anna's 101 on writing the personal statement
FAQ #4: ANNA WHAT DO I DO WITH MY PERSONAL STATEMENT?
So, I've talked to a few people, and some fears about the personal statement are how do I make it stand out? It's easy to say "MAKE SURE IT'S UNIQUE" and "CATCH THEIR ATTENTION" but really, what does that mean?
Now, coming from marketing and people-pleasing, I've come to understand that the best way to connect and create memorable impressions on people is through storytelling. Your personal statement is a place that lets the reader get to know YOU, not just what you've done, not all your accolades, and not even just why you want to pursuit medicine.
While a VERY IMPORTANT point of your personal statement is to let the adcoms know why you want to pursue medicine, a JUST AS IMPORTANT part is to let the school know why you are an especially appealing candidate. Unfortunately, most personal statements just address only one or the other (and usually it's the why medicine? part). A name of the game while you're doing apps is remembering to show a WHOLE picture of you.
The best way to paint a whole picture of you is through telling the story of your life (hah I worded it that way because One Direction is stuck in my head. fml) Now, I'm not saying your whole autobiography (because that would be too long and probably boring. #sorryjustbeingbrutallyhonest Do some soul-searching and figure out the things that are important to you and why/how they've shaped you to become the person you are today who wants to become a doctor. You aren't going to put EVERYTHING on it, but pshh you should sit down and really think about yourself anyway. Because you are the only person who has lived your life (oh god I'm spewing out platitudes, stay with me here, I promise it's worth it) make your statement reflect you. DO NOT choose a subject matter just because you think it'll impress the med school (i.e. "I want to help people." "I want to make a difference." etc, etc.now, if you have spent most of your life serving the poor like mother theresa, then by all means to stick to those but still make it you.) Med schools will much rather have a much more personal story of learning and growth, regardless of the topic (in most cases.) For me, I wrote about discovering my identity and learning that I was happiest when trying to understand the WHY in what I was doing. (well, that's the short version, if I had to distill it into a sentence.)
DO NOT just re-hash your resume or other parts of your app in your essay. That's what the "top three experiences" part of your experiences section is for (or the descriptors in general for the experiences parts). Now, if one of your extracurriculars has shaped who you have become, then by all means talk about it, but don't just put it in there to show them how you have been a good little pre-med student. This statement is the place for you to be creative! This is not only the time to think outside the box, it's also the time to review certain aspects of your life, including your experiences (school or non-school related), motivations, and personal qualities.You don't have to include all of these things, but organizing your thoughts into these categories will give you a better picture of your list of potential essay topics. You can also combine categories in formulating your topic.
Understand that because the personal statement is ultimately really short, the best way to have it make sense is for it to be a cohesive story. People know when it's just a bunch of things cobbled together under a theme. It doesn't work well. It doesn't read well. It's convoluted. Even if you don't think your life has a story, it does. Search enough and it does! YOU CAN FIND IT IN YOU.
GIVE YOURSELF TIME to rewrite multiple drafts and have people close to you/people you respect read it. I even had some letter writers comment and give me some constructive criticism, which helped me improve it! For me, their CC was to not be so apologetic in my essay/being down on myself. A good tip I was given was to make sure you put things in a positive light, like frame it in a way that shows how you learned and how something positive came out of it. After all, it's shaped you to be the person you are today, the person you hope the adcoms will accept!
This part of the app is also a good place to help boost up any potential red flags of your app. For me, it was the doing really badly in the first two years of college and failing a few classes, but I worked it in positively into my story after realizing what my story was. I realized that during that time, I was lost and proud, which I've definitely learned from.
Ultimately, this is how you show YOU. Who you are, as a snapshot, RIGHT NOW. You are showing adcoms what potential you have, your ability to grow from seeing how you have grown. It feeds into the all-too-common questions on secondaries "How will you bring driversity to our class?" Well, even if you don't feel particularly unique or special, you do have your story. You do have your experiences that in their totality are uniquely yours. Own them. Find a theme. Find what drives you. Find why you do what you do. Find what you have to offer as YOU, you wonderful pre-med child of the world. Your personal statement will benefit from thinking about these things, as will your life in general. This is why the normal matriculant tends to be older. We generally aren't forced to think about our identity and who we are when we're in school - most of us get to identify as students at the very least. Life gets a lot harder and you have to do a lot more thinking once you get thrust out from this identity of being a student (which chances are, most of us have been for around/at least 13 years). When the label "student" gets taken away, then what? We become our job? Or what, we like to hide behind the label of being a pre-med? Well, everyone applying is a pre-med and has been a student, so you've gotta find something else compelling about you.
Hopefully this helps you all. It's hard to come up with a story and bring meaning/themes into your own life. After all, we aren't movies or books that are supposed to have themes that can be distilled. Nevertheless, do some reflection and maybe you'll find something that gets at the heart of who you are. Even without med school, it's a good exercise to do. This whole process of apps has really helped round out who I am and be more thoughtful about me and my story, and even if I hadn't gotten into med school, I was glad I was forced to sit down and evaluate myself. Take it as a great learning experience with a deadline and high stakes that really forces you to get your ass in gear
*If you think I sound wise and would like some brainstorming about you, I'd be happy to talk. I'm not probably the best equipped to really help you think about who you are (since well, I probably won't know you) but I'm happy to help you get the ball rolling
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BerkeleyPreMed/663466263748250/?notif_t=group_activity
So, I've talked to a few people, and some fears about the personal statement are how do I make it stand out? It's easy to say "MAKE SURE IT'S UNIQUE" and "CATCH THEIR ATTENTION" but really, what does that mean?
