SIX MEDICAL SCHOOL PERSONAL STATEMENT TIPS
Writing your medical school personal statement can feel like a daunting process. For many premeds, the thought alone causes anxiety and unrest. Rest assured: we have read thousands of statements from both successful and unsuccessful applicants. My hope is that this article offers you some clarity and comfort so you can get started on your personal statement.
Every year, we hear common concerns from premeds:
- How do I “stand out?”
- How can I write something they’ve never heard before?
- How can I convince them I want to be a doctor?
TIP #1: Make sure your reader really “gets you.”
I realize this may sound pretty basic, but I am amazed that students sometimes veer away from the “personal” in the medical school personal statement. Ultimately, your reader wants to understand who you are, what motivates you, what is important to you, where you are from, how you have gotten to this point in your life, and who you hope to be in the future. Therefore, your personal statement should be what the name suggests: personal. If you write thoughtfully and introspectively about your life path, experiences, insights, and ideals, and what has led you to choose a career in medicine, you should end up with a document that is unique to you, and only you!
TIP #2: Think of your medical school personal statement as one piece of the puzzle.
Your personal statement is one piece of your application and is never read in isolation. Medical school admissions committees all practice holistic admissions to varying degrees. You have likely heard this term before, and I can assure that admissions officers will review all of your written documents to get a sense of who you are. What does this mean? Your experience descriptions, secondary essays, and letters of recommendation will help paint that picture. So, when composing your personal statement, you must consider the other pieces of your application portfolio and what they will communicate about your story. In fact, your application descriptions that detail all of your experiences on your path to medical school are as important as your personal statement!
TIP #3: Be uniquely yourself!
Medical schools seek diverse classes, filled with individuals with varied interests and expertise. This is why it’s crucial to communicate the unique opportunities in your life that have led you to decide on medicine. Undoubtedly, you’ve likely developed expertise (even if elementary) in an area related to medicine. For example, maybe you have explored patient advocacy in a public health internship, or you have research experience in immunology that sparked your interest in a future specialization. Think deeply about what your “expertise” is and communicate this in your personal statement. In this way, medical school admissions committees will be able to envision you at their medical school, in the hospital and clinic, in the conference room, in the labs, and out in the community, making an important contribution in the areas that interest you most.
TIP #4: Reflect on what drives you.
When writing about those experiences that are important to you, you must reflect deeply about WHY those experiences were valuable offering insights about what you learned from each and how they motivated you to become a physician. The personal statement offers the opportunity to connect the dots of your personal, scholarly, extracurricular, and academic milestones to show how each has deepened your curiosity about medicine, and offered you a more mature and sophisticated understanding of it. Think critically about what you learned and how it shaped your view of patient care, the healthcare team, or your own skills. For example, if you are writing about a patient encounter, reflect on what that allowed you to learn about the patient’s experience, the coordination and cultural competence of the healthcare team, and how you comforted the patient based on what you had learned about patient care.
TIP #5: Use specific stories wisely.
The purpose of the medical school personal statement, is after all, to answer the question: Why medicine? However, medical school admissions officers are humans too and it’s best to provide some element of intrigue and entertainment in your personal statement. For this reason, it is important to incorporate stories and anecdotes into your personal statement keeping in mind that the stories you include should be related to one of your most influential experiences that has led you to medicine.
When writing your stories, think about the most impactful experiences on your path to medicine. Capture these so the reader can feel immersed in the space you describe. Bring in sensory details to engage the reader fully—what did you see, hear, smell, or feel? This approach infuses humanity into your statement, helping the reader connect with your journey. In this way, you draw the reader into your vignette and, in doing so, can make them feel what you were feeling at the time. That relatability is more likely to result in the reader appreciating more significantly who you are and why the experience was important to you. Keep in mind that your statement should not read as a string of anecdotes. Explaining your path to medical school won’t allow more than one or maybe two well-described situations.
TIP #6: Communicate how you hope to contribute in medical school and into the future.
Ultimately, you want your reader to picture you as a medical student in their incoming class as well as the physician you hope to be in the future. In this way, you want to conclude your personal statement by showing that you are forward thinking. Try to express how your past and current experiences have positioned and informed your trajectory. How do you hope to grow and how do you hope to contribute as a medical student and into the future?
By focusing less on simply making your personal statement ‘stand out’ and more on how your pivotal experiences have clarified your motivation for medicine, you’ll create a statement that is distinctively and authentically yours. Take time to reflect on what truly drives you, and let that form the core of your personal statement.
JESSICA FREEDMAN, M.D., a former medical school and residency admissions officer at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, is the founder and chair of MedEdits Medical Admissions and author of three top-selling books about the medical admissions process that you can find on Amazon.
