Mentioning middle school in a personal statement (for a hobby)

[sunnycarat]

Hello!

I'm working on my personal statement, and am making an analogy with a hobby of mine that I got into in middle school. I mention that I became interested in this hobby in middle school, and progress to talking about it during university. A friend of mine read over my personal statement and said she was told by a resident that we shouldn't mention high school or anything before college in a personal statement. In my eyes the way I wrote it was okay because I wasn't saying I knew I wanted to be a doctor in middle school, I was just talking about the progression of my hobby.

But I know I could be biased since it's my own writing, so I wanted to get another opinion ask on here - is mentioning middle school in my personal statement okay? Thanks in advance!

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[HappyRabbit]

Most great personal statements I've read have a narrative that the applicant started in middle school or earlier. It shouldn't be a problem at all - the resident might be thinking about activities in the primary (but even then, hobbies are an exception).