Creating a personal statement is kind of like creating a work of art, it requires a lot of thought and needs to be very well curated. To an extent parts of your personal statement are going to be very similar to others but there are many areas where you can add creativity as far as the writing style goes and also include your unique experiences that will surely make you stand out.
I would recommend working with the tutors in the Writing Center to help you with your personal statement, whether it is to come up with creative ideas or if you just need help with proof reading and cutting down characters. Start writing it a couple months in advance, jot down ideas and experiences that you think you want to include and slowly it will all come together.
As far as the application goes, familiarize yourself beforehand with some of the information that you need to include in the application because it is more writing than I had anticipated.
When I applied, we had to write a character long summary of each significant extra-curricular activity that we participated in and it was more time consuming than I had expected to write all the paragraphs and make sure they were within the character limit while still conveying all the important information I wanted to include.
Make sure to have at least a couple different people review your application materials for content and for grammar. Personal statements should be unique to each applicant. There is not a one size fit all to writing these statements and, in some situations, working from a sample can be detrimental to your writing and reflection on experiences. Here are some tips to writing your own personal statement. Give us the narrative of what the experience was and how it impacted you.
Writing it as a story can help you with your structure and it gives enough detail to what the situation was like. Stay focused on your objective — choose a theme, stick to it, and support it with specific examples. Embrace the 5-paragraph essay format. Concluding paragraph, tie it all together. Career Center. Your response will be forwarded only to your designated MD-PhD program s.
This essay is limited to 3, characters. You have a small amount of space to express your desire to become a physician-scientist, so do not waste it by repeating the same information in all your application components. Use your MD PhD essay to show a larger picture. Admissions offices want to see evidence of problem-solving, maturity, independence, and your level of involvement in a project. Think about how your research experiences foster your scientific curiosity.
This is your chance to describe components of your experiences and plans, which might not be evident from your other application materials. Many applicants indeed have similar stories of how they became interested in the medical profession. While these reasons may be common, your experiences are unique. Your essay must stand out and leave a lasting positive impression on the reader. Similarly, do not include grand statements linking your choice to enter the MD PhD program to destiny.
These will only come across as dramatic, which isn't what you want to convey. Remember not to describe any negative experiences and their effect on your decision to apply to MD PhD programs. For example, don't discuss how you believe that the academic job market does not look promising for a PhD graduate. Discussing failures in research however, is different, and can be a great way to demonstrate resilience.
Frustrating experiences in research are common, so rather than describing the negative aspect of your failures in research, try to describe how this experience positively affected your journey. Another thing you must avoid in your MD PhD essay is listing accomplishments and skills that are already found in your CV.
Your personal statement is not meant to be a reiteration of your CV, instead, it should be your story — one that you will share with the admissions committees. Take them on a journey, in chronological order, highlighting the significant experiences that have led you to want to pursue both medicine and research. With each experience, you must reflect on what you've learned and you need to provide evidence to support any statements. You must show the admissions committees how you demonstrated compassion.
For example, you could discuss a specific interaction you had, or a specific project you worked on that demonstrates your ability to show compassion. Avoid simply listing what is already in your CV. Check out our video for some more tips on how to write the MD PhD essay:. Your essay must be well structured and it's important to avoid any fluff or unnecessarily descriptive language.
It must be succinct while containing all the necessary information to make a complete impression of your candidacy. Overall, it should follow the structure of an academic essay and should contain an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Successful essays will have a powerful introduction, which will introduce the reader to the main message of the letter — your motivation for pursuing the joint program. The opening sentence, in particular, can make or break your entire essay.
To create a unique opening sentence, considering beginning your essay with a personal anecdote. Essentially, you could narrate a personal experience or story that introduces the topic — this is a very common technique in personal essays and it's very effective. For example, you could talk about a time you were ill, an exciting moment during your research, an encounter with the medical system, or even a story of a loved one who was ill or passed away. The body of your essay has to reveal how your experiences in research and clinical medicine have prepared you for a career as a physician-scientist.
Essentially, this is where you provide evidence to the admissions committee to justify your reasons for pursuing the joint program. Try to include two or three experiences that demonstrate your expertise as a researcher and future physician. Remember to always focus on quality, rather than quantity. When deciding which experiences to include, pick the experiences that were most transformative in your journey towards medicine and research.
For example, you could highlight a patient interaction that influenced your research interests or a research or lab experience that pushed you towards considering the combined program. If your research made you realize the wider implications of your profession and its relationship to medical practice, it's a great experience to include. These competencies may help you find connections between your desire to practice both science and medicine.
A strong MD PhD essay conclusion should include a creative reiteration of why you want to pursue training in both medicine and research. Did it hurt? Did it not? I had seen these doctors in action earlier when I looked in on a patient being prepped for this treatment, and I admired the bond that the doctors had formed with the patient based on trust and understanding to ensure them that they are in good hands. It is experiences like this one in radiation oncology that continue to attract me to becoming a physician.
