question about personal statement

[scarlett14]

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I started out as a chem major and doing chem research and just took some bio/biochem classes for fun and really enjoyed them. around the same time i also stopped enjoying research as much so i decided to try clinical research. i ended up really liking it and then went to shadow a surgeon to get some shadowing experience and my ongoing shadowing experience of surgeons so far has been pretty crucial and what has gotten me really interested in medicine.

so my question is: for my personal statement, can i write about that? would it be too common of a personal statement if i just talk about how my shadowing experience has impacted me and made me want to pursue medicine? (also im not sure how it would seem if i mention a specific specialty and talk about having a big interest in it...) should i also mention how my initial interest developed because of some biology classes i took? im not sure how it seems if i say that my initial interest in medicine developed because i loved studying biology as opposed to working with people? but that is how it happened - and after that i decided to pursue other opportunities (clinical research, shadowing) to see if medicine would be right for me and they have confirmed for me that it is the path i want to pursue.

sorry for all the rambling. any advice on any of the above would be appreciated!!

 

[1cor1311]

I started out as a chem major and doing chem research and just took some bio/biochem classes for fun and really enjoyed them. around the same time i also stopped enjoying research as much so i decided to try clinical research. i ended up really liking it and then went to shadow a surgeon to get some shadowing experience and my ongoing shadowing experience of surgeons so far has been pretty crucial and what has gotten me really interested in medicine.

so my question is: for my personal statement, can i write about that? would it be too common of a personal statement if i just talk about how my shadowing experience has impacted me and made me want to pursue medicine? (also im not sure how it would seem if i mention a specific specialty and talk about having a big interest in it...) should i also mention how my initial interest developed because of some biology classes i took? im not sure how it seems if i say that my initial interest in medicine developed because i loved studying biology as opposed to working with people? but that is how it happened - and after that i decided to pursue other opportunities (clinical research, shadowing) to see if medicine would be right for me and they have confirmed for me that it is the path i want to pursue.

sorry for all the rambling. any advice on any of the above would be appreciated!!

That is a great outline for a personal statement. Although it is a common among many applicants to have a similar story, you need to be authentic and honest about what really made you decide to pursue a career and medcinine and more specifically as a physician.

This could be a potentially strong essay of written correct, highlighted your experiences and how they have shown you that the career of a physician is indeed unique and one that you can not only achieve but excel in.
Be careful about mentioning a specialty in your PS, it can look great however with the help of qualified editors.
Lastly find ways to make this approach unique.

I would advise you refer to a few personal statement threads. I'm too lazy to link them but search for the PS help thread in the applicants sticky, secondly their is a recent sdn article titles "not another crayon in the box" that's great.

Start your first draft by writing freely and openly, don't worry about a character limit at first. Just get your ideas on paper.

Well see what others on here have to say. Good luck! 🙂

 

[hownowmauvecow]

I would agree that this is a pretty common personal statement topic, but it is possible to make this work. You are trying to stand out with your personal statement and make yourself memorable to admission committees. My take on personal statements is that they should showcase why you are unique and what you would bring to a medical school class. so if you do choose this topic to write about then try and put a different spin on it. for instance, I was a music minor in addition to being a biochemistry major. I wrote about my passion for music and tied it into my passion for medicine and some of the experience that made me want to go into medicine. On the application trail I got a ton of questions about my music background (more than I got about medicine and my science classes/research), because it was different and made me stand out.

to sum it up: whatever you choose to write about, try not to be generic.

and I would be a little bit worried about the direction you are going in now since it sounds like something any pre-med could and would write about.

 

[scarlett14]

thanks guys for the feedback!

i will definitely take all of it into account when drafting my personal statement. i do agree that it sounds pretty generic so i definitely have to work on that when actually writing it. 😎

 

[justkeepswiming]

One more thing- if you talk about how your interest in the sciences transitioned from a research focus to a clinical focus, make sure you're diplomatic about the way you say you stopped enjoying research.
I started out in chem too and realized I couldn't see myself in a research career, and I wrote something to that effect in one of my early PS drafts. All of my reviewers basically said the same thing: so much of medicine involves research, so you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot if you say you don't like research.

Obviously there's a difference between clinical research and basic science research, it's 100% legit to not really enjoy one or both of those, and tons of doctors never become involved in research. (And I probably just had horrible wording in my PS too) Just make sure you avoid sounding too negative about doing research.

 

[CognitiveSci]

Yes, that is a pretty common PS statement, but that doesn't mean it can't be done well. You have to figure out how to tell your story in an interesting way.