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[ElectronOrbitals]

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[Goro]

Very sorry to hear about all of your troubles. However they really do not belong in the personal statement. The personal statement is about who am I?, and why medicine?.
There will be prompt in the secondary essays for difficulties you have faced, how you've displayed your coping skills, greatest challenges etc etc turn down talk

 

[Goro]

Also, the personal statement is not a place for you to exorcise your personal demons.

 

[ElectronOrbitals]

Very sorry to hear about all of your troubles. However they really do not belong in the personal statement. The personal statement is about who am I?, and why medicine?.
There will be prompt in the secondary essays for difficulties you have faced, how you've displayed your coping skills, greatest challenges etc etc turn down talk

Hi Goro,

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it. However, one of my main factors for why medicine is seeing my mom get better after getting sick and how scary that period of time was. Do you think I shouldn't include that at all? Thanks again

 

[Goro]

Hi Goro,

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it. However, one of my main factors for why medicine is seeing my mom get better after getting sick and how scary that period of time was. Do you think I shouldn't include that at all? Thanks again

I suggest telling how your mom's story motivated you, but keep it brief.

 

[biobukowski]

Hi Goro,

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it. However, one of my main factors for why medicine is seeing my mom get better after getting sick and how scary that period of time was. Do you think I shouldn't include that at all? Thanks again

One of my draws to medicine was seeing my only brother die after a failed bone marrow transplant. Rather, the realization that doctors have a responsibility we don’t always mention, which is towards all patients, those we can help and those can not.

Coincidentally, years after medical school I had a fellow resident who was diagnosed with Wiscott-Aldrich as a baby and survived a bone marrow transplant. He and I agreed that the experiences as a patient or family member made us closer to our patients.

 

[ElectronOrbitals]

I suggest telling how your mom's story motivated you, but keep it brief.

I'll for sure keep this in mind, thanks again!

 

[ElectronOrbitals]

One of my draws to medicine was seeing my only brother die after a failed bone marrow transplant. Rather, the realization that doctors have a responsibility we don’t always mention, which is towards all patients, those we can help and those can not.

Coincidentally, years after medical school I had a fellow resident who was diagnosed with Wiscott-Aldrich as a baby and survived a bone marrow transplant. He and I agreed that the experiences as a patient or family member made us closer to our patients.

Thank you so much for sharing this. I'm sorry to hear about what happened with your brother.

To your last point, that's why I was thinking of briefly mentioning some of the experiences I went through because I'm sure they'll allow me to connect with some patients in the future.

 

[YCAGA]

These are horrible things for you and your family to go through, but I’m not sure it tells me why you will make a good doctor or why you want to pursue medicine specifically.

You touch on a lot of very intense topics such as abortion of fetuses with significant congenital conditions and sexual abuse of minors. The first one is incredibly controversial and the second is the highest level of human depravity. Not really topics that you want to bring up in an essay to convince someone to let you into medical school.

Another way of looking at it is that your narrative as described here tells me nothing about you as a person or future physician. I have zero idea of your personality or strengths, other than reciliancey but even then, that’s a pretty nebulous trait that can end up in pretty different personalities.

Finally, it’s almost always a bad idea to bring up serious, chronic medical conditions in medical school applications.

 

[ElectronOrbitals]

These are horrible things for you and your family to go through, but I’m not sure it tells me why you will make a good doctor or why you want to pursue medicine specifically.

You touch on a lot of very intense topics such as abortion of fetuses with significant congenital conditions and sexual abuse of minors. The first one is incredibly controversial and the second is the highest level of human depravity. Not really topics that you want to bring up in an essay to convince someone to let you into medical school.

Another way of looking at it is that your narrative as described here tells me nothing about you as a person or future physician. I have zero idea of your personality or strengths, other than reciliancey but even then, that’s a pretty nebulous trait that can end up in pretty different personalities.

Finally, it’s almost always a bad idea to bring up serious, chronic medical conditions in medical school applications.

Thank you for all this great advice. Yeah I've been thinking about it more this evening and don't really want to stir someone up by reading my PS. I'm wondering if there is a way to just incorporate aspects of these challenges to show how they've made me the person I am today. For example your last point:

Luckily my asthma has been under control since I was a kid (don't even need an inhaler). The heart defects closed on their own with time fortunately so they aren't a problem at all now. However I wanted to incorporate this into my PS because I remember the day the cardiologist told my mom that they had closed. He spoke no Spanish and I was left to translate to my mom who speaks no English. Speaking Spanish is a major theme in my activities and something I definitely want to include in my PS. What are you thoughts of incorporating this challenge in this way?

 

[candbgirl]

Thank you for all this great advice. Yeah I've been thinking about it more this evening and don't really want to stir someone up by reading my PS. I'm wondering if there is a way to just incorporate aspects of these challenges to show how they've made me the person I am today. For example your last point:

Luckily my asthma has been under control since I was a kid (don't even need an inhaler). The heart defects closed on their own with time fortunately so they aren't a problem at all now. However I wanted to incorporate this into my PS because I remember the day the cardiologist told my mom that they had closed. He spoke no Spanish and I was left to translate to my mom who speaks no English. Speaking Spanish is a major theme in my activities and something I definitely want to include in my PS. What are you thoughts of incorporating this challenge in this way?

