Wondering?? Personal Statement

[chatter07]

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I'm waiting on one more school to see if I'm accepted but on the mean time i'm preparing to apply for next cycle. Regarding the personal statement, do i have to rewrite it completely or do i just add the experience i get in the mean time??

 

[BlacKAT33]

I think you can do w/e you want to do. If there are more experiences you want to add in then you can put them in. IMO I would get feedback from all of your schools and specifically ask about the PS and see how they liked it. then you know if it needs to be rewritten or if it is perfectly fine. But even if they say it is good, there is no harm in adding more experiences! (as long as they are relevant and improve your app)

 

[crittergal]

I'm waiting on one more school to see if I'm accepted but on the mean time i'm preparing to apply for next cycle. Regarding the personal statement, do i have to rewrite it completely or do i just add the experience i get in the mean time??

I think it's different for each situation. I didn't mention in depth information about my experiences in my PS. I glossed over them but wanted to avoid redundancy. The adcoms already have all that information in your experiences blanks. I wanted my PS to illustrate my passion for the profession and how my experiences make me an asset to the field rather than "I did this and this and this".

As far as rewriting it all together, again, it depends. If I had not been accepted this time around, I likely would have recycled the bulk of it for this year. I was did not make the initial cut at most schools I applied on due to my quantitative evaluations. As such, I find it highly probable that my app was placed in the 'thanks but no thanks pile' without even reading my PS. No harm reusing a doc they didn't read in the first place. However, on the schools that did take the time to read it and not just cut me based on numbers- I was considered. Mine was different, different enough that I am confident it would recognized next year. I would not have recycled it if I felt the schools had read it. Again, it's really dependent upon your situation.

 

[parietal]

I think people underestimate the importance of the personal statement. If you don't get in, I would urge you to take a hard look at it from an adcom's perspective. Remember that they have to read hundreds of statements every cycle. I know if I had to do that, my eyes would eventually just glaze over unless something really grabbed me...

I come from a writing background and feel strongly that you really need to figure out what makes you special and tell your story in a way that sets yourself apart from the hundreds of other great applicants.

Not that it's necessarily true for your case, but I have read the statements of several people who were rejected and/or waitlisted despite good stats. I completely understood why after reading their statements. They came across as boring or wishy-washy about vet medicine even though I knew the applicants were nothing like that personally. 🙁

Many college career-services centers or writing centers will edit your personal statements for free. Take advantage of that or have a friend (or several) with great writing skills pour over it with a fine-toothed comb. It could make the difference between acceptance and another rejection.

 

[rileyroo]

i took advantage of using a lot of successful applicants on here 😀 if you don't get in this year, i would highly recommend writing a new personal statement. personally, i would try to improve on everything to make myself just that more competitive for next cycle. if you do end up writing a new personal statement, let us know. b/c i know that a lot of members will be willing to help out and give feedback. i received great feedback on mine. SDNers are an excellent resource. 🙂

 

[StartingoverVet]

I think people underestimate the importance of the personal statement. If you don't get in, I would urge you to take a hard look at it from an adcom's perspective. Remember that they have to read hundreds of statements every cycle. I know if I had to do that, my eyes would eventually just glaze over unless something really grabbed me...

I come from a writing background and feel strongly that you really need to figure out what makes you special and tell your story in a way that sets yourself apart from the hundreds of other great applicants.

Not that it's necessarily true for your case, but I have read the statements of several people who were rejected and/or waitlisted despite good stats. I completely understood why after reading their statements. They came across as boring or wishy-washy about vet medicine even though I knew the applicants were nothing like that personally. 🙁

Many college career-services centers or writing centers will edit your personal statements for free. Take advantage of that or have a friend (or several) with great writing skills pour over it with a fine-toothed comb. It could make the difference between acceptance and another rejection.

Well said! I completely agree. An application is filled with facts and figures and almost completely devoid of personality. The personal statement and the LORs are the only places where the "person" comes through.

How many times must adcoms read "I love animals" or "I have been ____ with animals my whole life?" Giving context to those statements makes all the difference!

