Personal Comments Essay
Use the Personal Comments essay as an opportunity to distinguish yourself from other applicants. Some questions you may want to consider while writing this essay are:
· Why have you selected the field of medicine?
· What motivates you to learn more about medicine?
· What do you want medical schools to know about you that hasn't been disclosed in another section of the application?
In addition, you may wish to include information such as:
· Special hardships, challenges or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits.
· Commentary on significant fluctuations in your academic record that are not explained elsewhere in your application.
Consider and write your Personal Comments carefully; many admissions committees place significant weight on this section. To avoid formatting issues, we recommend typing your essay directly in the AMCAS application rather than cutting and pasting your essay from other software.
· Proofread carefully! No changes (including grammatical or typographical errors) may be made after your application is submitted to AMCAS.
· You cannot run a spell check in the AMCAS application.
· Applicants who plan to cut and paste their essays into the application should draft their essays in a text-only format, preferably in text-only word processing software, such as Microsoft Notepad. Copying formatted text into the application may result in formatting issues that cannot be edited once your application is submitted.
· Applicants should enter all text responses in the application just as they would like the medical schools to see them, avoiding use of ALL CAPS or all lower case. Medical schools have indicated that they prefer to receive applications that follow normal writing practices regarding case. For example, medical schools prefer, "I attended Dr. Mitchell's summer workshop in Nevada" to either: "I ATTENDED DR. MITCHELL'S SUMMER WORKSHOP IN NEVADA or "i attended dr. mitchell's summer workshop in nevada."
· This essay cannot be added to or changed after your application is submitted to AMCAS.
· Plagiarism or misrepresentations will prompt an investigation.
· It is not necessary to repeat information reported elsewhere on your application.
· The available space for this essay is 5300 characters, or approximately one page. You will receive an error message if you exceed the available space.
