Application Essays and Personal Statements

The personal statement accompanies your AMCAS and non-AMCAS applications to medical schools. You will also receive supplementary applications (secondaries) with specific long answer essays, and much of the advice we will go over below will also apply to your secondaries. Sometimes referred to as the “statement of purpose” or “personal essay,” this is your opportunity to state who you are, where you are coming from and where you are going professionally. The statement is one of five or six central factors that go into making admission decisions--the others are GPA, test scores, letters of recommendation, experience and the interview. A poorly written statement can keep you out of the program of your choice, while a well-written statement may get you to the interview and prove to be a deciding factor in your acceptance. You want to garner the admissions committee’s interest with your personal statement and secondary essays. Someone who reads your essay and does not know you should find you interesting and want to meet you. (Please see the internal Pocket for some Examples of Medical School Alumni Statements.

What do Admissions Committee Members Look for in the Statement?

Admissions Committee members will be looking mainly at style and content. They read countless applications and essays in a fairly short time and as a result, many readers skim personal statements. Therefore, you should be concise (but not too brief) and use key words and action verbs throughout your statement. For this same reason, you should try to capture your reader’s attention by describing any out-of-the-ordinary and interesting things you have done.
If possible try to incorporate warmth and feeling in your essay. This is not an exercise in academic writing; it is ok to use the word “I”. Instill some humanity in the statement, and give them a reason to want to interview you. Write it as if you were writing a newspaper article about yourself in the sense that you want to answer the “who, what, where, when, and how” of you and your journey toward medicine.

What Should You Do to Get Started?

Think about what kind of information you want the admissions committee to know about you that is not fully described elsewhere in the application. There may be some overlap with information in the application, but it will be presented in a different way.

Some questions that will help you get started:

• What is your first recollection about doctors and the medical field? What was your reaction to it?
• Who do you know who is a doctor? What do you like, respect, admire about that person?
• Why do you want to be a doctor, dentist, or veterinarian? Why not a nurse/ counselor? social worker/ researcher, Veterinar Technician, or Dental Assistant?
• Who is your role model and why? What have you learned from this person?
• What is the most memorable experience you had in your health related/social service experience?
• I’m the dean of a medical school, why should I let you in?
• What are two things about you that make you different from anyone else you know?
• When did you discover your interest in the field? Profession?
• Why are you interested in the field? Profession?
• What academic strengths do you possess? For example: above average grades, leadership roles in specific courses, teaching assistant/lab assistant experience.
• Are there some extraordinary circumstances that may need to be discussed? For example: your grades suffered in a particular semester/year because of a demanding work schedule, illness, or family problems. Before you venture down these roads please speak with us we may be able to address these issues more safely in our letter.
• What honors/awards have you received? For example: scholarships, awards bestowed by an organization of which you are a member, recognition for work in the community.
• What research activities have you participated in? For example: research assistant, slide prep, data entry/analysis, and survey development/administration.
• What extracurricular activities have you participated in? For example: membership/office in a campus organization, membership/office in a professional/community organization.
• What volunteer experience do you have?
• What relevant work experience do you have?
• What specific areas of interest do you have within the field of medicine?
• Why will you make a strong addition to this program? What strengths do you bring with you?
• What are your career goals once you complete your education?
• Have you had meaningful life experiences: careers, travel, Peace Corps., graduate degrees, etc., that would make you stand out from the rest. Discuss your non-traditional background, using it to highlight your journey to medicine.
• Make a list of all the information you want the admissions committee to have about you. Organize the items on your list into groups of ideas that seem to fit together naturally.

