Personal Statement Advice

[Canavero]

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[MrDoctorman]

Avoid the topic. It will make you seem indecisive. It might bring up the concern that if they were to give you an acceptance to medical school, you would turn it down as well.

 

[907914]

I am a senior in undergrad and have decided I want to follow my dream of pursuing medicine. Medicine is the field I'd always dreamt of doing, but this past summer I applied to dental school. I received multiple acceptances to dental school, but upon receiving them I felt very apathetic. It was at that time that I realized I was pursuing the field because of pressure from my father (a dentist) to do so and not because it's what I wanted to do so.

Do you think I should talk about any of this in my personal statement for medical school or avoid the topic altogether?

Don’t mention it in the slightest. PS, ECs, secondaries, interviews, anything. Just be a pre-MED now with not connection to dentistry. This was, is and will be your passion as far as application is concerned.

At least you know, if you are good enough for multiple dental admissions, you should have plenty of medical school interest as the standards are round-about the same.

Just be aware, DAT you had to study a lot of content. MCAT is about 40% content and 60% critical thinking. The amount of content you need to know is the same as the DAT, you just need to know how to apply it. Just some advice as you begin your studying.

 

[LizzyM]

I am going to disagree with the above. It is much more authentic to describe how you considered dentistry and in the end, after shadowing etc, determined that you would go your own way and not cave to family pressure to go into dentistry. You don’t have to say that you were admitted to dental school but your gap will make more sense if you are honest about your journey.


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[907914]

I've begun to notice, but I don't necessarily dislike it, except for having to relearn physics... I've only logged about 50 hours so far, so I'm still getting the hang of these questions. I've been using TBR and the AAMC stuff.

Thank you for your feedback as well.

Take what LizzyM said instead of what I said. She is much more credible than a pre-MED.

As for the MCAT studying, do Khan Academy as well for passages. P/S and B/B are 100% on point, CARS passages can be a little short but the questions are 100% on point, C/P is 100% on point when it is a topic the MCAT actually covers. About a third of it is just nonsense nitty-gritty, but most is awesome. Plus, Khan Academy is free

 

[LizzyM]

Thank you so much for replying Lizzy!

In your opinion, if I do mention it, should it only be done very briefly and mentioned with the aim of addressing my gap year?

Also, one of the other reasons I've decided to switch to medicine was that my little brother's appendix burst during my time in undergrad and after this occurred his Lyme's disease became symptomatic, the doctors believed due to how compromised his immune system became as a result. The Lyme's disease has now gotten so bad that he's had to leave school after his freshman year of college and now he's been at home too sick to do anything. This all played a significant role in my decision to switch to medicine as well. Should I mention this or do you think it will come off as cheesy to ADCOMS?

Lyme Disease not Lyme's It's named for a town where the first patients with the condition came from.

The purpose of the personal statement is to answer the question, "why medicine?" If you can answer that without going into your initial work toward admission to dental school, fine... but if you want to explain what you had been thinking about before discovering your preference for medicine over dentistry, it would make a story that is somewhat novel and therefore more interesting that the dime a dozen, "my brother was sick and I got interested in medicine" essays that we read all day long.

 

[907914]

Lyme Disease not Lyme's It's named for a town where the first patients with the condition came from.

The purpose of the personal statement is to answer the question, "why medicine?" If you can answer that without going into your initial work toward admission to dental school, fine... but if you want to explain what you had been thinking about before discovering your preference for medicine over dentistry, it would make a story that is somewhat novel and therefore more interesting that the dime a dozen, "my brother was sick and I got interested in medicine" essays that we read all day long.

In your opinion, does it make for a better/more engaging personal statement to A) Explore the backstory that brings you to medicine or B) only explore important backstory elements, and focus on the "why me" portion integrated with the "why medicine?"

 

[LizzyM]

In your opinion, does it make for a better/more engaging personal statement to A) Explore the backstory that brings you to medicine or B) only explore important backstory elements, and focus on the "why me" portion integrated with the "why medicine?"

Either can be engaging. The proof of the pudding, in this case, is in the reading.