***The Official Personal Statement Reader List 2010***

Applying to Med School? Get In Or Your Money Back
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To the OP, can you update my post with this add on:

PM me first and I will send you my email. Please do not PM directly with your PS because I rather edit with word doc. Thanks.
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I'm not yet done with my personal statement, but it seems like it's going to be well shy of the 5,300 character mark. More like 3,500. Is this kosher? I could see that as being interpreted as skimpy or as a blessed relief by application reviewers.

Cheers!
 
alacast said:
I'm not yet done with my personal statement, but it seems like it's going to be well shy of the 5,300 character mark. More like 3,500. Is this kosher? I could see that as being interpreted as skimpy or as a blessed relief by application reviewers.

Cheers!
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You'll be a blessed relief and rejuvenate them for my app ;)
 
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Okay so I've gotten a ton of essays. For now, I'm not going to accept anymore so that I can give each essay the time that it deserves. For those of you that have already contacted me, I've read your personal statements and I'm in the process of sending them back to you :)
 
I learned about this forum from my students in Writing sample classes.I don't mind reading through some of the personal statements and give some personal comments.
 
alacast said:
I'm not yet done with my personal statement, but it seems like it's going to be well shy of the 5,300 character mark. More like 3,500. Is this kosher? I could see that as being interpreted as skimpy or as a blessed relief by application reviewers.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Its hard to tell without seeing the essay but that sounds rather short to me.
 
I'm still accepting PS's, but could someone just add a bolded warning that I am backed up, and will not be able to read any that are sent starting now before the 9th at the earliest?
 
mmmcdowe said:
since we are offering smidgeons of advice in the thread, here's one for all writers.

The amount of time that your ps will be read is very minimal. Adcom members are not going to read a paragraph and then muse deeply on what you might have gotten out of this or that experience. I would recommend that when you tell a story, you finish off with an analysis that answers one or more of these questions.

how did this experience increase your interest in medicine, or how did this instill an interest (if it was your first inkling)?
how did this emotionally empact you, and what did you learn from it/ how will it make you bettter?
what did you learn from this experience?
how did this experience effect your philosophy about medicine, being a doctor, a doctor's responsibilities, the difficulty of being a doctor, dealing with patients, etc?
how will this experience make you a better doctor/applicant/medical student/community member/mentor/researcher/etc?
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yes, yes yes!!!
 
Message me any personal statements, I would love to take a look at it for you and make some constructive suggestions. :)
 
:)
 
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Bernoull said:
I'll volunteer to read and constructively critique ur PS..

As a Scientist I do a lot of technical writing, and I'll focus on grammar, logical flow, coherence and cogency...

Goodluck:luck::luck:
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I'm TEMPORARILY not accepting PS critique requests. I'm over-committed right now, as I complete reviewing pending requests, I'll accept new requests.

Thanks
 
I'm willing to help out anyone that needs help with their personal statement. I can help with grammar, punctuation, and content.
 
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As of now, I am flooded with PS and my final is coming up. As such, I am temporarily unavailable to read anymore personal statements.
 
Hi guys,

I have messaged at least 5 ppl from the "2009 reader list" and haven't heard anything back. If you are willing to read my PS and provide some feedback, please respond to this thread. Thanks!
 
Someone on here was kind enough to ride mine for me, so I can read yours if you like. No special English background except for a couple of advanced rhetoric and grammar courses in college.

Shoot me a pm with your PS, any stats you wanna include, and a list of schools you're considering. Just to help me put things into perspective.
 
I am in the same boat as well. PMd a bunch of people who were "willing to read" and noone was. Anyone here wanna give it a looksee?
 
I think they all might be a little overwhelmed, I sent out PMs about 4/5 days ago and just heard back from one yesterday. If you're not in a rush they'll get back to you.
 
You guys are welcome to send it to me and i'll give it a look :)
 
2010premed said:
Hi guys,

I have messaged at least 5 ppl from the "2009 reader list" and haven't heard anything back. If you are willing to read my PS and provide some feedback, please respond to this thread. Thanks!
Click to expand...

You need to try the 2010 reader list. I'll merge this thread into the Official 2010 Reader List.
 
Thanks for your help, but can you please "un-merge" this? Thanks!
 
2010premed said:
Thanks for your help, but can you please "un-merge" this? Thanks!
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We don't really allow people to make personal threads to look for personal statement readers; if we allowed everyone to do this, the forums would swiftly become full of those kinds of threads.
 
I'm going to be in Vegas next week and then go to my college roommate's wedding. Suffice to say, I will not be looking over personal statements while I'm enjoying myself in Vegas ;) Therefore, at this time I'm going to put myself on the temporarily unavailable list.

I'm going to make sure that I get through the personal statements I've already been given by Sunday before I leave.
 
Hey everyone,

Feel free to send over your personal statements to me. I'm starting med school in like 3 wks and in the meanwhile I'm bored outta my mind. So send it over and I'll do my best :)
 
can you take me off temporarily? I'm really backed up.
 
