kinda weird personal statement questions

[freedoctor17]

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So I'm starting to work on my personal statement and I already had an outline of what I wanted to say but had a few questions.

1) Is it okay to make up a fake name for someone instead of using their real name? I tried writing it without the name and it just doesn't sound as personal but I also don't wanna use their real name.

2) Is it okay to quote something someone has said to you even if you can't remember the exact wording? I get that defeats the purpose of a quote haha but there's a part where I wanted to say something like *He asked me "yada yada yada (basic gist of what he asked)?" and* continue from there. I could probably just get rid of the quotes since it's not an exact quote cuz my memory is human and I can't remember it exactly but for some reason I like how it flows better with them so just wondering what y'all think.

p.s. Don't worry my actual writing isn't as bad as my very run on sentency SDN posts (I hope)

 

[Catalystik]

So I'm starting to work on my personal statement and I already had an outline of what I wanted to say but had a few questions.

1) Is it okay to make up a fake name for someone instead of using their real name? I tried writing it without the name and it just doesn't sound as personal but I also don't wanna use their real name.

2) Is it okay to quote something someone has said to you even if you can't remember the exact wording? I get that defeats the purpose of a quote haha but there's a part where I wanted to say something like *He asked me "yada yada yada (basic gist of what he asked)?" and* continue from there. I could probably just get rid of the quotes since it's not an exact quote cuz my memory is human and I can't remember it exactly but for some reason I like how it flows better with them so just wondering what y'all think.

p.s. Don't worry my actual writing isn't as bad as my very run on sentency SDN posts (I hope)

1) Yes (but make clear that it's not the real name), or use fake initials.

2) Yes. A personal quote to the best of your recollection is adequate. If you're at the forefront of a congressional investigation, OTOH, more precision is expected.

 

[freedoctor17]

1) Yes (but make clear that it's not the real name), or use fake initials.

2) Yes. A personal quote to the best of your recollection is adequate. If you're at the forefront of a congressional investigation, OTOH, more precision is expected.

For the fake name though when you say make it clear it's not their real name should I actually put in parentheses that it's not? like "Dr. Bob (this is a placeholder name) was such an awesome doctor!" Or would it be better to just say something like "Dr. Z was such an awesome doctor!" instead.

 

[JonathanHusky]

For the fake name though when you say make it clear it's not their real name should I actually put in parentheses that it's not? like "Dr. Bob (this is a placeholder name) was such an awesome doctor!" Or would it be better to just say something like "Dr. Z was such an awesome doctor!" instead.

the second one

 

[freedoctor17]

Great thanks!

 

[Stagg737]

Just put "Mr. X" or "Dr. X" and go ahead and use their actual initial. Keeps the personal feeling of the PS while conveying you're trying to protect their anonymity.

 

[HomeSkool]

1) Is it okay to make up a fake name for someone instead of using their real name? I tried writing it without the name and it just doesn't sound as personal but I also don't wanna use their real name.

Please do this. Naming another person in your application materials without their permission is uncool. (Exception: famous people. For example, "The Dalai Lama inspired me to become a doctor" is perfectly fine.)

2) Is it okay to quote something someone has said to you even if you can't remember the exact wording? I get that defeats the purpose of a quote haha but there's a part where I wanted to say something like *He asked me "yada yada yada (basic gist of what he asked)?" and* continue from there. I could probably just get rid of the quotes since it's not an exact quote cuz my memory is human and I can't remember it exactly but for some reason I like how it flows better with them so just wondering what y'all think.

That's fine. Nobody expects you to remember conversations verbatim, especially if it's been some time.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using SDN mobile

 

[Catalystik]

1) For the fake name though when you say make it clear it's not their real name should I actually put in parentheses that it's not? like "Dr. Bob (this is a placeholder name) was such an awesome doctor!" 2) Or would it be better to just say something like "Dr. Z was such an awesome doctor!" instead.

1) Many say, "whom I'll call . . .". BTW, if this is someone you list under shadowing, you would not need to anonymize them.

2) This would use fewer characters. Side note: I do hope you aren't planning to use that level of hyperbole in describing a doc.

 

[freedoctor17]

1) Many say, "whom I'll call . . .". BTW, if this is someone you list under shadowing, you would not need to anonymize them.

2) This would use fewer characters. Side note: I do hope you aren't planning to use that level of hyperbole in describing a doc.

I am not planning on it haha, just an example. Also it was an interesting experience but probably wouldn't fall under shadowing.

