personal statement

[CarolinaGirl]

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Okay so after reading you guy's response to the oops question about personal statements, I'm scared. I just finished mine and as I live in India and work as a Nurse Practitioner that is part of what I wrote about. I would love for someone to read it and provide "constructive criticism" but you guys have me feeling like I would be handing something to the vultures.

In spite of my fear of having my ps completely bashed I will take a chance and offer it up to anyone who is willing to read it.

 

[PugMD]

Some good advice here: Just in addition, its not too expensive to have professional editors look your essay drafts over and give you great suggestions. There are plenty essay services on the web if you give it a search

 

[VandyXGirl]

Okay so after reading you guy's response to the oops question about personal statements, I'm scared. I just finished mine and as I live in India and work as a Nurse Practitioner that is part of what I wrote about. I would love for someone to read it and provide "constructive criticism" but you guys have me feeling like I would be handing something to the vultures.

In spite of my fear of having my ps completely bashed I will take a chance and offer it up to anyone who is willing to read it.

I would suggest having your essay edited by people who really know you. I had my three best friends (one is an english major, one is pre-med, and one is a general science major and had to do a ton of apps for grad school) edit them and they did a great job. Since they know me best, they could identify with what I was saying and could tell me whether it sounded sincere. Having random SDNers edit would, as you so put it, be handing your essay to the vultures. Having too many people edit your essay can almost be worse. Remember "too many chefs spoil the broth." You'll lose the "voice" in your essay if too many people try and edit since they'll each change little things, and soon, how you write will be lost. And it is ok to talk about working in India, in fact that is a great experience, but don't make it all you talk about. The point of the essay is to talk about you not about the health problems in India. The problem I see with essays that focus on traumatic experiences is that they use the topic as a safety net. So instead of talking about how they are all they talk about is what they have done. Does that make sense? Working in India is an activity you were involved in for an extended period of time, but it is not the only thing that has defined you. Use it as an opening or as a theme for the essay, then expand from there.