I’m not sure how to word this but none of this illustrates that you would be a good doctor or what brought you to medicine in the first place. Or that you have compassion for the sick, injured and dying. It’s just great that your medical issues at birth have been corrected and no longer impact your life. And your translating skills are really useful but they don’t indicate why you want to be a doctor. You might inadvertently give the impression that you want to be a medical translator to help non-English speaking patients make it through the medical maze. (And actually that’s a real need.) I think maybe you don’t really understand what the focus of a med school PS is. Could you talk to your advisor and ask if there are samples available for you to read? It might clear up in your mind what you are suppose to focus on in the PS.

Of course it is your PS and you can write anything you want. And actually you seem pretty adverse to listening to or considering the great advice given here(at least one ADCOM and a couple students and residents have responded). But it would be a shame if you wrote a lengthy statement and the readers at various schools decide you haven’t answered the question asked and you are eliminated from consideration.

Good luck as you move forward. It’s a long and winding road.

 

[ElectronOrbitals]

I’m not sure how to word this but none of this illustrates that you would be a good doctor or what brought you to medicine in the first place. Or that you have compassion for the sick, injured and dying. It’s just great that your medical issues at birth have been corrected and no longer impact your life. And your translating skills are really useful but they don’t indicate why you want to be a doctor. You might inadvertently give the impression that you want to be a medical translator to help non-English speaking patients make it through the medical maze. (And actually that’s a real need.) I think maybe you don’t really understand what the focus of a med school PS is. Could you talk to your advisor and ask if there are samples available for you to read? It might clear up in your mind what you are suppose to focus on in the PS.

Of course it is your PS and you can write anything you want. And actually you seem pretty adverse to listening to or considering the great advice given here(at least one ADCOM and a couple students and residents have responded). But it would be a shame if you wrote a lengthy statement and the readers at various schools decide you haven’t answered the question asked and you are eliminated from consideration.

Good luck as you move forward. It’s a long and winding road.

I appreciate the advice. I hear you in that I should probably read a lot more PS examples. Don't want to completely bomb my chances with my PS.

To your last point though, what gives the impression that I'm not "listening" or "considering" the advice that has been given to me so far? I just scrapped my PS this morning to start over based on the feedback I've received...

 

[candbgirl]

I appreciate the advice. I hear you in that I should probably read a lot more PS examples. Don't want to completely bomb my chances with my PS.

To your last point though, what gives the impression that I'm not "listening" or "considering" the advice that has been given to me so far? I just scrapped my PS this morning to start over based on the feedback I've received...

And how are we to know this? Last time you posted ( at 9:37 last night) you were still intent on including stuff that isn’t going to be helpful. (“Luckily my asthma has been under control since I was a kid (don't even need an inhaler). The heart defects closed on their own with time fortunately so they aren't a problem at all now. However I wanted to incorporate this into my PS because I remember the day the cardiologist told my mom that they had closed. He spoke no Spanish and I was left to translate to my mom who speaks no English. Speaking Spanish is a major theme in my activities and something I definitely want to include in my PS. What are you thoughts of incorporating this challenge in this way?”)

But as I said before it’s your PS. When do you plan to apply?

Good luck as you move along.

 

[ElectronOrbitals]

And how are we to know this? Last time you posted ( at 9:37 last night) you were still intent on including stuff that isn’t going to be helpful. (“Luckily my asthma has been under control since I was a kid (don't even need an inhaler). The heart defects closed on their own with time fortunately so they aren't a problem at all now. However I wanted to incorporate this into my PS because I remember the day the cardiologist told my mom that they had closed. He spoke no Spanish and I was left to translate to my mom who speaks no English. Speaking Spanish is a major theme in my activities and something I definitely want to include in my PS. What are you thoughts of incorporating this challenge in this way?”)

But as I said before it’s your PS. When do you plan to apply?

Good luck as you move along.

Alright, I can see where you're coming from. To follow up on one of the points you made though: you think that by even mentioning wanting to be able to communicate with Spanish speaking patients would give the impression that I'm trying to be a medical translator rather than a doctor? From what I've seen recently and working with patients, there does seem to be a lack of Spanish speaking doctors which is why I was thinking of including that.

I'll be applying this upcoming cycle! It's going to be a lot of drafts from here on out.

 

[candbgirl]

Oh no, that’s not what I mean at all. In fact, if you have done lots of translating with/for others it’s a real bonus. There is a big need for medical translators and you absolutely should mention your fluency in Spanish. I was more put off(maybe) by the need for a little kid having to deliver major medical news to the parent because the doc/hospital doesn’t have those services. What if you misunderstood and told your mom something wrong? That could have been a mess. You have to be equally careful when writing so there is no misunderstanding and you come across as genuine and not overtly dramatic.

 

[YCAGA]

Talking about Spanish language abilities is a plus and something I am passionate about as well, so I will acknowledge that bias.

