1) I've been told in interviews that my PS was in the top 5% of the ones the interviewer had ever read.
2) My friends recommend me out to their friends to write/help/edit their PS's
3) Friends have reported back to me that their interviewers complimented their personal statements.
4) Essays I've written have received interviews at Harvard, Mayo, UCLA, Yale, UPenn, NYU, Mt. Sinai, etc.
So TOOT TOOT!!
Anyway, I'm done bragging but here's my advice.
1. If you know you suck at writing, or are even an average writer, seek help. Get a 2nd opinion and a 102nd opinion. Spell check. Grammar. And lose the freaking run-on sentences. Also, do a word frequency check (by eye). Did you use the same word 18 times in your essay? Did you say "I believe that" 3 times in one paragraph. Fix that. It's super annoying to readers.
2. Pick one direction, go with it. It's the worst to read a completely unorganized essay. Beginning with story 1, jumping to advice your father gave you, then describing your childhood dreams, then jumping to story 2, then describing your dog. Blah blah blah.
3. If you accomplish nothing else in your essay, demonstrate the following two things. 1) you UNWAVERING commitment to whatever you are applying for and why you want to do it, and 2) demonstrate your capabilities in the MOST HUMBLE POSSIBLE WAY. Any hint that this is anything less than your dream job is going to be a red flag. That and being an egotistical a-hole.
4. What you want to do is construct an interesting NARRATIVE that your reader will continue reading until the end. Cliche as it may seem, a story is always best because it makes your reader interested. The LAST thing you want is your Ad-com officer to be mentally exhausted and or irritated from trying to follow an illogical essay or just from TRYING to get to the end. Write a story (true or made up) in which you can weave all your cool little details into.
5. Your essay is not the time to describe every attribute about yourself in complete detail. The idea is to weave in interesting tidbits that will make your reader want to reference your application and look it over more closely. Like "Wow, how did this guy learn Farsi?"... or "Wait, this chick is 24 and she spent 3 years in Djibouti teaching... how is that possible?". If you do it correctly you will effectively coerce your reader to investigate your application more thoroughly instead of just giving it a once over.
6. Use this checklist to make sure you haven't done anything grossly offensive
- Did you come off egotistical?
- Do you put ANYONE down in your essay? Stupid professors, unsupportive counselors, etc. This is a no-no.
- Do you blame ANYONE except yourself for weak spots in your application? This is bad. For example, there is a difference between saying that your grades in college were sub-par because you were splitting energy between school and your full-time job vs. blaming your crappy grades on the fact that your parents cut you off from parental scholarship and you were forced to get a job.
- Is there ANYTHING that can be interpreted as racist, sexist, political, or religious? You should probably lose that stuff.
- Ok, here's a big one. Do you even HINT that you are interested in your chosen field because of money? Meaning you use the phrase "I really enjoy the lifestyle that medicine will afford me"? Definitely LOSE THAT. That's a BIG RED FLAG, BLACK BALL, whatever you want to call it.
- Do you mention that you are going into field X because your parents want you to? Or because your dad is also an X, and you want to be one too?
- Are you overstating your qualifications? Don't make your shadowing experience seem like you were doing lumbar punctures. Everyone on the ad-com will know you're a liar. Or at least a severe exaggerator.
- Name dropping. That's lame.
Here's some great stuff to include if you can:
- Foreign language abilities
- Clinical experiences
- Pre-med moments which made you REALLY want to be a doctor, or moments that made you really uncomfortable
- Your family status. You don't have to, but I think mentioning your kids or spouse is often indicative of your maturity and the diversity you will bring to the class
- teaching experience - adcoms love this. teachers make great learners
- international experiences
- demonstrating that you aren't a stress-basket
Ok, that's all for now. Good luck!
Thanks for the tips.I see why your personal statement would stand out.I'm not writting a personal statement,but i think this would help in some papers and essays too.
ReplyDeleteSAVING THIS POST!!
ReplyDeleteThanks. :)
Perfect timing I will be writing mine in a few months (eek!) Thanks for the advice :)
ReplyDeleteI'm 29 and developed Rheumatoid Arthritis at 22, even though I have 2 years before I will be writing a personal statment for schools, do you think that is something that I should include in my personal statment. For me, even though I've always wanted to go into medicine, having to deal with a chronic disease has really expanded on my reasons as to why I want to become a doctor. The experiences I've had while dealing with this disease has opened my eyes to a whole new spectrum of why I should become a doctor and what I can contribute.
ReplyDeleteL~ thanks for writing. Wow. This is tough. I certainly see why having RA would be a driving factor towards medicine. As far as including it in your essay, that's up to you. My thoughts are that it is risky, though. You may have a reader who admires your tenacity and the challenges you are dealing with, and sees benefit to training a physician who can empathize first hand with chronic disease. Or you may get a reader who finds your condition a turn-off. Who worries that problems associated with RA may affect your ability to finish med school or shorten your commitment to the field of medicine. It's kind of a toss-up who you will get.
ReplyDeleteI guess my best advice is find another topic. It would be a shame to miss out on med school because some ad-com person was worried about their retention rate, etc. I know this is an unfortunate answer, but the reality is that the field of medicine is not particularly progressive in these matters... and my opinion is that you don't want to do yourself a disservice when it is already extremely difficult to get into med school. Different schools may be more liberal towards these types of things... maybe others have opinions on this?
