A personal statement is a document that you write in order to apply for a university or college course. You should not be too long and it should not be too short. It should also be well-written and include important information about your qualifications, interests and achievements.
The personal statement is the first thing that the university or college will read about you, so it has to make a good impression. It can help you stand out from other applicants if it shows that you are an interesting person with different interests and skills.
Your personal statement is like an advertisement of yourself. Do you remember how you felt last time you saw a good ad on TV? Yes, it made you think: “I must have this.” So, when writing your medical school application essay, you should make your admission committee think “We must choose this applicant.” Do you wonder how to achieve this? Check out the simple tips below.
Medical school personal statements: main dos and don’ts
There is only a thin line between good and bad advertizing. An intrusive advertisement irritates the audience. The same goes for admission committees, when you say to them: “I am best of the best” in your application essays. It can simply make the committee suspicious. Use your intuition and common sense to feel this line when working on your personal statements.
Main DOS:
- answer the question WHY you want to become a doctor (or a nurse);
- answer the question WHY YOU are a good candidate;
- make it personal (even better, make it unique), but relevant;
- make it simple, but succinct (use more ideas and less meaningless words);
- make it focused – choose a main theme and stick to it.
Main DON’TS:
- Don’t write any banalities, such as “I want to serve people” or “I am going to make a difference.” Blablabla – that’s what the committee will see in these loud words, because they read them thousands of times year after year and are already fed up with them.
- Do not go too far with self-promotion. Yes, self-promotion is good for personal statements, but only to certain extent. Try to find out and showcase your unique advantages over other applicants. Try to be realistic.
- Do not include any irrelevant information.
- Do not use too many overcomplicated words and constructions.
- Do not send your first draft. Proofread it several times and ask for feedback from your friends and colleagues.
Medical school personal statement prompts
The previous section recommends that you do not use banalities. “What should I write in my nursing school personal statement then?” you might reasonably ask. Here are some truly good suggestions for you:
- Relevant experiences from your life (if any). A relevant experience might be for instance the volunteer work you did at a hospital or the case when you helped a sick person get better.
- Your long-time aspirations, such as childhood dreams.
- Your future plans and opportunities after receiving the degree and professional skills.
- Include not only your personal strengths, but also weaknesses (however, you should not go too far with this.) By the way, you might write about certain weaknesses, which can turn out to be positive if viewed from a different perspective. For example, if you have difficulties with saying “no” to people, you might become an excellent nurse, who is attentive to patients’ needs.
Personal statement writing is a tough task. It requires you to be creative, analytical, and concise. If you are not confident with your skills in these areas, then it is best to get professional help. There are lots of online personal statement writing services available that offer admission essays writing help for a fee. Some companies provide this service as part of their hiring process while others offer it as an additional service to their clients.
As you see, there are no easy ways to writing a winning medical school admission essay. However, if you consider these helpful tips and do your best, you will have pretty good chances of success.
