Ok so there are a lot of things I feel like I want to mention in my personal statement about my journey in wanting to pursue medicine, but I don't know how much of them would be considered "red flags." all of these potential red flags kind of build on one another, so just read through everything to understand.
1) I am interested in becoming a psychiatrist and have a strong passion for the specialty. It will probably be a significant part of my personal statement and the core of the second half, but would it be detrimental to include it?
I know there's a shortage of them, and I am not close-minded to the other areas of medicine, as it's impossible for me to gain that kind of experience of an undergrad. However, I wanted to find a specialty that I really really connected with and was passionate about.
The first part of my personal statement will outline my experience in different clinical settings and my initial thought as to becoming a physician. I gained a lot of clinical experience in specialties that aren't psychiatry (anesthesiology, surgery, pediatrics, internal medicine), and I learned a lot about medicine in general and the skills it takes to become a physician, no matter what the specialty is. Throughout all of my clinical experience, I discovered that I loved patient-physician interaction the most. But psychiatry still wasn't on my radar. Which leads me to a second potential "red flag."
2) Psychiatry came on to the radar unexpectedly when I was ADHD my second year of college. Is it detrimental to mention this in the application?
I am not trying to justify poor grades (although my freshman year grades are poor with a clear upward trend by nearly all As junior and senior year). I am only mentioning it because it was something that led me to learn about a specialty of medicine I hadn't before. I was able to see what a psychiatrist does day-in-and-day out (you can't "shadow" a psychiatrist because of the patient-physician confidentiality). The field aligns a lot with my passion for communicating and helping people one-on-one in my own life and with maximal patient-physician interaction that I knew I loved by immersing myself in other specialties.
3) I also want to mention a couple of life experiences that also personally influenced me about the field. Are these too grim or "red flags?"
The first being that I am LGBTQ. Although I never experienced anxiety and depression, I did experience a lot of distraction, and as a psychiatrist I feel like I can connect and help patients with their mental health in this regard. I am particularly passionate about destigmatizing mental health especially among Greek Life organizations, and VPHS in my fraternity is a position geared specifically for the mental wellbeing of the organization's members. This is also why I joined Active Minds at UCLA, a more general organization for mental health awareness.
The second life experience was one that was pretty shocking, so I have doubts about including it. When studying in my undergrad library, I unfortunately witnessed someone commit suicide (they had jumped off the library and landed near my table that I was studying at). The only reason I would feel necessary to include this is because it did not sway me from reconsidering the specialty. Rather, it demonstrated to me that I could potentially help someone in a similar state of mind from reaching that point.
4) Should I mention why I personally feel like its a career in medicine that suits me and my passions? Are these ideas too abstract?
But psychiatry is still a branch of medicine because you are treating symptoms and have to have a deep understanding of how diseases affect the body and mind, like any physician. It is to me is the most interesting branch of medicine because you develop prolonged relationships with patients and treatment is specific to that patient (medications/psychotherapy/talk therapy). With psychiatry, each day would be different depending on which patient you're seeing and there will be new challenges that you haven't encountered before. I am more interested in treating unique mental health problems that exist because everyone's mental state is slightly different. (Instead of, say, perform the same kind of surgery on different patients over and over again). I am also extremely interested in the developing research about the field, particularly with the discovery of new medicines and alternative treatments that have shown promise in helping with certain mental disorders.
So there you have it. Any advice would be helpful.
1) I am interested in becoming a psychiatrist and have a strong passion for the specialty. It will probably be a significant part of my personal statement and the core of the second half, but would it be detrimental to include it?
I know there's a shortage of them, and I am not close-minded to the other areas of medicine, as it's impossible for me to gain that kind of experience of an undergrad. However, I wanted to find a specialty that I really really connected with and was passionate about.
The first part of my personal statement will outline my experience in different clinical settings and my initial thought as to becoming a physician. I gained a lot of clinical experience in specialties that aren't psychiatry (anesthesiology, surgery, pediatrics, internal medicine), and I learned a lot about medicine in general and the skills it takes to become a physician, no matter what the specialty is. Throughout all of my clinical experience, I discovered that I loved patient-physician interaction the most. But psychiatry still wasn't on my radar. Which leads me to a second potential "red flag."
2) Psychiatry came on to the radar unexpectedly when I was ADHD my second year of college. Is it detrimental to mention this in the application?
I am not trying to justify poor grades (although my freshman year grades are poor with a clear upward trend by nearly all As junior and senior year). I am only mentioning it because it was something that led me to learn about a specialty of medicine I hadn't before. I was able to see what a psychiatrist does day-in-and-day out (you can't "shadow" a psychiatrist because of the patient-physician confidentiality). The field aligns a lot with my passion for communicating and helping people one-on-one in my own life and with maximal patient-physician interaction that I knew I loved by immersing myself in other specialties.
3) I also want to mention a couple of life experiences that also personally influenced me about the field. Are these too grim or "red flags?"
The first being that I am LGBTQ. Although I never experienced anxiety and depression, I did experience a lot of distraction, and as a psychiatrist I feel like I can connect and help patients with their mental health in this regard. I am particularly passionate about destigmatizing mental health especially among Greek Life organizations, and VPHS in my fraternity is a position geared specifically for the mental wellbeing of the organization's members. This is also why I joined Active Minds at UCLA, a more general organization for mental health awareness.
The second life experience was one that was pretty shocking, so I have doubts about including it. When studying in my undergrad library, I unfortunately witnessed someone commit suicide (they had jumped off the library and landed near my table that I was studying at). The only reason I would feel necessary to include this is because it did not sway me from reconsidering the specialty. Rather, it demonstrated to me that I could potentially help someone in a similar state of mind from reaching that point.
4) Should I mention why I personally feel like its a career in medicine that suits me and my passions? Are these ideas too abstract?
But psychiatry is still a branch of medicine because you are treating symptoms and have to have a deep understanding of how diseases affect the body and mind, like any physician. It is to me is the most interesting branch of medicine because you develop prolonged relationships with patients and treatment is specific to that patient (medications/psychotherapy/talk therapy). With psychiatry, each day would be different depending on which patient you're seeing and there will be new challenges that you haven't encountered before. I am more interested in treating unique mental health problems that exist because everyone's mental state is slightly different. (Instead of, say, perform the same kind of surgery on different patients over and over again). I am also extremely interested in the developing research about the field, particularly with the discovery of new medicines and alternative treatments that have shown promise in helping with certain mental disorders.
So there you have it. Any advice would be helpful.