Before I applied I had luckily read a recommendation online to have as many people as possible read my statement. Following this advice I was amazed at how much my statement evolved through the rewrites. It was always me, but each rewrite helped to present me in a more precise and interesting manner!

 

[parietal]

Following this advice I was amazed at how much my statement evolved through the rewrites. It was always me, but each rewrite helped to present me in a more precise and interesting manner!

Cool. I've edited five statements (not including my own). Usually they have everything they really need, they just need to make it less of a term paper and more of a story. As a professional writer/editor, it's pretty easy for me to spot the story and help them pull out the lede and massage the rest to make it stronger and more vibrant.

I'm proud to say all five applicants I've worked with got in to their first-choice schools. 😀

ETA: And so true about the "I love animals" thing. Someone told me never to put those words in my statement unless I wanted to be rejected immediately. 🙂 She was kidding, but not entirely. 😀

 

[purplesaurus]

I just had my application review with WSU yesterday (I'm wait-listed, but I thought it would be good to go ahead and get it), and I received some feedback about this, so I can post it here.

I spoke with Dr. Talcott (who was super friendly, by the way!), and she told me that my personal statement was great and pretty much gave her what she would be looking for in a PS (so, not what put me on the alternate list instead of getting me accepted; moving on...).

She told me, though, if I do not get in this year and I apply again next year, I need to write a new PS. They keep our applications, so they would still have access to the old PS, and they want to read something new. Even if the theme of the new PS is the same, she said that rewriting it just helps them get to know you better (which can only help get you in, in my opinion).

Anyway, that's just WSU, but I thought an adcom opinion would be helpful.

 

[HopefulAg]

I kept the same PS all three times and just re-worded it as needed. Though this last time I did a bit of an extensive overhaul to the third paragraph.

Mine is laid out in 3 paragraphs: anecdote of what interested me in vet med, my philosophy regarding vet med and animal care, and what I specifically want to do with my degrees.

They don't seem to care, though one of my interviewers did comment that my PS 'seems familiar' to her, even though she didn't interview me last year. Though she might've been part of the 'second cut' people (first cut being GPA/GRE, second being interview) who go over everything, so I reckon there's some value in re-writing the whole thing. But if you have a working model (I got "Great personal statement" on both of my postmortems) why change it extensively?

Anyhow if you want someone to proof-read/offer suggestions, feel free to PM me. I feel like I might be able to make worthwhile suggestions now that I actually got accepted. Never felt comfortable offering advice when even my own application was getting rejected.

 

[natalieises]

I would start by getting feedback from any schools that will give it to you. Illinois is really awesome about feedback on your entire application and will tell you specifics about your ps. Add in the things you've done that important, but if you get great feedback don't worry about rewriting the entire thing. I took my first one and altered it each year but kept the overall message the same.

 

[that redhead]

I think you could re-use the PS, but I would ask for feedback from the schools AND have a bunch of people read them. I had my mom, my boss, a lab TA who had her DVM from that school and a few other people whose opinions I trusted read over mine and I got some AMAZING feedback! I didn't make every single change suggested but I did take a lot of the advice and I think they read very well.

(Just a side note: I didn't get in, but I don't really consider it a "true" application cycle. I applied to one OOS school and didn't mean all of the requirements. Long story, but that's the bottom line 😉

 

[that redhead]

ETA: And so true about the "I love animals" thing. Someone told me never to put those words in my statement unless I wanted to be rejected immediately. 🙂 She was kidding, but not entirely. 😀

I was told the exact same thing, multiple times. It was sad, actually: I asked my boss what he had written for his PS when he applied the first time to UGA. He said he basically wrote that he'd never wanted to do anything else and that he loved animals. They apparently asked you to include a picture with the application and he had some cute picture of him with a little puppy or whatever. He got rejected his first time, then went back and got in his second time. Poor guy, just being honest! 😉

 

[chatter07]

Thank you all for all the information. I gave my personal statement to a bunch a people and they all said it was great. Even the interview for Ross told me that it grab his intention (even though it wasn't the same for VMCAS app. It was small version of it). Hopefully i get into the school, just thinking ahead of time 🙂 Again thank you all so much