I am SO frustrated with my personal statement

[yalla22]

Okay, so I'm reapplying this year and trying to recreate a personal statement.
I have spent a lot of time reviewing accepted.com and other sites with admissions essay and quite frankly, i think all of the ones i've read so far have sucked. They are SO phony. I absolutely refuse to write an essay like that but at the same time, i think because i've read so many of them that i've gotten into this mood where i can't think freely.
What should i do?!
Most of the essays i've read sound like resumes. Is it okay if i dont rewrite and explain my activities? I just want to write a nice creative piece that will allow the adcom to see who i am as a person and sort of indirectly infer why i'd make a good doctor.

I dont know..i'm just so confused. If anyone could send me a sample of a good essay via pm, that would be great.

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[rajad10]

yea...i've been writing mine for the past 4 hours and its hella frustrating..i feel ya

 

[browniegirl86]

yea...i've been writing mine for the past 4 hours and its hella frustrating..i feel ya

Oh man, it took me 3 months to write mine. Have fun.

 

[rajad10]

Oh man, it took me 3 months to write mine. Have fun.

you know what i mean 😛

 

[e_phn]

..

 

[rajad10]

um, its a 5300 character essay which is a free for all for conveying why you want to be a doctor and what personal characteristics you possess that will make you a good doctor. Showing the "person" side of you

 

[pcguy2]

It should say something about your motivations if you have no idea why you want to be a doctor. Surely something happened in to you that made you want to persue this choise. It can't sound fake if its the REAL reason behind you applying.

I had no one single reason, so I wrote about many things in my live that have pushed me towards medicine.

🙂


AKA MAKE MONEY!!! just kiding

 

[blantant]

frustrated here too.

i agree. the accepted.com sample PS all sound a bit contrived. but, i wouldn't focus so much on a creative element at the expense of clean, professional writing.

 

[Wookey]

I just want to write a nice creative piece that will allow the adcom to see who i am as a person and sort of indirectly infer why i'd make a good doctor.

You have the right idea. That was how I wrote mine. Allow the adcom to make inferences from your experiences. Allow them to see your thought process. Why you've gone about things as you did. This involves readers, keeps them interested, and make them want to get to know you more over interview.

 

[shantster]

Okay, so I'm reapplying this year and trying to recreate a personal statement.
I have spent a lot of time reviewing accepted.com and other sites with admissions essay and quite frankly, i think all of the ones i've read so far have sucked. They are SO phony. I absolutely refuse to write an essay like that but at the same time, i think because i've read so many of them that i've gotten into this mood where i can't think freely.
What should i do?!
Most of the essays i've read sound like resumes. Is it okay if i dont rewrite and explain my activities? I just want to write a nice creative piece that will allow the adcom to see who i am as a person and sort of indirectly infer why i'd make a good doctor.

I dont know..i'm just so confused. If anyone could send me a sample of a good essay via pm, that would be great.

Yep. I'm not having fun with this either. I've looked online for sample ones (such as SDN's Essay Workshop), but the ones that I see as examples are from people that have had amazing life experiences like being born and raised in a less developed country. There really aren't examples of essays from people that did not have these extreme life experiences.

 

[EmpHol]

I know exactly what you mean.

I took me about three months to finish mine. At first, I was writing an essay that would sound good to admissions people. I finally gave up, and decided to write an essay about myself, and why I want to be a doctor. I tried to show them who I am. I think it worked out.

Good luck. It's another hurdle you have to jump through.

 

[Duchess742]

when i got stuck and couldn't think of how i wanted to write my essay, i stopped and forgot abt the whole med school process for a day, and i read part of a book by an author i really like. i think this sort of thing helps b/c it gets you out of the premed rut, and inspires you with creative and interesting writing that should help when you're trying to think for your essay.

 

[hanjoko]

when i got stuck and couldn't think of how i wanted to write my essay, i stopped and forgot abt the whole med school process for a day, and i read part of a book by an author i really like. i think this sort of thing helps b/c it gets you out of the premed rut, and inspires you with creative and interesting writing that should help when you're trying to think for your essay.

👍 that is what I did when I applied. Sometimes you just cannot think of anything else to write and it helps to do something other than writing. Either take a walk or read a book or just chill out for a while...

 

[yalla22]

In regards to people with "amazing life experiences", i'd hate to be bitter but i honestly feel like people dramatacize (sp?) these things...A lot of the essays i have read (and again, maybe its the essays i've been reading thats the problem!) have sounded really dramatic and blown out of porportion.
For example, I come from a disadvantaged country and have seen a lot of really different things theree...but i mean, i'm not going to exploit this and make a bigger deal out of it than it is. I don't want to sound like a car salesman...

 

[yalla22]

Also, with the whole issue of creativity....

Is it generally agreed upon that it is best to be more 5 paragraph, straight edge essay like? Also, does everyone sort of "rewrite" their resume or give a mini bio of their life? Would it be acceptable to stray from this form?

