Reapplying Personal statement advice

[Lina19]

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I am reapplying for the upcoming cycle and I am not sure how to improve/revise my personal statement. Since the last cycle, I have not started any new extracurricular activities. I am still involved in my old extracurricular activities which are volunteering at a daycare (2 years) and doing research (3 years).

How can I revise my personal statement when I don't have any new experiences to improve my chances of being accepted?

 

[PHgeek123]

Were there anything new from your volunteering gig or did you make some new progress in the research lab? I think you can start by reflecting on what did you learn that further solidified your decision to attend med school.

 

[Lina19]

I don't really have any experiences that are completely different from what I have been doing at the daycare and research. They are mostly just a continuation of the same experiences before.

 

[dinotso]

Gonnif has summarized it pretty well, but to put it another way, why do you think you'll be accepted this time around? While it is possible that your interview skills (if you had interviews) or writing skills are what held you back in the first round, what's far more likely is that the medical schools felt something was lacking from your app. If you haven't added any new activities, it's unlikely that has changed. That is what you should think about addressing.

 

[bananafish94]

You need to really evaluate what the problem with your application is. Is it a stats problem? Do you have <3.5 GPA or <30/509 MCAT? If so, you need to fix that before doing anything else.

Is it a school list problem? Did you apply to too few or too selective schools?

Is it an EC problem? You mentioned volunteering at a daycare and working at a lab, neither of which are clinical experiences. If you don't have longitudinal, dedicated experience working with actual patients, that's a problem that needs to be fixed before you try again.

Did you get any interviews or did you get all pre-interview rejections? These are all things to take into consideration. Good luck!

 

[MaxPlancker]

As others have been saying, if you can't run a marathon now , you won't be running a marathon (successfully) later by leading the lifestyle you are now. Use the skills you've learned in research to identify your weak points and address them before reapplying 😉

 

[bananafish94]

As others have been saying, if you can't run a marathon now , you won't be running a marathon (successfully) later by leading the lifestyle you are now. Use the skills you've learned in research to identify your weak points and address them before reapplying 😉

Analogy game on point

 

[Lina19]

I do have some clinical experience. I shadowed four emergency room physicians in a summer program, a couple more physicians in another summer program, and a neurologist over this past christmas break. I also have volunteered at hospital for two years in a pediatric unit.

I know that my mcat was relatively low as well compared to my gpa which was over a 3.7 gpa and I was rejected before interviews. Im working on improving my mcat score; however, I am just worried that I wont be able to revise my personal stsatement without it sounding the same as the one I submitted.

 

[bananafish94]

I do have some clinical experience. I shadowed four emergency room physicians in a summer program, a couple more physicians in another summer program, and a neurologist over this past christmas break. I also have volunteered at hospital for two years in a pediatric unit.

I know that my mcat was relatively low as well compared to my gpa which was over a 3.7 gpa and I was rejected before interviews. Im working on improving my mcat score; however, I am just worried that I wont be able to revise my personal stsatement without it sounding the same as the one I submitted.

Well your GPA is fine. What is your MCAT score? Shadowing is not clinical experience. Volunteering is more like it, but I fear that volunteering for two years, which pretty much every pre-med student does, isn't quite going to cut it. Like gonnif said, I think it would be best for you to take the next year to work on the MCAT if necessary and cultivate clinical experience by continuing to volunteer and maybe getting a clinical job like a scribe, EMT, phlebotomist, etc.

 

[purplecricket]

I would strongly caution against reapplying this cycle. If you can't write about what's different about your application, then I'm not sure adcoms will know either. You have a good GPA, if you had a great "total package" than just a low MCAT wouldn't have kept you from getting interviews, unless it was really REALLY low or you applied to schools that were not a good target.

Some schools will provide some feedback, it's a good tool to find out what the adcoms were looking for that wasn't in your application. It's been pretty useful for me, I got interviews but ended up on the wait list. I plan on reapplying in 2017 if I can't turn one of them into an acceptance, and I've been able to use what these schools said to plan the next year to strengthen my app.