You are in a tough spot because your upbringing sounds very difficult and trying. Normally the advice is to not make your PS a sob story, which remains true. But in your case, your story is legitimately saddening so I am not as worried about the dramatics that is normally implied when calling something a “sob story.” Regardless, I would be cautious that people reading your essay just end up feeling sad and learn nothing about you, which shouldn’t be your goal. Reading your original post I just thought about how messed up the world can be, but I didn’t get a sense of “damn this person would be a great classmate because of X Y and Z.” Not saying you aren’t a great person…you just didn’t show it in your story.

I personally spoke about my experiences interpreting in Spanish, but how I felt like an observer on the sidelines that couldn’t actually help the patient directly. I couldn’t give (medical) advice or talk with the patient directly during the encounter (that’s bad interpreting 101). So that is something that made me want to be involved in direct patient care. Why physician over RN, PA, RT, etc is a more nuanced question that your PS should also address imo. Or at the very least should be clear in your experiences and interviews.

 

[ElectronOrbitals]

Oh no, that’s not what I mean at all. In fact, if you have done lots of translating with/for others it’s a real bonus. There is a big need for medical translators and you absolutely should mention your fluency in Spanish. I was more put off(maybe) by the need for a little kid having to deliver major medical news to the parent because the doc/hospital doesn’t have those services. What if you misunderstood and told your mom something wrong? That could have been a mess. You have to be equally careful when writing so there is no misunderstanding and you come across as genuine and not overtly dramatic.

Ah okay, that makes sense. Thank you for clearing it up.

I definitely hear you in that some people that read that could frown upon it. I think I'll exclude that all together to avoid any issues. Again, I appreciate the advice you have given me today and for clearing up the misunderstanding.

 

[ElectronOrbitals]

Talking about Spanish language abilities is a plus and something I am passionate about as well, so I will acknowledge that bias.

You are in a tough spot because your upbringing sounds very difficult and trying. Normally the advice is to not make your PS a sob story, which remains true. But in your case, your story is legitimately saddening so I am not as worried about the dramatics that is normally implied when calling something a “sob story.” Regardless, I would be cautious that people reading your essay just end up feeling sad and learn nothing about you, which shouldn’t be your goal. Reading your original post I just thought about how messed up the world can be, but I didn’t get a sense of “damn this person would be a great classmate because of X Y and Z.” Not saying you aren’t a great person…you just didn’t show it in your story.

I personally spoke about my experiences interpreting in Spanish, but how I felt like an observer on the sidelines that couldn’t actually help the patient directly. I couldn’t give (medical) advice or talk with the patient directly during the encounter (that’s bad interpreting 101). So that is something that made me want to be involved in direct patient care. Why physician over RN, PA, RT, etc is a more nuanced question that your PS should also address imo. Or at the very least should be clear in your experiences and interviews.

Thanks for the response! Glad to hear we share a common goal of being able to translate for patients!

Going off your point and the advice that I've gotten from others I think it'd be best to focus on things that I've been working on recently. Like you said I'm not trying to make people feel sad. If I understood you correctly, I'll try to focus on the things that would make me a great student (without sounding like a salesman though haha).

I loved reading your last point as I've been feeling the same way at my current job so I think it could be something I mention in my PS. Being that I work at a PT clinic, I'll definitely have to explain why a physician over a PT. Thanks again for this advice!

 

[LizzyM]

You had health problems that began even before you were born and required follow-up for many years, Your mother had life-threatening health problems. Communications with physicians were complicated by your mother's inability to speak English and your physician's inability to communicate with her in Spanish except with you, her child, as an interpreter. That's a decent opening. At that point, you decide to prepare to become a physician. Why? Because you want to help people? Because you are curious about how the human body works and the scientific discoveries and inventions that continue to provide new diagnostic procedures and treatments for disease? Because you want to contribute to the improvement of the health of families and communities? Why medicine?

Now that we know your motivation for medicine, tell us, "How did you prepare?" Tell us what you learned by watching physicians in shadowing situations or in jobs you may have had along side physicians. Tell us what you learned about interacting with strangers (not family) who were sick, injured, dying, or seeking routine preventive care (like well baby visits). Tell us about your career goals and what you see as a typical day or week in your life 10 years from now.

 

[ElectronOrbitals]

You had health problems that began even before you were born and required follow-up for many years, Your mother had life-threatening health problems. Communications with physicians were complicated by your mother's inability to speak English and your physician's inability to communicate with her in Spanish except with you, her child, as an interpreter. That's a decent opening. At that point, you decide to prepare to become a physician. Why? Because you want to help people? Because you are curious about how the human body works and the scientific discoveries and inventions that continue to provide new diagnostic procedures and treatments for disease? Because you want to contribute to the improvement of the health of families and communities? Why medicine?

Now that we know your motivation for medicine, tell us, "How did you prepare?" Tell us what you learned by watching physicians in shadowing situations or in jobs you may have had along side physicians. Tell us what you learned about interacting with strangers (not family) who were sick, injured, dying, or seeking routine preventive care (like well baby visits). Tell us about your career goals and what you see as a typical day or week in your life 10 years from now.

This is golden, thank you so much! I'll definitely have to answer all these questions within the PS but I'll be sure to use this as a backbone for sure. Again, thank you!