Top 3 Tips to Use When Writing Your Medical School Personal Statement

You may have the high GPA, the good MCAT score, and the extracurricular activities that make you a strong Medical School candidate. Have you stopped to consider that all these essential qualities only make you a "dime a dozen" when you consider the caliber of many of the 53,000 applicants competing for the same limited spots in a Medical School class?  

When taking a first glance the overflowing applicant pool, an Admissions Board member (or more realistically, a Medical student and secretary), will briefly look at the applicants' credentials before focusing on the Personal Statement section of the application.  

A Personal Statement is a 5,300-character document roughly equivalent to 1.5 pages of information that portrays why you desire to become a Medical Doctor. Make no mistake — your Personal Statement easily represents the hardest 1.5 pages you will ever have to write in your life. It is very difficult to put your feelings into words as you struggle to explain why you want to pursue a career in the medical field, and convince the Admissions Board that you are a worthy candidate.  

Number 1:  Make the Essay About an Interesting and Compelling Life Story, Not Why You Wanted to Get into Medicine 

Choosing to go with an essay focus that makes you unique is a bold strategy, and even a slightly risky tactic, but one that will surely get you noticed by the Admissions' Board.

With so many generic applications circulating around the applicant pool, reading essay after essay about how you decided to be a doctor because you "want to help people" or "got into medicine because my parents were in the field," is basically a guaranteed way to find your application in the trash bin. Medical Schools are looking for an applicant who is well-rounded and will be able to become an element in the Medical Class that will propel the group as a whole forward to become not just good, but also great doctors in the future.  

What got me noticed by a lot of the Medical Schools that I applied to was the entertainment factor infused in my Personal Statement. I incorporated some of the elements of a trip around Europe that I had taken with my father. I described how our joint journey quickly transformed from a simple anticipation of seeing great monuments and foods to a 3-week survival challenge of trekking around Europe like gypsies, reliving what life was like for my father during the communist era in Eastern Europe.  

The one message that began to crystallize during this miserable encounter was to "not take life for granted and to fully appreciate everything you have." I was able to weave this message and the lessons I had learned on my journey into how I would implement my resilience and problem-solving skills into caring for my patients — and I ended up receiving very positive feedback from Interviewers during my Interview Days.  

The essay almost read as if I was hoping for pity in my Admission officer's decision. The most important thing to remember when writing these essays is to be genuine. Your Personal Statement needs to be a story that is captivating but will not be construed as a feeble attempt at sorrow.  Admissions' Boards will hear story after story of challenges during childhoods, and it is important that you do not annoy a school representative with a shallow effort. Don't fall into the pity trap!