GoSpursGo said:
We don't really allow people to make personal threads to look for personal statement readers; if we allowed everyone to do this, the forums would swiftly become full of those kinds of threads.
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No offense, but it seems like these rules are made up as you people go along.

IMHO, if it's not addressed in the TOS or any other SDN policy page, let it be.

Otherwise, why don't we have one giant URM thread then? The front page gets more clogged with them than PS reader requests.

Obviously the reader list isn't doing its job if people get more responses from creating their own thread than by using this one.
 
Is anyone willing to read personal statement right now? I have private messaged a ton of people and no one has time right now or not responded for a week?
 
:)
 
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ahs4n said:
Is anyone willing to read personal statement right now? I have private messaged a ton of people and no one has time right now or not responded for a week?
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You are third in my list right now. You'll have it by tomorrow.

For anyone who is waiting for me, I will be done in the next few days. If you sent it to me before last Sunday , let me know because I must have lost it
 
Hey

can someone please read my personal statement? who is still accepting right now?
 
thinker said:
Hey

can someone please read my personal statement? who is still accepting right now?
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Anyone who is still currently on the readers list should be accepting right now, as they all said so when I contacted them each personally by PM a few weeks back. However, at this point most readers are starting to get heavily backed up, so please be patient if it takes several days for them to get back to you (and to anyone still waiting on me, that's just what's happened-I haven't forgotten you, I'm just slowly plowing through the mountain of PSs I currently have).
 
So I've read a ton in the last few days, and I think these tips might be helpful to a vast number of PS writers:

1.) Many writers narrate incredible stories, but you have to link it to medicine!

What did it teach you, how does that make you a better future physician? What skills did it teach you? Do NOT get lost in a narration, what you took from that experience as it applies to medicine is so much more important than the small details of the experience itself.

2.) Doctor shadowing: I've noticed many are going into extensive details over the procedures or a mini biography of the doc. You have to link it back to what you've learned. That needs to be the major part and make sure your voice is not lost in the shadow of this miracle performing physician you admire. You want the adcom to remember you, not your neurosurgeon.

3.) Concise wording: be careful about your word choice. think about the words you're using, stay away from extremely negative words such as "hate, horrible, etc."

4.) Tone: Many essays have some extremely traumatic stories, when you're done writing something along those lines, read it, and ask yourself what is the overall tone of the essay? You don't want to give a miserable, depressing, hopeless, exhausted, and negative impression of yourself. You still want to leave an image of a positive applicant who is fit and strong for this profession.

5.) Research: do NOT present research in a negative light. Present medicine in a more positive light. I know a lot of you don't like benchwork, but medicine is built on research and many physicians who are reading your essays perform research. Think about what you would like to hear in their position.

6.) Be explicit: You learned X, Y, Z and will help you as a physician to do X, Y,Z. Be explicit! Do NOT leave the work to the adcom people to analyze your stories to figure it out. They don't have the time.

7.) You will obviously get numerous advice from readers. Do NOT make changes that you are NOT proud of. You need to love this essay more than your readers.

Gluck everyone and feel free to send over your essay to me for a read.
 
Muffinpuff said:
So I've read a ton in the last few days, and I think these tips might be helpful to a vast number of PS writers:

1.) Many writers narrate incredible stories, but you have to link it to medicine!

What did it teach you, how does that make you a better future physician? What skills did it teach you? Do NOT get lost in a narration, what you took from that experience as it applies to medicine is so much more important than the small details of the experience itself.

2.) Doctor shadowing: I've noticed many are going into extensive details over the procedures or a mini biography of the doc. You have to link it back to what you've learned. That needs to be the major part and make sure your voice is not lost in the shadow of this miracle performing physician you admire. You want the adcom to remember you, not your neurosurgeon.

3.) Concise wording: be careful about your word choice. think about the words you're using, stay away from extremely negative words such as "hate, horrible, etc."

4.) Tone: Many essays have some extremely traumatic stories, when you're done writing something along those lines, read it, and ask yourself what is the overall tone of the essay? You don't want to give a miserable, depressing, hopeless, exhausted, and negative impression of yourself. You still want to leave an image of a positive applicant who is fit and strong for this profession.

5.) Research: do NOT present research in a negative light. Present medicine in a more positive light. I know a lot of you don't like benchwork, but medicine is built on research and many physicians who are reading your essays perform research. Think about what you would like to hear in their position.

6.) Be explicit: You learned X, Y, Z and will help you as a physician to do X, Y,Z. Be explicit! Do NOT leave the work to the adcom people to analyze your stories to figure it out. They don't have the time.

7.) You will obviously get numerous advice from readers. Do NOT make changes that you are NOT proud of. You need to love this essay more than your readers.

Gluck everyone and feel free to send over your essay to me for a read.
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thank you for posting this. I don't need it for myself but this is what I'm trying to tell people who PM me to look over their PSes. I'm gonna steal your post, though I'll give you credit for it, and send it to someone who PM'd me recently. You put into words what I didn't know how to tell them. So thank you.
 
