ANATOMY OF A PERSONAL STATEMENT

As a Pre-Med, one of the most stressful parts of the application process is writing your personal statement. If you’re anything like me, you might have started a bunch of times, maybe even wrote the entire piece, before you decide to delete the entire draft with the intent to start over. Or maybe you’ve stared at an empty word document wondering where to start, what to write, or how to even begin. When I applied, I struggled with this aspect of the application. I spent days or maybe even weeks, researching articles, reading books, and reaching out to my friends who were already physicians or physician assistants (they are legit saints for putting up with me) before I finished and submitted my personal statement. So, with that said, I hope this post saves you a bunch of time, and gives you a direction on how to master this aspect of the application.

Firstly, I want to start off by explaining what the purpose of this section is. This space is here for you to show admissions how amazing you are and why they shouldn’t pass by your application without putting the “INTERVIEW” stamp on your application. This is the space where you tell YOUR story. The admission committees want to see who you are, and if you embody the characteristics that will make a good fit in their school, and even more importantly, a great physician. Now the key word here is “show” because this isn’t an invitation to list all of the things in this space you’re great at. I know it sounds weird, but this is where a lot of people go wrong, and I’m going to help you NOT do this.

So, before you even start writing I want you to think about the time in your life when you decided to pursue a career in medicine. What happened that piqued your interest in medicine? It doesn’t have to be the moment you decided to become a physician (this will come later), but I want you to focus on the thing that made you decide medicine. This can be anything. For me, it was watching this show called 911 when I was little, and then ultimately when my mom fell ill when I was 16. Whatever it is, capture this and write it down. Once you have your moment, think about WHY this motivated you to pursue this career path, and HOW it made you feel. Write this down on paper someplace or on your computer.

The next thing you want to do is make of list of things you’ve done to pursue your goal to become involved in the medical field. These are your extracurricular activities and can include volunteer work, trips, studying abroad, travels, previous jobs, research, sports, etc. Write down what you’ve learned in each of these experiences about yourself. For example, if you played a sport – maybe you learned to work effectively as a team. Something along those lines. The purpose of this list is to to organize your thoughts and help you tell your stories in your personal statement. The stories will help illustrate the characteristics you possess that will make a good physician, rather than overtly stating that you are compassionate, a good leader etc. Everyone is going to write things like that, but it’s the stories you tell about yourself that will demonstrate these characteristics. These stories will stick inside of the admission committees’ minds and make you memorable. Remember, you are unique and no one on this planet will have the same experience or stories as you!

Okay, so you have your lists. You know why you want to pursue medicine and why you want to be a physician. Now you’re ready to draft your personal statement. To do this:

1. Start with your life event that that made you decide to pursue medicine.

   1. Why does this impact you?

2. Use your experiences to show the committees who you are. How do these experiences influence your life path and where you want to end up once you achieve your dream of becoming a physician?

   1. Do you want to work home, abroad, in underserved communities? Why?

   2. Why do you want to be a physician, rather than something else in the medical field? – how did your experiences (good or bad) help you arrive to this conclusion? Did you shadow someone that sparked that interest?

   3. What did your experiences teach you that will help you be successful in medicine?

   4. How do you experiences show you’re compassionate, hard-working, a good leader, etc.

3. Be confident! Be yourself!

**These are just suggestions how you can use you can guide writing your personal statement**

I’ll conclude this post with some things to be aware of as you write your statement.

• Remain humble as you write your statement. This is harder than it sounds, especially when you’re competing with thousands for a seat in medical school. You can do this by not overtly stating things like “I am a great leader” or “I am good at working at a team”. It is possible to convey the same things by just changing your sentences up. “As team captain, one of my strengths was motivating my team to work effectively together to come back and win the game”. You are showing you can be an effective leader and work well in a team without sounding arrogant.

• Do not write your autobiography! – I know, I just get done telling you to write about your experiences and all that jazz. Yes, do that but keep it concise. You don’t have to include everything in your personal statement, just the highlights. You will have time during your interview to elaborate on the rest.

• Avoid putting down other professions! In medicine, every role is just as crucial as the next. That means the physician is not more important than the nurse or the PA. The PA is not more important than physician or nurse, and vice versa. Everyone is equal. When someone eventually asks, or if you choose to include it in your personal statement on why you want to be a physician and not another position, speak about the qualities that draw you to the physician role and why.

• Pick 1-2 people to read over and edit your personal statement. Too many cooks spoil the soup. If you have too many eyes on your statement, it can become overwhelming. Everyone is going to have their own opinion on how things should flow, where things should go, etc. Stick to 1-2 people and make your corrections based off their suggestions.

• Edit, edit, edit! – Writing multiple drafts is recommended. You want to get your statement as close to perfection as you can get it. Don’t submit it unless it’s something you’re truly proud of.

This process is daunting and will test your limits. Remember that you are unique, and you can bring something special to this field that someone else cannot. Speak from your heart and have confidence in yourself. If this cycle doesn’t go as well as you’d want, remember that if you want something bad enough that you can make it happen. Don’t give up! Best of luck during your application cycles! I hope you all do fantastic!

-Courtney Cyr, MS3!