Met this doctor summer before college (in the country where my parents are from) and he ran a free health clinic in the slums there and i spent a day with him there. Only a few of the hours of were at the clinic while majority were actually spent going around passing out care packages to people in the area and just checking up on them. I'm hesitant to mention it in too much detail in my application because it is religious in nature and i've unfortunately been cautioned by many against mentioning religious motives at all. It definitely had an impact on my interest in medicine though (notice I'm not saying it's the only reason I want to be a doctor and it wasn't even the reason that made me realize I wanted to be a doctor, but it's a big part of what made me start to consider being a doctor) so I want to use it in my personal statement and just barely mention the religious part to explain why I was there in the first place. I didn't actually decide to be premed till a couple weeks into my first semester and even then I was still keeping myself open to other fields. I'm 100% committed now though and I'm hoping I can make that clear in my PS so it doesn't look like I'm still unsure or anything like that.

 

[HomeSkool]

1) Many say, "whom I'll call . . .". BTW, if this is someone you list under shadowing, you would not need to anonymize them.

Yep. The cat's out of the bag in that case.

2) This would use fewer characters. Side note: I do hope you aren't planning to use that level of hyperbole in describing a doc.

It's only hyperbole for some of us. #Superdoc (I know I'm a dork. I came to terms with it long ago.)

 

[LizzyM]

Years ago, an applicant wrote by name about a health care provider who had cared for her at her university health clinic and who she thought was exemplary. It was my sibling! I tried to remain unbiased but, truth be told, I was tickled.

If you are going to say nice things, it might be okay to name the doc. On the other hand, I can think of a few docs I don't think highly of and if someone thought that they were the cat's meow, I might get catty when commenting on their application.

 

[HomeSkool]

Years ago, an applicant wrote by name about a health care provider who had cared for her at her university health clinic and who she thought was exemplary. It was my sibling! I tried to remain unbiased but, truth be told, I was tickled.

Going back to other threads in which it's been said that medicine is a smaller world than you think...

 

[freedoctor17]

Years ago, an applicant wrote by name about a health care provider who had cared for her at her university health clinic and who she thought was exemplary. It was my sibling! I tried to remain unbiased but, truth be told, I was tickled.

If you are going to say nice things, it might be okay to name the doc. On the other hand, I can think of a few docs I don't think highly of and if someone thought that they were the cat's meow, I might get catty when commenting on their application.

That is awesome 😀 I'm definitely writing something good about them haha. They also work in another country so I doubt anyone would recognize them but it just felt inappropriate to use their name without asking.

I've run into a couple doctors I haven't really liked but that has nothing to do with why I want to be a doctor and I've quickly learned on here it isn't my place as a rather wide eyed premed to judge them so I am just focusing on the positive.

Another PS question though, how well does everything in the PS need to "flow"? I'm finding it hard to shift attention to other things without my transitions seeming a bit sudden. Not sure how much whoever is reading it would really care about that. I'm guessing you guys really only do a quick read through once and move on right? Not gonna be like my english professor and sit there critiquing every other word 😛 ?

 

[LizzyM]

That is awesome 😀 I'm definitely writing something good about them haha. They also work in another country so I doubt anyone would recognize them but it just felt inappropriate to use their name without asking.

I've run into a couple doctors I haven't really liked but that has nothing to do with why I want to be a doctor and I've quickly learned on here it isn't my place as a rather wide eyed premed to judge them so I am just focusing on the positive.

Another PS question though, how well does everything in the PS need to "flow"? I'm finding it hard to shift attention to other things without my transitions seeming a bit sudden. Not sure how much whoever is reading it would really care about that. I'm guessing you guys really only do a quick read through once and move on right? Not gonna be like my english professor and sit there critiquing every other word 😛 ?

It depends on the school and the committee members. Some schools will have retired doctors and professors reading these things and those people have way too much time on their hands. (haha). Some schools will also have non-MDs reading applications and it could be someone from medical humanities, philosophy, social science who might care more about language.

I'm a big fan of the 5 paragraph essay form you might have learned back in HS.
Paragraph 1: Introduce the idea that you want to go into medicine and you've tested your interest through different activities such as A, B and C. (or you've tried A, B and C and came back to medicine )
Paragraph 2: activity a
Paragraph 3: activity b
Paragraph 4: activity c
Paragraph 5: sum up and close

 

[freedoctor17]

Would anyone be willing to read through my personal statement and just tell me what they think of the general gist of it? It's still in the very rough stages so grammar and wording I'll fix later. But before worrying about all that wanted to get an opinion on the content of it. I'm very slightly over the 5300 character limit (5343). I didn't wanna include too much that overlapped with the rest of the app but it sort of feels like there are some holes in it. Assuming they've read the rest of my application and know the types of volunteering and shadowing I've done it wouldn't be an issue but if not then it will probably appear a bit sudden.