 

[monkeydo]

I took a creative writing course last semester, and I think it's helping alot when it comes to writing my personal statement. Granted I'm just another applicant and have no idea whether anyone is going to like what I've written... but my advice would be to write the essay as more of an interesting story in which your motivations and personality traits are implicit rather than explicitly stated.

I recommend that you go find a book by your favorite author, sit somewhere comfortable, and read some of it, just to get out of the essay mode and into prose mode. Then sit around with a notebook and pen close by and just try to answer for yourself why you want to be a doctor and what events in your life have influenced you, etc. Don't worry about phrasing it in personal statement style, just try to understand yourself. You might be surprised with what you come up with! Jot down good thoughts as they come to you.

Best of luck!

 

[tifa]

It will take awhile. I don't know of many people who busted out a personal statement in a really short period of time. Like others that have posted, it took me around a month, rewrites upon rewrites, to finally get a PS I was satisfied with.

 

[chilon85]

I just finished writing my essay on Friday. It took me about a month to actually finish it but I have been thinking about it for quite a long time. I went to a kaplan personal statement workshop in October; they are free and give you a good idea about what the medical schools are looking for as well as some sample essays. The essay workshop really helped me out because I realized that it was okay, within reason and as long as you don't lie, to be a little dramatic because at the end of the day you have to write something that will catch the adcoms eye even after they have read hundreds of essays. However, with that being said, it is really hard to not sound cheesy or stuck up when writing the personal statement so I guess for anyone that is having all these doubts, just stick with it and write something down so that you will at least have something to look over and edit once you are done.

Also, there is another thread on here about people willing to help look over personal statements if anyone needs actual help with theirs.

 

[BuckerPark]

OK, so imagine you are standing in front of the Grand Canyon and you've got one of those crappy disposable cameras. You've got one shot left on the camera and you want to 'take it all in,' so-to-speak, so that you have a memorable record of your trip to one of world's greatest wonders. Because of the quality of the camera, and the fact that you've only got one shot, you're not going to be able to get this amazing panoramic picture. Instead, you have to pick one angle that's really going to capture this amazing view you've got in a 3X5 inch glossy.

I kinda look at the PS the same way. Most people applying have 20-30 years of life experiences that have shaped them into the people they now are. What you have to do for the adcoms is pick which fleeting glimpse(s) of yourself best 'sum(s)' you up. Ideally, that glimpse is going to be the part that lets them know why you are motivated to be a physician and why you'd make a good one.

Oh yea...did I mention it's not easy?

Also, with the whole issue of creativity....

Is it generally agreed upon that it is best to be more 5 paragraph, straight edge essay like? Also, does everyone sort of "rewrite" their resume or give a mini bio of their life? Would it be acceptable to stray from this form?

 

[NapeSpikes]

I think it took me like six months (off and on), a dozen or so drafts, and a bunch of no-holds-barred critiquing from friends and advisors before I was finally happy with mine. On top of that, I was an English major during undergrad--I was usually the one who helped others write.

Hang in there! Write something honest and real, but within an accepted format (no gimmicks like pseudo-press releases, journal entries, poems, etc.)

 

[crazy_cavalier]

Mine took weeks, and to this day I'm still not thoroughly satisfied with it.

 

[vtucci]

Your PS is not something that you should write in a couple of hours. Good PS take weeks if not months to do. This is your future and it deserves that kind of attention.

 

[rlwebb]

I guess I'm just kind of lackadaisical about mine. I am going to spend time rewriting of course, but overall probably only 3 or 4 hours of rewriting. It is impossible to express yourself fully in a one page essay. Just tell them your motivation for going to med school, just like the question says. No big life stories necessary.

 

[javert]

To the OP... I actually did write mine in a couple of hours on the day of the AMCAS deadline for some of my schools.. i'm a terrible procrastinator.. I don't claim mine is good but I'd be happy to send it to you if you'd like... i did more of a standard mini-resume but with some lines of less conservative humor type stuff that i found "creative." I got into my first choice school but who knows if my PS helped at all in that.... oh and one interviewer at a diff school told me it was well written but I think she was not so discriminatory because I didn't hear that at any other interview. Good luck and let me know if you want to take a look. 😀

 

[MeowMix]

I thought the essay workshop here on SDN was pretty good, and I think that even more after two years in med school.

The "epiphany" angle, from what I hear, is the current most popular essay approach. Either you were on top of Everest saving your companion's life and you had an epiphany about your life's calling as a doctor, or you got a sports injury and had an epiphany after encountering the brilliant orthopaedic surgeon who saved your limb. If you want to sound like everyone else, take this approach.

Anything you can write that is fresh, genuine, and sincere is good. Most of the sample essay books I read were super-sucky; don't even bother reading them, they will taint your perception of what you should write. You don't need incredible experiences in developing countries, and you should certainly not overstate your accomplishments, because at some point an interviewer will confront you on the exaggeration.