I am having a really difficult time writing my personal statement because I don't feel that I have a solid answer when it comes to "why do you want to be a doctor?" I don't have a life changing event that inspired me. I have not wanted to be a doctor since I was born. I want to be a doctor for many random reasons- none of which seem of application quality. Why do you guys want to be doctors? In your personal statement did you write about how much you wanted to help people? Or did you concentrate on your knowledge of the profession and how well it fits your needs/lifestyle? If anyone has any advice or can point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated 🙂 Thanks!
The Loaded Question: So Why Do You Want To Be A Doctor?
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It's not necessarily about having a compelling set of life experiences. I didn't. You can find something small... something you saw, something that occurred to you, some relationship you had. Spend some time reflecting and reading about medicine. It's got a lot more to do with the ideas and insights you have to share and the maturity with which you express them. Just show that you've put some thought and knowledge-seeking into it--that it's an informed decision--and avoid being too cliche or predictable.
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It doesn't need to be an event; it could be some aspect of your personality, or something about your upbringing - these are more important than inspiring events or people, anyway. It's worth thinking about clearly and putting down in words, not just for interviews and the 300 people who are going to ask you the same question in the next seven years, but also to really think about it. Why do you want to be a doctor?
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Do any of your "random" reasons seem to have a pattern? Or a link of some sort that can tie them together?
In my personal statement, I related my passion for medicine to another important aspect in my life. Perhaps there is some cultural/athletic/person/experience that caused some sort of change in your life or viewpoint on humanity with which you can compare your desire for a medical career. Surely something must have sparked your interest in medicine...
Just be honest with yourself about your reasons and your sincerity will come across in your essay. Hope this helps 🙂
In my personal statement, I related my passion for medicine to another important aspect in my life. Perhaps there is some cultural/athletic/person/experience that caused some sort of change in your life or viewpoint on humanity with which you can compare your desire for a medical career. Surely something must have sparked your interest in medicine...
Just be honest with yourself about your reasons and your sincerity will come across in your essay. Hope this helps 🙂
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reasons for me:
-the money
-the respect
-the knowledge
-the authority (corollary to respect)
reasons for things besides me:
-to make a difference in my old community (I was raised in a bad neighborhood in oakland)
-to help people in need
-to save lives
-to give the bank a lot of money
-the money
-the respect
-the knowledge
-the authority (corollary to respect)
reasons for things besides me:
-to make a difference in my old community (I was raised in a bad neighborhood in oakland)
-to help people in need
-to save lives
-to give the bank a lot of money
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I got a call......🙂
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It kind of sounds like you're looking for a bs answer that sounds good on an app. Well here's my personal answer that I gave in my last interview--for me, its about the idea of medicine. One person purposely takes upon themselves a life of sacrifice, labor, and study in order to help another person in time of their greatest need. There's no other occupation like that. In fact its not even an occupation--it far transcends that. The practice of medicine is the ages-old practice of serving manking and is one of the noblest undertakings than a man could ever give himself to. That's paraphrasing...not polished.
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So, because this question really is asked in interviews:
DO say something specific and personal about yourself, DONT say something generic like "I like the mix of humanism and science". For pete's sake, this is (hopefully) what you are going to do with the rest of your life. How does it apply to YOU? We could give a crap about generic philosophy.
What we want is a good mix in the class -and if you come across as this memorized cookbook of "how to get into medical school" we walk away having no idea of how you would fit into the mix.
It's ok to have a hodge podge of reasons, but you need to be coherent in your statement, and I'd really work on some "stream of consciousness" writing or journalling, and then go back to it a couple of days later and pull out the concepts you feel are most effective. Try to work on it when you are relaxed, and write for someone other than ADCOM, like your best friend -you can edit out the wildly inappropriate slang later.
A really good bit of advice I received was to NOT use NOT -that is, don't describe your decision via process of elimination (I didn't like my grad program, and started looking for something else to do.....), or to be negative in any way in your PS, other than a bit of self-deprecating humor. If you need to explain something negative, do it in the most positive way possible. Part of this is due to ADCOMs hypervigilance for applicants who will be unable to handle the pressure cooker -you need to demonstrate maturity, to show that you'll be able to buck up, even when you really are sick of studying and no longer remember why you didn't want to be a cowboy, a fire fighter, a bartender.....
