaface has an excellent FAQ here which talks about things to avoid in your essay.
Things to avoid in your essay
Don't be surprised if the individuals you ask for revision and edit help tell you to rewrite your essay. Chances are, they are telling you this because it's a good idea. I rewrote my personal statement at least 15 times (I lost count after that). The reason is because the essay itself is a living breathing entity which reflects YOU. It is usually easier just to rewrite the essay to incorporate two new experiences than to try to make them fit. Don't be discouraged either. Your essay is probably good enough for your English composition class, where your professor gives it a cursory read and assigns you a grade just like that. Your personal statement needs to be memorable every time they reference your file. So buckle down and keep thinking positive thoughts. You'll get through and see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Professionalism
Writing your personal statement should be an accurate reflection of your ability to perform in your future career. While English may not be your first language, that is NO excuse for a poor grammatical error-filled essay. The admissions committees will not cut you any slack for your perceived inability to write English. That is why it becomes very important to get help revising and editing your essay. While they will take your language proficiency into consideration, remember they are evaluating you based on your ability to be a professional. If you cannot communicate with your patients and your colleagues, then that will work against you. As a professional, utilize the resources available to you. They don't expect you to be a perfect writer out of the box, but they do expect you to be able to provide a sample which is presentable and representative of a future member of their profession.
The process of writing a personal statement is something which every pharmacy applicant frets over at the start of the official application season. Without a doubt, it needs to be 4500 characters (including spaces) of well-crafted writing which resonates with the admissions officer reading it, explicating your qualifications and motivation for your candidacy while not appearing cheesy or boring. It doesn't help the situation if you do not consider yourself a very strong writer. How do you measure up to this monumental task?
First of all, take a deep breath. Your personal statement, to put it simply, is about you. Not the pharmacists you've been shadowing, not your professors who assigned you your grades, not your research mentor who watched over you as you poured PCR gels. You are the star of that glorious 4500-character masterpiece you will be crafting. You yourself know your strengths and your reasons for desiring to be a pharmacist. As you think about what to put in your personal statement, consider your experiences and your strengths, because those are what matter.
What should I talk about in my statement then?
Your statement can be filled with whatever you feel you need to say! Take a sheet of paper and start off by listing work and volunteer experiences, academic achievements, and even hobbies about yourself. Write down everyone who has made an impact in your life. Finally, consider your reasons for pursuing a degree in pharmacy and short- and long-term career goals. All of this is pure raw ammunition for your personal statement. Obviously, you don't have room to talk about everything you've ever done, so you will definitely need to shorten that list down. Better to start out with something than nothing, however.
Can I talk about [insert topic here]?
You can talk about anything you want! In my own personal statement, I drew examples from my full-time job, my volunteering experiences, and even discussed my role as a dorm resident assistant. As long as you gained something meaningful from that experience that you can talk about which relates to your desire to go to pharmacy school, then go for it.
Formatting
Everyone frets about the perfect format for their personal statement. People will tell you that you should start off with a hook story and proceed from there with standard paragraphs about 1) your experiences 2) why you are qualified for pharmacy school and 3) what you plan to do with the degree and close with a reference to your hook story. While this format works and you should incorporate those three items above, you don't have to follow this format at all! Writing is just writing. You're putting words down on paper so that someone else (in this case your admissions officer reading your essay) can understand YOU.
However, there are some guidelines to think about while writing the essay. Just because you can write in any fashion you want doesn't mean you can just list bullet points and be done with it. Because you are trying to capture the attention of your reader, you will need to be creative to make your essay stand out. Remember admissions committees read thousands of applications; it will take good writing or a unique experience to make sure they remember your application favorably.
1) Make your essay flow smoothly
This takes some explanation. Many of the personal statements I have edited tend to start out in what I call the storyboard format. Sentence structures tend to emulate the "I did this" or "I did that". While it explicates what you accomplished very clearly, it tends to become monotonous after a while and not very appealing. Think about how presidential candidates speak about their achievements in their candidacy speeches. Their prepared speeches very rarely list their accomplishments in this fashion; instead, they speak in a way which astounds us with their eloquence while conveying their amazing achievements in a less pronounced manner.
