I have no idea what to write about for my personal statement!!

[lynne8832]

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Hi all! I am applying this cycle and I am starting to brainstorm for my personal statement and I feel super overwhelmed! I was planning to talk about how I was an intern at a SA clinic and one morning while I was there early taking care of the hospitalized patients, somebody showed up at the clinic with their dog who had been hit by a car. I basically had to learn how to put an IV cath in on the spot and give the dog a shock dose of fluids. The dog ended up surviving and that kind of sparked my interest in emergency medicine (loved the adrenaline rush). I was thinking maybe I could use that story as a segway into explaining the attributes that a veterinarian needs to possess (ingenuity, quick thinking, flexibility, etc.). I was also diagnosed with OCD and generalized anxiety disorder when I was 8 and animals have really helped me deal with my anxiety/struggles throughout my life. This also influenced my desire to become a vet so that I can help others deal with their mental health struggles by caring for their animals. I don't know if I should choose one of these topics to focus on or if it would be a stronger essay if I combined them. I'm also worried that these topics are too "basic" and not unique enough. If anybody has any tips/advice I would REALLY appreciate it! 🙂

 

[Dana_May_B]

The best advice I have is to focus on writing about *why* you want to be a veterinarian, not why you *can* be a veterinarian. I think a lot of people fall into the trap of just using their stories and examples to explain what qualities they have, like communication skills and compassion, that would make them a good vet, but that isn't the purpose of the personal statement (in my opinion). They can read the rest of your application like your transcript and your experience descriptions and even your supplemental essays to figure out that you're intelligent and good at working in groups and flexible because they know that getting veterinary experiences and working in clinics requires those skills! The personal statement is all about the why. Why are you interested in vet med? Why is this the only career you can see yourself in? Your passion is what will make your essay stand out. Anything personal you can bring into your story, like your mental health struggles (if you feel comfortable talking about that!) will help to make it stand out because there will be no one else with the same exact story as you. Anyone can have good qualities/attributes, but no one else will have your experiences and passion! I don't think combining your stories would be a bad thing, as I started my essay with how I became interested in vet med from a very young age and explained how I developed my passion from there. I think you could start by explaining your diagnosis and how that sparked your passion for helping others, and then bring in the emergency medicine story as your "aha" moment. I wouldn't worry about being unique, but instead, focus on trying to explain your desire to be a vet in such detail that you think the admissions people will get to know you as a person. I hope this helped! Definitely feel free to PM me if you have any other questions!

 

[Ariel-Li]

Ditto to everything Dana said! Also I'd like to add that the "how" you can make a good vet can be intertwined with "why" you want to be one - how your past struggles and achievements prepared you to become a vet, mentally, intellectually, physically, financially, etc. Veterinary medicine is not only about healing and saving, there're a lot of ugly things we need to deal with on the daily basis. Through the interviews I've had this application cycle, I felt that the schools value it if you can demonstrate you understand these aspects and are reasonably prepared for it.

Use the personal statement wisely, this is where all other parts of your application comes together into an organic whole. I will not emphasize too much on your struggles unless you can turn it into a positive narrative. Write and rewrite. I had three versions before my final essay. I had my closest friends read them, and it was two of my college friends, who had nothing to do with veterinary medicine whatsoever, who offered me best advice to pull the pieces into a coherent and interesting life story. Sometimes you need fresh eyes.

 

[PetVet23]

I 100% agree with everything that's already been said! My go-to advice for personal statements is to avoid turning your application into an essay. They already have all of that information, so really focus on your story/how you got into vet med. I definitely think it would be good to start out with how animals have impacted your life and transition into your experiences that made you realize this is what you want to do. Don't be afraid to edit like crazy, I think I had at least 5 or 6 drafts of mine (if not more) and there were times I would completely throw out and rewrite sections!

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

The best advice I have is to focus on writing about *why* you want to be a veterinarian, not why you *can* be a veterinarian. I think a lot of people fall into the trap of just using their stories and examples to explain what qualities they have, like communication skills and compassion, that would make them a good vet, but that isn't the purpose of the personal statement (in my opinion). They can read the rest of your application like your transcript and your experience descriptions and even your supplemental essays to figure out that you're intelligent and good at working in groups and flexible because they know that getting veterinary experiences and working in clinics requires those skills! The personal statement is all about the why. Why are you interested in vet med? Why is this the only career you can see yourself in? Your passion is what will make your essay stand out. Anything personal you can bring into your story, like your mental health struggles (if you feel comfortable talking about that!) will help to make it stand out because there will be no one else with the same exact story as you. Anyone can have good qualities/attributes, but no one else will have your experiences and passion! I don't think combining your stories would be a bad thing, as I started my essay with how I became interested in vet med from a very young age and explained how I developed my passion from there. I think you could start by explaining your diagnosis and how that sparked your passion for helping others, and then bring in the emergency medicine story as your "aha" moment. I wouldn't worry about being unique, but instead, focus on trying to explain your desire to be a vet in such detail that you think the admissions people will get to know you as a person. I hope this helped! Definitely feel free to PM me if you have any other questions!

