PS Questions/Advice

[ms2209]

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I have two working drafts of a personal statement right now (and might possibly have many more over the next several days), but I was wondering if any of you could give me some advice on something. One of the drafts I have involves a more general take, going through each of my e.c.'s, whether or not they were medically related (although some of the non-medically related ones do have parallels/connections to my motivations to enter medicine, but that's just an aside). My other draft focuses on one e.c. (clinical research), and opens with a very affecting experience I had while working at the hospital over the summers. Which one seems to be the better take? Generally speaking, should you try to focus on one activity that has deeply impacted your desire to go to medicine, or should you make the personal statement more general, covering all of the experiences you've had that have played a role in your decision. The reason I ask is that I'm finding it REALLY difficult to keep it down to the allotted number of characters, and the second draft I have is within the requirement while the more general one is not. Furthermore, I feel sort of odd leaving out other experiences that have helped me decide to apply to medical school, but on the other hand, I feel as though the more general draft of my essay is resume-esque and doesn't really allow me to go in depth into WHY these experiences each affected me and influenced my decision to enter medicine.

Sorry, this has gotten really wordy (can you tell I'm really wordy yet 😀 ). Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[DReject]

Hi, I'm in a similar place right now. I think that the second option seems really good with you opening with a powerful experience. Also, it's within the character limits. Maybe you can work other experiences in a little showing how your various experiences have really influenced you towards medicine.
I'm sure you can tie in your experiences to your motivation and committment.
Good luck!

 

[BananaSplit]

I would go with the one with the affecting experience. Your other ECscan be put in the activities section of AMCAS. The most persuasive writing is always writing that's personal, honest, and relevant. Talking generally about EC's is not really going to engage a reader who is screening hundreds of applications about hundreds of people who have all engaged in the same type of activities. But going into detail about your unique experience will make an impression. People are always more interested in anecdotes than general statements.

Good luck!

 

[Lochmoor]

I agree, the second one should really show who you are. You shouldnt try to cover all your EC's, that's why you enter them separetly into AMCAS--they give you a little space there to say what it is/what you did.

PS is to talk about your desire to be a doctor and what caused you to chose this route. With that in mind, I think your PS should only cover the 3 or 4 experiences that stick out in your mind that really solidified your decision.

While the experince doesnt have to be THE epiphany, it just has to encompass all your feelings and reasons. You can fudge a little with some of the details in terms of the chronological order of events.

In general for your statement:
Try to tie your whole statement together. In mine--this is cheesy--I tried to show Change--show how I've evolved over the past few years from just being a science/pre-med person. How I truly and fully decided to go into medicine.

Also, beware of writing a statement that just shows that you want to help people. I do not think that's good enough--because teachers and nurses help people, too. You need to somehow show that the MD degree is the only way you will be satisfy your desier to help people.

 

[ms2209]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I am really stuck right now, and I'm getting pretty frustrated trying to figure out where to go with my ideas. I'm trying to work with my second version (the one that opens with a story), but the problem is that it mainly leads into how my clinical research position helped me get a real picture of medicine and that with this full picture, my decision to apply to med school was solidified. However, it does not leave me enough room to discuss what qualities reinforce my desire to enter medicine, so herein lies the dilemma: am I supposed to only talk about the qualities (as displayed via my activities) that would make me a good doctor, or can I/should I also include how some of my activities (volunteering at Hospital, research) shaped my view of medicine and made me certain that it was right for me. If you guys could give me some guidance I would really appreciate it, because I'm starting to lose sleep over this LOL 😱 ! Thanks...

 

[dmk724]

I hated writing the personal statement. The space guidelines, for some reason, freaked me out so much that I worried way too much about whether or not I'd be able to cram stuff in the given space.

I wouldn't worry too much about trying to say why you think you'd be a good doctor, or what motivated you to pursue medicine, etc. Most secondary applications will ask you to write more essays on those specific questions, so you'll end up saying the same stuff over again. You'll get a chance to say that stuff at some point.

For me, the personal statement was more about what kind of person I was - it's really your one chance to let the admissions committee get to know you. I know that it's tough because there's so much anxiety about getting into medical school, but, for me, all of my rough drafts were awful until I relaxed a little, and started to write what I wanted to say, not what I thought that the admissions committee wanted to hear.

If you would like to email me/PM me a copy of your rough drafts, then I could maybe give you more specific pointers. In any case, good luck! 🙂

 

[Scubadoc]

what do you all think about including something completely non-medical in the PS in addition to the how you got to this point in your life medical experiences stuff? 😕

 

[ms2209]

what do you all think about including something completely non-medical in the PS in addition to the how you got to this point in your life medical experiences stuff? 😕

I think it's great, personally (although I'm biased, because I'm thinking of doing the same thing!). I think it shows that you have lots of different interests, and if it's something like playing a musical instrument or a sport, it can show your dedication. If you find the qualities that you have developed as a result of these non-medical activities that would still help you as a doctor, I think you would be in good shape including them. Hope that helps... 🙂

 

[ms2209]

I hated writing the personal statement. The space guidelines, for some reason, freaked me out so much that I worried way too much about whether or not I'd be able to cram stuff in the given space.

I wouldn't worry too much about trying to say why you think you'd be a good doctor, or what motivated you to pursue medicine, etc. Most secondary applications will ask you to write more essays on those specific questions, so you'll end up saying the same stuff over again. You'll get a chance to say that stuff at some point.

For me, the personal statement was more about what kind of person I was - it's really your one chance to let the admissions committee get to know you. I know that it's tough because there's so much anxiety about getting into medical school, but, for me, all of my rough drafts were awful until I relaxed a little, and started to write what I wanted to say, not what I thought that the admissions committee wanted to hear.

If you would like to email me/PM me a copy of your rough drafts, then I could maybe give you more specific pointers. In any case, good luck! 🙂

Thanks for your advice! Yeah, the space limit is part of the reason why I'm so nervous about the PS, because it's you're expected to do so much in such a small amount of space. 🙁

 

[werd]

it's always good to have a central theme -- it's more easily grasped by the reader and brings unity to the essay. at the same time, make sure you find ways to work in other important things you'd like to share with the schools. i'd def. stay away from focussing on EC's since they're in your application anyway; insights from them are cool though. it is, of course, possible to have both a central theme and a progression of things you want to talk about, so don't resign yourself to picking between them. good luck!

 

[Scubadoc]

thanks for the advice! do you know how much time they spend looking at the ECs and the PS? I mean, if I don't add something in the PS but put it in the EC section would that get much of a look? One of my friends read my PS and said she thought it was good but that I really should add that I used to teach scuba diving because it would set me apart. I am just not sure since it isn't very medically oriented!

 

[ms2209]

thanks for the advice! do you know how much time they spend looking at the ECs and the PS? I mean, if I don't add something in the PS but put it in the EC section would that get much of a look? One of my friends read my PS and said she thought it was good but that I really should add that I used to teach scuba diving because it would set me apart. I am just not sure since it isn't very medically oriented!

That sounds like a really cool experience! Maybe if you can think of a story/experience that you had during the time you taught scuba diving that conveys a certain quality you want to get across, you could talk about that.