Personal Statement - Should I put abuse/assault in there?

[neuroticpremedhere]

So, I'm not often on SDN so I don't know if there's actually a part of the site to put this in.

I have been told personal satements are supposed to come from the heart, real world experiences, etc. etc. I've been told not to put the cookie cutter "omg i want to help people that's why i need to be a doctor!!!!1"/ "i grew up in the suburbs and had a privileged life!!!!!! please pick me!!!!!1" but I have also been told not to put things too far out and crazy.

I have had an extremely ****ty life but have learned to overcome it. I have two huge things that absolutely shaped my life, made me the person I am today and I feel the urge to add it to my PS because it is so so so important to me. I was a victim of child abuse and I was raped as a young teenager.

And with my resiliency (as well as a few therapy sessions), I managed to:
1. publish a first author publication over sexual assault
2. a first author publication over child abuse (in review)
3. over 1,000 hours volunteering at a rape crisis center
4. 3 presentations over sexual assault and 1 in the works for child abuse

I know your PS can be a make or break situation for your app. I wanted to know if it would be too "gruesome" to add those experiences in my PS, even if I focused on my resiliency, my yearn to help sexual assault and child abuse victims and my accomplishmens. I considered only adding arround 3-4 sentences MAXIMUM over the circumstances that happened. Obviously, I would not go into details, but I would just basically be like "Hey, this happened (2-3 sentences), it ****ing sucks (1 sentence), but I overcame it and the proof is in the goddamn pudding (the rest of the ****ing paper)"

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[gyngyn]

Very few PS's are "make or break." Those that are would mostly be in the "break" category.
Never put something in your application that you would would not be comfortable discussing with strangers in a high stress situation.

 

[jmetaller]

I mean... I dont know anything... just another applicant. But my philosophy was to put my most life-altering events and how they shaped me. But, I tried to stay focused on what I gained from it and not what it robbed me of. Seems to me like you've got a pretty amazing story and if I was the adcom I would think you're a pretty strong and personally motivated individual committed to doing positive things with your career. I would have a hard time not pulling you in for an interview just with what you shared, but that's just me. Perhaps don't introduce yourself as "neuroticpremed" I know something like sexual abuse is never "behind you" but I would probably treat it as if it was. Don't project your life as being ****ty. Project it as a bump in the road. Something that inspired you to advocate for a very personal issue.

I think too, you're almost going to have to talk about it to put your volunteer work and publications in context. But again... fellow premed here...

 

[Catalystik]

I have been told personal satements are supposed to come from the heart, real world experiences, etc. etc. I've been told not to put the cookie cutter "omg i want to help people that's why i need to be a doctor!!!!1"/ "i grew up in the suburbs and had a privileged life!!!!!! please pick me!!!!!1" but I have also been told not to put things too far out and crazy.

I have had an extremely ****ty life but have learned to overcome it. I have two huge things that absolutely shaped my life, made me the person I am today and I feel the urge to add it to my PS because it is so so so important to me. I was a victim of child abuse and I was raped as a young teenager.

And with my resiliency (as well as a few therapy sessions), I managed to:
1. publish a first author publication over sexual assault
2. a first author publication over child abuse (in review)
3. over 1,000 hours volunteering at a rape crisis center
4. 3 presentations over sexual assault and 1 in the works for child abuse

I know your PS can be a make or break situation for your app. I wanted to know if it would be too "gruesome" to add those experiences in my PS, even if I focused on my resiliency, my yearn to help sexual assault and child abuse victims and my accomplishmens. I considered only adding arround 3-4 sentences MAXIMUM over the circumstances that happened. Obviously, I would not go into details, but I would just basically be like "Hey, this happened (2-3 sentences), it ****ing sucks (1 sentence), but I overcame it and the proof is in the goddamn pudding (the rest of the ****ing paper)"

OP: You might appreciate the exchange of opinions on this older thread regarding your specific question: Assault as personal challenge for secondary inappropriate?

 

[neuroticpremedhere]

Very few PS's are "make or break." Those that are would mostly be in the "break" category.
Never put something in your application that you would would not be comfortable discussing with strangers in a high stress situation.

So even if it is around 3 sentences basically saying "this happened, it sucks" but the rest of the paper showed my dedication towards fighting for it, that would be bad? I don't feel uncomfortable discussing it. I have said it at least a million times to the point where I barely bat an eye anymore.

 

[gyngyn]

So even if it is around 3 sentences basically saying "this happened, it sucks" but the rest of the paper showed my dedication towards fighting for it, that would be bad? I don't feel uncomfortable discussing it. I have said it at least a million times to the point where I barely bat an eye anymore.

If it is integral to your path to this profession and you are entirely comfortable discussing it, go ahead.
I'm not sure I've ever seen three sentences with this content seamlessly integrated into a PS, though...

 

[Cheenghee Koh]

To be clear, I am still applying this cycle, so this is just from my personal experiences. My story is still evolving, and my approach hasn't been proven working yet. So please take whatever I say below with a grain of salt. =)

I did mention my past traumatic experiences in both primary and secondary. I was a target of bullying during my high school years (some incidents were quite serious, which can almost fit the definitions of assaults). I mention these experiences in 3-4 sentences at the very beginning of my writings, as these experiences have motivated me to step into human service professions and have stayed in these professions for two decades (but I did not specify what had happened). Beyond this, since I am nearly 40 years old, during my long journey after my high school years, I have chances to revisit those traumatic experiences, and work through them. It took me more than 10 years to sincerely forgive those people who had hurt me and grow mature emotionally. Yet, even today, I am a human being, at times I can still become slightly emotional when talking about those experiences. However, I would be able to contain my emotions, smile, make humor out of it, and move the conversations forward. Therefore, now I feel I am ready to talk about these experiences, openly. I think it would be important to remember that, whatever we put on the applications, there is a probability that we will be asked about those things during interviews, and we will have to be able to narrate our stories as well as our insights (post-traumatic growth) in a positive fashion. No matter what, interviewers are only interviewers; they are strangers, not our therapists. It would be hard for them to contain our emotions on the scene if we breakdown when talking about those experiences. Do you feel ready to talk about those experiences? I applaud your efforts in the field. This really shows your dedication. But talking about our work is different from talking what happen to us on more personal levels. If possible, find a good friend or two who know your past, and practice talking about those experiences with them. You can start to know when, and at which point, you will begin to feel the hurt, and emotions. Then you can plan accordingly, to see how you can slightly change your wording or omit certain parts of the story so that you may feel less hurt. Once you find the ways, you will know what you can write in your applications, and what to share during interviews, and remember your limits.

ps. I read the thread that discussed this before. But that was 7 years old. I agree with some of them, but also disagree with others. However, I think all would agree with one thing, that is, we have to maintain our posture during the interviews.

 

[LizzyM]

I think that you could put this in the PS or you could bury it in the experience section under one of the most meaningful experiences and just tuck in the phrase, "As a survivor of child abuse and sexual assault, I feel drawn to be of service to other survivors." then go on and explain how you got involved with a specific agency or research activity or whatever. It could be very little in terms of words to give context to your significant involvement and accomplishments.

Do realize that you will be expected to talk about anything in your application and you'll be expected to be able to do so without breaking down or becoming emotional but at the same time not coming across as dishonest or unfeeling. I think the subtle approach might work well.

 

[hmockingbird]

Agree with a lot of the above, if you feel comfortable talking about it a sentence or two about how that inspired you to get into your research and medicine in general should be fine. The main thing to avoid with stuff like this (besides if you could comfortably talk about it in an interview) is getting too much into the story and not focusing your PS about “why medicine”, but I think you’re on top of that.