Medical Questions about Award and Personal Statement - Do I include the hours to took to apply for award?

[tantacles]

Hello,

If I earned a scholarship that required an essay to write, should I count hours it took, like say 5 hours, to write a scholarship? Or should I just put 0 hours?

Also, for my personal statement, I mention a loved one that was passing away soon while I was studying abroad. I made it clear in the personal statement he cared about my education and that I called him daily until his passing instead of seeing him in person since he did not want me to briefly leave my study abroad program to visit him. Is there a red flag here? Does it make it seem like I did not care about my education or my loved one?

I think it honestly doesn't matter. It's an award, so if you spent 5 hours working on the essay, that's fine. Adcoms know what an award is, and they can figure out based on the description how prestigious it is and how much it should weigh into your application.

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[tantacles]

Okay, thanks! And for the personal statement question I have?

nothing stands out as a red flag based on the description. It's always hard to figure out how personal statements will be interpreted, though, so I can't tell you that your concern is unfounded as each reviewer looks at these differently.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I would not describe writing or preparing efforts for a scholarship as an activity warranting documented hours. You either got it or you didn't. Unless it's a Rhodes Scholarship which involves a lot more... and I still wouldn't include the hours as an activity if you got a Rhodes or similar scholarship.

I don't see an issue with your PS topic except you really have to not make it sound too trite. It doesn't give me any insight in your capacity or competence as a future physician, just your inspiration. I'd like to know these other things.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Don’t incude your houses on your awards and no there are no red flags from what I see.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Okay, thanks. I guess I am just concerned I would not be sounding honest if I did not describe the award and that I had to fill out an application and write an essay to win it. Since one of the criteria for the scholarship asks how well my academic/career goals matched my study abroad program, I would think not mentioning that I wrote an essay would confuse admission officers as to how I satisfied that criteria. So I should still not mention I wrote an essay in this case? And if I do, should I still put 0 hours? It just feels weird to mention an essay that took some time to work on and still put 0 hours on the top, since it may seem inconsistent with each other.

Is it public knowledge that you had to apply and write an essay for this seated? I would suspect most people won't care.

 

[tantacles]

I got the [name redacted] Award which can be looked up online. So it can be checked. So do I mention the essay in this case?

Honestly, it doesn't matter that much. You got the award, you did what needed to be done to get it, and that's all that really matters in this case. Your description of this award can be very short. "The award is for X, and my essay was the winning entry" will honestly suffice.

 

[Goro]

Hello,

If I earned a scholarship that required an essay to write, should I count hours it took, like say 5 hours, to write a scholarship? Or should I just put 0 hours?

Also, for my personal statement, I mention a loved one that was passing away soon while I was studying abroad. I made it clear in the personal statement he cared about my education and that I called him daily until his passing instead of seeing him in person since he did not want me to briefly leave my study abroad program to visit him. Is there a red flag here? Does it make it seem like I did not care about my education or my loved one?

I'm going to be blunt, why would anybody care about how many hours it took you to write an essay?

Why would that be a red flag???? You supposed to be concerned about your loved ones!!