Personal statement question: future activities

[goldandapager]

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When one is filling out the personal statement, is it appropriate to note future plans? Or, is it better to update schools as activities progress? My friend is graduating a semester early and will be involved in a unique activity that meshes well with the rest of her application. What do you think? Thanks.

 

[Total180]

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "filling out the personal statement". The personal statement is an essay about why you want to go into medicine...so it isn't really something you fill out. If you meant put it in the activities section of the application, the general advice around here is not to put future activities, and I think using it as an update would be a better move than to somehow work it into the actual personal statement...because you can't really talk about an activity and what you got out of it unless you have already done it....so I would just use it as part of an update.

 

[Catalystik]

The Personal Statement is meant to convey the applicants journey toward medicine as a career. Listing future activities is not appropriate. They should be saved for update letters, unless a Secondary essay specifically asks for them (as some do).

 

[AH3]

I'm saving my future activities for discussion in secondaries and interviews. It will give me something else medically related to talk about that's not on my application. If you talk about too many future plans on your app/PS, it may give adcoms a hint that you're grasping for more stuff to list.

 

[LizzyM]

It can be helpful to include in the PS a comment about "what's next" particularly if it is obvious that the applicant has a gap period. It is nice to know that the applicant is about to begin something interesting and not just sitting at home. Some schools will ask about this in the secondary but you can't count on the seconday. In the PS it can be just a line or two: "I am fortunate to be finishing college in December 2010 and will begin [exciting thing] in January 2011. This will provide me with the opportunity to [...] before starting medical school."