Tips for writing personal statements

1.     Suggested structure

  • Medical school:
  • Mention the name of your medical school, where it is located etc.
  • mention if you won any prizes,
  • extracurricular activities: e.g. student union, interest groups, student societies.
  • voluntary/charity work: involvement in charity work including health fairs, one day clinics, Longitudinal community development projects.
  • Postgraduate experience outside USA: briefly talk about what you did, and where you did it
  • Research: briefly, conference abstracts, peer reviewed publications, and your role in them
  • Teaching experience. Briefly.
  • US clinical experience:  briefly. if you did observorship, where you did it, who you did it with, and what you learnt from it.
  • Why you chose this speciality
  • Where you see yourself in a few years.

 2.     Content

        a.    Things to avoid

  • Avoid Repetition
  • Avoid Emotional stories about why you went into medical school
  • Avoid negative comments about your undergraduate training in Sudan, or postgraduate training outside USA, reflects badly on you.
  • Avoid making fellowship the focus of your applications, you can mention it, but don’t stress it.
  • Avoid talking about how your family helped you during your medical training. It is irrelevant.
  • Mentioning specific aspects which are not a feature of the program i.e. diverse population in a program whose patient population are only one demographic, or interest in research for a community program with little to no ongoing research.
  • Clichés: “I went to medical school because my family is all doctors”. Doesn’t say much about you.

        b.    Things to highlight

  • Working under adverse conditions.
  • You can get the job done (multi talented can cover gaps in service functioning as social worker nurse etc)
  • Strong bedside examination skills due to resource poor environment
  • Team work give example.

 

3.     Presentation ( Language and Grammar)

  • Keep it simple, avoid long words, and long sentences
  • Length 1 page on MS Word. (maximum 2 pages)
  • Avoid using too many adjectives.
  • Make sure 2 different people read your personal statement. Preferably who have more experience, and write better than you.
  • Repeatedly using the same word i.e. rewarding, intriguing, engaging etc..
  • Use MS word tools to correct spelling and grammar. Another useful tool is the thesaurus to replace adjectives with others.