Also I couldn't help myself and put in a plant metaphor or two but if they're too over the top I'll get rid of them 😛 I kinda like my intro as well but it probably takes up more characters than needed and might need to be shortened.

But anyways if anyone would be interested in giving me feedback please let me know and I can send it! Be as brutal as necessary, I can take it 😀

Also @LizzyM I couldn't quite bring myself to scrap what I already had before reading your post on the 5 paragraph thing but that will be my solid backup plan if my current one looks bad. That seems like a very straightforward setup and would actually fit my story quite well.

 

[MonkeyArrow]

Also I couldn't help myself and put in a plant metaphor or two but if they're too over the top I'll get rid of them 😛 I kinda like my intro as well but it probably takes up more characters than needed and might need to be shortened.

Sure. PM me.

 

[Goro]

But please have mercy on Med Ed, OK?
Improve your AMCAS application with one weird trick

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

Would anyone be willing to read through my personal statement and just tell me what they think of the general gist of it? It's still in the very rough stages so grammar and wording I'll fix later. But before worrying about all that wanted to get an opinion on the content of it. I'm very slightly over the 5300 character limit (5343). I didn't wanna include too much that overlapped with the rest of the app but it sort of feels like there are some holes in it. Assuming they've read the rest of my application and know the types of volunteering and shadowing I've done it wouldn't be an issue but if not then it will probably appear a bit sudden.

Also I couldn't help myself and put in a plant metaphor or two but if they're too over the top I'll get rid of them 😛 I kinda like my intro as well but it probably takes up more characters than needed and might need to be shortened.

But anyways if anyone would be interested in giving me feedback please let me know and I can send it! Be as brutal as necessary, I can take it 😀

Also @LizzyM I couldn't quite bring myself to scrap what I already had before reading your post on the 5 paragraph thing but that will be my solid backup plan if my current one looks bad. That seems like a very straightforward setup and would actually fit my story quite well.

Sure!

 

[freedoctor17]

But please have mercy on Med Ed, OK?
Improve your AMCAS application with one weird trick

I don't think I did that at all haha. I just answered the question of why I wanna be a doctor by discussing some other things I almost wanted to be and why I ended up choosing medicine instead. I included a short story about a doctor I met that sparked my interest (though at the time I was still planning on something else).

 

[freedoctor17]

So I've had a couple people read my personal statement and have gotten awesome feedback. I decided I wanted to change part of it to explain why I wanted to go into primary care/underserved areas but one of these awesome people brought up an excellent point I didn't think of about maybe hurting my chances with some schools not as focused on primary care and suggested I do some more research to be safe. I've been looking up schools and most seem to have some sort of dedication towards primary care unless I'm misunderstanding the MSAR. @Goro @LizzyM would you be able to share your thoughts on this. Personally I think I should still do it since it would be the most genuine. Also i don't know how much emphasis they'd place on something like that in the personal statement since a lot of people change interests throughout med school anyways.

 

[Goro]

It's OK to express and explain your interest in Primary Care. It's not like Emory or GWU are boning for you to go into Gas or Rads.

 

[freedoctor17]

It's OK to express and explain your interest in Primary Care. It's not like Emory or GWU are boning for you to go into Gas or Rads.

well when you put it that way 😛

 

[HomeSkool]

I've been looking up schools and most seem to have some sort of dedication towards primary care unless I'm misunderstanding the MSAR.

It's OK to express and explain your interest in Primary Care. It's not like Emory or GWU are boning for you to go into Gas or Rads.

I think there's nationwide concern over the growing primary care deficit, so you'd most definitely not be screwing yourself by discussing your desire to go that route as long as you're being sincere. On the other hand, schools know that med students change specialty plans all the time, so they're not going to say, "You said primary care, now you want to do plastic surgery?! We've been betrayed!" If you have a genuine interest in primary care for underserved populations, it's OK to say so.

For what it's worth, I was a microbiology major with an emphasis in medical micro and immunology, and I put in my PS that I was leaning toward going into ID. I wound up a million miles away from there, and my school was 100% supportive of my choice.

 

[chappikachu]

For the fake name though when you say make it clear it's not their real name should I actually put in parentheses that it's not? like "Dr. Bob (this is a placeholder name) was such an awesome doctor!" Or would it be better to just say something like "Dr. Z was such an awesome doctor!" instead.

