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How to write a personal statment: Some tips

1) Titles and subtitles help to tell your story. They also break up the page.

2) Grammar and spelling COUNT! This statement is YOU! Make sure it is clean, and free from errors. A carefully proofed personal statement is taken as a sign that the author is compulsive and thoughtful -just what the training program is looking for.

3) Don't be afraid to be YOU! No one will remember that your grade school teachers elected you most likely to become a doctor. They will remember the candidate that had to deliver a baby horse on a farm as a teenager. They will most definitely remember the candidate that ran for public office and lost or the one who was promoted in the field from medic to platoon leader. Too many good candidates persist in thinking that the statement is only for academic achievements and medically relevant stuff.

4) Use whatever stories help define you, your skills, your character. If you can find a way to work your career as a medical interpreter into your story or even a background in sales or your athletic skills.

5) Use the personal statement to highlight your accomplishments. You may want to dedicate some space in your personal statement for these accomplishments with its own title and a skipped line to make it stand out.

6) Whatever you do, don't just print out your curriculum vitae in the personal statement space. This is translated as "I had nothing to say so I thought I'd just plop this down here."

7) BEWARE the TOO SHORT PERSONAL STATEMENT. Having a pleasant amount a white space on the personal statement page is one thing. It makes the whole thing more readable. A 10 or 15 line personal statement is the quickest way to turn off a program. It says that your patient write-ups will also lack imagination and style.

8) PERSONALIZE your personal statement. Don't settle for telling your audience that there was a diverse population of patients where you trained. Tell them (briefly) some of the stories of the people you have treated. Doctors LOVE to read each other's war stories. You may even find that the stories form the basis for some of your interviews.

9) Don't make the classic writing mistake of beginning every sentence with "I". In fact, you must work hard to make the piece a good bit of writing. Every paragraph should have a topic sentence followed by two to three sentences that support the topic and then a concluding sentence. Every paragraph should build on the one before it. The first paragraph traditionally ought to tell the reader what you hope to prove and then the last paragraph should tie up to the first and show how you succeeded in telling them.

10) Have someone good read your personal statement and give you feedback.

11) The personal statement should fit on one side of one page. No one who reads hundreds of personal statements wants them to be long and drawn out.

12) There should be some white space on the page. A big box of words can be visually discouraging. If you want it to be read, make is appealing.

13) Never fawn. Never tell the program director that you are desperate or that he/she will be blessed if they accept you. This kind of behavior undermines your ability to be perceived as a quality doctor on your own terms. In fact, think as positively as possible. Believe it in your heart and make it clear that you consider yourself doing the program a favor by coming for an interview.

14) Avoid the same old clichés. No program director wants to read 300 statements that begin, "I have wanted to be a doctor ever since I was treated by my family doctor."

15) Don't be afraid to be creative. Programs are looking for creative people. Creative people make good problem solvers. They are thought of as more able to handle emergencies. Use poetry (in limited quantities), religious stories, and flashbacks to your childhood. Use different narrative lines for effect like switching back and forth between the patient's point of view and yours.

16) Back up every descriptive thing you say. It's one thing to say, "I'm a team player." It is another thing entirely to say what makes you a team player. Describe the team you were on.