Med School Personal Statement

[IVFandPGD]

I'll be applying to med school this year, and I am beginning to write my personal statement. Undergrad wasn't great, I spent 5 years getting my degree, and am currently enrolled in a Masters program.

In my personal statement, I planned on talking about having a miscarriage freshman year in college soon after my aunt passed away from leukemia and how these stresses played a huge role in my life including my academic shortcomings, on top of being a transfer student and 1st generation college student who never had any guidance or role models throughout the process.

I had a troubled adolescence growing up in an inner-city, and have started this pre-med journey literally on my own from the ground up, like many of you, I presume, but my failed pregnancy and death of my aunt within a 6 month period sort of inspired me to become a doctor, and hopefully an eventual career in reproductive endocrinology.

Do you think I should focus on one aspect in particular in writing my personal statement, or include my personal cocktail of life experiences?

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[esob]

Moved to Premed

 

[horsecatdog]

Of course, every personal statement is different, but what really worked for me is taking 2-3 examples from my life that truly led me to medicine and focus on those for the personal statement. I saved other stories for the secondaries because they will ask you questions like: "What is a challenge you have faced?, etc." - and you don't want to run out of fodder for secondaries by using them all on your personal statement! Of course, there can be overlap between the two, but that's just what worked for me

 

[Tenk]

That’s fine so long as this was a planned pregnancy. Unplanned pregnancies can be taboo to some people and you may come off as immature. There’s a lot of grey hair on these committees and probably not worth bringing up. That being said, it still might be a hit or miss even if it was planned so tread carefully. Not saying this is right or wrong but it is most certainly reality.

Also if you mention a specialty make sure you have tons of exposure to that specialty.

 

[Stellaartwa]

I am so sorry for your losses. It sounds like your path to medicine has been difficult and you have an interesting story to tell. I do agree, however, that you should tread very lightly on both the loss of your family member and the miscarriage. You need to constantly remind yourself when writing the PS that the questions you need to answer are "Why medicine?" and "Why medicine now?" If you find that these stories take you away from those questions, leave them out. If you can wrap them up into a cohesive narrative that led you to medicine, do it.

 

[ciestar]

Also be aware that your PS is supposed to be about you and why medicne. Do NOT use your PS as a way to explain deficiencies.