I have to disagree with this a litttttle bit. An equal part of what the admissions committee is looking at is not just "how bad does this person want to be a vet and why" and also "can this person hack it in vet school". Remember that you aren't just applying to be a veterinarian - you are applying to be a veterinary student as well - these are different things.

Agreed that the personal statement is helpful to explain the "soft" reasons, but don't assume that the adcoms will automatically assume you are intelligent/a team player/whatever just from the experiences listed on your resume. The personal statement is a way to expand on and explain what specific skills (and this includes soft skills such as communication, compassion, dealing with stress, being able to multitask, etc) you took away from the experience.

Of course, don't make it a rehash of your resume......but don't make the whole statement just a light and fluffy essay on the whys and how badly you want it. Convince them you have the smarts and strength and abilities to make it through the school and clinics. If you took a person who wanted to be a vet more than ANYTHING in the world....if they couldn't convince an adcom that they could ALSO handle the academic and clinical stressors of vet school, all the passion in the world won't get them in.

Ditto to everything Dana said! Also I'd like to add that the "how" you can make a good vet can be intertwined with "why" you want to be one - how your past struggles and achievements prepared you to become a vet, mentally, intellectually, physically, financially, etc. Veterinary medicine is not only about healing and saving, there're a lot of ugly things we need to deal with on the daily basis. Through the interviews I've had this application cycle, I felt that the schools value it if you can demonstrate you understand these aspects and are reasonably prepared for it.

Use the personal statement wisely, this is where all other parts of your application comes together into an organic whole. I will not emphasize too much on your struggles unless you can turn it into a positive narrative. Write and rewrite. I had three versions before my final essay. I had my closest friends read them, and it was two of my college friends, who had nothing to do with veterinary medicine whatsoever, who offered me best advice to pull the pieces into a coherent and interesting life story. Sometimes you need fresh eyes.

Exactly - perfectly said.

 

[LetItSnow]

With respect, I disagree with focusing too highly on the why you WANT to be a vet. Everyone applying wants to be one. Everyone can make an impassioned claim to that. Nothing bores me more quickly than listening to a starry-eyed candidate talk about how badly they WANT to be a vet.

You need to show them that you want to be one AND that you've put the effort into moving that direction AND that you have the chops to succeed in school and after. They aren't looking for people that "want" to be vets; they're looking for people that will be successful students.

How I usually explain it to candidates is that your entire application (including interview if that is part of the process) should show an identifiable, cogent, consistent trajectory from point A (not a vet) to point B (vet). It should show that you want to be a vet. It should show that you have done the legwork to understand what being a vet means, and if you are already talking a specialty, that you understand that specialty. It should show that you have the chops academically to achieve that goal. It should show that if there were roadblocks in your past, that you successfully navigated them.

Your essay is your chance to flesh out the more vague parts of that and to tie all of it together in a neat package.

The worst applicants I've evaluated are the ones that roll in saying "yeah.... I think I want to be a surgeon because... well... I dunno, it just sounds cool." Then you ask them "Tell me more about that? What exposure do you have to surgery?" and they're like "Well... I mean, I saw a few surgeries in the general practice that I was a kennel assistant in."

Ok. It's not like that means you don't necessarily get in. But contrast that to the person that says "I've always been fascinated by lab animal medicine. In college I assisted my professor with a study using [animal X], where I was personally responsible for Y. During summers, I managed to obtain a position helping take care of the animals involved in preclinical research at company Z, which led to one of my stronger references when Dr. Bob recognized my interest and allowed me to spend time with him getting a better idea of what lab animal medicine looks like."

Other than that .... everything @WhtsThFrequency said.

I'm proud that all 3 of my assistants who applied to vet school this cycle got accepted. Go us. Rawr.

 

[Dana_May_B]

I totally think everyone has made some great points, and I understand that something that worked well for one person with a personal statement might not work as well for others! I was just going off of the advice I was given and what I thought went really well for me during this application cycle. A lot of what y'all have said is good advice for application essay-writing in general and I will certainly keep this all in mind the next time I have to apply to something 🙂

 

[turnandburn]

I'm a terrible writer. I used a professional editing service for my personal statement. It was amazing how the editor was able to take what what I was trying to say, and make it so much more clear and polished, while keeping my voice. It might be well worth the cost.