I wrote about an interaction with a specific patient in my personal statement. In my first drafts, I wrote in words that the name was a pseudonym for confidentiality purposes, but due to the word limit, I ended up using quotation marks around a fake name (e.g., "Emily") without explaining. I was accepted to a school, so I'm assuming this format is fine.

 

[freedoctor17]

I think there's nationwide concern over the growing primary care deficit, so you'd most definitely not be screwing yourself by discussing your desire to go that route as long as you're being sincere. On the other hand, schools know that med students change specialty plans all the time, so they're not going to say, "You said primary care, now you want to do plastic surgery?! We've been betrayed!" If you have a genuine interest in primary care for underserved populations, it's OK to say so.

For what it's worth, I was a microbiology major with an emphasis in medical micro and immunology, and I put in my PS that I was leaning toward going into ID. I wound up a million miles away from there, and my school was 100% supportive of my choice.

That's great to hear! I've always been interested in primary care (since deciding on medicine) but more recently decided I'd like to work for underserved areas. I've done a lot of volunteering with populations considered underserved over the years (though not so much medically related...) and I've attended a conference lately that had a few lectures on it that really motivated me. I've also shadowed someone in an area like this (and though I didn't get the best vibe from some of the other doctors there, they were great). I don't know much about all the specialties out there so I have no clue if that'll change my mind later. As of now though that is what I'm most interested in.

Time to get back to rewriting this thing (I'll go into 2018 working on it 😛 )

 

[freedoctor17]

I wrote about an interaction with a specific patient in my personal statement. In my first drafts, I wrote in words that the name was a pseudonym for confidentiality purposes, but due to the word limit, I ended up using quotation marks around a fake name (e.g., "Emily") without explaining. I was accepted to a school, so I'm assuming this format is fine.

I ended up using the letter method (ex: Dr. Z) and it seems ok from the feedback I've gotten so far so I'll probably stick with it. Thanks though. if I need to mention other names in my rewrites I'll try that out since I will be changing it up a bit!

 

[chappikachu]

I ended up using the letter method (ex: Dr. Z) and it seems ok from the feedback I've gotten so far so I'll probably stick with it. Thanks though. if I need to mention other names in my rewrites I'll try that out since I will be changing it up a bit!

Sounds like a plan, good luck!

 

[freedoctor17]

New question: despite the 5300 character limit I've seen lots of people saying to limit it to a page even though that would be about 4000 characters for me. I'm currently at about 1.3 pages with close to 5000 characters and wondering if I should cut it down. I'm still in the midst of revising and might decide to completely rewrite it again so in the future should I do my best to keep it to one page?

 

[chappikachu]

New question: despite the 5300 character limit I've seen lots of people saying to limit it to a page even though that would be about 4000 characters for me. I'm currently at about 1.3 pages with close to 5000 characters and wondering if I should cut it down. I'm still in the midst of revising and might decide to completely rewrite it again so in the future should I do my best to keep it to one page?

My final version was at around 5180 characters (over a page). My rough drafts often went over 5300 but I found it easy to condense. Whether it’s a 4000 character essay or a 5300 one, make sure you say what you want to say, but I don’t think there’s any “penalty” for going over a page. Just don’t ramble (i.e., don’t feel like you need to add more words just to reach the limit), and proofread for superfluous words because you can often take out words or reword to use less words to be more concise.

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[freedoctor17]

My final version was at around 5180 characters (over a page). My rough drafts often went over 5300 but I found it easy to condense. Whether it’s a 4000 character essay or a 5300 one, make sure you say what you want to say, but I don’t think there’s any “penalty” for going over a page. Just don’t ramble (i.e., don’t feel like you need to add more words just to reach the limit), and proofread for superfluous words because you can often take out words or reword to use less words to be more concise.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sounds good thanks! I've been going through and condensing and realized I had a lot of unnecessary parts so it's down to 4850 characters and might even need to remove a little more after more revision.

 

[chappikachu]

Sounds good thanks! I've been going through and condensing and realized I had a lot of unnecessary parts so it's down to 4850 characters and might even need to remove a little more after more revision.

Good thing you have a lot of time to tweak things, but sounds like you’re on the right track!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[freedoctor17]

So I finished a new draft of my statement yesterday but had a quick question on something. Would it be bad to include a sentence like this towards the end?

"Through my volunteering with patients and shadowing of physicians in clinical settings, I’ve confirmed to myself that this is a path I want to dedicate my life to."

