Personal Statement Help

[cyclopz]

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I wrote my first draft and feel it is well written but boring. I looked back at my old med school PS and it was much more interesting. My problem is I had a lot of unique activities before med school that I wrote about, but in med school I concentrated on studying and research and don't really have any new unique activities in med school that other ophtho applicants don't have. My board scores and research are fine, but I can only talk about my research for so long in my PS. Other than my research, the rest of my PS is just about a patient I had and the story in med school that led me to ophtho. The story for choosing ophtho is boring, though, and it really just encompassed liking the field, the combo of surgery and medicine, etc.

Since everyone has good board scores and research, the PS is supposed to set you apart and make them want to interview you. Does anyone have any other advice on what to include in the PS? I googled some sample ophtho PS' but they're just as boring as mine. They all just explain what led them to ophtho and basically everyone says the samething about liking the combo of surgery and medicine and the fascinating procedures. Any advice?

 

[MonsterAddict]

Once you figure it out share the wealth. I wish I had a specific patient experience or some epiphany that led me to ophtho, but honestly it was where my personality and interests fit in. I have been struggling with how I am going to write my PS. This has some good advice. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/abo...esidency/writing-your-personal-statement.page

 

[cyclopz]

Once you figure it out share the wealth. I wish I had a specific patient experience or some epiphany that led me to ophtho, but honestly it was where my personality and interests fit in. I have been struggling with how I am going to write my PS. This has some good advice. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/abo...esidency/writing-your-personal-statement.page

Is that PS example at the end considered a good PS? It sounds just as boring as mine and the other ones I've read lol. Perhaps what I'm failing to realize is the difference between residency and college/med school personal statements. College and med school ones were supposed to be more creative, but from what I have gathered so far, residency ones should not be like that. It really should just be about why you chose the field and the vast majority of personal statements will just be boring stuff? Lol

 

[MonsterAddict]

It seems like talking with residents however not necessarily all in ophtho say that your PS should make you sound like a normal person and its not necessarily good to deviate from the "norm". Not many people say they thought their PS helped them but it can hurt you.

 

[Melenema]

I was told that if you can make it interesting/unique and pull it off then go for it, but if the delivery is off the mark it can hurt you. If you're not absolutely sure then might as well just stick to the status quo. You're already in med school, the range of personalities is not THAT wide. They care more about you being a good ophthalmologist and less about how interesting of a person you are (assumption made by me). I personally don't think there's a problem with being boring as long as you make it genuine. There are a bunch of more important things in your app than the PS

by the way, all of the PS I googled are downright terrible! Maybe I'm just being a jerk but I feel like those writers have no idea how to put together a good PS. I remember reading the princeton review PS book for med school and those statements were a million times better.

Also, anyone feel like the "anecdote"-type of PS are kind of corny? you know, the ones where they say "I met Mr. X who had cataracts and couldn't see anything and then he got cataract surgery and was able to see again and that was the EXACT moment I decided to go into ophtho. That 10 min cataract surgery was the defining point in my career, blah blah blah." seems a little too cheesy, no?

 

[ophthope]

Also, anyone feel like the "anecdote"-type of PS are kind of corny? you know, the ones where they say "I met Mr. X who had cataracts and couldn't see anything and then he got cataract surgery and was able to see again and that was the EXACT moment I decided to go into ophtho. That 10 min cataract surgery was the defining point in my career, blah blah blah." seems a little too cheesy, no?

I made what I felt like was a slightly-corny comment like this (albeit not such a generic one like a cataract patient) in mine and said that it was during this "time" or whatever that I realized Ophthalmology was fulfilling to me. Got a lot of positive comments on that during my interviews, but I think the trick is to make the PS interesting but not too off the wall. I started mine off with a bit of corny 'story-telling' and then transitioned, I think the key is to balance keeping the writing interesting with getting your point across. At the end of the day you're writing one page but some program director is reading 60 of these things per day. So just make it easy on them to remember yours positively. A little tasteful 'cheesiness' about an important point can be in order but if you just write a diatribe about one positive experience you're going to make people do a giant roll eyes 🙄 . Ask a friend with a writing or literature degree to read it for you since they can evaluate the readability of the thing even if they don't understand the medical jargon.

 

[azzarah]

I spent half a paragraph writing about my life background to that point and what qualities I acquired in the process, then I wrote about a particular ophthalmologist I met and his qualities as well as the patients I saw with him that inspired me to become an ophthalmologist and then focused the rest of the application on why I was interested specifically in academic ophthalmology--1 paragraph on research, 1 paragraph on patient care, and 1 paragraph about teaching.

I personally think cheesy is just fine. Heck, I picked ophthalmology as a field after I saw a cataract surgery patient, so I think most ophthalmologists will relate to that. I would not be super creative though.

If you would like me to look at it, feel free to PM me. I'd be happy to read it and offer my thoughts.