My friend copied my personal statement.

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coffeesnob

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I have been helping a friend with his personal statement. I sent mine to him as an example. He sent me his draft to me so I can take a look and edit. His personal statement has the same structure, flow of ideas, some phrases (verbatim) and conclusion as my own.

I am actually very disappointed by this. I worked so hard on my personal statement; I really see it as a part of my identity and motives for pursuing medicine. My personal statement is part of my life and experience. I feel like he stole part of my identity.

What should I do?

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Think of it like this: you have great ammunition for the "How did you resolve a conflict with a friend or group member?" question. Pick the resolution that will make you look best on your application.
 
When he/she is asked about the PS in interviews, hopefully he/she won't seem genuine and honest so that interviewers will figure out.

Did you try telling your friend that he/she shouldn't copy and should write on their own?
 
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Think of it like this: you have great ammunition for the "How did you resolve a conflict with a friend or group member?" question. Pick the resolution that will make you look best on your application.

Thanks. I got accepted last cycle.
 
Think of it like this: you have great ammunition for the "How did you resolve a conflict with a friend or group member?" question. Pick the resolution that will make you look best on your application.

+1

I didn't even think of that lol.
 
Well, since he's asking you to edit it...just edit out the parts he copied. If you want to be sure he'll take those edits seriously and won't figure out what you're doing, tell him you had something similar in your PS but after getting an adviser (or whoever) to look it over those parts got torn apart. Send him a "revised" version of your PS as another example to make it all look legit.

edit: You're already in med school? Why do you even care then? He's the only one who stands to be harmed by all of this.
 
I have been helping a friend with his personal statement. I sent mine to him as an example. He sent me his draft to me so I can take a look and edit. His personal statement has the same structure, flow of ideas, some phrases (verbatim) and conclusion as my own.

I am actually very disappointed by this. I worked so hard on my personal statement; I really see it as a part of my identity and motives for pursuing medicine. My personal statement is part of my life and experience. I feel like he stole part of my identity.

What should I do?

Well depending on how close it is in likeness to yours if he applies to some of the same schools as you and they recognize it as familiar, it will completely tank his application.
 
It's dishonest of your friend to do that. You should confront them and tell them that you do not condone their behavior, and if it doesn't change, you have no choice but to contact AMCAS for violation of their rules concerning originality of personal statements.
 
edit: You're already in med school? Why do you even care then? He's the only one who stands to be harmed by all of this.

I care because my PS is MY work. It's not fair that someone else can take credit for my work, the product of 8 weeks of labor and 20 revisions. It's a violation of academic integrity and respect.

Anyways, I can't really "edit" his personal statement. The whole thing as a piece sounds like mine. It's sounds like my personal statement with male genitalia (I am a woman)....
 
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It's dishonest of your friend to do that. You should confront them and tell them that you do not condone their behavior, and if it doesn't change, you have no choice but to contact AMCAS for violation of their rules concerning originality of personal statements.

:laugh:

The vast majority of personal statements are interchangeable.
 
Confront him and tell him that you don't tolerate this and will not help him anymore if he decides to copy your personal statement. If he's your friend (or has any moral fiber), he will understand.

If he isn't your friend and would rather be scum, then threaten to report this to AMCAS.
 
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lol. killin' these premeds. have some mercy.

Mercy? Premeds are the ones giving the mercy. Arrogant premeds definitely know what they are talking about, and one right here seems to be much much better and talented in writing personal statements than a resident...
 
PM me your med school personal statement and I'll gladly tear it apart. 🙂

Yeah, but critiquing personal statements, once you reach a certain level, is so subjective. I'm sure even the best personal statements in the world can be torn apart.
 
Yeah, but critiquing personal statements, once you reach a certain level, is so subjective. I'm sure even the best personal statements in the world can be torn apart.

It doesn't matter. circulus vitios has a superior knowledge compared to those petty adcoms. Only circulus vitios knows how to write an effective personal statement and effectively ignore the words from a petty resident.

so how well are your application cycles going

He got into all Top 20 schools with full rides from each of them.
 
Mercy? Premeds are the ones giving the mercy. Arrogant premeds definitely know what they are talking about, and one right here seems to be much much better and talented in writing personal statements than a resident...

to be fair one's status isn't indicative of one's writing abilities, let's not fall into the fallacy of automatically assuming someone higher up in the hierarchy is better at everything.


that being said i'm sure mimelim's ps is infinitely better than cv's...
 
I have been helping a friend with his personal statement. I sent mine to him as an example. He sent me his draft to me so I can take a look and edit. His personal statement has the same structure, flow of ideas, some phrases (verbatim) and conclusion as my own.

I am actually very disappointed by this. I worked so hard on my personal statement; I really see it as a part of my identity and motives for pursuing medicine. My personal statement is part of my life and experience. I feel like he stole part of my identity.

What should I do?

I think you should call him out on it but I'm an in-your-face guy.
 
to be fair one's status isn't indicative of one's writing abilities, let's not fall into the fallacy of automatically assuming someone higher up in the hierarchy is better at everything.


that being said i'm sure mimelim's ps is infinitely better than cv's...

