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Personal Statement!
Started by kaybam20
Get help with your application
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I heard that you have to let them know what hardships you've endured. Like how come your grad is low on a particular year.
Sorry for jacking the thread but do you guys think it's a good idea to mention a deceased family member as a motivation for studying medicine? In my case it is. But I'm worried that the admission committee will think it's an appeal to sympathy and look unfavorably on that.
Sorry for jacking the thread but do you guys think it's a good idea to mention a deceased family member as a motivation for studying medicine? In my case it is. But I'm worried that the admission committee will think it's an appeal to sympathy and look unfavorably on that.
Write about something not having to do with medicine at all, but then brilliantly tie it into medicine at the very end.
kaybam20 said:
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Personal statements are very, uh ..... personal. Everyone will write a different one. Your job here is to give the committee members a reason to want to interview you. Give them a reason to be interested in you and view your application as more than just your stats. This includes your motiveation for applying. Why do you want to become a doctor anyway? What makes you think that you will be successful? Why do you you think that you will be good at this profession? Just some types of things that come to mind that adcoms may be wondering. Writing all of your thoughts about this can be difficult, but it is also important in that it helps to focus why you are really doing this.
Go to your local bookstore and most often they will have books about essays and personal statements. You'll find them where all the guides about getting into college and grad schools are. Use them to get an idea about what you should write about but don't copy any of them because it will be ridicoulsly easy to find out if you did.
Just write a simple and sincere essay on why you want to go into medicine. Why it motivates, interests you etc... to learn more. Include lots of example and detail to give the essay a little life.
If your not a great writer steer clear of those "off the wall" essays. They can easily tank your application if they're done badly.
If your not a great writer steer clear of those "off the wall" essays. They can easily tank your application if they're done badly.
kaybam20 said:
Think of what really made you want to go into medicine.
Think of the events throughout your life that have illustrated this...
See if you can find a defining moment/event that you can use to tie it together.
Try to find a good colorful hook. Something that draws the reader in.
Work in explainations of your significant weaknesses if you must, but don't disrupt the flow of your essay.
Revise about 30 times.
Be honest.
Write about a time when you demonstrated compassion, dedication, and leadership.
Write about your experience in the medical field.
Write about why you wish to become a physician.
Do Not lie, do not imbelish, do not be cliché
Write about a time when you demonstrated compassion, dedication, and leadership.
Write about your experience in the medical field.
Write about why you wish to become a physician.
Do Not lie, do not imbelish, do not be cliché
Oh, and try to throw in some Ninjas... that would be awesome.
Write about something unique that the adcoms can identify you with or possibly mention about you to each other. Don't just write another essay on how you want to go to med school to help people. There are enough of those out there. An interview with a typical applicant won't prompt any new questions for them, but if you have something different then they might want to bring you in to talk to you about that and they will most likely remember the interview better
DO: Write about specific events and include details
DO: Make sure its unified
DO: Open and end with the same anecdote (an easy way to get unification)
DON'T: Explain why you think you'll be a good doctor. You're not qualified to know, and you'll just come across as arrogant.
DON'T: Be arrogant in general.
DON'T: Exaggerate your experiences and/or descriptions. Don't say you were "drawn to tears by the artistry of the surgeon's technique". Don't make something more than it was. For example, if you shadowed a doctor, don't say that you felt rewarded for having helped treat the patients (you didn't, the doctor did).
DO: Make sure its unified
DO: Open and end with the same anecdote (an easy way to get unification)
DON'T: Explain why you think you'll be a good doctor. You're not qualified to know, and you'll just come across as arrogant.
DON'T: Be arrogant in general.
DON'T: Exaggerate your experiences and/or descriptions. Don't say you were "drawn to tears by the artistry of the surgeon's technique". Don't make something more than it was. For example, if you shadowed a doctor, don't say that you felt rewarded for having helped treat the patients (you didn't, the doctor did).
