Low Clinical Personal Statements

[Frigidcold]

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More of a curiosity question than looking for advice. As I've been reading over my personal statement, I've thought about how it seems like a substantial portion M.D./P.h.D. applicants on SDN seems to have no or very little clinical experience. How have these people approached the personal statement or addressed why they want to be a physician?

 

[Fencer]

We only need about 100 hours of clinical experiences (shadowing, hospital, clinic, etc.) to be credible as often you will be also interviewed by one person from the medical school. Most statements include an anecdote from an encounter with a patient. That encounter made the applicant realize the gaps in our understanding in care, and how critical research plays a role in providing better care to patients. However, describing the experience of being compassionate toward another human being is necessary somewhere in the MD essay.

 

[Glutenlover1948]

I was under the impression that the PS should be approached as "Why MD" specifically. I had an advisor tell me not to tie in research, which should be kept exclusively for MD/PhD essay. Is this not how you'd recommend writing it?

 

[p01t43]

@Glutenlover1948 I was advised the same and my cycle went better than expected. Its just my personal experience but I touched on research for maybe two sentences just briefly and then really described the full story and motivation for the combined degree in the MD/PhD essay

 

[Maebea]

@Glutenlover1948 I was advised the same and my cycle went better than expected. Its just my personal experience but I touched on research for maybe two sentences just briefly and then really described the full story and motivation for the combined degree in the MD/PhD essay

My advice is just this: you should briefly mention research in the PS (perhaps 3 sentences), but the focus should be on your motivation for patient care. In my experience, no mention of research raises concerns among the MD-PhD faculty, while writing too much about research will cause the MD faculty to wonder why you want to be a doctor. To be sure, there are many in our program that have either written nothing or too much about research in the PS, but that does not mean that the concerns were not raised.