1. While true, they've been in the process longer and know how it's played. Of course, with recent changes, it can become different from what it was several years ago.

2. Doubt it. circulus vitios is unstoppable. His PS is really astounding and blew mimelim's PS like dust.

I think you should call him out on it but I'm an in-your-face guy.

I agree.

lol. man. absolute murder. It's a premed crime scene now.

What are you talking about? Most guys are jealous of circulus vitios' impeccable writing skills. One of the adcoms was so astounded by his PS that he got it framed and placed it on his bedroom wall.
 
Dude that was uncalled for.

Admissions committees "read" 40,000+ personal statements per year. Do you think your medically-related, attention grabbing introduction is actually interesting? Has no one else ever written about a deep fascination with scientific research, a passionate desire to help the underserved, a generic shadowing or volunteering experience that convinced you that medicine was your calling?

No, it has all been said before. Unless you're a non-traditional applicant, your life, your interests, and your reasons for pursuing medicine are cookie-cutter garbage. This is a fact, not an attack aimed at mimelim or anyone else.
 
Admissions committees "read" 40,000+ personal statements per year. Do you think your medically-related, attention grabbing introduction is actually interesting? Has no one else ever written about a deep fascination with scientific research, a passionate desire to help the underserved, a generic shadowing or volunteering experience that convinced you that medicine was your calling?

No, it has all been said before. Unless you're a non-traditional applicant, your life, your interests, and your reasons for pursuing medicine are cookie-cutter garbage. This is a fact, not an attack aimed at mimelim or anyone else.

You have opened my eyes, and I realized the wrongs of my foolish, naive ways. Thank you for enlightening me.
 
It doesn't matter. circulus vitios has a superior knowledge compared to those petty adcoms. Only circulus vitios knows how to write an effective personal statement and effectively ignore the words from a petty resident.

I never said I could write an 'effective' personal statement. I said they are boring pieces of crap in the vast majority of cases. Mine, like many others, is no different.
 
Admissions committees "read" 40,000+ personal statements per year. Do you think your medically-related, attention grabbing introduction is actually interesting? Has no one else ever written about a deep fascination with scientific research, a passionate desire to help the underserved, a generic shadowing or volunteering experience that convinced you that medicine was your calling?

No, it has all been said before. Unless you're a non-traditional applicant, your life, your interests, and your reasons for pursuing medicine are cookie-cutter garbage. This is a fact, not an attack aimed at mimelim or anyone else.

so... I take it you're a nontrad
 
Admissions committees "read" 40,000+ personal statements per year. Do you think your medically-related, attention grabbing introduction is actually interesting? Has no one else ever written about a deep fascination with scientific research, a passionate desire to help the underserved, a generic shadowing or volunteering experience that convinced you that medicine was your calling?

No, it has all been said before. Unless you're a non-traditional applicant, your life, your interests, and your reasons for pursuing medicine are cookie-cutter garbage. This is a fact, not an attack aimed at mimelim or anyone else.

I don't know, man. You sound pretty pessimistic. I think it's a known fact that it's hard to be original with all the billions of other people living on this planet with you. Despite this "flaw" that you make it out to be, I think people are still able to write a good personal statements.

Man, just reading this, I feel like you're next statement is going to be, "Why bother with life? Nothing's original. Everything has already been done before."

Chill out.
 
Mercy? Premeds are the ones giving the mercy. Arrogant premeds definitely know what they are talking about, and one right here seems to be much much better and talented in writing personal statements than a resident...

What are you talking about? The resident created his personal statement at the same time in his life that the other poster made his. How long it has been since writing it doesn't matter. Stop nut hugging.
 
That's an unfortunate situation. Even if you confront him about it, people who copy (or "heavily borrow") from the work of others tend to be pretty set in their ways, from my experience. So it's likely that he will maintain your template in his final revision even if you ask him not to.

For me, it would depend on how much of a friend this person really is. If this has disappointed you to the extent that you no longer want to maintain a relationship with this person, by all means call him out on it. I would at least express your concern that it is too similar to your own and to encourage him to write something that better reflects him as a person. If he isn't open to that, I'd chew him out and not worry about the "friendship" anymore.
 
Most tense thread I've seen in a while.

Ignoring all the side arguments, OP I'd say you can either confront him about it in a friendly manner, or leave it be. It's his risk he'll be taking, and doesn't hurt your career in any real way, so you could ignore it. Yes, he is plagiarizing though. If I were you I'd brainstorm a friendly way of talking to him about it, something light hearted as if he doesn't understand that he can't just take your PS's phrases.
 
LOL. you remind me of two old posters here named bleargh and ponsansinorum.
NOT-SURE-IF-SRS.jpg

What are you talking about? The resident created his personal statement at the same time in his life that the other poster made his. How long it has been since writing it doesn't matter. Stop nut hugging.
NOT-SURE-IF-SRS.jpg
 
LOL. you remind me of two old posters here named bleargh and ponsansinorum.

