Preparing Your Medical School Application Essays as You Apply to Schools with the Most Competitive Medical Specializations in the US
Applying to any medical school is hard enough. Applying to the best medical schools with the most competitive specializations in the country, where competition is the name of the game, is going to be ten times harder. Medical school hopefuls who want to attend the best medical schools in the country need make sure their application requirements are up to par and even better than those of other candidates. This will involve not only the most extraordinary of CVs or the best MCAT scores, but also having the most unique personal essay you are capable of making.
With the hundreds and possibly thousands of medical school applications that flood the top medical schools every year, admission personnel will have a hard time letting anyone else go if all came with high MCAT scores, exemplary grades and wide and diverse extracurricular activities. If you have all of these, it only makes you one among the hundreds of hopefuls who also wish to get into the school you wish to get into. Your best bet at tipping the scales to your favor is by making a favorable and attention-getting individual impression through your personal statement for medical school.
Know what the school looks for
Different schools look for similar traits in their applicants such as integrity, emotional maturity, compassion and an innate desire to care for others, to name a few. However, saying that you have all these and more in your application essay simply will not do. Your essays will convey more than just your capabilities and why you are qualified to be a medical student. It will also show admission officers how well you are with grammar and vocabulary, how good you are at organizing your thoughts on paper and how you convey all the characters that they are looking for without having to say them outright.
One important thing to remember is to start your essay with a compelling opening line or lines, known to essay writers as ‘the hook.’ In some instances an *interesting hook, whether it’s a famous quote or a small personal anecdote, will determine whether your essay gets read or gets dumped into the rejection pile. Admissions experts usually prefer a personal statement for medical school that starts in an interesting manner since this gives off the impression that the writer is someone who can direct attention his way and is therefore worth a second look.
Another very important tip is to make sure that your essay follows a coherent structure. You can do this by the rereading and rewriting your essay as needed. Breaking your essay into two or three sections that flow coherently into each other will make your essay a pleasant read and will lessen your chances of being misunderstood. It will also give off the impression that you like organization and structure in the things you do. An essay that is all over the place will give off an impression of a haphazard nature.
Finally, use personal anecdotes that are related in some way to the school you are applying to. Knowledge of the core values of the school will help you sift through the many personal anecdotes that you may have accumulated through the years in order to select the one that your admission panel can relate to the most.
Bottom line: Preparing a personal statement for medical school will not only require a good grasp of writing or grammar, but also good knowledge of your desired school as well. Choosing to know your school and tailoring your essay to what the school’s admissions panel can relate to the most will get you several steps ahead of the hundreds who are hoping to get that big break as you are.
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Focusing on Your Personality as a Future Doctor in Your Medical School Application Essays
Getting into medical school is no piece of cake, starting with the admission essay alone. Admissions to medical schools tend to become very competitive, as more and more people develop an interest in the medical profession because it is one of the most recession-proof jobs out there. Those who are planning to get into medical school know that they need to spend some time writing their admissions essay, because this is perhaps the only thing about their application for admission that they will have control over. Sure, letters of recommendation are also there to raise one’s chances of getting into the med school of their choice. However, one drawback to recommendations is that the applicant has no control over what the referrer is saying about him or her, and even about how these things are written.
What to remember when making a personal statement
Perhaps one of the most important points to remember when making an admissions essay is to talk about your personality and how this suits your desire to become a doctor. Being a doctor usually involves not only sharp brains but also a good dose of personality and attitude. A doctor is someone who has a natural inclination to help and care for people, and this is one of the traits admissions officers will try to look for as they pore over your application and decide your fate.
Making a personal statement for medical school requires an applicant to express his suitability for the profession by painting a picture who he is as a future medical doctor. Experts suggest dividing the personal statement for medical school into two categories: your motivations for becoming a doctor and the abilities that make you qualified to be a doctor. This little attempt at organization has one purpose: to avoid boring your admissions officers to death. They have read hundreds of other essays and have mastered the art of scanning through each one, their eyes trained on only the most important points. Putting your essay into categories will put the most important information forward.
Anwering the “why” question
The most obvious question one can expect to as is “Why medicine?” Experts suggest not using vague and generalized answers but instead focus on drawing from personal experience, which tend to sound more interesting and is something that the admissions officers will appreciate. A typical example is describing the personal impact that a doctor has made on your life, or how a disease or accident in the family contributed to your desire to take up this course.
Letting them know about your qualifications as a future medical doctor will also have to follow the same pattern. Choose important moments in your life that showed your sharp and quick-thinking skills or throw in a couple of stories about how you spent summers in a medical mission in Jamaica, while avoiding how to sound too puffed up about it. Be truthful, too. Padding up your essay with imaginary accomplishments will do you more harm than good, especially if you find yourself having a hard time keeping your stories straight during the interview.
Bottom line, a good personal statement for medical school involves the use of sincere and specific statements that will stand out in the minds of the people who have the power to get you into the medical school of your dreams.
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Effectively Discussing Your Reasons Why You Want to Be a Family Doctor in Your Medical School Application Essays
Getting into medical will take more than impressive admission test results and a long list of extracurricular activities and undergraduate accomplishments. Exemplary grades and MCAT scores are not the only requirement to get into medical school. Contrary to popular belief, many smart achievers get rejected by top medical schools year after year. In most cases, admissions panels look for students that have something that makes them stand out from all the rest but are also able to show compassion, maturity, emotional stability, honesty, independence, among many other fine qualities that any potential doctor must have.
One of the hardest things for potential medical students is to put their thoughts into words. You may know what you want to say but are afraid to put it all down on paper because you don’t know how. You may know with full certainty that you want to be a family doctor that is why you are trying to get in to a medical school, but feel like you do not have the literary knack to wow the admission panel with your admission essay.
There is no need to panic though. Writing a personal statement for medical school will not seem all that daunting once you know what to write and what not to write.
What to write
Members of admission panels of different universities often have similar things that they look for when they read a personal statement for medical school from an applicant. A good personal statement for medical school is often concise, simple, but reinforced with specific examples. The essay must reveal your true personality, and one sure thing to do that is to sprinkle in some personal anecdotes here and there. Not only will this make your essay more interesting and pleasant to read, but it is also the perfect way to convince your panel why you want to become a family doctor.
A good tip is to use a template while making your essay so that essay making is made more convenient. A lot of free templates of medical school admission essays are available online for free. A template can also help reduce the anxiety of starting an essay.
What not to write
Applicants also need to know what common pitfalls to avoid when writing personal statement for medical school. The three main topics to avoid are hard luck stories, controversial issues, and technical essays. Hard luck stories can easily sound puffed-up, padded and artificial, while controversial issues generally need to be avoided because this may be the wrong time to butt heads with anyone, most especially with the people who will determine whether you get into medical school or not. Technical essays are a sure way to sabotage your attempt to sound personal and more interesting. Technical essays also have the risk of containing a lot of pretentious words, which will further alienate you from your admission panel.
Do not be afraid to use short, everyday words in your personal essay. The more un-academic your essays are, the more you can allow yourself to express why you really want to become a family doctor.
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