MotivateMD Consulting Service

[leenaaa]

Hi there! I was looking into medical school consulting services and came across MotivateMD. Has anyone worked with them before and what was your experience like working with them?

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[Med Ed]

Checked out the website. The leadership looks like a husband and wife, and the staff consists of about half a dozen residents and a lot of current medical students. I don't see anything that level of experience that any of these individuals have with medical school admissions, aside from getting in themselves. It feels like the blind are being led by the almost blind.

Looked at the blog, went to an entry on how to fill out the activities section of the AMCAS application. It described how every entry should end with a sentence like this one: "I am hopeful the skills I have acquired will permeate my future efforts in both medicine and clinical research." Perhaps it's just me, but filing every crevice your application with vapid statements like this one can get annoying.

Here is an excerpt from the blog post on personal statements, with the general advice to show rather than tell:

[For instance, I can write: “I had the opportunity to intubate the patient during my surgery rotation,” OR “The day started in small talk which eased my first-day anxieties. Before I knew it, the nurse anesthetist called me to the head of the bed where he was unpackaging the miller blade and dosing lidocaine and propofol. I felt the adrenaline rush through me, but I was meticulous to remain collected to those watching in the OR suite. I remembered what I had practiced, what seemed like decades ago now, from my first two pre-clinical years. Place the head into extension, insert the blade with the left hand and displace the tongue, lift up towards the ceiling and away, be mindful of the teeth and lips, and visualize the vocal cords. Before I knew it, I progressed the tube past the vocal cords, secured the tube, and listened with the stethoscope for the reaffirming vesicular breath sounds in the lung fields, celebrating that medicine is where I belong.” Can you see the difference between the two statements now?]

Yes, I can see the difference, and I like the first sentence better. Have these people heard of purple prose? Do they have any idea how tedious it is to read a thousand applications where everyone is trying to turn their personal statements into Tom Clancy novels? What does "I was meticulous to remain collected" mean? This reads like a set of instructions on how to intubate, and I don't find it compelling in the slightest.

I'm not going to download their app, which I guess some people might find useful.

 

[leenaaa]

Checked out the website. The leadership looks like a husband and wife, and the staff consists of about half a dozen residents and a lot of current medical students. I don't see anything that level of experience that any of these individuals have with medical school admissions, aside from getting in themselves. It feels like the blind are being led by the almost blind.

Looked at the blog, went to an entry on how to fill out the activities section of the AMCAS application. It described how every entry should end with a sentence like this one: "I am hopeful the skills I have acquired will permeate my future efforts in both medicine and clinical research." Perhaps it's just me, but filing every crevice your application with vapid statements like this one can get annoying.

Here is an excerpt from the blog post on personal statements, with the general advice to show rather than tell:

[For instance, I can write: “I had the opportunity to intubate the patient during my surgery rotation,” OR “The day started in small talk which eased my first-day anxieties. Before I knew it, the nurse anesthetist called me to the head of the bed where he was unpackaging the miller blade and dosing lidocaine and propofol. I felt the adrenaline rush through me, but I was meticulous to remain collected to those watching in the OR suite. I remembered what I had practiced, what seemed like decades ago now, from my first two pre-clinical years. Place the head into extension, insert the blade with the left hand and displace the tongue, lift up towards the ceiling and away, be mindful of the teeth and lips, and visualize the vocal cords. Before I knew it, I progressed the tube past the vocal cords, secured the tube, and listened with the stethoscope for the reaffirming vesicular breath sounds in the lung fields, celebrating that medicine is where I belong.” Can you see the difference between the two statements now?]

Yes, I can see the difference, and I like the first sentence better. Have these people heard of purple prose? Do they have any idea how tedious it is to read a thousand applications where everyone is trying to turn their personal statements into Tom Clancy novels? What does "I was meticulous to remain collected" mean? This reads like a set of instructions on how to intubate, and I don't find it compelling in the slightest.

I'm not going to download their app, which I guess some people might find useful.

Hi Med Ed!

Thank you so much for your input. I am a re-applicant looking into consulting services because I want some advice on going into the cycle again and having essay writing support, so I was just trying to find a consulting service that would fit my price range and they seemed decent. However, you are right that the work they have up on their website does not seem that great.

 

[cj_cregg]

Looks like most of the services they offer can be obtained for free through your college's pre-med advising team or writing center (they may still offer services for alumni), or through sites like SDN.

I agree with med ed regarding the showing not telling...it can be done tastefully, but I rarely see that. I really don't like a personal statement that reads like a creative writing exercise or feels like someone used a thesaurus, and I absolutely loathe an activity description that opens with "The patient laid in front of me, gasping for air, nostrils flaring..." instead of "I shadowed a critical care and pulmonology physician in the ICU and in pulmonology clinic." So I'd question the advice given on this site as well.

 

[Med Ed]

Hi Med Ed!

Thank you so much for your input. I am a re-applicant looking into consulting services because I want some advice on going into the cycle again and having essay writing support, so I was just trying to find a consulting service that would fit my price range and they seemed decent. However, you are right that the work they have up on their website does not seem that great.

Start with a post in the What Are My Chances? forum. Check out the reapplicant forum, as well. If you ask nicely you can find no shortage of folks here who will read your personal statement. Heck, paste it into a DM and I'll tell you if it makes you look like a lunatic or not.

Consulting services can be valuable for those who really need help, but let's first find out if you really need help.

 

[chilly_md]

These threads have detailed advice that would be a good starting point for evaluating your writing:

You're doing it wrong, part 1: your personal statement

I did the math this year and ~1% of the personal statements I read this year were memorable in a positive light. ~7% were memorable in a negative light. The remaining 92% were basically groups of words. When writing your personal statement, the goal for most of you is not to be in the 1%. It's...

forums.studentdoctor.net

You're doing it wrong, part 2A: experience descriptions

I have noticed a tendency for many applicants to be really wordy with the descriptions of their experiences. This is understandable, but try and remember your two main audiences: screeners and interviewers. To appease both crowds you need to be both concise and clear. 1. Do not assume that...

forums.studentdoctor.net

To Premeds: General Advice on Personal Statements

Okay, so I’m exhausted as heck but had a chance to go through about 10 personal statements recently, and I can say that here are some common issues that we see in essays (as I’ve talked to peers, other admissions members, and the like): 1) Numero Uno: On SDN: If a reader says they are UNABLE...

forums.studentdoctor.net

 

[picklelittle]

I did use MotivateMD for my personal statement and secondary essays. I think they helped refined my essays a lot. However, I think if you have a school writing center or a friend who is a good writer then that would be cheaper. Also, see if there are professional writers in your community who may be cheaper.