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!

Two More Essential Tips to Elevate Your Personal Statement 

Number 2:  Have Multiple People Proofread Your Essay 

A simple spelling error or typo may not upend your chances of getting into a Medical School, you want to use this letter as a platform showing a Medical School's Admissions Board that you are thorough and articulate when conveying your message.  A good rule of thumb to use when proofreading your essay is to have 3 different people read it.   

The first person who should review your essay is someone who is a close friend or family member — someone who understands you deeply and can provide valuable insight about whether the essay is genuine or shallow. They will be able to offer their suggestions to make the essay more encapsulating of your struggles or your passions in order to hit the mark more squarely than what you had depicted. It is hard to write genuinely introspective Personal Statements, so it is wise to seek all the help you can get in this situation.  

The second person who should have a look at your Personal Statement essay is someone who has a keen eye for grammatical errors and sentence structure. It is important to make sure that your sentences follow a logical pattern, that you are not "too wordy", and that you achieve a natural flow to present your message are concisely as possible.

Even if you are granted 1.5 pages of space to present your stance, it is wise to use only 1 page because in reality, a reviewer will only skim through your essay. The more time the reviewer of your Personal Statement is forced to dedicate to your essay, the more likely it becomes that they will be bored and unmoved by your message. If you can say your message in fewer words, do this without a doubt.  

The last person that should help you review your essay is someone who has experience in medicine — so they can help you decide if your reason to pursue a career in Medicine is validated. Someone who has already been through Medical School went through the same hurdles that lie before you, and are quite familiar with what it takes to make a strong Personal Statement. This last person to review your Personal Statement can be a doctor in the family, or even a physician you shadowed with during your undergraduate studies. 

After all three chosen reviewers have revised your essay, you will find that your Personal Statement essay has transformed from your raw draft to something intimate, genuine, and medically precise. Your sentences will not be a meandering mess, and you may find a few paragraphs you can remove entirely so the essay can be as concise as possible to keep your readers interested.  

Number 3: Do Not By Frustrated By the Number of Revisions You Will Make 

A Personal Statement is one of the most frustrating and taxing efforts that you need to undertake when you are applying to Medical School. It is impossible to profess exactly what motivates you to follow the path of becoming a doctor, and it will be take months for you to reach a point where you can even just tolerate the wording of your essay.

The key thing to remember is you will struggle when writing your Personal Statement essay. Welcome this, and use it. It is amazing that 1 page of material can carry so much weight. Do not get frustrated if you find yourself hitting a wall over and over again as you attempt to bypass the writer's block you may be suffering from.  

You're not training to be a writer. In reality, once you are in medicine, you only have to write Patient Notes and not a Pulitzer Prize-worthy manuscript.  If an idea is not coming to you, relax and do something else. Eventually you will have a great idea and can start molding that into your final masterpiece.