The Personal Statement

As part of your primary application, you will need to write an essay, usually referred to as the personal statement. The personal statement generally addresses the question of why you want to go to medical school and how you have prepared for a career as a physician

Beyond knowing your GPA and your MCAT score, an admissions committee wants to know who you are and why you are pursuing a career in medicine. Your personal statement provides the opportunity to communicate directly about these issues to the admissions committee.

The personal statement is part of your application to medical school but it is more. The personal statement is not just a product submitted to the medical school. Medical schools require the writing of a personal statement as an exercise in self-reflection that all students must undertake before beginning medical school. Medical school can be an extremely challenging, stressful experience. Medical schools do not want to admit medical students who do not know why they are there. One must be a very well-grounded, mature person, with a well-developed perspective on himself or herself, to be successful. Therefore, in a sense, the personal statement is not just part of the application, but writing it is a crucial part of the process of preparing for medical school and a career in medicine.

The personal statement tells a story about you and how you have come to this point in your life. Often, applicants employ narrative techniques in their statements, through which the writer recounts an experience or event that shaped the writer, sparked an interest in medicine, or an event that clarified that medicine was the right choice for him or her.

Keeping a journal can be very helpful in preparing for the entire application process. You can begin a file on your computer for a premed journal, and use it to record any thoughts you have at any time about what interests you about a career in medicine and how you are preparing for it. Sometimes you may find that when you sit down to write, you start out with one thought, which leads to another thought, and then another, and by the end you have thought about something that you never thought about before. This can be a very helpful process for applicants in preparing to apply.

Your journal can help you generate ideas so that then you can pick out the best ones to include in your personal statement. Your journal also can be very helpful later on when preparing additional essays for secondary applications and in preparing for your interviews. If you keep a record of the process you are going through in preparing for a career in medicine you will have a very valuable resource to help you throughout the application process.

Using concrete, descriptive language in writing about your personal experiences can be very effective and convincing to an admissions committee. Detailed descriptions of events and experiences tend to reveal more about the inner experience of the writer than generalizations. They also demonstrate the writer's powers of observation and ability to communicate effectively: these are essential characteristics of a good physician. Detailed descriptions of experiences can also create lasting images in the minds of admissions committee members. Writing a memorable personal statement can boost an applicant's chances of successfully making it through the evaluation process that takes place in admissions committee meetings, where the final decisions are made.

A good personal statement demonstrates self-awareness but also connection with others. Two common criticisms are made of personal statements: 1) the person does not seem to know himself or herself, and 2) the person does not seem to connect well with others. Balance is needed, as both awareness of oneself and awareness of others is considered crucial for success in medical school, and in a career as a physician.

Admissions committees can assess your thought processes through your personal statement. Your mental focus is shown by your ability to sustain a train of thought and develop your ideas in writing. By the same token, a lack of mental focus may be shown by a rambling, incoherent, poorly integrated essay. Through the personal statement the admissions committee can evaluate the complexity of your reasoning skills. An essay stating relatively simple reasons for why you are interested in a career in medicine ("I want to help people") may not be as impressive as one that demonstrates an understanding of the complex realities that physicians and patients often face.

The personal statement also allows the admissions committee to assess an essential characteristic you will need as a physician: the ability to use language skillfully and effectively. How will you be able to tell a patient that he or she has a terminal illness, or explain a very complex disease process and the treatment needed in terms that a patient with very little understanding of basic medical terminology can understand, if you cannot use language effectively, and even with some persuasive power? Your ability to communicate effectively and convincingly to the admissions committee will reflect on the abilities you will bring to the practice of medicine.

A good physician must also have good observation skills, and good observation skills are often reflected in the essays that admissions committees like the best. Demonstrating your understanding of human behavior and experience; and knowledge of yourself and others around you; will reflect well on the abilities you would bring to the practice of medicine.

In addition to the personal statement that is included as part of your primary application, secondary applications also often require additional essays. You will need to be prepared to do a lot of writing throughout the application process. If in drafting your personal statement you write material that you do not include in your initial personal statement for the primary application, do not discard it, as you may wish to use it later in secondary application essays.

If you are applying to osteopathic schools, the personal statement you submit on the AACOMAS application should reflect your knowledge of, and interest in, osteopathic medicine. The AACOMAS application provides somewhat more space for the essay than the AMCAS application, so if you are applying to both allopathic and osteopathic schools you should tailor your essays for each audience.

The AMCAS application asks additional essay questions of applicants to MD/PhD programs. Your additional essays for these sections should focus on your research interests and reflect specific preparation for a career in medicine and research.