Why I wanted to become an MD:
I played around with a lot of different ideas after teaching. The classroom made me realize I liked people and didn't want to live in academic research (mostly in a room by myself) for the rest of my life. I talked to a lot of people, tried different things, and figured out that the information and training I wanted was available primarily to MDs, so that's what I decided to do, once I figured out that it was possible for me to survive it (theoretically, there's a long way to go....but so far so good!). The MD is not some magical solution to my life. It is not the only thing I could ever do and be happy. But so far it's been a good mix of
and 😎, with the odd 😡 thrown in for good measure.
Hope that helped...
DO say something specific and personal about yourself, DONT say something generic like "I like the mix of humanism and science". For pete's sake, this is (hopefully) what you are going to do with the rest of your life. How does it apply to YOU? We could give a crap about generic philosophy.
What we want is a good mix in the class -and if you come across as this memorized cookbook of "how to get into medical school" we walk away having no idea of how you would fit into the mix.
It's ok to have a hodge podge of reasons, but you need to be coherent in your statement, and I'd really work on some "stream of consciousness" writing or journalling, and then go back to it a couple of days later and pull out the concepts you feel are most effective. Try to work on it when you are relaxed, and write for someone other than ADCOM, like your best friend -you can edit out the wildly inappropriate slang later.
A really good bit of advice I received was to NOT use NOT -that is, don't describe your decision via process of elimination (I didn't like my grad program, and started looking for something else to do.....), or to be negative in any way in your PS, other than a bit of self-deprecating humor. If you need to explain something negative, do it in the most positive way possible. Part of this is due to ADCOMs hypervigilance for applicants who will be unable to handle the pressure cooker -you need to demonstrate maturity, to show that you'll be able to buck up, even when you really are sick of studying and no longer remember why you didn't want to be a cowboy, a fire fighter, a bartender.....
Why I wanted to become an MD:
I played around with a lot of different ideas after teaching. The classroom made me realize I liked people and didn't want to live in academic research (mostly in a room by myself) for the rest of my life. I talked to a lot of people, tried different things, and figured out that the information and training I wanted was available primarily to MDs, so that's what I decided to do, once I figured out that it was possible for me to survive it (theoretically, there's a long way to go....but so far so good!). The MD is not some magical solution to my life. It is not the only thing I could ever do and be happy. But so far it's been a good mix of
and 😎, with the odd 😡 thrown in for good measure.Hope that helped...
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just be honest! Originally I kind of got hung up on this when it came to writing (mostly because that is usually my initial reaction to any paper) but more so because I was looking for a good theme-ish to encompass everything that I wanted to say that would fit together. I wound up fitting it together quite nicely IMO (toot toot much? sorry lol😛). With me being a doctor is something I've wanted to be since before I can remember so I felt like I didn't have any kind of "defining" life moment.....and although it was cute when I was younger telling ppl I was going to be a doctor (and people who have known me admire that it is something that I have stuck with) talking about how much you loved playing with your Fischer price kit isn't the most compelling reason. So instead of trying to scour my memory for some experience that I could consider as the defining reasons I chose to be honest and talked about things that I have done, seen, experienced that have reinforced that this is what I really want to do and how early exposure to medicine at a young age incited my interest along with how my various medical/research/volunteer activities encompass my passion to become a doctor.
so I think the take home message is to just start writing and to be honest do some intense self reflection...I think it will come off much better than trying to write what you think the correct answer is. we all have our own reasons. Besides, this is something you will undoubtedly encounter along the interview trail...so the sooner you can compile a coherent answer the better.
once you've done that...revise revise, let others take a look and all that jazz.
so I think the take home message is to just start writing and to be honest do some intense self reflection...I think it will come off much better than trying to write what you think the correct answer is. we all have our own reasons. Besides, this is something you will undoubtedly encounter along the interview trail...so the sooner you can compile a coherent answer the better.
once you've done that...revise revise, let others take a look and all that jazz.
