Personal Statement Advice

[chickpeagoals]

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Hello,

I was wondering if it would be too "personal" if I wrote about my mothers suicide attempt and how it influenced my career path (medicine)

 

[HomeSkool]

Hello,

I was wondering if it would be too "personal" if I wrote about my mothers suicide attempt and how it influenced my career path (medicine)

I'm surprised you want to share something that intensely personal. If you decide to include it, I recommend referring to it in a much more subtle way: a "family tragedy" or "severe health crisis", for example.

If you do go forward with this, you also need approach your mother and ask for her blessing (I assume she's living; my sincerest apologies and sympathy if that assumption is incorrect). However personal the tragedy was for you, it was much more so for her. Don't alienate your mother for the sake of a memorable personal statement.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using SDN mobile

 

[chickpeagoals]

I'm surprised you want to share something that intensely personal. If you decide to include it, I recommend referring to it in a much more subtle way: a "family tragedy" or "severe health crisis", for example.

If you do go forward with this, you also need approach your mother and ask for her blessing (I assume she's living; my sincerest apologies and sympathy if that assumption is incorrect). However personal the tragedy was for you, it was much more so for her. Don't alienate your mother for the sake of a memorable personal statement.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using SDN mobile

She is living - and we have talked about it and she is fine with it. I'll probably put "severe health crisis" in there - I wouldn't want to make anyone reading it feel awkward.

 

[HomeSkool]

She is living - and we have talked about it and she is fine with it. I'll probably put "severe health crisis" in there - I wouldn't want to make anyone reading it feel awkward.

Exactly. Refer to the incident in a way that's sufficiently vague to obscure the fact that you're speaking of a parent's suicide attempt. The AdCom doesn't need to know what happened, they need to know how it affected you.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using SDN mobile

 

[Terror Billy]

She is living - and we have talked about it and she is fine with it. I'll probably put "severe health crisis" in there - I wouldn't want to make anyone reading it feel awkward.

See I don't think it's a great idea to include something so personal and then fudge out the details. At that point your story will undoubtably become vague and possibly even confuse the screener, alternatively your "severe health crisis" might just scream [insert suicide], and your attempt to hide it will be futile. My recommendation is just write about your journey to medicine (even if this incident played a large part, there's some chapter you could skip to and begin your story from).