Personal Statements Are Hard

[deleted407021]

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Making a late night thread.

Okiedokie, I've just my PS left to finish, then I'm submitting AACOMAS for verification. The only thing is, PSs are hard. What I have so far is in the following format :

Start with a vivid description of triaging a patient, where health disparities are made clear. Grew up in rural South. Saw health disparities. Wanted to do medicine. Worked in free clinic -- I got on to apply a paragraph to each of the many roles I've occupied in this one clinic (see my sig), describing how each one taught me a skill or a lesson and how I've learned from both patients and providers about what it means to be a physician and the kind of doctor I want to be, ending with wanting to alleviate the health disparities I see in the community.

It's eh.

My main concern is with the bolded. I fear that -- since I have an activities section in AACOMAS -- describing my clinic work will be redundant, even if I describe how it's influenced my drive to go to med school. I'm concerned I'm doing a "resume" dump. Am I taking the wrong approach here?


For the sake of asking ... how big a deal is my PS as far as admissions are concerned? If I have a "meh" PS, but a 3.6/31, are DO schools going to turn their noses up at me?

This has get me unduly anxious. Thanks for the help!


P.S., I'm only applying DO. I'm not one of those "oh sheit! No II!!" MD to DO applicants.

 

[Lost in Translation]

My PS drew from 2 of my most important experiences. As long as you don't explain the experience(s) and instead describe its impact on your desire to pursue medicine, I think you're fine.

If you're worried about redundancy, just don't write about the EC's impact in the section where you list it. Or, if you need to write about its impact (because you mark it as an important experience or whatever), don't give a specific example since you've already done so in your PS.

Disclaimer: I dunno how the DO application is structured so all this advice might just be wrong.

 

[Glazedonutlove]

Making a late night thread.

Okiedokie, I've just my PS left to finish, then I'm submitting AACOMAS for verification. The only thing is, PSs are hard. What I have so far is in the following format :

Start with a vivid description of triaging a patient, where health disparities are made clear. Grew up in rural South. Saw health disparities. Wanted to do medicine. Worked in free clinic -- I got on to apply a paragraph to each of the many roles I've occupied in this one clinic (see my sig), describing how each one taught me a skill or a lesson and how I've learned from both patients and providers about what it means to be a physician and the kind of doctor I want to be, ending with wanting to alleviate the health disparities I see in the community.

It's eh.

My main concern is with the bolded. I fear that -- since I have an activities section in AACOMAS -- describing my clinic work will be redundant, even if I describe how it's influenced my drive to go to med school. I'm concerned I'm doing a "resume" dump. Am I taking the wrong approach here?


For the sake of asking ... how big a deal is my PS as far as admissions are concerned? If I have a "meh" PS, but a 3.6/31, are DO schools going to turn their noses up at me?

This has get me unduly anxious. Thanks for the help!


P.S., I'm only applying DO. I'm not one of those "oh sheit! No II!!" MD to DO applicants.

Just curious- why not md?

 

[takeurmeds02]

I found it easier to expound on one particular day that resonated with me out of one of my experiences and how it made me feel but then zoomed out and made it apply to the bigger picture of medicine/society and role I see myself playing in it.

 

[deleted407021]

Just curious- why not md?

Too late/lower sGPA + I like DO.

 

[deleted407021]

Boomp?

 

[breezy16]

I wrote about three separate (maybe four) incidences which drove me towards medicine. It flowed well and told adcoms who I was, what I overcame, and how, as a cumulative whole, I came to medicine. For me, its been a journey, not an epiphany.

I believe anything greater than three incidences/points starts getting messy and not fleshed out in 5300ch (or whatever it is)

It seems you believe this as well. Try a new draft which you concentrate the most important and telling.

 

[Medic5522]

Personal statements are definitely hard. Put less emphasis on the actual experiences. Focus on how it affected you, how it made you feel, etc. Use the experiences as a way to show them why you want to go into medicine and/or why you'd make a ballin' physician. Feel free to PM me if you're looking for someone to read over and give feedback- I also grew up in the rural south.

 

[deleted407021]

Personal statements are definitely hard. Put less emphasis on the actual experiences. Focus on how it affected you, how it made you feel, etc. Use the experiences as a way to show them why you want to go into medicine and/or why you'd make a ballin' physician. Feel free to PM me if you're looking for someone to read over and give feedback- I also grew up in the rural south.

Thanks! I'll probably send it to you later today after I go to my uni's writing center.

 

[Psai]

You'll write personal statements for residency too. I'm not sure about fellowship. I don't think that jobs ask for a personal statement thank god

 

[WedgeDawg]

You'll write personal statements for residency too.

True, but I have it from one of our chief residents that they straight up don't give a **** about personal statement as long as it doesn't make you look like a weirdo. Could very well be speciality/program dependent though.

 

[Glazedonutlove]

There aren't secondaries for most residencies though right?

 

[WedgeDawg]

There aren't secondaries for most residencies though right?

Not for most, but for ENT and I think Derm there are.

 

[Glazedonutlove]

starting it with the story is a good idea. pick only a couple experiences to talk about rather than discussing your various roles in the free clinic--that sounds too resume-like. the hard part for me was leaving out some things I wanted to talk about and instead expanding on a couple things, but the result was much better and flowed like a story rather than a list.


@WedgeDawg didn't realize you dropped out of med school to become an optometrist