How To Write A Medical Personal Statement

The medicine personal statement is not the time to recount all your activities and honours in list like fashion. Therefore avoid the rehashed CV and make it personal. This is your opportunity to personalise your application. Show the admissions committee why you have decided to go into medicine. Was it an experience you had at school? Was there a particular extracurricular activity that changed your way of thinking? Did you find a summer job so exhilarating that it reconfirmed your love for the sciences? Use anecdotes to weave a story and make the essay a pleasure to read.

• Avoid controversial topics

If you do include discussion of a “hot topic” definitely avoid being dogmatic or preachy. You do not want to take the risk of alienating the reader who may not share your views about politics.

• Don’t get too creative

Now is not the time to write poetry. Remember, the medical establishment is largely a scientific community (although individual physicians may be passionate artists, poets, writers, musicians, historians, etc). On the other hand, don’t be trite and don’t be boring.
Avoid writing “I want to be a doctor because…”

• No apologies

For instance, if you received a C in physics, you may feel compelled to justify it somehow. Unless you believe that the circumstances do truly merit some sort of mention, don’t make excuses. You don’t need to provide them with a road map to your weaknesses. If you had a bad year or term because of illness, family problems, etc.. ask your advisor to explain the details in his or her cover letter.

• Write multiple drafts

Have your advisor and perhaps an English teacher read and edit it. Proofread, proofread and proofread some more. Also, try reading it out loud. This is always a good test of clarity and flow.

• Think ahead to interviews

Medicine interviewers often use your Medicine personal statement as fodder for questions. Of course, if you’ve included experiences and ideas that are dear to you, and that you feel strongly about, you will have no problem speaking with passion and confidence. Nothing is more appealing to admissions than a vibrant, intelligent and articulate candidate. If you write about research you concluded five years ago, you’d better brush up before your interviews. Don’t engage in hyperbole: You risk running up against an interviewer who will see through your exaggerations.

• Have a look at examples

It will also be helpful to have a look at examples of successful medical school personal statements. A medicine personal statement has to be unique, however at the same time there are ways to convey your achievements in the most effective way. Here is an example of a successful medicine personal statement to help provide you with some inspiration.