Personal Statement Bank

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I'm in the process of crafting my personal statement, and have thought about how helpful it would be to see some essays from people who have been accepted into medical school.

Is there such a "bank," per se? I'd imagine SDN members would know 😀

 

[Wishing4MD]

I would love to see this too! Im having a hard time figuring out how to start it/ what to write.

 

[flodhi1]

I replied to your inbox with mine. Hope it helps 👍

 

[music2doc]

While it's a nice idea, I'm not so sure I'd be comfortable giving out my PS on the internet.... Unfortunately there are people who plagiarize such things.... And honestly, I'm not so sure it'd really tell you much as to how to approach yours. There are entire books published with guides to writing a PS and examples. A simple but effective way to do it is as follows:

1) Make a list of things you'd want in a doctor.
2) Make a list of characteristics you believe med schools want to see in a med student.
3) Identify questions you might want to answer in a PS (the AAMC has some suggestions)
4) Free write 3-5 pages of short (3-5 sentence) stories from your life that highlight some of these characteristics and answer some of these questions.
5) Meet with a mentor or someone in your school's writing center (or maybe both) and begin to identify themes and patterns
6) Pick 2-4 of these stories for your PS
7) Write transitions that explain and connect the stories (both to one another and to the "big questions" in your PS as well as to your ultimate goal of becoming a physician and _______(BLANK)________)
8) Write the intro (introduces you and the essay; provides some connecting point to your background)
9) Write the conclusion (connects to the rest of your app and provides a springboard for interviews)

 

[Mazdave]

There are books and websites that have previous personal statements (one is called "Essays that Worked"). However, from what I've heard, most Adcoms tend to be familiar with these resources as well and if your PS seems like it was too inspired by someone else's (as in, you lifted major themes or passages, intentionally or not) then it could really hurt your application. Check the Applicant sticky at the top of Pre-Allo for PS tips, and later in the spring there will be a fresh list of PS readers.

 

[kpcrew]

nicknaylor wrote a pretty good one and put it on his mdapps

 

[StoicJosher]

Check out mdapps. Many people put their PS's on it. You might have to wade through lots of profiles though.

 

[thlaxer]

Some people here posted their personal statement on their MDApps profile. A couple people in the non-trad forum did too recently.

I agree with music2doc, there are people who will probably just plagarize if given the chance, which is very unfortunate. In addition to his/her advice, I'd also suggest not focusing so much on "being unique" in your essay. With tens of thousands of applicants every year, there just aren't enough unique themes to go around 😛. I'm guessing that most people's personal statements have similar themes anyways (e.g. wanting to help people, fascination with human body and/or a certain disease, personal or family health issue, etc.).. So focus on showing what brought you here, what's important to you and what motivates you. After reading your personal statement, a stranger should imo be able to answer why you want to pursue medicine.

I'd also suggest not becoming obsessed with any particular draft, especially your first one. I don't know about other people, but I went through many drafts before I wrote the one that I ended up using. Ironically, this final draft took the least amount of time to write. My earlier drafts focused so hard on "being unique" that it actually ended up sounding fake. So write away and see what sticks.

Just my thoughts 🙂

 

[vkneill]

personalstatementsecrets.com has a couple samples that are free. They're actually pretty good because they're annotated.

 

[MedPR]

I'm in the process of crafting my personal statement, and have thought about how helpful it would be to see some essays from people who have been accepted into medical school.

Is there such a "bank," per se? I'd imagine SDN members would know 😀

I would love to see this too! Im having a hard time figuring out how to start it/ what to write.

mdapps

nicknaylor wrote a pretty good one and put it on his mdapps

Whoa when/why did kpcrew get banned?

 

[ShenanigansMD]

Princeton Review has a book with these. But I thought they were all pretty cliche and lame.