The 80/20 rule

[ThisCouldBeYou]

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I saw this on USNews&WR:
Use the 80-20 rule for your personal statement: Your personal statement should focus 80 percent on where you’re going in your education and 20 percent on where you’ve been and how it relates to your academic and life journey.

Keep the focus of your personal statement on the future, as the remainder of your application will detail your past accomplishments. Give admissions committees an idea of what you hope to contribute to society through a career in medicine.

I'm totally confused. Isn't my personal statement supposed to be about why I chose medical school, not what I hope to accomplish when I graduate in 4 years? The journey?

 

[phunky]

There are no rules for writing a personal statement. Although I believe that I inadvertently followed this one when I was writing mine.

I think what this 'rule' is getting at is that you shouldn't just state what you did. You should talk about how it will contribute to your future as a doctor.

 

[Ismet]

Yeah I don't agree with this.

 

[touchpause13]

Yeah i don't buy this. I think you need more focus on things you have actually done. If you spend the vast majority of time talking about things you want to do that would leave me asking "how do I know you can accomplish that?"

 

[mrh125]

Weave a cohesive narrative that's interesting about how your life choices and experiences will shape your future and you're good. could be 75:25 or 50:50, or even 25:75. If you focus too much on where you want to go results may vary.

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

What I've been through has almost everything to do with where I'm going.
Don't follow formulas. Do what you think is best.

 

[Plecopotamus]

I saw this on USNews&WR:
Use the 80-20 rule for your personal statement: Your personal statement should focus 80 percent on where you’re going in your education and 20 percent on where you’ve been and how it relates to your academic and life journey.

Keep the focus of your personal statement on the future, as the remainder of your application will detail your past accomplishments. Give admissions committees an idea of what you hope to contribute to society through a career in medicine.

I'm totally confused. Isn't my personal statement supposed to be about why I chose medical school, not what I hope to accomplish when I graduate in 4 years? The journey?

I think this is completely incorrect for the med school PS. Don't take advice from usnwr.

 

[Spica]

You should take any advice (including this one, hehe) regarding PS with a grain of salt. Nobody can tell you how to write YOUR essay, because only you, given your personality and your experiences, know why medicine is right for you and you are right for it. In general, any essay that has a compelling and cohesive story should be interesting and memorable for the reader. Since you do not know who will be reading your PS and what they are looking for, the best thing you can do is to create a statement that you are satisfied with (which doesn't mean that you shouldn't have others read your work, you definitely should, but in the end, it is your application and it is you who should be proud of it 🙂). Good luck! 🙂

 

[ThisCouldBeYou]

I just found it baffling. I did a lot of interesting things in high school, for example, and from there had planned to go to college one day, but how those four years played out in college couldn't have been projected except in totally vague terms. I can understand the concept behind some of this, but 80/20? No.

 

[QofQuimica]

Your PS should focus 100% on why you want to go to medical school/become a physician. And your time spent reading USNWR could really be better spent doing just about anything else imaginable.

 

[pyrrion89]

If anything, your rule should be flipped.

 

[Beargryllz]

I have never heard of such a thing.

 

[LizzyM]

I have been thinking about this recently as I get PMs with requests for advice (I don't read PSs, btw, so don't ask). Anyway, what adcoms want to know is: do you have the desire to be a physician and do you have the talent to be a physician?

Talent is partially measured in grades and scores but also in verbal and written communication skills, emotional intelligence, etc.
Desire is about your motivation to be a physician. It assumes a knowledge of what it is that you desire (a career as a physician) and some understanding of what sacrifices will be required and the willingness to make those sacrifices.

Talent without desire means burning out or becoming disillusioned at all the bull that one puts up with in medical education and in practice.
Desire without talent means a constant struggle to keep up and succeed academically or in practice.

Your application including grades, scores, and LORs are going to speak of your talent. The PS is the opportunity to tell of your desire and how you have tested your interest in being a physician and why you seek such a career despite the sacrifices required.

I think that a good PS covers what attracted you to a career in medicine, what you did to learn more about what it means to be a physician, and why you think that you would be good at it (which might include things you've already done that have helped you to build skills which might include communications, or manual dexterity and so forth, and not necessarily clinical skills already).

Most people won't go out on a limb and talk about what kind of physician they want to be... that said, I do think that there are those who see themselves dealing with some kind of long term relationships with patients over years or even decades and those who expect to have very short term relationships that hinge more on acute episodes of care often involving high tech interventions. While you may not want to name a specific specialty, I would expect most pre-meds to be solidly in one camp or the other. That can be your "why medicine" and then the rest is how you have tested that fundamental interest and why you think that this is the right career for you based on your personality, interests and aptitude.

