Personal Statement: AHHH!

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JulianCrane

The Power of Intention
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When one fills out the AMCAS, is the question for the personal statement open-ended or what? What should one talk about in it? I was thinking about talking about how I discovered my passion for medicine at an early age, and how it has endured ever since. Is that too corny?

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It is completely open-ended. Talk about whatever you wish, including explanations of any bad semessters/grades, etc.
 
The personal statement is open-ended. You can talk about whatever you want, but try to make your personal statement stand out as best as you can.
 
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talk about something that does not show up in your ECs or anywhere else on your application.
i.e. don't talk about your grades or why one semester was worse than the other, etc.

they can see all of that on your application already.

the essay is the one chance for you (pre interview) to show your personality and how unique you are in the way you came to apply to medical school at this point in time. write about something really life-changing for you, or something that really changed you, it doesn't have to be dramatic or anything, just very personal and important to YOU.
 
Some questions to consider...
1. Why have you selected the field of medicine?
2. What motivates you to learn more about medicine?
3. What do you want medical schools to know about you that hasn't been disclosed in another section of the application?
*questions taken from AMCAS 2003 application worksheet*

Hope this helps.
 
I was gonna talk about how I hate conformity and how that affects my daily life. Is that good?
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by JulianCrane:
•I was gonna talk about how I hate conformity and how that affects my daily life. Is that good?•••••are you joking?
 
I think writing a personal statement is really hard to do. Duh right? Anyways, when I was writing my statement I tried to answer what's the one thing that makes you different from other people. What's that one experience you had (doesn't matter how insignificant it may seem to others, as long as it's impt to you) that makes you different. Remember, admission doods are going to be reading a zillion of these statements. You need to find something that makes you unique. I mean not research, volunteering all that good stuff because everyone will have that. But a specific experience. Think of something that makes you you and write and expand on that. Well that's my two cents. :)
 
So you think writing about volunteer experiences is bad since it is overdone? I was planning on writing about a few women i met when i volunteered in the hospital, but if this is too cliche then I dont know.
Hmmm...all of a sudden...i am feeling not very unique.
 
Pretty much every topic regarding motivations for becoming a doctor will be cliche. When you have 40,000 essays every single year, people are going to eventually exhaust all uniqueness. Don't worry about being especially unique, just be honest and sincere, with a good tone. Also, don't be writing as if your personal statement will result in some sort of epiphany for the reader (hard to describe, but you might know where I'm going with this), for the reason I stated above.

Some cliches:
Dualistic aspects of humanism and science
Epiphanic experience
The "getting my act together" story
The gradual development of interest through activities X,Y,Z
etc.

It's all been done. So don't worry about being unique, just be yourself. The REALLY important thing is a good tone and your spin on stuff. The goal isn't for the reader to say "Wow I never thought of that before." The goal is to first interest the reader (maybe with a descriptive introduction of a particular scene or theme), and second to leave an impression similar to "Wow this is a good person who matches the personality I'm looking for in a physician."

That's my take on the whole PS thangy thang. That's just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt. Cheers!
 
Thanks street philosopher,
That makes me feel a lot better about my non-uniqueness. :)
If i just think of the PS as a thangy thang, then I am sure everything will work out and I wont feel too pressured. :)
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