As a girl who knew little of medical science at the time, I was nonetheless captivated by the complexity of medicine and aspired to be more involved in the healthcare community. Alone and recovering from surgery, he needed someone to talk to more than anything, and his face lit up as I told him that I would be happy to sit with him. While we talked, I learned that his wife had recently died, that they never had children because they could not afford it, and that he was restricted to living the rest of his life between the nursing home and the hospital.
Empathizing with his struggles and his loneliness, I helped him feel connected to another person to reduce these emotional pains. I then understood that the phrase could provide even more comfort to a patient than the physical relief I had initially intended. Being a scientifically curious and innovative individual, I am optimistic about the opportunities for the advancement of knowledge regarding the chemical, biological, and physiological interactions that comprise human life, and I want to be on the cutting edge of such discovery.
I have already begun to be involved in such medically relevant research in medicinal chemistry so that I can study how carcinogens chemically react with biological molecules to have a mutagenic effect.
As an interdisciplinary scientist, I have learned to combine multiple angles on a situation such as that of a chemist and a biologist to more completely understand it, which can help me translate scientific information to clinically relevant techniques.
This is also an ability I hope to emulate as a doctor to recognize and address the intricacies of medical ailments from their scientific basis and systemic effects to their psychological and social impacts on the lives of patients and their families. As I have explored careers in medicine, pharmacy, and science, I have become passionate about cancer, and I want to combine my intellectual interest, ambition, and compassion to do everything that I can for patients as an oncologist. My most touching observation was when I helped a woman on her last day of a round of chemotherapy by taking her picture with various nurses and doctors that were a major part of her treatment.
I admire that these medical professionals have made such an influence on her life that she wants to commemorate it in photographic memory. As she left, she did not say goodbye but instead said see you next time; it is determined patients like her who inspire me to be more involved in oncology and its research to see that I do everything that I can to help them win their fight against cancer.
Although I desire the lasting connection to patients, I would much rather see them healthy than having to return for multiple rounds of treatment. Through such learning experiences, I have become passionate about understanding and treating cancer, and I am determined to be more involved in the complex health care system by bridging the gap between science and medicine to best serve those afflicted with the disease. I take pride in my ability as an interdisciplinary scientist and I believe that I can use that skill to complement my work as an oncologist so that I can combat cancer as a true physician-scientist.
As an undergraduate, I have begun to experience the complementarity of medicine and scientific research. I now understand that clinical work as a physician requires not only application of the scientific principles learned throughout college and medical school, but also requires compassion and an interest in the personal side of health care.
For me, this interest was reignited by my experience in research where I learned more about the effects of cancer and had first hand experience in the search for a better understanding of the disease. From learning about the devastating effects of the disease and the efforts that doctors and researchers are putting forth to improve treatment of it, I was inspired to resume volunteering at the hospital, doing anything I could to be more involved.
If you wish, you can also discuss your experiences in narrative form. He concludes the entry by talking about what he learned both in terms of specific skills but also in terms of lessons that he will apply to future work. This helps adcoms get a glimpse of the human behind the accomplishments. For the aspiring physician scientist, MD-PhD programs will provide the training you need to integrate research and clinical work.
The MD-PhD admissions process is challenging and differs from that of traditional medical school admissions. Then, plan to devote significant time to your required application materials, including the two MD-PhD supplementary essays, in order to have the very best chances of acceptance. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on medical school admissions.
For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach. University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. Stanford University School of Medicine. University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine. Yale University School of Medicine. University of Miami School of Medicine. Emory University School of Medicine.
Northwestern University School of Medicine. University of Chicago School of Medicine. University of Illinois College of Medicine.
Indiana University School of Medicine. University of Iowa College of Medicine. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. University of Maryland School of Medicine. Tufts University School of Medicine.
University of Massachusetts School of Medicine. University of Michigan Medical School. Mayo Clinic School of Medicine. University of Minnesota Medical School. Washington University School of Medicine. Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. New York University School of Medicine. Stony Brook University School of Medicine. University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.
Duke University School of Medicine. University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Penn State College of Medicine. University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Medical University of South Carolina. Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Baylor College of Medicine. University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
University of Virginia School of Medicine. University of Washington School of Medicine. Medical College of Wisconsin. University of Alabama School of Medicine. University of South Alabama College of Medicine. University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson.
University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix. University of Arkansas College of Medicine. Loma Linda University School of Medicine. University of California, Davis School of Medicine. University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. University of Connecticut School of Medicine.
Georgetown University School of Medicine. Howard University College of Medicine. University of Florida College of Medicine. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. University of South Florida College of Medicine. Medical College of Georgia. Morehouse School of Medicine.
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