What do you think of this portion of personal statement?

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i hate to jump on the bandwagon, but yea, you should scrap this and reflect on your life, not generalizations that could apply to anyone.

what experiences were really powerful and meaningful to you? describe them in such way that shows the points that you are trying to get across.

i would take the simple truth over flowery prose any day.

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Hey guys,

WOW! talk about a bashing :(. I agree the former part of that paragraph is pointless and not useful. However, It will only be a small portion of the PS, and was a bit of a tangent that I wanted to tie in. I was unsure of how personal philosophy would come across on my PS. clearly not well.

other than the fact that it is completely pointless, would you say the latter sentiments are clear and interesting? or should i forget it all together.



"The desire to sustain life"???? Huh?

This PS is a classic example of someone who does not have the ability to write elegantly, but believes that he/she does. The forced, awkward, and sometimes incorrect word usage smacks more of an attempt to extend a 9th grade book report on The Grapes of Wrath (because who can honestly fill 10 whole pages double spaced Times New Roman 12 point font about some lousy sharecroppers?!) by stalling and adding a bunch of confusing gibberish.

I know you (the OP) will probably read what I write here and think I'm a jerk. Maybe I am. But you'll thank me (and everyone else here) for telling you to just abandon ship now. I may even suggest you re-evaluate your writing skills in general, but that's a pretty big fish to fry at this point if you're gearing up for applications.
 
<sigh> I'd say this is what happens when unmotivated grad students teach freshman english comp, but frankly people should be able to write better than this upon graduation from high school. I'm not bashing the OP specifically here, but the entire current generation of terrible writers coming up. My first instinct upon reading most 18-25 year old's prose is to ask if english is their second language. Then, I stop, and remind myself that the majority of people for whom english IS their second language have a far better grasp of the concept. OP, I'm sorry, but you fall into the category of the 'Is english your second language??" writers. This is not your fault, but reflects the failure of many, many english teachers over the years. On to the PS:

Time has to be money and money has to be time.

It does? Says who? And more importantly, what's your point? Why should I care that you thing this?

In order for humanity to develop and progress, we have to work hard, and we have to be compensated for the work we put into developing humanity.

First off, there's ZERO link between the first sentence and this one. Secondly, perhaps it's true that hard work is required to advance society, but again, who says we HAVE to be compensated for this work? There are enough people in the world who work for no compensation to prove this absolute statement false. But again, who cares? What does this have to do with your motivation to go to medical school? Are you claiming that you personally are going to be an instrument of change and advancement to society?

Production and progress is innate, and it needs to be evoked efficiently.

The link here to sentence two is tenuous at best, but I can make the connection. However, in your attempt to sound smart, you've completely ignored the definition of two words. "Innate" means that something is inherent to something else. To evoke meant to call up, or to elicit. ie. The candy has an innate sweetness, evoking memories of my my childhood eating fresh strawberries from the vine. Or some crap like that. So I have to ask, production and progress is innate TO WHAT? And how do you 'evoke' production and progress? You can stimulate, or promote, but you can't really evoke this. I still don't know what this has to do with your desire to pursue medicine.

To be content with not producing shows a lack of knowledge and gumption.
I THINK here you're trying to say that everyone should be 'evoking' progress and production, or else they're stupid and timid. Right? First of all, that's entirely debatable. Secondly, are you really trying to say that anyone who isn't trying to ADVANCE SOCIETY is dumb and ignorant? And what do you mean by 'gumption'? 'Gumption' is defined as agressiveness, initiative, courage, or common sense. None of these definitions really make sense in your statement, except MAYBE the common sense definition if you really are trying to say that people who are content with living a 'simple life' and stupid. Are you? At this point I'm starting to get a sense of your tie in to medicine, unfortunately it seems to be headed toward an idea of "I want to pursue medicine so I can make a difference in the world and not be like these dumb peons all around me. Not good.

When I am home, not working and not in school, I feel useless and non-efficient.
Yup, I was right. Do you really feel USELESS? Can you not help out around the house? Or is that not a valuable use of your time because you're not getting paid for it, either in money or in grades? Do you never take vacations? I have to warn you, adcoms are looking for well rounded people. Bragging that you're only happy with your nose to the grindstone 24/7 is not going to get you the points you may think it will.
Contributing as a positive and efficient member of society gives me calm and peace. It gives me the desire to learn more and do more.

This sentence and the previous one make me think you don't really understand the meaning of the word efficient. You're EVOKING my memory of a certain Sicilian ;-) Other than this, it's a nice sentiment that seeing your abilities applied to the world, and seeing the utility that comes from them, motivates you to learn and do more is certainly a good thing. It shows drive and ambition. That's a decent concept to leave in there.

Moreover, it gives me the desire to sustain life and find out what I can and need to do next.

Why does it give you a desire to 'sustain life'? Do you mean your own life or that of others? You should expand on why you want to 'sustain' life and how that ties in to a medical career. However, I don't understand what you mean by 'find out what I can and need to do next." What you need to do next in order to accomplish what, exactly?

Life is a journey after all, and I can't afford to halt my journey with absolute contentment. The pursuit of happiness is what we desire. Not happiness itself.

Sure, life is a journey. What's your point? How does that tie in to the previous statement? Also, what the heck is 'absolute contentment'? And why would your 'journey' be halted by absolute contentment? And why couldn't you afford it? Seems like if you've somehow achieved nirvana, you should be able to afford to bask in it, or else it wouldn't really be nirvana.... Also, I don't know about you, but I know that I sure as heck desire happiness. So speak for yourself. Do you realize that statement is basically saying that you don't desire to be happy, but rather you desire to be some sort of martyr who is unhappy and always striving toward happiness, but never achieving it? It just doesn't make sense.


Now, I understand that this is only a portion of your PS, but in my opinion, it's a portion you should either leave out completely, or rewrite in it's entirety. Good luck, I know writing these statements is a tough task, it certainly was for me :)
 
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i was reading through this thread, and wasn't going to post, but i feel compelled to drop my two cents.

We're all students here...we're all learning, and we all needed to start somewhere. You may know how to write well, but please think about how you arrived at that point....what influences did you have throughout high school/college, who stopped to help you along the way, etc.

In the same token, give the OP the opportunity to learn and develop her writing skills...not to immediately be turned off from the wealth of knowledge that can potentially be gained from a site such as sdn... harsh/negative/unproductive comments are more likely to turn someone off to what you have to say than help. So please, we were all in this position once, don't lose sight of that.

To MattD...
thanks for actually taking the time to be specific about what needs to be done to improve her PS
 
good? bad? horrible?

Time has to be money and money has to be time. In order for humanity to develop and progress, we have to work hard, and we have to be compensated for the work we put into developing humanity. Production and progress is innate, and it needs to be evoked efficiently. To be content with not producing shows a lack of knowledge and gumption. When I am home, not working and not in school, I feel useless and non-efficient. Contributing as a positive and efficient member of society gives me calm and peace. It gives me the desire to learn more and do more. Moreover, it gives me the desire to sustain life and find out what I can and need to do next. Life is a journey after all, and I can’t afford to halt my journey with absolute contentment. The pursuit of happiness is what we desire. Not happiness itself.

That is so horrible, I don't even know where to start. What does money have to do with the rest of the paragraph? :thumbdown:
 
Wouldn't this be a great way to start the PS?

Very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Some times he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical, summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds, pretty standard really. At the age of 12 I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum, it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it.
 
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