LOR

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
1

I need some help with formatting a CV or personal statement. I have a professor that I want to write an LOR for me (which he agreed too…) but requested a personal statement and/or CV…
So, any good websites out there that can get me started?
Thanks

2

This is a link to the sample CV that Univ of Maryland SOM has on their Student Development site. Hope this helps.
Tara
P.S. I hope this link works since this is my first time trying to do this :slight_smile:

Sample CV

3

Thanks, the link worked fine - any outlines or suggestions for a personal statement or even samples of MCAT essays would helpful…

Thanks,
Glenn

4

I used the book “Essays That Will Get You Into Medical School” or something really close to that. It was starting point. It walked you through some creative writing steps, getting you to reflect on some of you past experiences plus showing you different techniques to present your “story” in a not-so-boring way. It helped me a lot because I have always written professional-type technical items and I saw making my personal statement something interesting for someone else to read a challenge. The book also had several sample essays with an index where you could search for essays that had elements similar to your life (i.e. older, musician, military, etc).
In the end, the “theme” to my my personal statement became a journey of my life, what I have done and what I liked about each of those experiences that applied to medicine as well as what was missing. I concluded by showing how all of those pieces from various activities fit together in medicine. It wasn’t super-creative, but it also didn’t apologize for the path my life has taken (that aspect was very important to me). I’m glad I’ve taken this path and I showed in my personal statement how all of my experiences have made me the person I am today and if I had taken a different path, I’m not sure I could have definitively known medicine was my life’s goal.
I’m sure others here have taken different approaches, but this was the one I was most comfortable with using.
Happy writing smile.gif
Tara

5

Tara,
Thanks for all of the input - I appreciate your help…

Glenn