Personal Statement

[medstudentwannab111]

I'm having trouble starting my personal statement. What helped you guys when starting?

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[deleted982921]

Reading memoirs and thinking about how I'd tell mine!

 

[medstudentwannab111]

@Anonymous406 thank you!!

 

[LIFS7]

I'm having trouble starting my personal statement. What helped you guys when starting?

Just write. It is going to take many drafts. Watch Dr. Ryan Gray’s videos and those will help a lot.

 

[medstudentwannab111]

@LIFS7 thank you, it's been really rough so far!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Read

Write Your Secondary Essays First - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

www.studentdoctor.net

That way you know what you are willing to write about that will not overlap with your personal statement. Many schools ask you to not repeat details in your AMCAS statement in their secondary essays (in a copy/paste way). A few will ask for a completely different personal statement.

 

[medstudentwannab111]

@Mr.Smile12 thank you so much!

 

[RedFrog]

My counselor suggested me to put the "X factor" in secondary. It worked very well for me.

 

[medstudentwannab111]

@RedFrog thanks for your response! what do you mean by x factor?

 

[Hollow Knight]

There's a book by Ryan Gray that will help tremendously, I used it. It's called "Guide to the med school personal statement" or something.

The point of the personal statement is to tell us why you want to be a doctor. DO talk about impactful experiences that informed your decision to pursue medicine. DO NOT use it as a narrative form of your resume. That's an auto-app trash. DO NOT have spelling or grammatical errors in this thing. That's disrespectful, and usually an auto-reject.

If you want to weave social justice stuff in there, cool. Not necessary, but fine. I put that I wanted to do rural Family Med in my PS; it helped me get a scholarship at my current school, but probably got me rejected by Mayo. Being more generic is fine.

DON'T make yourself out like you're Nelson Mandela. "I was carrying my new adopted niece from the burning orphanage, and the last thing she said to me was, HollowKnight, you MUST go to medical school to save little girls everywhere like me......" Be honest about yourself and your motivations.

Don't tell us how awful doctors are and how you're gonna be better. You might be right, but this is not the place or the time.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

There's also...

Essay Workshop 101 - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

www.studentdoctor.net