Now, coming from marketing and people-pleasing, I've come to understand that the best way to connect and create memorable impressions on people is through storytelling. Your personal statement is a place that lets the reader get to know YOU, not just what you've done, not all your accolades, and not even just why you want to pursuit medicine.
While a VERY IMPORTANT point of your personal statement is to let the adcoms know why you want to pursue medicine, a JUST AS IMPORTANT part is to let the school know why you are an especially appealing candidate. Unfortunately, most personal statements just address only one or the other (and usually it's the why medicine? part). A name of the game while you're doing apps is remembering to show a WHOLE picture of you.
The best way to paint a whole picture of you is through telling the story of your life (hah I worded it that way because One Direction is stuck in my head. fml) Now, I'm not saying your whole autobiography (because that would be too long and probably boring. #sorryjustbeingbrutallyhonest Do some soul-searching and figure out the things that are important to you and why/how they've shaped you to become the person you are today who wants to become a doctor. You aren't going to put EVERYTHING on it, but pshh you should sit down and really think about yourself anyway. Because you are the only person who has lived your life (oh god I'm spewing out platitudes, stay with me here, I promise it's worth it) make your statement reflect you. DO NOT choose a subject matter just because you think it'll impress the med school (i.e. "I want to help people." "I want to make a difference." etc, etc.now, if you have spent most of your life serving the poor like mother theresa, then by all means to stick to those but still make it you.) Med schools will much rather have a much more personal story of learning and growth, regardless of the topic (in most cases.) For me, I wrote about discovering my identity and learning that I was happiest when trying to understand the WHY in what I was doing. (well, that's the short version, if I had to distill it into a sentence.)
DO NOT just re-hash your resume or other parts of your app in your essay. That's what the "top three experiences" part of your experiences section is for (or the descriptors in general for the experiences parts). Now, if one of your extracurriculars has shaped who you have become, then by all means talk about it, but don't just put it in there to show them how you have been a good little pre-med student. This statement is the place for you to be creative! This is not only the time to think outside the box, it's also the time to review certain aspects of your life, including your experiences (school or non-school related), motivations, and personal qualities.You don't have to include all of these things, but organizing your thoughts into these categories will give you a better picture of your list of potential essay topics. You can also combine categories in formulating your topic.
Understand that because the personal statement is ultimately really short, the best way to have it make sense is for it to be a cohesive story. People know when it's just a bunch of things cobbled together under a theme. It doesn't work well. It doesn't read well. It's convoluted. Even if you don't think your life has a story, it does. Search enough and it does! YOU CAN FIND IT IN YOU.
GIVE YOURSELF TIME to rewrite multiple drafts and have people close to you/people you respect read it. I even had some letter writers comment and give me some constructive criticism, which helped me improve it! For me, their CC was to not be so apologetic in my essay/being down on myself. A good tip I was given was to make sure you put things in a positive light, like frame it in a way that shows how you learned and how something positive came out of it. After all, it's shaped you to be the person you are today, the person you hope the adcoms will accept!
This part of the app is also a good place to help boost up any potential red flags of your app. For me, it was the doing really badly in the first two years of college and failing a few classes, but I worked it in positively into my story after realizing what my story was. I realized that during that time, I was lost and proud, which I've definitely learned from.
Ultimately, this is how you show YOU. Who you are, as a snapshot, RIGHT NOW. You are showing adcoms what potential you have, your ability to grow from seeing how you have grown. It feeds into the all-too-common questions on secondaries "How will you bring driversity to our class?" Well, even if you don't feel particularly unique or special, you do have your story. You do have your experiences that in their totality are uniquely yours. Own them. Find a theme. Find what drives you. Find why you do what you do. Find what you have to offer as YOU, you wonderful pre-med child of the world. Your personal statement will benefit from thinking about these things, as will your life in general. This is why the normal matriculant tends to be older. We generally aren't forced to think about our identity and who we are when we're in school - most of us get to identify as students at the very least. Life gets a lot harder and you have to do a lot more thinking once you get thrust out from this identity of being a student (which chances are, most of us have been for around/at least 13 years). When the label "student" gets taken away, then what? We become our job? Or what, we like to hide behind the label of being a pre-med? Well, everyone applying is a pre-med and has been a student, so you've gotta find something else compelling about you.
Hopefully this helps you all. It's hard to come up with a story and bring meaning/themes into your own life. After all, we aren't movies or books that are supposed to have themes that can be distilled. Nevertheless, do some reflection and maybe you'll find something that gets at the heart of who you are. Even without med school, it's a good exercise to do. This whole process of apps has really helped round out who I am and be more thoughtful about me and my story, and even if I hadn't gotten into med school, I was glad I was forced to sit down and evaluate myself. Take it as a great learning experience with a deadline and high stakes that really forces you to get your ass in gear
*If you think I sound wise and would like some brainstorming about you, I'd be happy to talk. I'm not probably the best equipped to really help you think about who you are (since well, I probably won't know you) but I'm happy to help you get the ball rolling
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BerkeleyPreMed/663466263748250/?notif_t=group_activity