Mainly because my PS focuses on two "big" things and I don't mention my volunteering/shadowing but I don't know if that's a reasonable way to add it in.

I'm mainly just worried because I don't know what background info on the rest of my app people reading it will have. Also I don't mention research at all in the PS which might hurt for research focused schools. Although I'd like to do research in med school it doesn't really fit with my main motivation for becoming a doctor. Am I just overthinking this too much?

 

[centralTX]

So I finished a new draft of my statement yesterday but had a quick question on something. Would it be bad to include a sentence like this towards the end?

"Through my volunteering with patients and shadowing of physicians in clinical settings, I’ve confirmed to myself that this is a path I want to dedicate my life to."

Mainly because my PS focuses on two "big" things and I don't mention my volunteering/shadowing but I don't know if that's a reasonable way to add it in.

I'm mainly just worried because I don't know what background info on the rest of my app people reading it will have. Also I don't mention research at all in the PS which might hurt for research focused schools. Although I'd like to do research in med school it doesn't really fit with my main motivation for becoming a doctor. Am I just overthinking this too much?

Why don't you just add more than one sentence (you have the character space still, right? 5300 char limit?) about the shadowing/volunteering so that it doesn't seem like an afterthought to your motivational narrative? If it really does matter to your desire to become a primary care doc, then you should be able to write a bit more than that and more convincingly, too.

If it matters, I ended my PS with a sentence that summed it all up and it sounded a lot like yours, but my PS involved mostly volunteering and shadowing, so it made more sense, I think.

Remember that a lot of things won't be able to fit into your PS. Adcoms will look at everything in your application, so don't fret not fitting in everything. Just write about your motivation, not what you think adcoms want to read in your PS

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

So I finished a new draft of my statement yesterday but had a quick question on something. Would it be bad to include a sentence like this towards the end?

"Through my volunteering with patients and shadowing of physicians in clinical settings, I’ve confirmed to myself that this is a path I want to dedicate my life to."

Mainly because my PS focuses on two "big" things and I don't mention my volunteering/shadowing but I don't know if that's a reasonable way to add it in.

I'm mainly just worried because I don't know what background info on the rest of my app people reading it will have. Also I don't mention research at all in the PS which might hurt for research focused schools. Although I'd like to do research in med school it doesn't really fit with my main motivation for becoming a doctor. Am I just overthinking this too much?

It is generally good practice to not add in themes or experiences in a conclusion that were not present in the body, just like it is good practice to not include something in an introduction and then not discuss it in the body.

If the major points of your essay do not speak to why you want to be a physician, you might consider writing about something else. If you want to include the bits about shadowing/volunteering, they should make an appearance in the body of the statement.

 

[freedoctor17]

Why don't you just add more than one sentence (you have the character space still, right? 5300 char limit?) about the shadowing/volunteering so that it doesn't seem like an afterthought to your motivational narrative? If it really does matter to your desire to become a primary care doc, then you should be able to write a bit more than that and more convincingly, too.

If it matters, I ended my PS with a sentence that summed it all up and it sounded a lot like yours, but my PS involved mostly volunteering and shadowing, so it made more sense, I think.

Remember that a lot of things won't be able to fit into your PS. Adcoms will look at everything in your application, so don't fret not fitting in everything. Just write about your motivation, not what you think adcoms want to read in your PS

Thanks! Yeah I still have 400 characters but you make a good point. They can see that I volunteered and shadowed on my application. Those things did reaffirm my wanting to be a physician but weren't the main reasons which are what I focused mine on. Maybe I'll just include one of those (shadowing or volunteering) as most meaningful experience and write more about them under there.

It is generally good practice to not add in themes or experiences in a conclusion that were not present in the body, just like it is good practice to not include something in an introduction and then not discuss it in the body.

If the major points of your essay do not speak to why you want to be a physician, you might consider writing about something else. If you want to include the bits about shadowing/volunteering, they should make an appearance in the body of the statement.

Good point, thank you. It does tell why I wanna be a doctor but I wanted to add and make sure they know I have experience in clinical settings and that I'm not just a naive premed who doesn't know what they're getting into. But I guess they should see that from the rest of my app. Someone was telling me you should assume each part of your app can stand alone but I think that's kind of stupid since then everything would be repetitive. Maybe I misunderstood them though.

Edit: So rereading the work and activites thread I think that's where I saw the stand alone thing and they were referring to secondaries since some people reading that might've not read my primary so I must've mixed that up in my head.