I have been thinking the same points you made, that some would see it as a point of admiration wherease others would see it as a turn off. Although I function quite well and have an excellent rheumatolgoist and hand surgeon who vie for my ability to become an MD, it could still be seen as a disadvantage. You can't even tell I have RA unless I point it out. Like you said, I think I'll venture and write about another topic and incorporate my shadowing experience of people in the field of rheumatology and orthopaedics into my statement and how interacting with them and their patients has given me a desire to help those with chronic illnesses, even in shadowing, you get a first hand experience of what its like to live with such conditions, the fears, worries and limitations that patients have in dealing with their conditions, esp. with RA. I'd be pretty pissed if after all this time I have finally decided to go for med school, only to be shot down because of my joints, and it doesn't help that I have developed an interest in hand surgery, because that would really be cause for worry.
ReplyDeleteElla -- I don't know if I agree with your advice to L. I think the experience of being a patient is incredibly valuable to someone who wants to be a doctor, and I would actually be a bit shocked if an admissions committee questioned her ability to complete medical school based on a diagnosis of RA, in particular if she can show that her disease is well controlled (something that is *completely* possible with some of the new medications that are on the market). Obviously it depends on how you talk about it, though.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I don't sit on an admissions committee, so what do I know, really.
All I'm saying is just because someone is on an Ad-Com doesn't make them ethical. Why purposefully take the chance? I guess I'm a little jaded because I've seem people put their medical conditions "out there" before and it's bit them.
ReplyDeleteI know someone who wanted to do ADHD research in a psych residency, and so she disclosed that she had worked to manage her ADHD in X, Y, and Z ways. The program director wrote an email that said "I can tell that you are a highly qualified and gifted physician, but I am now concerned with issues surrounding hyperactivity"
I also know 2 people with mild neurological conditions who have experienced similar situations regarding their "abilities"... or lack thereof.
I'm not advocating that you hide your condition, or deny it. But independent of your true abilities or current therapies, it seems risky that the wrong person may not be empathetic or knowledgeable about RA. I am certain that you have many many other achievements and motivating factors to discuss.
OldMDGirl is right, with all the great drugs and treatments there are for RA, it is well maintained and I've had the necessary surgeries to continue to maintain the function I need in my hands, I feel and move great.
ReplyDeleteI also see both OldMDGirl and your point, Ella...I guess in a perfect world, Ad-Com's would see people with illnesses who want to work in medicine as a great person for patient advocacy being that there are on the receiving line of patient care on a long term basis, but there are also those Ad-Com folks who could easily say "well, you would make a good doctor, but there IS that issue of you having RA, realistically, how long could you really last in school or practicing in the field?" I have no intentions of hiding my condition, but I also don't want to hinder my chance of getting into school, either, so I will probably discuss my other achievements and motivations for wanting to attend medical school. I've talked to several directors of programs I'm interested in and disclosed to them my RA and told them what treatments I've had and am on and how I function and they have all said that my condition would not be a hinderance in the field, one director of a pathology program I spoke with who specializes in bone pathology even told me that what I'm doing to treat my RA is right on track and some of the best treatments out there...so there are some people who would have no problems with it.
OldMDGirl makes a good point in its all in how you present it, if I make myself a victim, I'm sure it wouldn't bode well with the Ad-Com committee. Regardless, I feel I am blessed to have such good doctors who work hard in maintaining my RA and taking the necessary steps to maintain the best function possible in my hands, considering how when I first became sick I could barely walk to now looking, feeling and functioning as if I never developed RA, I can't complain in the least bit!
I believe you Ella, since you've been there. I guess Drs are even bigger turds than I thought.
ReplyDeleteI think it really sucks to have to balance being completely upfront and honest about who you are with selectively omiting information that others (adcoms) may not like. I think it's a sacrifice for being in such a competative field. and it's not just about illnesses, etc. It's the same thing with pregnant interviewees or candidates that want to start a family in med school or residency. Certainly you can do it and it's no reflection on your abilites, but definitely there are PDs who would eliminate a candidate who outwardly expresses the desire to have children first year, etc. All that being said I would never deny anything about myself if I were asked directly... but like you said, focus on other things.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post! I'll be saving it as well.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I have often wondered about using chunks material from my blog as part of a narrative for clinical experiences. Do you think that this is a bad idea? It seems like it could easily be googled, connected to the blog, and then I'd have to worry about the entire blog being open to an admissions committee.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great post.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you, Ella, about your advice to L. I have also seen people get "bitten" by disclosing medical conditions they have. RA may not be the most controversial, but AIDS/Hepatitis and cancer are... One thing, I would disagree on is on the bullet point about one's family. A friend of mine has 3 kids. She was rudely grilled by a dean of admissions at a top 15 school insinuating that she was "high risk" and questions like how she would take care of her kids came up many times? She was literally grilled. I have always thought that it was illegal to ask those, but apparently isn't. And my friend has a 3.9 post bac GPA from a great univ. in the city. She could maintain that with 3 kids and a part time job. But her meeting with the dean ended with "there are other med schools out there." Ouch. I would say be just as careful with family status as you would with personal diseases.
I have written my statement already and I found myself very worried about some things I could have put in there: too political, too religious, too personal, too egoistical, too medical, too much nursing... but the bottom line is I think one could completely "wash out" their personal statement and sound blaze and flat if one doesn't include at least something intriguing. So you are correct about that - meaning to include things carefully. The best way, I guess, is to apply broadly and widely and hope that someone likes your essay and hence you... right?
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ReplyDelete