Want to become a doctor or some other healthcare professional? Before you get to live your own version of Grey’s Anatomy, your school application has to be approved first. A standard document to submit with school application is a personal statement.
Throughout two to three double-spaced pages your goal is to demonstrate why you’re an ideal student for some course and show the reason why you want to study medicine. Similarly to personal statement law school, even though everything is down to your passion, there are still many things to bear in mind. Scroll down to learn more about personal statements. Also, you can read school personal statement example.
Stuck on Your Personal Statement?
Check out these example personal statement.
Writing a medical school personal statement
Personal statement for Graduate School has the purpose to show whether a student can write in a coherent, clear manner that is grammatically and logically correct at the same time. Unfortunately nowadays students’ writing skills are assumed poor until proven otherwise. With a personal statement, you show the admission board your passion for the course but also writing skills.
You can consider a personal statement as a sort of a three-dimensional portrait of yourself as a student who deserves to attend the specific educational institution and study medicine. The information you choose to include the statement sends signals about what is important to you and showcases your values.
If you’ve ever seen law school personal statement examples, you probably realized those students used their personal experiences and connected them with the passion for law. You can do the same thing with a medical personal statement as well. Using your own experience as an example is encouraged and it always makes the paper more unique. After all, you’ve experienced it not someone else.
In most cases, schools provide personal statement prompts and other criteria that students have to match. Don’t rely on provided instructions only. Instead, get informed and learn more about personal statement writing in order to create a high-quality content that will guarantee great results.
How to start a personal statement?
The beginning is always the hardest part. You have many ideas in your mind but it’s difficult to start with just one. Beginning with the personal statement should be interesting enough to catch the reader’s attention. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should use misleading information, sensationalist approach, or other tricks that only induce counterproductive effects.
Instead, start your medical school personal statement by providing a useful insight into why you want to study medicine. You can break the ice with some anecdote or another story form your personal life and get to the point immediately.
Personal statement format includes an introduction, body paragraphs where you develop the idea (of why you’re an ideal candidate for the course), and a brief conclusion. Always bear in mind that each paragraph represents one idea or a reason. When it comes to personal statements quality is what matters. This means that you shouldn’t strive to write as many pages as possible. Focus on making sure that content provides value.
struggle as possible.
Before we move on to personal statement examples for medical school, here are some tips and tricks to remember:
- Avoid making the medical school personal statement resemble a resume. A common mistake is that students make their statements almost identical to the resumes. This is not the type of a paper where you rewrite everything and add more words to it
- Instead of robotic approach and generic writing, make the personal statement more personal by offering examples of your experiences. Show how these experiences shaped up your desire to study medicine
- Although you want to show the critical thinking skills, the personal statement is not the place where you should freely write about controversial topics and opinions. If you must include this type of topic, then make sure it doesn’t look preachy or dogmatic. You don’t want to be perceived as close-minded. Also, there is always a risk of losing a reader’s attention or support because they may not share the same political opinion. That’s why the wisest thing to do is to stay out of it
- While personal statement showcases your writing skills, strive to avoid poetic expressions. Remember, admission board is comprised of healthcare professionals and professors who value practical approach in all aspects of life
- Don’t apologize for bad grades from certain subjects and there is no reason to provide an in-depth explanation to your weaknesses. You may be compelled to do this, but try to resist the urge. Why? It’s simple; when you explain a bad grade from some subject you automatically make the reader focus on it. Instead, your personal statement should highlight all the strengths and it’s always better to write it in a positive tone
- Write multiple drafts, edit them, and go for the greatest value. If you can’t make up your mind, then ask someone to read them and give their opinion
Now that you know how to write a personal statement, you’re ready to start. To simplify the process, I’m going to list a few medical school personal statement examples that you can use as a motivation source. Or you can use our workshop!