Writing Your Statement

1. Read the question on the application before you write your answer. Many times applicants have their own agenda when writing and forget to focus on the question asked of them. After you are finished, reflect on the question and make sure your answer is exactly that--an answer.
2. Write when you write and edit when you edit! Your first draft should be straight from the heart, brutally honest, and inclusive of all the information you think will be useful to the admissions committee; you can edit later.
3. Do not just write what you think they want to read. It will seem too contrived. Speak from your heart; trying to convey an honest representation of who you are is the best policy. You can't fabricate a person that does not exist!
4. A personal statement should be a reflection of your personality. By reading your personal statement the admissions committee should be able to develop a better understanding of you. An effective essay lets the reader know you would be interesting person to interview.
5. Consider the readers of your application. "Admissions committees are made up of persons who are proud to be associated with the profession, and are gatekeepers of the profession." Do not overly criticize medicine or physicians.
6. For Post-Bac Students: As a student, most of you have nontraditional backgrounds, which need to be explained. You can use your background to illustrate your maturity, new-found study skills, motivation, direction, and focus. You have given up time, money, and other valuable things to make this change in your life and career direction. This says a great deal about you.
7. No whining and no excuses--do not write a laundry list of personal problems. The essay should be upbeat, illustrating how you have turned adversity to strength. An explanation is always better than an excuse. Owning up to your own contribution to academic problems is a better way to go than blaming someone else or not taking ownership of what you did to contribute to a problem. For example, if you have changed your study habits and are now successful, discuss how you changed or modified your approach.
8. Avoid the unusual. A personal statement in the form of a ceramic yucca or haiku is not a good idea.
9. Be specific and provide details. Your details and experiences are what make your personal statement unique and will impress the reader. Document your conclusions with examples.
10. Do not simply supply a list of accomplishments and experiences without addressing how those experiences helped you determine your career objective or helped you to better understand yourself and your role as a potential health care provider. A laundry list of accomplishments may appear egotistical. Everything in your personal statement should have a reason for being included. Formulate conclusions that reflect the meaningfulness of your experiences.
11. Be prepared to write several drafts. Start early! Waiting until the last minute is never a good idea. After you have written your statement, set it aside for a day or two (or more) then revisit it. When you read it again, you may be in a different frame of mind and will be fresh to revise.
12. Organize your ideas logically. Many personal statements are organized chronologically. Other statements are organized by topic (e.g. history, academic background, experience, and community service) or by theme or thesis (e.g. what will make a good physician in the year 2010 and how/why you would be that person). Whatever style you choose, it is imperative that you provide the reader with some reference points so that s/he does not have to spend time sorting out your information.
13. Set the proper tone for your statement. Remember that this is your chance for them to know you more personally and you should take full advantage of this opportunity. Avoid the use of clichés. Avoid the use of slang and/or sentences or phrases that give conversational or chatty tone to your essay. In general, avoid criticism so that you do not run the risk of offending your readers. You are writing for professionals, so be professional in your choice of words.

Some Pointers for Polishing Your Personal Statement

1. Vary your sentence structure from time to time to keep your reader interested. What works is variety, controlling the rhythm of passages through the mixing of short, long and intermediate sentences. Several short sentences after several longer ones, on the other hand, can be equally effective as a brisk conclusion.
2. Do not try to be clever or humorous unless you are absolutely certain you can pull it off with finesse. An application to a graduate or health profession school is serious business.
3. Use the active voice. Put the spotlight on you rather than on someone or something else.
   Weak: I was employed by the veterinary hospital to assist…
   Better: I assisted in examination of…
4. Watch for sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and dangling phrases or ideas.
5. Use action-packed, descriptive verbs and be careful not to switch tenses. Avoid ending sentences with a preposition (e.g. with, of).
6. Do not be unnecessarily wordy.
   Weak: After the course was finished, I was sure that I wanted to spend my entire life in daily contact with the world of medicine.
   Better: That course convinced me my future was in medicine. (Then you can go on to say how and in what way you were convinced.)
7. Make sure your statement is organized, and avoid redundancy. If it is too long or rambling, it will appear undisciplined and out of focus.
8. When using an acronym, give the entire name when it first appears followed by the acronym in parentheses.
9. Have several people review your draft--friends, family, faculty and staff. They may know some things about you that you omitted, and may be more objective and give you an honest opinion on how you are coming across.
10. This is an exercise in perfection. Poor grammar, spelling, punctuation, incomplete sentences are not acceptable under any circumstances and will weaken your application.