For those of you who have already gone through the application process, how do you even begin the personal statement and what should and should not be written?
Generally for many of us past grades were a problem so how do you give a quick explaination without dwelling and seem like you are making excuses?
I want to start writing so when application season starts all; I have to do is copy and paste.
Thanks,
Gabe
I didn’t address my prior bad grades issue in my personal statement; I wanted mine to have a relatively positive tone.
In fact, about the only time I addressed the issue was if a school had a “is there anything else you’d want us to know” question on a secondary.
I also did not address my prior grades in my PS. I started my PS from the perspective of what happened in my life that helped me decide to go to medical school (which was several years removed from my undergrad), so there was no easy way to mention that info.
If there was some major event in your life that contributed to who you are and/or why you wanted to be a doctor that also relates to your past grades, then include it. I wouldn’t spend lots of time on trying to figure out how to explain my past grades. Like Boeing said, some will give you an option to explain them on a secondary. Most will ask you about them at an interview. IMHO, most schools that are going to reject you outright based on your prior grades will do so with or without an your giving them an explanation. The ones that are willing to overlook bad past grades in the past will give you the opportunity to explain them.
Good luck on the PS!! I spent months thinking about how I wanted to approach mine before I finally started writing it!!
Amy
Thanks for the input. Now my question is, How do I start it? Do I relate a story, am I telling a story what exactly is the personal statement supposed to tell?
I’ve never considered creative writing a strong point of mine, so I looked at the book “Essays That Will Get You Into Medical School.” I didn’t use it to copy essays, but to read some essays to get a feel for format. I read some of them and thought to myself “I would never wirte something like that.” Others were in a voice similar to my own. Also, they are indexed by topic, so you can look up essays from people with like backgrounds to yours. For me it gave me a starting point from which I could get my own creative juices flowing. I think that Mary Renard also used this books, so she might have some insight to resources.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
Tara
I chose to start writing by pouring my heart out into as many pages as possible… I think I started out with something like 4-5 pages… then I let it sit for a while… oh… I need to add that I contemplated writing it and what I would say for several months prior to starting…
when I finally picked it back up it was completely different… The hardest part for me was cutting down what I wanted to say into the amount of characters required…
I started out writing a story… I’ve always liked creative writing… so I did what came naturally… I didn’t address any prior grades… but I think I mentioned something to the effect of growing up or being more mature or something like that… that was the extent of it…
I chose to “be vague” when I wrote my personal statement… I conveyed the qualities that I thought were important to the field of medicine(and practice) by mentioning some of my life experiences…
it was really difficult… but as many others have suggested in the past… allow yourself enough time to write it…put it down… edit it… rewrite it… etc.
I think I ended up with 5 drafts…and who knows how many edits.
Good luck!
Andrea
There is no “set” format for a personal statement. I also checked out numerous books (including the one mentioned above) to look at other examples. Some tell a story, some don’t. Mine was more of a narrative than a creative writing kind of thing. I think one of the more helpful things for me was the “Essays” section on Examkracker’s website.
Personally, I found many of the essays to be very intimidating. From the sounds of them, most of these people would have gotten into medical school even if their PS had been crap. (Many of them detail extensive research and volunteer experience). Nevertheless, they will still give you some idea as to format, and hopefully some ideas of what you do AND don’t want yours to sound like.
Yes, I used Barron’s “Essays that Will Get YOU Into Medical School” when I found that writing the PS was waaaay harder than I anticipated. I am a good writer and I like to express myself in writing. So I was a little surprised to find myself “tongue-tied” when it came to telling my own story, and this is why I found the Barron’s book so helpful. As Tara noted, there are lots of sample essays in the book but that’s not why I liked it. I used it for the first half of the book, which actually walks you through various exercises to describe your life and prioritize the things you want to say. Initially I didn’t think i’d need such an exercise but I found it incredibly helpful. The exercises push you to organize your life experiences and describe them, identify the ones that really matter, and then integrate them into a story that really helps you to shine. My efforts at a PS prior to using these exercises were pretty uninspiring compared with the PS I actually ended up writing thanks to these exercises.
I know I’m sounding like an advertisement but really, this book helped me a ton and I am sure that my PS “grabbed” readers in a way that helped me get interviews. I highly, highly recommend it.
Mary
Thanks all for the advice. Just four months away from the bid test day along with other things going on in work and school and life.
I think just finding the time to get to everything is very daunting.
How many people and to whom did you give your PS to in order to read, proofread, and comment? How many drafts did you go through? and at what point did you say this is THE one?
Sorry for all the questions I just want to get started on this.
Gabe
I had two former adcom members, 2 English teachers, a librarian, and a Business teacher read mine. The teachers more for a grammar perspective and the adcom people for the adcom perspective, obviously.
Other than cutting out some stuff and grammar correction, I did not make too many significant changes to mine once I finally sat down and wrote it. But, that’s always been my personal style of writing. I usually edit as I write, so that my finished “draft” is pretty much what my finished product ends up being.
Some people will tell you to have LOTS of different people read it, but I think there is also such a thing as having too MANY people read it. I advise one or two grammarians and one or two adcom type people. Then, consider all their comments and make revisions until you come up with a final product that makes YOU happy.
