**The Official Personal Statement Guide and PS Readers List **

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I'm having more than enough time to proofread ~4-5 PS right now. Send yours to me via PM or email [email protected] and I'll do it for you!

NEWS: 07/10/07:

For those who sent me their PS before I post this message, I will respond ASAP. But from July 11th, I'll be pretty busy, so I can't read any more PS. Please understand! Whenever I have free time again, I'll let you know ^_^
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Hey everyone, I want to submit my application either today or tomorrow and I was wondering if anyone would be willing to read my personal statement.

Thanks!
 
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Hello all,

I have two versions of my personal statement and can't decide which one to use. I am applying as a URM so should I use the one that talks a lot about my background as a URM or should I exclude that information:confused:. I don't want them to think that I am looking for sympathy or anything. If there is someone that is willing to read it today I can PM it to you.
Thanks!
 
ATP Synthase said:
Hello all,

I have two versions of my personal statement and can't decide which one to use. I am applying as a URM so should I use the one that talks a lot about my background as a URM or should I exclude that information:confused:. I don't want them to think that I am looking for sympathy or anything. If there is someone that is willing to read it today I can PM it to you.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Send them both to me and I'll review them and tell you which is better.
 
4success said:
would anyone like to critique my PS???
a super honest criticism would be welcome :)

:D??
Click to expand...

I sent you a pm. Your essay is virtually flawless except for one very very very minor grammar mistake that I fixed for you.

I thought it answered the intended question of the PS well in answering why medicine and showing your maturity in realizing what real life medicine was like. The flow was smooth and the grammar was also completely well.

I didn't think it needed much revision and is quite ready for submitting. If however you want a second opinion I'd advise you to either speak with an advisor or PM a few more of the other experienced readers on here.
 
If someone can read over my PS I'd be really greatful, and I'd be happy to read yours as well. I'm mostly concerned with the general content and how appropriate it is, and can't get my premed adviser to read it over. Thanks a lot.
 
FishDish said:
If someone can read over my PS I'd be really greatful, and I'd be happy to read yours as well. I'm mostly concerned with the general content and how appropriate it is, and can't get my premed adviser to read it over. Thanks a lot.
Click to expand...

Send it to me and I'll let you know what I think.
 
blah i edited it again and took out/rewrote a whole bunch. everyones comments were sooo helpful!

anyone else wanna take a look? :)

i can use all the opinions i can get!
 
I'll read personal statements if anyone wants, you can just pm me.
 
starlight04 said:
blah i edited it again and took out/rewrote a whole bunch. everyones comments were sooo helpful!

anyone else wanna take a look? :)

i can use all the opinions i can get!
Click to expand...

PM me and I'll look at it.
 
Does anyone want to take the time to read my PS? I'd really appreciate any suggestions or criticism!
 
does anyone know how to indent the start of paragraphs on the amcas site. the site wouldnt let me use tab and when i tried entering in 5 spaces, they would automatically be taken out by the site. thanks in advance.
 
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jrshady2 said:
does anyone know how to indent the start of paragraphs on the amcas site. the site wouldnt let me use tab and when i tried entering in 5 spaces, they would automatically be taken out by the site. thanks in advance.
Click to expand...



You are not allowed to indent...I had this problem also then I realized that they want it in that format. Some people used an extra space to separate paragraphs, but you don't really have to.
 
can anyone read my PS? I am trying to turn in it by this Friday.

please pm me
 
jrshady2 said:
does anyone know how to indent the start of paragraphs on the amcas site. the site wouldnt let me use tab and when i tried entering in 5 spaces, they would automatically be taken out by the site. thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

You can't indent on AMCAS. The best thing to do is leave a line between paragraphs. That's how AMCAS formats it.
 
Terna said:
Hi there,
I am preparing to finish my PS right now, but I have a big question.

On my second semester freshman year, my GPA dropped a little to about 3.3. I would like to explain why, but there are many reasons:

1) The classes were harder than before.
2) I was breaking up with my boyfriend of 3.5 years.
3) Most importantly, I was recovering from a four year old eating disorder, all by myself. Most people can recognize that this is very hard to do with absolutely no help, and it led to a lot of mental distress (however, to a good end, as I have remained 100% recovered since then.)
4) My uncle died a few days before finals, completely without any way to anticipate it. I couldn't go to the funeral because of finals. Who knows how that affected things.

My main question is:
Should I only include the uncle's death on the PS? (I will include it in a positive way, saying "I overcame challenges")
Or, should I include the eating disorder recovery? I had been in outpatient before that, but I am DEATHLY worried that mentioning this will scream "liability," in that they will assume I'll relapse and cause a big problem.
However, that is honestly the biggest reason for the dip.

