Question for non-trads who are writing their personal statements

[Tofurkey]

Hello,

I am a non-trad post-bacc who just finished a draft of my personal statement. Problem is, it's 4 pages long and I'm not sure how to whittle it down. I think we non-trads have the problem of explaining our career changes plus our maturity/life experiences plus our passion for medicine all in a short space. I have to explain why I'm turning to medicine after leaving my prior career, why I chose a non-science major in college (and what I learned from it) and also talk about some of my defining medical volunteer work this year. I'm having problems fitting it all in with the character count maximums.

More specifically, here's what I'm trying to do in my personal statement: starting off by talking about my experiences at a free clinic and how they impacted me and my desire to do primary care in an urban area; then talking about deciding to leave law, how I chose law in the first place (a tie-in to my primary care interests) and pursue medicine; then talking about why I chose art history as a major and how the law thing and the art history thing (the qualities I gained from a lot of humanities-oriented work) will impact my practice of medicine; then briefly describing my post-bacc year and my other volunteer experiences during it such as tutoring, etc. and lastly mentioning a bit about my other career as a professional artist. Then I wrap up by talking about how all these things tie in together to make me a competent doctor.

I feel a bit overwhelmed trying to fit all this into my pers. statement--am I trying to do too much in one small document? I really like what I have so far except it's way too long (4 pages.)

Any other non-trads in similar positions?

Thanks!

Tofurkey

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[Ol'Girl]

I was in that situation last year, although my background is more science-related than yours. In order to keep it to the minimum amount, I just decided to keep it simple and chose the most important/relevant parts of my life that would paint a picture of why I want to go into medicine -- I didn't explain everything I'd ever done and why. Like you, there were so many things I wanted to say, so many life experiences I wanted to describe, but it just wasn't possible to include them all.

 

[Swiper]

You're trying to write about too much. Pick one or two key points and expand on them. Make them hit hard - you don't have to expand on your whole story here. That's what the essays on the secondary / supplemental applications are for.

I had the same problem last year - it was too long, too many paragraphs, too much explanation about where I came from, why I didn't do medicine initially, and why I was here now. I was given the same advice, and it seemed to have worked.