The personal statement introduction

[Pose]

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I have never read a personal statement, and certainly never written one as important as for medical school. I've checked out some PS threads (and essay workshop) on this site. But I'm a little confused by opening my essay with a story. If I begin the essay with a story (i.e. I'm going to start mine about hiking the Appalachian Trail), do I need to mention medicine/doctoring or anything at all about why I want to be a doctor in the introduction? Or can it just be a straight up seemingly unrelated story?

Trying to tie together the various nontrad aspects of my life is hard.

 

[dsoz]

Your essay has one purpose. Tell why you want to be a doctor. Anything else is superfluous.

There are several books out there that tell how to write a personal statement for med school. I checked out two or three from my local library. There were others at my university library, and another one that was in the university pre-med office.

Starting off with a story is pretty cliche and I tried to avoid it. Also avoid quoting someone else. This is YOUR personal statement.

Most of all, you want to know what the secondary essays are for the top schools where you are applying. Then you can plan how to combine your primary and secondary essays so that your story is better told. Give them a great package.

dsoz

 

[DrHugs]

I don't think that starting with a story is a bad idea, as long as you can tie it in with well medicine and you don't get carried away with your story.
I am currently writing my PS right now and have already gone through more drafts than I care to admit, so I am not an authority. But my early drafts started with a story that was both too long and did not have much medical relevance. I got a lot of feedback from people telling me to bring it back on topic and remove the fluff. My most recent draft begins with a short story about my Peace Corps experience (where I had very little health experience), while still keeping relevance to medicine. The feedback I have gotten about this compared to my earlier drafts is way more positive.