Any advice very greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Hey Terna,

I just PMed you. Disregard my first two PMs. When i initially read through your essays I liked essay one. But after reading it more carefully, I think essay 2 made much more sense and showed more depth to who you are and your diversity of life experiences. I'd stick with essay two unless you are going to expand in essay one and put in a proper conclusion which lacks in essay one but not in essay two.
 
anybody available to read a P.S.?
 
same here,does someone have some time to read my P.S.? Thanks
 
sway367 said:
same here,does someone have some time to read my P.S.? Thanks
Click to expand...

Send them to the people that are listed as PS reader in this forum. They are willing to read and they are also very helpful! You'll be amazed at how other people notice little, but important errors on your essay.:luck:
 
Are people still around who are interested in reading over a personal statement? Perhaps you could PM me?
 
Is there anyone who is willing to read my PS. Thanks in advance.
 
If you want to please help me with my PS please PM me! I would really appriciate it :)
 
After much procrastinating, I have something that resembles a personal statement. Does anyone want to read it? PM me if you do!
 
I have a question:

Before I looked into human medicine, I thought I wanted to be a vet. (We're talking about one year, freshman year.) So I did a lot of volunteering and working with animals.
However, when I sent my essay to my aunt so she could critique it, she completely took out the paragraph that talks about any of that stuff. While this made it shorter, it seems like adcoms might be wondering "Why did she stop working with animals?"

Suggestions?
 
hello,

I just finished up my PS. I was wondering if anybody wanted to read and comment.

I'm also up for reading your PS. Just send me a PM

Thanks!
 
hey - I have what I think to be a pretty submit-able personal statement, but I am having a real issue with one of the paragraphs I believe only someone who does not really know me (ie - none of the people who have edited it thus far) can help with... is anyone willing to help me out?? Let me know! pm me and I'll be happy to send you it!

I would loooove any help w/this!
 
sorry i went out of town and couldn't respond to people. i'm back and if anybody still wants me to read some PS's , feel free to email me at eckliptic at gmail.com
 
Also up for a trade-PM me your statement and I'll PM you mine!
 
Anyone want to read my PS- Pm me with your email

This will be an exprience of a lifetime
 
I wasn't sure if this would be better off in the MD PhD Section of the forums, but since I couldn't find any posts there regarding this I decided to just ask here.

Is there anyone who wouldn't mind sending me their MD PhD essays? I feel really stupid going at this with nothing to guide me.


much thanks,

Anima
 
I am trying to get my PS finished so that I may submit this weekend. I am willing to do a trade as well. PM me if interested.
thanks,
mike
 
dont know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but the book "barrons guide to medical school essays" is a really good read. plenty of examples from students who have been admitted, lists thier schools admitted to. also, plenty of suggestions. i followed thier guidlines, suggestions, wrote my ps, took it to my health adviser and she told me it was ready to go (besides the grammatical errors that were fixed). on the other hand, a friend of mine had to take his ps to her numerous times, and is still working on it (he didnt want to use the book when i offered it to him). Trust me, read the book!, as for me, i read the book in about two days, figured out what i wanted to write, locked myself in my room, put on some sigur ros to get me in an emotional mood, and jammed out my ps in about 4 hours. viola!
 
UCDavisdude said:
dont know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but the book "barrons guide to medical school essays" is a really good read. plenty of examples from students who have been admitted, lists thier schools admitted to. also, plenty of suggestions. i followed thier guidlines, suggestions, wrote my ps, took it to my health adviser and she told me it was ready to go (besides the grammatical errors that were fixed). on the other hand, a friend of mine had to take his ps to her numerous times, and is still working on it (he didnt want to use the book when i offered it to him). Trust me, read the book!, as for me, i read the book in about two days, figured out what i wanted to write, locked myself in my room, put on some sigur ros to get me in an emotional mood, and jammed out my ps in about 4 hours. viola!
Click to expand...

No I think we've determined that that book is complete crap!!!!!!!

And I mean COMPLETE CRAP!!!

The better book to look at is Princeton Review's book on Medical School Essays!!!

Why?? Because Barron's essays are far too flowery and they don't show examples of people who might have had flaws in their application. Not everyone is an HMS graduate with a 4.0 and 39T MCAT score much less 43T that has multiple publications, plays mutliple musical instruments, etc.

A lot more of what is needed is examples of your every day kind of applicants who got in not just the superman type of applicants.

That is where TPR's book out did the Barron's book in personal statements. I own both but in the end I don't think anyone even needs to buy either of them as they don't really do much that SDN doesn't already do with it many pages of advice from people on here who have been through the process.