I only had a few people read a fairly late draft. More important for me was that I worked for several days in a row polishing a version and then set it aside for a couple of weeks before I looked at it again. That fresh perspective is invaluable and I would highly recommend that you plan your time to include this break from working on the PS. When you’re so familiar with what you’re writing, you know what you are trying to say - and it isn’t until you come back much later, when every phrase is no longer in the front of your brain, that you may realize you didn’t actually say what you meant. Be sure to program in a break.
In my case, I was taking the MCAT, O-chem 2 and physics 2 and I worked on my PS during the semester - and my “PS break” coincided with MCAT and finals so I definitely purged my brain of the memorized PS!
Oh, something to take a little time pressure off: to the folks who wrote my LORs, I gave a polished but ultimately draft version of the PS from earlier in the semester. As it turned out, it wasn’t much like the final version but it still told my story and was well written. You do not have to have a FINAL PS for your referees, because they’re not AdComs - the point of giving a PS to those folks is so they know you better and understand your motivations for pursuing medicine.
Mary
Mary
The PS should really sound like you. Every bit of it should sound like you on a good day. 
That said, I’ll tell you that I read it out loud to my dog. Really! Anything that didn’t sound like me, went on too long, read more like a resume than a story, got the ax. Try it. Start with an exciting ‘hook’ (something about a patient or you, or…) and wrap it up at the end by relating the end back to the begining. Put your story in between. Read it out loud. Edit. Read. Repeat until you’ve got a PS that reads well, flows well, etc.
And I agree with Mary R. Put the thing down, take a break and come back to it with fresh eyes. I don’t know how anyone writes their PS at the last minute, but some people do well that way, but I can’t recommend it. Good luck!
Quote:
The PS should really sound like you. Every bit of it should sound like you on a good day.
And I agree with Mary R. Put the thing down, take a break and come back to it with fresh eyes. I don’t know how anyone writes their PS at the last minute, but some people do well that way, but I can’t recommend it. Good luck!
Much of this is advice I, too, give. Hook. Anti-hook (how a long-ago client described taking the ending back to the beginning). Read it aloud for language and rhythm. For non-trads, you also want the AdComm to understand your path towards medicine.
Cheers,
Judy
It is good that you are starting now in writing your personal statement. For many years I helped run part of a free clinic, where budding premeds were continually running their PS’s by me for accuracy, poignancy, content, and clarity. In my estimation most of them waited far too long before taking the time to put their thoughts on paper. As a result their PS’s often sounded wooden, stilted, and immature. But some of the best were those that focused in key incidents that “hooked” the intended reader (apparently mostly older white males with little time to sift through riffraff). As Judy and others have pointed out, having a “hook” and anti-hook format helps draw in the reader.
Edit it ruthlessly. Economy of words and maximization of your topics and intention.
Read it out loud several times, then put it away, and then read it out loud again.
Then, make more changes.
Another possible hint is to keep a PS journal and write a temporary PS: Although I am years away from applying to medical school myself, I have been keeping a journal of ideas and experiences that could form the underpinnings of a PS. I also have a “transitional” PS on my laptop, which I continually tinker with when new experiences, ideas, and insights come to mind.
Think of your PS as an evolutionary document, continually evolving towards a final form.
I keep personal statement notes on my PDA, in the ‘memo’ section. I created a subject area called medical school, for notes related to medical school.
I’ve taken the PDA and its keyboard to medical school visits and the 2003 Old Premeds conference. Thus, I have easy access to all the info I’ve collected without digging through paper. It’s on my computer too, since I syncronize the PDA…
When the time comes to put together the final version of my PS, I will be able to pull up all those idea notes… And I will run them by you all. 
Before I got the PDA, I lost lots of good ideas, and poems and songs when new ones came to me. My old Palm IIIXE is an invaluable tool.
I used it to take notes for Biology and EMT-B classes too.
Leah
ps: i’ve always found it helpful to give my writing to others to EDIT – I may not accept all edits, but the critique is vital, since we don’t see ourselves as clearly as others tdo. Of course I have originals to refer back to. 
I have gone through 3 drafts of my opening paragraph and I think I found it. Would there be people willing to read and critique?
How did you approach people to read your essay and why did you choose those people?
Hello,
I also read “Essays that Will Get YOU Into Medical School” It gave me a sense of what a medical school personal statment should resemble. I then sat down with my cv, and brain stormed the events of my life and wrote. I gave myself three days to do this. I was left with an almost 5 page paper. I then took what I felt were the turining points in my life that reflected who I am, and my experience with medicine, and the path leading me to medicine. (another 3 days, down to 2 1/2 pages)
I then let a very close friend who is a professional auther review and edit, also my mom and dad, and a very close friend who knew me. (a week down to one page)
In the end I was left with an astounding paper if I may say so myself. My personal statment (on the primary app) and secondary personal essay displayed who I was, where I came from, and how becoming a physican is a natural progression for me. I did not review my materials before any interview, but after my acceptance I noticed how true my essays are to who I am and my life experiences. I think this is the objective of these statments. They aren’t just to show you are already a doc and getting the license is just a formality, or showboat yourself. I think it is a time to show your care for others, ability to problem solve, stick with tough situations and decisions, and how you grew from these consequences/situations. In my humble and inexperienced opinion, the afore mentioned speaks volumes over a personal decleration of triumph and glorious living…
shenry