This isn't to say that you can't use "I" in your essay. This essay is about you, so feel free to use it. However, feel free to experiment with mixing up your syntax. For example, these sentences here "I worked alongside medical and dental faculty and was trusted with my own research project. I was very accurate and precise in my work, as needed to be a pharmacist. I hope to allow my future patients to trust me, because this career is the last direct link between patients and medication." While they're very clear in describing my achievements and my qualifications, they are very uniform in structure. Here are the revised sentences so you can see what I mean. "Being trusted with my own research project as well as working alongside medical and dental faculty is testament to the trust my supervisors and mentors have in me. I wish to offer this same trust to future patients; the importance of precision and accuracy is critical in this profession, especially since pharmacists are the last direct link between patients and medication."
2) Answer the prompt.
PharmCAS prompt is fairly broad. Here's what it says. "Your Personal Essay should address why you selected pharmacy as a career and how the Doctor of Pharmacy degree relates to your immediate and long-term professional goals. Describe how your personal, educational, and professional background will help you achieve your goals."
That pretty much explains what you have to talk about in your essay. That does not mean you can talk about your reasons for the career as well as your background while not talking about your goals. As the prompt asks for all of these components, you need to be sure to address all of them. Not one, not two, and not wishy-washy on the third. Just like your college English composition class, not addressing the prompt is grounds for docking points. As you're up against other candidates who will address the prompt as asked, you want to be sure you do too.
To summarize, that means, talk about
1) why you selected pharmacy as a career
2) how does a Doctor of Pharmacy degree relate to your immediate AND long-term professional goals
3) How does your personal, educational, AND professional background help you achieve these goals.
Notice the capitalized and bolded AND. "And" means "and", not "or." In other words, it's not optional.
3) Stay positive and motivating
If you elect to use a personal story in your essay, be cautious. Sob stories are a double-edged sword here. Remember your writing is aimed at influencing your reader; as a result, sob stories will transfer negative emotions and thoughts into your reader. You do not want your reader to feel awful having read a long paragraph about your mother's battle with cancer or your grandfather's struggle with diabetes. If you plan to use a sob story, keep it light and focus heavily on the positive aspects of the experience. If you are positive and motivating in your essay, your reader will feel the same way. As a future health professional, it is your job to be positive and motivating while being realistic. Your job is not to depress the patient and their families; it will make your job and the job of your coworkers very miserable.
4) Stand out!
If there's one goal you want to achieve while writing this essay, it's this one. If you don't stand out, then there's no point. You want to pick experiences and stories to talk about which are memorable, unique, and important. Your reader wants to know about you and what you have done which set you apart from the next candidate. This is not a carte blanc to brag about your latest achievements without restraint. They are also evaluating your personality to determine what type of pharmacist you will be. Be candid and be sure to address issues you feel they will want to know about. They do want to know the skills and mentality you acquired through doing research and how it applies to your future interests in pharmacy. They aren't really as interested in how many mice you dissected or how many grants you won. Leave the major details for the interview; you can be sure they will come up then.
Revising
As with all writing assignments, revisions and edits are critical. This post is not an example of excellent writing for your essay. Write like this and you're likely shooting yourself in the foot. Bananaface has an excellent FAQ here which talks about things to avoid in your essay.
Things to avoid in your essay
Don't be surprised if the individuals you ask for revision and edit help tell you to rewrite your essay. Chances are, they are telling you this because it's a good idea. I rewrote my personal statement at least 15 times (I lost count after that). The reason is because the essay itself is a living breathing entity which reflects YOU. It is usually easier just to rewrite the essay to incorporate two new experiences than to try to make them fit. Don't be discouraged either. Your essay is probably good enough for your English composition class, where your professor gives it a cursory read and assigns you a grade just like that. Your personal statement needs to be memorable every time they reference your file. So buckle down and keep thinking positive thoughts. You'll get through and see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Professionalism
Writing your personal statement should be an accurate reflection of your ability to perform in your future career. While English may not be your first language, that is NO excuse for a poor grammatical error-filled essay. The admissions committees will not cut you any slack for your perceived inability to write English. That is why it becomes very important to get help revising and editing your essay. While they will take your language proficiency into consideration, remember they are evaluating you based on your ability to be a professional. If you cannot communicate with your patients and your colleagues, then that will work against you. As a professional, utilize the resources available to you. They don't expect you to be a perfect writer out of the box, but they do expect you to be able to provide a sample which is presentable and representative of a future member of their profession.