I wasn't sure which thread to put this is but i figured it should go here rather than the AMCAS questions thread. I have gotten mixed messages about talking about the fact that my father is a physician in the PS. How I kind of have it framed right now is I have the beginning portion about how my father was a a physician so thats how I was introduced to the proffesion and I saw that adoration he got from patients so I realized medicine must be somethign special. Then after that I go on to talk about my specific experiences and How I realized that I wanted to be a doctor thru these experiences. So I guess my question is, should I talk about my dad being a doctor or just scrap it. Because there is no doubt it has had an effect on me wanting to be a physician but i was wondering if it too big of a risk to have some people automatically think the only reason I want to be a doctor is bc of my father.
 
No don't scrap it. If it has had a significant effect on your choice to become a physician then it should be discussed. No doubt there are many applicants who were inspired and influenced by the doctors in their family (i.e. parents). It's important to be sincere in your PS. Actually both of my parents are physicians :). I talked about this in my PS and included it in my personal/family background section. That's my $0.02.. yay for my first post! (it's about time!)
 
Abdullaah said:
No don't scrap it. If it has had a significant effect on your choice to become a physician then it should be discussed. No doubt there are many applicants who were inspired and influenced by the doctors in their family (i.e. parents). It's important to be sincere in your PS. Actually both of my parents are physicians :). I talked about this in my PS and included it in my personal/family background section. That's my $0.02.. yay for my first post! (it's about time!)
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Welcome to SDN :)
 
Thanks, I've actually been skimming and reading up on threads for over a month now lol. A lot of useful stuff here but its tough when you're like 35 pages too late :(.
 
Abdullaah said:
No don't scrap it. If it has had a significant effect on your choice to become a physician then it should be discussed. No doubt there are many applicants who were inspired and influenced by the doctors in their family (i.e. parents). It's important to be sincere in your PS. Actually both of my parents are physicians :). I talked about this in my PS and included it in my personal/family background section. That's my $0.02.. yay for my first post! (it's about time!)
Click to expand...

Agreed. If anything being raised by physicians, many times gives you a leg up on seeing the bad with the good and knowin what you are getting yourself into. Just support it with the fact that you've done other things and talked to others outside of just your father and family friend doctors to get an unbiased view.
 
Sorry, I don't know much about this thread - do we just PM anyone on that available list with a copy of our personal statement or should we ask them first? I've finally finished my first draft but am kind of embarrassed about it and would love some advice. As in, I'm too embarrassed to even have my friends read it, haha. (Haven't written a paper since high school, engineering major)

EDIT- Oops, just read Milkman's Al's post about PM'ing them first and then sending it in a word doc. Thanks!
 
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I'm applying to a post-bac program and I have completed everything except for my statement of purpose. I've written about 10 drafts but I just can't seem to get it right.
I graduated college in 2005 with a degree in communications. I didn't really follow a steady career path. I was a manager of a fitness center, then worked at a healing arts school in admissions, working in film production and acting for two years and then did a year in publishing. I've always been really involved and volunteer a lot, so I have tried to focus on that. Does anybody know of a good place where I can find sample essays so I can get an idea of what a strong statement of purpose looks like? Thanks!
 
Hey guys,

Currently I'm swamped with enough to last me for a week and half. So I won't be taking any more for now. If you would like some general writing tips, I posted a set earlier on this thread, on this page, so take a look at that if it helps. Thanks and gluck everyone!
 
Is anyone that is NOT swamped with PS's willing to read mine? I want to turn my application by Sunday, so if someone could read mine and get it back to me within these next couple days, that would be great.

I have re-written my statement many times bc each one had over 8500 characters. I know finally got it down to under 4500 (since im applying to DO as well), and need a fresh opinion on it. I have read it so many times that it is starting to sound boring to me!

Anyone want to read it? Thanks so much!! :oops:
 
I can accept a few more now, but my turnaround time is 3-5 days, just fyi.
 
I'm not on the list of PS readers. However, I would like to read statements since I have a month or two of doing nothing! So, anyone who needs me to read, pm me!

My credentials: I got into medical school? I consider myself a pretty good writer, and an even better reader. :p

*EDIT: (sorry guys, I have WAAAY to many ps to read at this moment. I am also currently busy packing and moving out soon. I will be temporarily unavailable. I will be back in the middle of july so if anyone still has any ps for me to read, pm me then!
 
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I am available to read through some PS's. Content advice would be my strength.
 
hey everyone. So I want to submit tonight or tomorrow. I've read through it a hundred times and I'm pretty much content with the content/structure (although, certainly there are those who agree/disagree with me).

I really just need someone to look through the grammar and make sure I don't make any silly mistakes that would be obvious to an adcom. You can give some other comments too, but I'm pretty much at the point where the essay is what *I* want it to be. PM me. It'll be a quick read! And much appreciated!
 
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