Plagiarism on personal statements and editing companies

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Morzh

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I've been working on my PS and was scouring the internet for tips when I found this interesting article in Annals of Int Med all about personal statements, plagiarism, the rise of editing services, and the purposes and predictive values of PSs in general. Near the end, the authors even imply that perhaps it is time to scratch the PS altogether from the admissions process in favor of other, more reliable predictors of success.

Can't say that I'm experienced enough to really have an opinion one way or the other, but what do you all think? I'd especially like to hear from some of you who are on the other side here and get to read PS/interview. One thing I know is that this process would certainly be a LOT different (better or worse, I can't say) without the personal statement..

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How would creating a standardized test do anything other than recreate the problem? Personal statement writing companies will fold and be replaced by companies that will tell you how and what to write for the new test.
 
Fascinating. I was just saying today that we sometimes see a difference between the PS and the secondary essay(s) and when we do we suspect that the applicant had help with one but not the other(s).
 
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You should probably remove that pdf. It's against SDN rules to post article content, and I would imagine it will get removed by a moderator unless you do it yourself.

As for the point of the personal statement, it seems reasonable to ask someone why they want to be a doctor. If you're planning on pursuing four years of school and hundreds of thousands of dollars of loans, you should probably be able to articulate why you're doing so.
 
You should probably remove that pdf. It's against SDN rules to post article content, and I would imagine it will get removed by a moderator unless you do it yourself.

As for the point of the personal statement, it seems reasonable to ask someone why they want to be a doctor. If you're planning on pursuing four years of school and hundreds of thousands of dollars of loans, you should probably be able to articulate why you're doing so.

Good point about the pdf.. will do. I just thought it might be easier than looking up the article through your school's access to AIM.

Of course applicants must be able to express their motivations for a career in medicine convincingly and articulately. However, the article (written by two ADCOM members at UCSF) simply suggests that perhaps a formal essay isn't the best way to measure that motivation.
 
Good point about the pdf.. will do. I just thought it might be easier than looking up the article through your school's access to AIM.

Of course applicants must be able to express their motivations for a career in medicine convincingly and articulately. However, the article (written by two ADCOM members at UCSF) simply suggests that perhaps a formal essay isn't the best way to measure that motivation.


I'm obviously not a point person when it comes to addmissions issues, however... , how would someone go about measuring one's motivation without taking into account personal statement or extra-curriculars?
 
Good point about the pdf.. will do. I just thought it might be easier than looking up the article through your school's access to AIM.

Of course applicants must be able to express their motivations for a career in medicine convincingly and articulately. However, the article (written by two ADCOM members at UCSF) simply suggests that perhaps a formal essay isn't the best way to measure that motivation.

Yeah, it sucks that you can't post article content. I'm in a gap year right now so I don't have institutional access to anything, and I've found myself wishing more and more frequently that I did.

I do think it's an important issue, though. It gets at the broader question of "What kind of person makes a good doctor?" I'm not sure anybody really knows though. I've always found it kind of ironic that the standards for admission to medical school are way different now than they were 20 or 30 years ago, and yet there are still tons of great doctors out there from that generation. Will the new standards make a difference? I guess only time will tell.
 
Fascinating. I was just saying today that we sometimes see a difference between the PS and the secondary essay(s) and when we do we suspect that the applicant had help with one but not the other(s).
I think that pretty much everyone (successful) has their PS looked at by other people. Secondaries are just too varied to have someone look after every one. Also, in my experience as an applicant, most schools don't really look at secondaries that closely (rarely did my interviewers read them except in closed-file interviews), so why put the same amount of effort?
 
I think that pretty much everyone (successful) has their PS looked at by other people. Secondaries are just too varied to have someone look after every one. Also, in my experience as an applicant, most schools don't really look at secondaries that closely (rarely did my interviewers read them except in closed-file interviews), so why put the same amount of effort?

But if all someone did was edit the differences shouldn't be that substantial between the personal statement and later secondaries. The writing style will be the same with the exception of a few more minor errors.
 
How would creating a standardized test do anything other than recreate the problem? Personal statement writing companies will fold and be replaced by companies that will tell you how and what to write for the new test.

Don't we already have a standardized test for this??
 
Wouldn't you love an interview where you were handed a blue book and told to write your reasons for pursuing a career in medicine and why this school?

:rolleyes:


What I meant about differences in PS and secondaries is when the PS looks like something worthy of a Pulitzer Prize and the secondaries are crap. That does get noticed (at least at one school) and I have seen negative comments from reviewers both before and after interview.
 
when the PS looks like something worthy of a Pulitzer Prize and the secondaries are crap. That does get noticed (at least at one school) and I have seen negative comments from reviewers both before and after interview.
+1 = 2 schools.

in my experience as an applicant, most schools don't really look at secondaries that closely, . . . so why put the same amount of effort?
Unfortunately, others apparently share your perception, which isn't uniformly true.
 
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