Personal Statement/Application-how much to include?

[k2rhodes]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi everyone,
I'm one of the SDN members that has looked at lots and lots of posts, but hasn't posted...until today, of course. 🙂 I'm sorry if this topic has been addressed elsewhere, but I thought I should post my specific situation.
I just wanted to get some advice from everyone. I plan to apply this year (not exactly sure of which schools, but likely at least 20 in total) and I've been working on my personal statement, but I've kind of hit a roadblock. Here's why:
Through my freshman and half of my sophomore year of college at a competitive CA University, I had about a 3.7 GPA and everything was going great. One week before the start of my winter quarter, my dad passed away and needless to say, it was really tough to go back to school. Whether or not you'll believe it, it gets worse: two weeks after my dad died my brother (who is schizophrenic) tried to kill himself at home, and wound up being institutionalized. After that, my grades dropped- not horribly, but noticeably, and I ended up with a GPA around 3.55. I know I would have done better if those two events had not happened- after that, I drove home every weekend for months (320 miles round trip) to comfort my mom.
I want to explain to adcoms that this affected my performance, but I don't want to come off like I'm whining about it, or asking them to feel sorry for me. As of now, I have one brief reference to my dad's death in my personal statement. Should I devote more space to discussing it? I am trying to focus the bulk of my essay on what they ask for- why I want to be a doctor- although I know it's important that they understand what I went through those quarters when my grades dropped.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated- good luck to those of you who are applying this year and congrats to those who have had an acceptance!

 

[Bluntman]

Hi everyone,
I'm one of the SDN members that has looked at lots and lots of posts, but hasn't posted...until today, of course. 🙂 I'm sorry if this topic has been addressed elsewhere, but I thought I should post my specific situation.
I just wanted to get some advice from everyone. I plan to apply this year (not exactly sure of which schools, but likely at least 20 in total) and I've been working on my personal statement, but I've kind of hit a roadblock. Here's why:
Through my freshman and half of my sophomore year of college at a competitive CA University, I had about a 3.7 GPA and everything was going great. One week before the start of my winter quarter, my dad passed away and needless to say, it was really tough to go back to school. Whether or not you'll believe it, it gets worse: two weeks after my dad died my brother (who is schizophrenic) tried to kill himself at home, and wound up being institutionalized. After that, my grades dropped- not horribly, but noticeably, and I ended up with a GPA around 3.55. I know I would have done better if those two events had not happened- after that, I drove home every weekend for months (320 miles round trip) to comfort my mom.
I want to explain to adcoms that this affected my performance, but I don't want to come off like I'm whining about it, or asking them to feel sorry for me. As of now, I have one brief reference to my dad's death in my personal statement. Should I devote more space to discussing it? I am trying to focus the bulk of my essay on what they ask for- why I want to be a doctor- although I know it's important that they understand what I went through those quarters when my grades dropped.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated- good luck to those of you who are applying this year and congrats to those who have had an acceptance!

I would definitely NOT include anything about it in your personal statement. Reserve the PS for positive things like your motivations/career-goals/etc. Write up a separate letter explaining your difficult family circumstances, how this hurt you academically, and most importantly, how you overcame it (to show that the problem is solved and it won't be a continuing issue in med school). Send this letter in separately from your AMCAS...usually with you secondaries is a good time. Some schools even have a spot on their secondaries specifically for giving applicants the opportunity to explain things like this.

The only way I'd leave it in the PS would be if it profoundly affected your choice to go into medicine. Since it sounds like it didn't, I'd absolutely leave it out.

 

[kenmc3]

I agree with bluntman – you don’t need to mention it in your personal statement. The only time you talk about negative things in a PS is when you can get something positive out of it. For example, if you spent a lot of time in the hospital as a kid and that’s where you discovered your love for medicine.

I think that with your GPA you will have no problem getting secondaries from almost every school you apply to (unless your MCAT is lower than 27). Then you can either explain your hardships in the secondary itself (if they ask) or attach a separate letter. This is a great example of something med schools will understand and probably be willing to overlook.

 

[ratiolab]

I had something similar happen to me while i was in college and I did address it in my personal statement. But for me - I made a positive story about tragedy and my motivations for later jobs/research I was interested in and took.
I would say mention it if had anything to do with your reasons behind becoming a doctor but otherwise I agree with the other posters that you'll either have a chance to talk about it in your secondaries or if your school is writing you a committee letter they can mention it.

 

[Slide]

Save the story for the interview. It won't help you on paper, but in person, it can swing in your way if you phrase it properly in the interview.

