Personal tone to your personal statement?

[hl4jn]

I'm having a hard time determining the "line" between what is appropriate and what isn't appropriate for a personal statement.

On a regular basis, I tend to talk in a way that usually make people laugh (without cracking jokes or being outrageous or anything like that). This is showing in my personal statement, and I wasn't sure how "appropriate" it would be. On one hand, it is a PERSONAL statement and I don't want to censor/cover up who I am in my writing and I do want to put a personal touch to it. On the other hand, I don't want it to sound casual and like I'm not taking this seriously.

Thoughts?

 

[SonicBlast]

I think you should let your personality show in your personal statement! They go through many essays..who knows, maybe your unique tone might perk their interest. They want to get a feel for who you are from your personal statement, so give it to them! msg me if you need feedback on tone/content, etc. good luck!

 

[UCSFx2017]

Don't worry too much about the personal statement. It's kind of hard to tell you if your PS sounds too casual without reading it.

Here's what Dr. David Wofsy, Associate Dean of Admissions at UCSF medical school, said.

"People agonize over the personal statement more than they're worth. Very few people will get into medical [or dental] school because of what they wrote in the personal statement. Some people will get out of medical [or dental] school because of what they wrote in the personal statement. So be careful with the personal statement and remember that it is more likely to hurt than help. Write a good personal statement that shows that you can string thoughts in a logical way and you can write clearly and that you can talk about something that is relevant to this experience of applying to medical school, whether it's some activity you've been involved in or why you want to be a doctor [or dentist], or who knows what. It's not that important. What's important is that it's clear. So I tell people not to take risks for the personal statement. It's not what's going to get you in. And we follow that approach in our evaluation, that is, it's not a major determining factor. We know that a lot of different things go into the writing of the personal statement. Some people are the child of an admissions dean and they show their draft to their father and their father says 'No, no, no. Let's do it this way.' And some people have no such help. So we try to recognize that those statements are coming from many different environments."

Listen to the entire conversation on episode 407 of Radio Rounds at https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/ra...ds/id428372384

 

[Fifimiki]

Don't worry too much about the personal statement. It's kind of hard to tell you if your PS sounds too casual without reading it.

Here's what Dr. David Wofsy, Associate Dean of Admissions at UCSF medical school, said.

"People agonize over the personal statement more than they're worth. Very few people will get into medical [or dental] school because of what they wrote in the personal statement. Some people will get out of medical [or dental] school because of what they wrote in the personal statement. So be careful with the personal statement and remember that it is more likely to hurt than help. Write a good personal statement that shows that you can string thoughts in a logical way and you can write clearly and that you can talk about something that is relevant to this experience of applying to medical school, whether it's some activity you've been involved in or why you want to be a doctor [or dentist], or who knows what. It's not that important. What's important is that it's clear. So I tell people not to take risks for the personal statement. It's not what's going to get you in. And we follow that approach in our evaluation, that is, it's not a major determining factor. We know that a lot of different things go into the writing of the personal statement. Some people are the child of an admissions dean and they show their draft to their father and their father says 'No, no, no. Let's do it this way.' And some people have no such help. So we try to recognize that those statements are coming from many different environments."

Listen to the entire conversation on episode 407 of Radio Rounds at https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/ra...ds/id428372384

Interesting, thanks for this.