Is your personal statement still relevant?

[yorta]

I'm applying. I hate writing, especially in a foreign language to me. I know everyone is trying to present himself in the best light possible. But I wonder, was the personal statement so sincere that it is still relevant to you when you are studying in medical school, or when you are practicing as a physician? Are the reasons you spend so much time writing, editing, and trying to persuade the Adcom to choose you over others so true that they still guide your pursuit of medicine today? Or they simply have already faded out that you are most considering the more realistic aspects of your study and work? Do the people who wrote better essays really become better physicians? If not, what's the point of putting so much weight on personal statements when assessing an applicant?

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[wysdoc]

I'm applying. I hate writing, especially in a foreign language to me. I know everyone is trying to present himself in the best light possible. But I wonder, was the personal statement so sincere that it is still relevant to you when you are studying in medical school, or when you are practicing as a physician? Are the reasons you spend so much time writing, editing, and trying to persuade the Adcom to choose you over others so true that they still guide your pursuit of medicine today? Or they simply have already faded out that you are most considering the more realistic aspects of your study and work? Do the people who wrote better essays really become better physicians? If not, what's the point of putting so much weight on personal statements when assessing an applicant?

Well, maybe it just has to make some sense and not be too weird. Dictate your statement if you hate writing.
Here’s a past post on the subject You're doing it wrong, part 1: your personal statement

 

[Konigstiger]

My personal statement was more or less generic nonsense I didn't believe in, so no, it is not and never was relevant to me.

As for your second question, the purpose of the personal statement is probably the same as the interview: make sure the applicant is not a psychopath or weirdo. Just like in interviews, a few people will have special circumstances they can write about that will make them look better, but for the majority of us, they are just testing to see if we know what the generally accepted, 'normal' reasons are for becoming a doctor are and seeing if we have the basic skills to communicate it in an at least somewhat novel way.

 

[Gilakend]

My personal statement was more or less generic nonsense I didn't believe in, so no, it is not and never was relevant to me.

As for your second question, the purpose of the personal statement is probably the same as the interview: make sure the applicant is not a psychopath or weirdo. Just like in interviews, a few people will have special circumstances they can write about that will make them look better, but for the majority of us, they are just testing to see if we know what the generally accepted, 'normal' reasons are for becoming a doctor are and seeing if we have the basic skills to communicate it in an at least somewhat novel way.

This isn't the typical "medicine is a calling" answer, but tbh this is pretty much accurate for 90% of applicants. I used to edit medical school applications extensively, almost all personal statements were exactly the same. "Here is a personal story, here is a clinical story, here is a volunteering story, here is my research, I love science and want to help people". 90% will be read, set aside, and forgotten about. A lot of people say just try to be in the 90% because with the other 10% half of them are unbelievably bad.

In general, most people are simply using their personal stories to plug into a formulaic essay of what they think adcoms want to hear. For example, sometimes people have life-altering or career-affirming experiences volunteering, but most of the time people don't. Everyone writes their PS like they did.

So I would say for most people their PS is still "relevant" as it's been only a few years, but for 90% of people, it's simply an application requirement.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Since this is a question asked from the perspective of pre-meds currently applying, I’ve moved this thread to pre-med

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I'm applying. I hate writing, especially in a foreign language to me. I know everyone is trying to present himself in the best light possible. But I wonder, was the personal statement so sincere that it is still relevant to you when you are studying in medical school, or when you are practicing as a physician? Are the reasons you spend so much time writing, editing, and trying to persuade the Adcom to choose you over others so true that they still guide your pursuit of medicine today? Or they simply have already faded out that you are most considering the more realistic aspects of your study and work? Do the people who wrote better essays really become better physicians? If not, what's the point of putting so much weight on personal statements when assessing an applicant?

The one I wrote is definitely relevant to who I am, what my passions are, and why I wanted to go in the direction I did, even though it didn't take me to medical school.

There is no "gold medal" in application essay writing; if there were, we would be giving away full-tuition scholarships. But we don't. Your goal is to keep with the prompt and hold our attention for at least 30 seconds.

No one changes the world based on their med school application essay, nor is it the screener's expectation that we discover the next Surgeon General.

As pointed out earlier, we just want to be sure you're not a psychopath/weirdo and you come in as fully aware of what awaits you, even if we know you don't know what is waiting for you.

 

[Goro]

I'm applying. I hate writing, especially in a foreign language to me. I know everyone is trying to present himself in the best light possible. But I wonder, was the personal statement so sincere that it is still relevant to you when you are studying in medical school, or when you are practicing as a physician? Are the reasons you spend so much time writing, editing, and trying to persuade the Adcom to choose you over others so true that they still guide your pursuit of medicine today? Or they simply have already faded out that you are most considering the more realistic aspects of your study and work? Do the people who wrote better essays really become better physicians? If not, what's the point of putting so much weight on personal statements when assessing an applicant?

Look, my school gets some 5-6000 apps/year. We only have 100 seats. Drexel can get 10-15,000 apps/year.

We want to know who you are and why Medicine?

Is that so hard?

 

[KnightDoc]

I'm applying. I hate writing, especially in a foreign language to me. I know everyone is trying to present himself in the best light possible. But I wonder, was the personal statement so sincere that it is still relevant to you when you are studying in medical school, or when you are practicing as a physician? Are the reasons you spend so much time writing, editing, and trying to persuade the Adcom to choose you over others so true that they still guide your pursuit of medicine today? Or they simply have already faded out that you are most considering the more realistic aspects of your study and work? Do the people who wrote better essays really become better physicians? If not, what's the point of putting so much weight on personal statements when assessing an applicant?

Don't waste a lot of time overthinking it. The whole point is to have another thing to use to differentiate between literally hundreds or thousands of otherwise indistinguishable candidates in assembling a class.

Nothing more, nothing less. It's not necessarily an x-ray into your soul, and therefore does not necessarily have any relevance beyond your application.

It's a test to see how you string words into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs, in a compelling way to get them to want to spend some time getting to know you via an interview, instead of any of the literally hundreds of other people in the pool with nearly identical grades, test scores, ECs and LORs. No pressure. Good luck! 🙂

 

[Catalystik]

I'm applying. I hate writing, especially in a foreign language to me. I know everyone is trying to present himself in the best light possible. But I wonder, was the personal statement so sincere that it is still relevant to you when you are studying in medical school, or when you are practicing as a physician? Are the reasons you spend so much time writing, editing, and trying to persuade the Adcom to choose you over others so true that they still guide your pursuit of medicine today? Or they simply have already faded out that you are most considering the more realistic aspects of your study and work? Do the people who wrote better essays really become better physicians? If not, what's the point of putting so much weight on personal statements when assessing an applicant?

I can't resist reposting this in response to your question: Be Careful What You Claim in your Med School Admission Essay

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Good writing > good story

If the former is good, you’ll get a halo effect for the latter.