Similarly, I think SDN is a better resource then essayedge.com because we don't try to suck money out of poor students but give honest critiques and help without making them pay money for it. This is why people on here post their PSes on here or send it to people via PMs. It just makes no sense to pay 850 dollars to have someone go over your essay as someone I know did a few years ago, when you could have it done for free here.
 
question: i know it's not a good idea to mention high school stuff, but i did a lot of hospital volunteering during high school, which got me interested into medicine in the first place. how could i mention this without really hurting my personal statement? thx.

also: is it okay to be slightly selfish in the ps? what i mean is, my reasons for going into the medical profession is not only for other people, but for myself too (i have reasons, and no it's not money at all).
 
cloosh said:
question: i know it's not a good idea to mention high school stuff, but i did a lot of hospital volunteering during high school, which got me interested into medicine in the first place. how could i mention this without really hurting my personal statement? thx.

also: is it okay to be slightly selfish in the ps? what i mean is, my reasons for going into the medical profession is not only for other people, but for myself too (i have reasons, and no it's not money at all).
Click to expand...

You can mention highschool stuff in the PS if it is what got you interested in medicine. Hell if it was something that happened when you were 5 that got you interested in medicine you can mention that. But what you want to develop is the fact that you have continued that interest through other experiences in life.

Define what you mean by selfish if not money?? What are your reasons? PM me and I'll tell you if it is appropriate to talk about.

I mean there's a difference between selfish as in I want to go into medicine to do clinical research and can't do this without an MD vs. selfish as in I just want letters behind my name to look good in social circles kind of thing.

Define what you mean specifically. PM me if you wish and I'll tell you my opinion.
 
would really like some help reading my personal statement. thank you just pm me. cheers.
 
How do you write about personal experiences such as death without sounding trite. I'm sure adcomms have read thousands of these types of stories. Death has affected my in severely, but I don't want to sound like i'm playing with their emotions and trying to solicit their sympathy.
 
Hey everybody,

I would really appreciate it if someone would be able to look over my personal statement (still pretty rough) and give me some pointers, advice, suggestions, etc. Also, if someone has some experience reading these or knows what sounds good that would be great, I feel like I'm having some difficulty expressing myself as well as I could, and I don't want my statement to sound too weak or disingenuous because of that. Thanks so much in advance!

P.S., I'd be happy to exchange personal statements with someone else who wants me to read theirs.
 
I am looking for someone to give me some constructive criticism on my personal statement. Everyone who's read it up to this point has known me, so I would like an outsider to read it and tell me what they think.

Thank you in advance.
 
Can someone tell me a good commercial website for personal statement editing?
I spent around 4 weeks to come up with my personal statement. And it's just turn out to be too impersonal and generic. And no one in SDN want to edit the paper.

I can't spend more time to work on my statement because I am taking my MCAT on August 16th, and I can't wait any longer for submitting my primary.

any help will be appreciated.
 
gujuDoc said:
No I think we've determined that that book is complete crap!!!!!!!

And I mean COMPLETE CRAP!!!

The better book to look at is Princeton Review's book on Medical School Essays!!!

Why?? Because Barron's essays are far too flowery and they don't show examples of people who might have had flaws in their application. Not everyone is an HMS graduate with a 4.0 and 39T MCAT score much less 43T that has multiple publications, plays mutliple musical instruments, etc.

A lot more of what is needed is examples of your every day kind of applicants who got in not just the superman type of applicants.

That is where TPR's book out did the Barron's book in personal statements. I own both but in the end I don't think anyone even needs to buy either of them as they don't really do much that SDN doesn't already do with it many pages of advice from people on here who have been through the process.

Similarly, I think SDN is a better resource then essayedge.com because we don't try to suck money out of poor students but give honest critiques and help without making them pay money for it. This is why people on here post their PSes on here or send it to people via PMs. It just makes no sense to pay 850 dollars to have someone go over your essay as someone I know did a few years ago, when you could have it done for free here.
Click to expand...

This is so freakin true!!! I ended up using it anyway because it was the only book I had...like 99.99% of the essay were Harvard students. I wish I knew about this TPR book.:(
 
I am willing to read one or two, but you should contact the PS readers on this post first.
 
I just got my rough draft of the personal statement completed, and i was wondering if anyone could look it over. If so, send me a PM, id really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.
 
Please PM me if you are willing to read a PS!
 
Just finished a batch. If any of you guys are still writing em, send a Word copy to [email protected] .

Dont copy/paste it into the email body, or PM me, send it as a .doc to my gmail please.

And dont ask if I can read yours, just send the damn thing.
 
I was browsing through SDN, but could not find any links where I can read some sample personal statements. If any of you guys know any links, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks
 
DrPatel1987 said:
I was browsing through SDN, but could not find any links where I can read some sample personal statements. If any of you guys know any links, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Look up the book by Princeton Review about Medical School essays. That is better then the Barron's book because the essays are not so over the top type of essays but look at the personal statement guide tips on writing and that she help you get started.
 
ATP Synthase said:
This is so freakin true!!! I ended up using it anyway because it was the only book I had...like 99.99% of the essay were Harvard students. I wish I knew about this TPR book.:(
Click to expand...

That's ok though because in the end your essay content was very good. I think you did fine on yours.
 
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