 

[deleted50541]

Save the story for the interview. It won't help you on paper, but in person, it can swing in your way if you phrase it properly in the interview.

I agree, also because the "tragic story" is a cliched theme for the PS. And as I understand it, you are not trying to incorporate these events into your essay as motivators of your reason for pursuing medicine. Now I'm not trying to downplay your loss and suffering by any means; I'm very sorry to hear that you had to endure such hardships within a relatively short period of time.

Futhermore, having a 3.55 gpa does not warrant an explanation in your PS. A few bad classes amid a more or less consistent academic record will not hurt you that much. In my case, I wound up with a 3.3 after I failed to obtain a medical leave of absence during my sophomore year and subsequently failed all my classes while I was hospitalized. The only thing that saved my gpa was an otherwise stellar academic record. I thoroughly documented these events in separate sections of the secondary applications.

As was stated, there are other ways of incoporating the effect these terrible events had on you into your applicant file.

 

[Dr.Who?]

i tend to agree with popular opinion...

your gpa didn't DRASTICALLY drop, so there's no need to address it in the PS.

 

[k2rhodes]

Thanks for the advice to everyone who responded, I appreciate it.

 

[pattayapus]

Hi everyone,
I'm one of the SDN members that has looked at lots and lots of posts, but hasn't posted...until today, of course. 🙂 I'm sorry if this topic has been addressed elsewhere, but I thought I should post my specific situation.
I just wanted to get some advice from everyone. I plan to apply this year (not exactly sure of which schools, but likely at least 20 in total) and I've been working on my personal statement, but I've kind of hit a roadblock. Here's why:
Through my freshman and half of my sophomore year of college at a competitive CA University, I had about a 3.7 GPA and everything was going great. One week before the start of my winter quarter, my dad passed away and needless to say, it was really tough to go back to school. Whether or not you'll believe it, it gets worse: two weeks after my dad died my brother (who is schizophrenic) tried to kill himself at home, and wound up being institutionalized. After that, my grades dropped- not horribly, but noticeably, and I ended up with a GPA around 3.55. I know I would have done better if those two events had not happened- after that, I drove home every weekend for months (320 miles round trip) to comfort my mom.
I want to explain to adcoms that this affected my performance, but I don't want to come off like I'm whining about it, or asking them to feel sorry for me. As of now, I have one brief reference to my dad's death in my personal statement. Should I devote more space to discussing it? I am trying to focus the bulk of my essay on what they ask for- why I want to be a doctor- although I know it's important that they understand what I went through those quarters when my grades dropped.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated- good luck to those of you who are applying this year and congrats to those who have had an acceptance!

hey there, i'm glad you finally joined the conversation. thought i'd let you know my gut response to your post, before reading anyone else's: i don't think you should talk about this in order to explain your GPA, because first of all it's impressively good for someone to whom this happened, and secondly it will be implied that that's why your grades dropped. but i do think it's a pretty significant event in your life that has the potential to show a lot of your character, if you know how to express it the right way. don't make it the focus of your personal statement, but do use it to enforce, maybe, a turning point in your life or your goals or your way of looking at things. i mean it depends: if you're a good writer and you can find a way to talk about it without appearing to pull the sympathy card, it could really add to a very moving statement. like other people have said, you should talk about something that makes you positive and passionate and has the potential to make you happy: have you been involved in anything activity-wise that really drives you to be a doctor? maybe you could make that the topic of your statement, but also fit in how your family situation affected how you approached the experience and what you took away from it. mention that a big part of your life has been your concern for your mom, and try to tell them that you did drive back and forth 320 miles every week--that's seriously significant. but again, i guess try not to make it sound like a brag. hope things have calmed down for you now, and best of luck in crafting what looks to be a beautiful personal statement!

 

[LizzyM]

I had something similar happen to me while i was in college and I did address it in my personal statement. But for me - I made a positive story about tragedy and my motivations for later jobs/research I was interested in and took.
I would say mention it if had anything to do with your reasons behind becoming a doctor but otherwise I agree with the other posters that you'll either have a chance to talk about it in your secondaries or if your school is writing you a committee letter they can mention it.

Or if you have a sympathetic professor who knew of your struggles at that time and can address the situation in a LOR. I have seen this done quite effectively and it comes off well coming from a third party.

If your gpa for that semester was <3.0 or if you had more than 2 Cs you absolutely must mention it somewhere. That kind of dip leaves an adcom shaking its head and looking in the file for an explanation.

It is always good if you can tie your interest in medicine/subequent job & research etc to your family's experiences without making it a sob story (this is more often the case with grandparents than with parents & sibs).