Thanks so much for all the input!
icalz: I don't have a BS answer, but so many people I know came up with one (most commonly the "I want to help people and save lives") and they have successfully been accepted to multiple schools. Are schools looking for a bs response? I would certainly hope not but it seems to work.
The truth is I wanted to be a vet my entire life. I got involved in a serious 7 yr relationship where moving around a lot was in the future, so I started searching for alternate careers in the health field that didn't involve more school. That relationship suddenly ended, and I then had the time to pursue whatever career I wanted. (And I have since learned to never live your life by someone else's career- but to make your own!) By this time, I had worked at a little family owned nature store and learned that I really need a career interacting with people. I also shadowed multiple vets (different disciplines) and discovered that it is not quite the right profession for me! I am content with all my personal pets at home 🙂 A classmate suggested I look a bit closer into medicine and offered me a job in the emergency department in our city's largest hospital. I have been working there for about 4 months and absolutely loving it! I am practically glued to a variety of doctors and get exposure to multiple specialties. So the random reasons are things like I like that the ER cures my ADD, I want a job that constantly changes and challenges me, I like the lifestyle, and love interacting with all the patients. I find not only the medicine, but also the patient/doctor interactions fascinating. To keep it short- the job fits my personal needs and personality really well, plus I know I have the brains and determination to get through med school.... But are these appropriate reasons to discuss in my personal statement? From what you guys are saying it sounds like it doesn't matter what my reasons are as long as I am honest and sincere? Thanks 🙂
icalz: I don't have a BS answer, but so many people I know came up with one (most commonly the "I want to help people and save lives") and they have successfully been accepted to multiple schools. Are schools looking for a bs response? I would certainly hope not but it seems to work.
The truth is I wanted to be a vet my entire life. I got involved in a serious 7 yr relationship where moving around a lot was in the future, so I started searching for alternate careers in the health field that didn't involve more school. That relationship suddenly ended, and I then had the time to pursue whatever career I wanted. (And I have since learned to never live your life by someone else's career- but to make your own!) By this time, I had worked at a little family owned nature store and learned that I really need a career interacting with people. I also shadowed multiple vets (different disciplines) and discovered that it is not quite the right profession for me! I am content with all my personal pets at home 🙂 A classmate suggested I look a bit closer into medicine and offered me a job in the emergency department in our city's largest hospital. I have been working there for about 4 months and absolutely loving it! I am practically glued to a variety of doctors and get exposure to multiple specialties. So the random reasons are things like I like that the ER cures my ADD, I want a job that constantly changes and challenges me, I like the lifestyle, and love interacting with all the patients. I find not only the medicine, but also the patient/doctor interactions fascinating. To keep it short- the job fits my personal needs and personality really well, plus I know I have the brains and determination to get through med school.... But are these appropriate reasons to discuss in my personal statement? From what you guys are saying it sounds like it doesn't matter what my reasons are as long as I am honest and sincere? Thanks 🙂
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OP, I don't know why you were worried at all. These are great reasons to go to med school! An edited version of this is exactly what your PS should look like.
Maybe minus the relationship issue, though. 😉
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Yep, you got it. Polish it up a little bit and you have a unique answer to one of the most commonly asked questions. Avoid any bs at all costs...the adcoms read thousands of these and can sniff it out pretty quick.
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but how much power does one really need broski?
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As ridiculous as this sounds, I would suggest that you work on the secondary essays before the primary. The secondaries have specific questions/prompts for you to answer. The primary can have you staring at the empty page for a long time having no idea where to start. After finishing up all those secondaries, I realized that the primary would have been MUCH easier to write had I done it after the secondaries.
In short, my advice is to go ahead and look at the secondary prompts of the schools you are interested in, write those essays, save them for later, and then work on your primary. They are unlikely to change.
In short, my advice is to go ahead and look at the secondary prompts of the schools you are interested in, write those essays, save them for later, and then work on your primary. They are unlikely to change.