 

[wiloghby]

I have been thinking about this recently as I get PMs with requests for advice (I
I think that a good PS covers what attracted you to a career in medicine, what you did to learn more about what it means to be a physician, and why you think that you would be good at it (which might include things you've already done that have helped you to build skills which might include communications, or manual dexterity and so forth, and not necessarily clinical skills already).

I agree, and that's why I would say my PS was probably more 20/80 than 80/20. You really need to lay out a story using your past experiences that show you are a good fit for / realistic about the road ahead. You can cover the road ahead part pretty generically, but the story of your past experiences that have brought you to this point are far richer and more important to someone trying to get to know you through your application.

Therefore I disagree with OP when it comes to a medical school PS.

OP's advice sounds to me like good advice for a graduate school (M.S. or PhD) personal statement. You write a little bit about your past experience and why you are a good fit, and then you lay out what you're hoping to accomplish in the program. From what I understand of PhD programs in science/technology, the latter is often weighed more than the former. So an 80/20 rule might make sense.

 

[Goro]

As usual, my learned colleague is spot on with her comments. I'd like to add that I see the PS as answering the questions "who are you?" and "Why Medicine"? In the latter, I like to see what road you traveled to get to this point in your life. It could be evolutionary ("I've always wanted to be a doctor" ) or revolutionary (My desired came about when my father had a stroke...")

I have been thinking about this recently as I get PMs with requests for advice (I don't read PSs, btw, so don't ask). Anyway, what adcoms want to know is: do you have the desire to be a physician and do you have the talent to be a physician?

Talent is partially measured in grades and scores but also in verbal and written communication skills, emotional intelligence, etc.
Desire is about your motivation to be a physician. It assumes a knowledge of what it is that you desire (a career as a physician) and some understanding of what sacrifices will be required and the willingness to make those sacrifices.

Talent without desire means burning out or becoming disillusioned at all the bull that one puts up with in medical education and in practice.
Desire without talent means a constant struggle to keep up and succeed academically or in practice.

Your application including grades, scores, and LORs are going to speak of your talent. The PS is the opportunity to tell of your desire and how you have tested your interest in being a physician and why you seek such a career despite the sacrifices required.

I think that a good PS covers what attracted you to a career in medicine, what you did to learn more about what it means to be a physician, and why you think that you would be good at it (which might include things you've already done that have helped you to build skills which might include communications, or manual dexterity and so forth, and not necessarily clinical skills already).

Most people won't go out on a limb and talk about what kind of physician they want to be... that said, I do think that there are those who see themselves dealing with some kind of long term relationships with patients over years or even decades and those who expect to have very short term relationships that hinge more on acute episodes of care often involving high tech interventions. While you may not want to name a specific specialty, I would expect most pre-meds to be solidly in one camp or the other. That can be your "why medicine" and then the rest is how you have tested that fundamental interest and why you think that this is the right career for you based on your personality, interests and aptitude.

 

[ThisCouldBeYou]

I agree, and that's why I would say my PS was probably more 20/80 than 80/20. You really need to lay out a story using your past experiences that show you are a good fit for / realistic about the road ahead. You can cover the road ahead part pretty generically, but the story of your past experiences that have brought you to this point are far richer and more important to someone trying to get to know you through your application.

Therefore I disagree with OP when it comes to a medical school PS.

OP's advice sounds to me like good advice for a graduate school (M.S. or PhD) personal statement. You write a little bit about your past experience and why you are a good fit, and then you lay out what you're hoping to accomplish in the program. From what I understand of PhD programs in science/technology, the latter is often weighed more than the former. So an 80/20 rule might make sense.

Let me be clear. I did not say the "80/20 Rule" was my rule. I came across it when I read USN&WR and wanted to hear what others thought.

But I do agree with what you wrote here:

the story of your past experiences that have brought you to this point are far richer and more important to someone trying to get to know you through your application.

 

[Mad Jack]

Dumbest thing I've ever heard. Where I'm going only makes sense in the context of where I've been.

 

[Lamel]

Probably not the best approach for a medical school PS.

 

[gyngyn]

US Snooze and World Distort is no place to get PS advice.

 

[chenzt]

US Snooze and World Distort is no place to get PS advice.

My high school gets the silver/bronze award pretty much annually, yet a significant chunk of my class never went beyond high school or CC. We were SO college ready.