Putting in true facts in the Personal Statement that don't correlate with...??

[pineappletree]

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I'm currently writing about my desire to understand things. How, when I learn things, I always try to fully understand the logic and concept of something rather than memorize it, and this fascination drove my interest in medicine. (very true)

However, my early GPA is absolutely horrible, indicating that I probably didn't have this outlook on my academics at that time. It seems that this would indicate an inconsistency between my "always wanting to learn" and my poor GPA early in my undergrad career.
This seems like it would reduce the impact of my personal statement.


Has anyone else felt this dilemma? Should I probably change my topic??

 

[Ischemic]

Yes, it's pretty droll. Although I don't know what else you're including in your PS, but I don't see how this makes you any different from all the other thousands of premeds that want to go into medicine. "I love to learn and be challenged" NEXT

 

[pineappletree]

=(

I see~~
well, time to crack on to idea #4, haha.
I'm really late in doing this~

I was going to tie it into my love for music, and use an intricate story to illustrate it. But yeah, it does seem quite droll

 

[adaptation1]

.

 

[pineappletree]

thank you~

=)

 

[Ischemic]

Well, the game is trying to be unique, memorable and relevant. Don't talk about mission trips, love of science, I want to help people ... it's overdone and honestly too many uninspired premeds write about these things. You want something different, strong, yet personal. Are you an immigrant? Talk about being underrepresented and dealing with healthcare without insurance. Have you/family member/friends had any real traumatic medical issues? Talk about the struggle, your feelings and the experience of medicine in that setting. Have you been impacted by an event (natural disaster, fire, etc) in which health/medicine was a crucial entity that helped you or those around you survive? Just a few examples.

I mean if I ever read any PSs with these as topics, I'd be wow, this person has actually experienced medicine and I'd want to meet him in person. I don't want to read about another premed who went on a medical mission trip to serve the poor in a third world country, hell we got poor people in THIS COUNTRY. It just seems fake and contrived. I want to read about YOUR PERSONAL experiences, the moment of personal clarity in which you go I want to do medicine because this event invariably impacted my life.

Take this for what it's worth, one dude's opinion.

 

[pineappletree]

WOw, that is amazing advice, thank you

I always thought the opposite. that if I started talking about personal life experiences, people would be like:
"oh god, here's another one"


but it makes sense. I'll try to relate a unique life experience~~

 

[Trexate]

I thought this:

"oh god, here's another one"

when I read this:

when I learn things, I always try to fully understand the logic and concept of something rather than memorize it, and this fascination drove my interest in medicine

And I seriously doubt I'm the only one. Depakote had a nice thread on personal statements recently. You should check that out.

 

[Onres]

Well, the game is trying to be unique, memorable and relevant. Don't talk about mission trips, love of science, I want to help people ... it's overdone and honestly too many uninspired premeds write about these things. You want something different, strong, yet personal. Are you an immigrant? Talk about being underrepresented and dealing with healthcare without insurance. Have you/family member/friends had any real traumatic medical issues? Talk about the struggle, your feelings and the experience of medicine in that setting. Have you been impacted by an event (natural disaster, fire, etc) in which health/medicine was a crucial entity that helped you or those around you survive? Just a few examples.

I mean if I ever read any PSs with these as topics, I'd be wow, this person has actually experienced medicine and I'd want to meet him in person. I don't want to read about another premed who went on a medical mission trip to serve the poor in a third world country, hell we got poor people in THIS COUNTRY. It just seems fake and contrived. I want to read about YOUR PERSONAL experiences, the moment of personal clarity in which you go I want to do medicine because this event invariably impacted my life.

Take this for what it's worth, one dude's opinion.

I'm actually an immigrant, though I will not be talking about that because that didn't lead me to medicine. But anyway I want to ask your thoughts about my theme. I have (severe) degenerative myopia, and thus have had a couple tears, and a few retinal hemorrhages. This has impaired my vision. This is not my main theme by any means. But these things taking place led me to become interested in medicine, which is part of my theme.

Basically I talk about how having these problems during high school, led me to my major(psychology), which then led me to medicine. I don't go for the pity factor, which I'm sure is hard to do anyway, when it's bunch of doctors reading your paper. This IS how it happened I'm not making any of it up, i'm quite literally saying how I came to this decision. Of course this sounds less interesting than how I portray in my PS. Your honest thoughts?

 

[red10]

Well, the game is trying to be unique, memorable and relevant. Don't talk about mission trips, love of science, I want to help people ... it's overdone and honestly too many uninspired premeds write about these things. You want something different, strong, yet personal. Are you an immigrant? Talk about being underrepresented and dealing with healthcare without insurance. Have you/family member/friends had any real traumatic medical issues? Talk about the struggle, your feelings and the experience of medicine in that setting. Have you been impacted by an event (natural disaster, fire, etc) in which health/medicine was a crucial entity that helped you or those around you survive? Just a few examples.