Yeah man, he like totally sounds a lot like bleargh. It's almost like they're the same poster or something.




OP I would just chill out who cares seriously lol. If ur really worried about if it will affect you just tell the other guy to **** off and write a new PS
 
Yeah man, he like totally sounds a lot like bleargh. It's almost like they're the same poster or something.




OP I would just chill out who cares seriously lol. If ur really worried about if it will affect you just tell the other guy to **** off and write a new PS

Pretty much what I'd do. Then I'd stop caring.
 
First of all I do want to say I'm sympathetic.

But I do want to say, it's not clear from your post whether he had already had anything written before you sent him your statement, or if the draft he sent you is his very first draft. If that is true, I think it's possible that maybe he doesn't feel comfortable in his writing skills, and was literally using your personal statement as a template to base his off of. That doesn't make it okay, but I think there's just the possibility that maybe he wasn't plagiarizing your statement with malicious intent, but because he literally had no ideas for where to start and maybe doesn't have a clear idea of what the PS is supposed to convey or what he wanted to say with his. I also think this might be true because if I was trying to copy someone, I wouldn't email my copied work back to them to edit! lol

Again, like others said it depends on how much you want to keep the friendship. If you think the above is the case I would maybe start off softer, not a full-on confrontation. Just point out that his statement is way too similar to yours and he needs to find his own story (conclusions to make in the statement) and style, otherwise his PS won't sound sincere (okay, yes, who knows if adcoms would really read close enough to tell, but that's probably what I would SAY to him - and also that might show through more in an interview if they were to ask about his PS as it is and he can't talk about it b/c he borrowed so much of it from you). Maybe direct him to some internet examples or a book with PS's so he has more styles/approaches to look at and draw from. You could also have him tell you about his decision to go to med school and you could help him find his own story/structure/conclusions from that story which he could then put in writing. And then if after that he comes back to you with a revision that is still basically your statement after this conversation, then that would maybe would be when I'd confront him more seriously/harshly.
 
OP I would just chill out who cares seriously lol. If ur really worried about if it will affect you just tell the other guy to **** off and write a new PS

That's not really the point... he's not concerned how it will affect him but is irritated that his friend is plagiarizing his work. I'd be similarly irritated myself. I don't really see it as a "LOL who cares" type thing, but I'm pretty bitter after working with someone who plagiarized in a group project in college.
 
That's not really the point... he's not concerned how it will affect him but is irritated that his friend is plagiarizing his work. I'd be similarly irritated myself. I don't really see it as a "LOL who cares" type thing, but I'm pretty bitter after working with someone who plagiarized in a group project in college.

It really doesn't matter why the OP is pissed. I don't see how this is a thread. It should be common sense what to do

A) don't tell your friend and make a thread about it on an Internet forum
B) tell your friend how you feel
C) call 911 and tell the police
D) call up every med school in the US and tell them. that'll show him!


What do you think the right answer is?
 
It really doesn't matter why the OP is pissed. I don't see how this is a thread. It should be common sense what to do

A) don't tell your friend and make a thread about it on an Internet forum
B) tell your friend how you feel
C) call 911 and tell the police
D) call up every med school in the US and tell them. that'll show him!


What do you think the right answer is?

:laugh: 👍
 
First of all I do want to say I'm sympathetic.

But I do want to say, it's not clear from your post whether he had already had anything written before you sent him your statement, or if the draft he sent you is his very first draft. If that is true, I think it's possible that maybe he doesn't feel comfortable in his writing skills, and was literally using your personal statement as a template to base his off of. That doesn't make it okay, but I think there's just the possibility that maybe he wasn't plagiarizing your statement with malicious intent, but because he literally had no ideas for where to start and maybe doesn't have a clear idea of what the PS is supposed to convey or what he wanted to say with his. I also think this might be true because if I was trying to copy someone, I wouldn't email my copied work back to them to edit! lol

Again, like others said it depends on how much you want to keep the friendship. If you think the above is the case I would maybe start off softer, not a full-on confrontation. Just point out that his statement is way too similar to yours and he needs to find his own story (conclusions to make in the statement) and style, otherwise his PS won't sound sincere (okay, yes, who knows if adcoms would really read close enough to tell, but that's probably what I would SAY to him - and also that might show through more in an interview if they were to ask about his PS as it is and he can't talk about it b/c he borrowed so much of it from you). Maybe direct him to some internet examples or a book with PS's so he has more styles/approaches to look at and draw from. You could also have him tell you about his decision to go to med school and you could help him find his own story/structure/conclusions from that story which he could then put in writing. And then if after that he comes back to you with a revision that is still basically your statement after this conversation, then that would maybe would be when I'd confront him more seriously/harshly.

I think this is good advice.

I agree it's highly unlikely that he had malicious intent when copying and it's likely he didn't have a lot of confidence in his ability to write. When you lift phrases verbatim, though, that's pretty egregious - enough that something should be said.

For some reason, the concept of copying others and why this is bad is a black hole for some people, even people who are pretty intelligent otherwise. I don't understand why.
 
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