Tutoring a poor subject for a PS?

[Adamb83]

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Against the advice of the friendly folks at student-doctor, I had my personal statement professionally edited for grammar and content. Admittedly, it didn't help tremendously, and actually caused me to second guess my entire theme. One of his major critiques of my PS was that I kept trying to relate my tutoring and teaching experiences back to my desire to pursue a career in medicine. He told me I should stick with the clinical stuff.

However, tutoring was a big part of college for me, and I really do believe that being a good teacher and a good doctor share many of the same skills. Outside of my tutoring experience, my EC's are about the same as anyone else. Volunteer work in the ER, shadowing, Research ect... But i feel the teaching was the only experience were I truly made a difference, and without it, my essay is dry and simply a "fluff" piece about watching doctors and handing out wrist bands....

Is he correct in his critique that I should not be using tutoring as my central theme.

Also, I noticed there were no readers for the DO section, would anyone care to evaluate my personal statement? I really could use the help,

Thanks,
Adam

 

[DoctorJDO]

Adam, if you can't explain something to another person in a way that they can understand, you will be lacking some important doctoring skills in primary care and in most specialties. I think that is a fine topic, and you can mention how you love explaining complicated things to people in a way that they can understand, and putting them at ease. it has a lot to do with being a doctor

 

[gatorfann14]

I think your idea is a great one, don't worry about what the service told you. I can tell you from experience you don't need to talk about clinical things. I did not write about medicine at all in my PS and I have gotten plenty of interviews and a few acceptances so far. In fact I had an interviewer thank me for being honest and not trying to do the same tired topic that I thought they would want to hear. Moral of the story is do what you feel, it will be much better than writing about something that is what you think needs to be said.

Goodluck

 

[MightyMoose]

I think your theme works, but you have to relate it to clinical experience. If you can't, then it's going to be about how you're a great tutor. Try to make sure that each statement you make takes the reader a step closer to why you want to be a doctor and not why you would make a great tutor. This comes from relating your tutoring experience towards your clinical, shadowing, and research experience.

Good luck!

 

[scpod]

....Is he correct in his critique that I should not be using tutoring as my central theme....

No. A good PS should read like a story. It should involve the reader and tell a tale that it interesting, concise and relevant. Above all, it should NOT be a biography of your life and relate all the same things that are already in your application. They don't want to hear the same old thing again. What they really want to hear about is what kind of a person are you. How do you deal with life? What personal qualities do you have? What makes you different from every other person out there?

Doctors are always learning and always teaching their patients, their colleagues, etc. A desire to teach is a great thing in medicine. Let them know how much a part of your life that desire truly is.