I mean if I ever read any PSs with these as topics, I'd be wow, this person has actually experienced medicine and I'd want to meet him in person. I don't want to read about another premed who went on a medical mission trip to serve the poor in a third world country, hell we got poor people in THIS COUNTRY. It just seems fake and contrived. I want to read about YOUR PERSONAL experiences, the moment of personal clarity in which you go I want to do medicine because this event invariably impacted my life.

Take this for what it's worth, one dude's opinion.

you make a good point but the personal statements in general remind me of the phrase "you're unique...just like everyone else"👍

 

[pineappletree]

Has anyone had success writing a selfish (not noble) reason on the PS?
For example, wanting to be a doctor because you initially wanted to prove someone wrong? Or wanting to improve your family's sense of worth?

Actually, those would probably be terrible topics as both motivations are likely to expire upon becoming a doctor.

 

[DaisyBuchanan]

I want to read about YOUR PERSONAL experiences, the moment of personal clarity in which you go I want to do medicine because this event invariably impacted my life.

Take this for what it's worth, one dude's opinion.

That would make for interesting reading, but not everyone has an "AHA!" moment. I've heard of people trying to force such a moment by talking about their grandmother dying or whatnot and how it made them determined to change medicine etc, and THOSE sound contrived. If you have a great epiphany moment, use it, but if you don't, please don't try to make one up.

My 2 cents 🙂

 

[Ischemic]

I'm actually an immigrant, though I will not be talking about that because that didn't lead me to medicine. But anyway I want to ask your thoughts about my theme. I have (severe) degenerative myopia, and thus have had a couple tears, and a few retinal hemorrhages. This has impaired my vision. This is not my main theme by any means. But these things taking place led me to become interested in medicine, which is part of my theme.

Basically I talk about how having these problems during high school, led me to my major(psychology), which then led me to medicine. I don't go for the pity factor, which I'm sure is hard to do anyway, when it's bunch of doctors reading your paper. This IS how it happened I'm not making any of it up, i'm quite literally saying how I came to this decision. Of course this sounds less interesting than how I portray in my PS. Your honest thoughts?

Well you definitely have a unique story and the fact that you showed perseverance throughout your ordeal is also impressive. Your story also follows a sequence of events that eventually led you to medicine and not "something I knew I wanted to do since I was born" ... you discovered your calling. So you got something realy good to work with. A few suggestions:

1. set the background but don't dwell too much on your high school days. Focus on the "journey" by which you discovered medicine, tying it back to your medical condition.
2. as you say, acknowledge your condition but focus on how it made you STRONGER instead of a sob story. What unique attributes/insights/experiences that your medical condition allow you to have and how does that tie into medicine as your career choice.

Also, medical schools require you to be able to use all 5 senses so you may get the question of can you perform, are you going to be impaired, basically how are you going to practice medicine with your condition so start thinking of responses. Alright man, hope that helps. Best of luck in your journey... it's a long one 🙂

 

[Ischemic]

That would make for interesting reading, but not everyone has an "AHA!" moment. I've heard of people trying to force such a moment by talking about their grandmother dying or whatnot and how it made them determined to change medicine etc, and THOSE sound contrived. If you have a great epiphany moment, use it, but if you don't, please don't try to make one up.

My 2 cents 🙂

That is true. If your grades, scores and everything else is in order you don't have to have a spectacular PS, just something serviceable. But if you're borderline, your PS can play a nice role in getting you an interview or not. Obviously if you don't have an aha moment don't contrive or force it. I was just giving examples of things that would definitely jump out of a personal statement. Other examples is using humor, creatively presenting a normal moment into something unique and memorable, etc etc. But as a general rule, everyone has at least 1 moment in their life that just stands out. If not, then it seems you've led a pretty sheltered life and generally points to you not really knowing what you want (a bad thing). But that's just me.

 

[pineappletree]

What in the world??

http://www.accepted.com/medical/sampessay10.aspx


How is this a good personal statement? I don't think admins will appreciate the unending sarcasm, and the fact that the writer revealed nothing about himself other than his sense of humor...

 

[gettheleadout]

What in the world??

http://www.accepted.com/medical/sampessay10.aspx


How is this a good personal statement? I don't think admins will appreciate the unending sarcasm, and the fact that the writer revealed nothing about himself other than his sense of humor...

Umm...its a joke lol

And it was written by a parent of an applicant, see the note at the bottom.

 

[pineappletree]

ahhh, haha~
I completely overlooked that, thanks!!
=)