 Thank you so much for everyone who's on the call today. Today's webinar will be focused on really navigating the intricacies of creating a compelling medical school or PA school statement, and I'm really thrilled to be the moderator of today's discussion with our esteemed guest speakers for today. So before we get started, just a quick note to the group that you will have access to the Q&A box as well as the chat function throughout the session. So if you have any questions, please feel free to go ahead and drop your questions in there. I will do my best to monitor and we will get to them towards the end of the presentation. I encourage you to stick to the end because we have a short survey for your feedback on how today's session went and would love to collect those. So without further ado just want to dive right into the discussion. Our speakers are experts in both the medical field and PA field as well I have graciously agreed to share their insights and wisdom with us today. So we have a series of really thought provoking questions lined up to get us started. So today we have Caroline Weeks. She is a physician assistant with over seven years of experience as a registered diet dietician nutritionist specializing in pediatric subspecialties. We also have Dr. Kay who is an Instagram content creator and a physician who loves sharing her life and everything medicine on her page. She is passionate about medical education and representation in medicine. So just want to quickly dive right into the conversation and thank you both so much for being here. I'm really excited about what we're going to talk about today. So I'll just quickly share your journey and your experience in the medical field and sort of what led you here today and we'll start with you Dr. Kay. Hi, good afternoon everyone I'm so happy to be here and thank you to any for instruction. Essentially, I, my journey here was obviously into medicine was like a love for public health and prevent preventative health which let me to primary care but during this journey I served on adcom in med school and then also in residency as chief resident so I oversaw a lot of the admissions part of it so I got to review lots of personal statements, as well as write my own and help others along the way so with that and my experience with my degree in writing communications and undergrad. I'm definitely a part of the medical field and I'm passionate about because I think as healthcare workers and future healthcare workers sometimes we learn so much about the left brain events and type of studies but we don't really learn how to like sell ourselves or like you know express ourselves properly so it's really a joy to know not only being webinars like this but also to help people one on one. So yeah I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much and how about you Caroline. Thank you. It's such a pleasure to finally meet Dr clone am I saying your last name right correctly. Okay, to meet you in person, and thanks for having me and thanks for everybody in the audience today. As you mentioned Janie I started my career as a registered dietician nutritionist and worked clinically as a nutrition provider in the medical world. Inside of that, I have a lot of experience over 10 years and the nutrition health and wellness media kind of sector. And so I worked at Mayo Clinic prior as a dietician and was on one of the sort of boards for contacting and being contacted as a nutrition expert from major media outlets like USA Today things of that nature and also have been a health and wellness writer and contributor for a lot of media outlets. Like Dr colon said you know communication in your field will always be important I think it's crucial for any field we go into. I recently went back to school and obtained my physician assistant degree so I'm now practicing in the medical field as well full time, but maintain my dietician credential so I'm working in the area of endocrinology and diabetes now. Awesome. Thank you so much. So for students who are on the call who are sort of thinking about a career in health care and medicine, just want to hear from your experience how has all of your experience including your clinical rotation research projects volunteer work really influenced your decision to pursue a career in medicine and at what point did you say, I'm in the right place this is what I really want to do. Yeah, I'll just go ahead because I think my journey is maybe a little bit more non traditional I can't speak for Dr. Clawne but obviously I went in a different a different area first and then decided I wanted to pursue more of a medical role. And so you know I think all of my cumulative experiences have led me to be where I am today and I've never once looked back. That being said my dietetic internship which is kind of like I like to kind of describe it akin to a residency for dieticians. I do it postgrad before we can you know sit for boards and practice. Mine was extremely medically focused I did it at a VA hospital in Minneapolis and I was able to scrub in and surgeries and really be involved in the medical aspect of things which I think piqued my interest. I went on to then pursue a career in cystic fibrosis as a dietician where I was managing a lot of things like pancreatic enzyme replacement. And so got to really rub elbows with the physicians and be a part of that, the medical care of patients as well so that's what really inspired me to go on to pursue more. But again it's been a mixture of asking questions being curious and then being able to kind of practice to the top of my license and that role is what sort of led me to where I am today I guess. Awesome. Thanks for sharing. Dr. Kay. Yeah, I mean, I think for me. And just to clarify the question it was how we got here today or I guess what specific question do you want us to answer. Yeah, just curious at what point did you just did it click in your mind that you wanted to pursue a career in medicine is was it your clinical rotation like research projects what made it click for you. Thank you I just wanted to make sure I was repeating what I said. So, I think for me it was definitely more like personal reasons I think that a medicine was more of something that I for like I mentioned representation like seeing doctors who can relate to me. I think growing up on the way I did I think that was really my initial urge and so I think that personal drive was like so motivating for me and I think that ended up being the reason and why immerse myself into the field of medicine rotations and obviously when you see other people do it you are so motivated to I think when you have like a personal reason that you want to make a change I think no matter what the avenue becomes for you. It becomes fulfilling so I think whether I did became a physician or a PA like you know no matter what I think if I was just able to make that change which for me specifically was seeing more positions who could relate to my background, who are really passionate and providing compassionate care to people of all backgrounds. And that would have been fulfilling no matter what. Yeah, that's awesome to hear. And before I move on to my next question just want to get a sense of who's on the call with us today so if you all can type in the chat. What you are aspiring career is what do you hope to become in health care I know a lot of us are looking at the PA routes and medical routes so we'd love to know who on the call who is on the call and what year, sort of where you are in your PhD. And so, in my experience one of the advice that I've heard, especially for students is get that clinical experience. It's very important when you're ready to apply for PA school medical school. What advice would you give to students who are seeking to gain those relevant medical experience and opportunities to enhance their medical school application. So first, so I definitely think, and I always talk about this but I really mean it when I say, I'm trying to get like paid clinical experience is probably the way to go not just because you're getting paid but I think when you have that responsibility where you're like responsible for a certain role and the matter what that role is in the medical team, I think that the sense of like, not just like empowerment but also education is a lot higher because you have this, you know, responsibility to fulfill and giving an example if you are just shadowing a doctor right you are definitely learning a lot and you're kind of following someone around. But if you're a medical assistant to a doctor you are kind of responsible to get go through each patients like you know information and like take vitals and like work with the doctor directly in the treatment plan. I think that in itself is not just a great role because you learn more but I think that you also get paid, you know for the time you spend there. So I personally felt like when I was doing paid clinical experience. That was when I learned the most. So I was in your scribe. I got to work as an assistant without like an official assistant for a physician so I know that that was definitely fulfilling but in my experience, I think those roles really help you grow and really help you in leadership skills as well when you are responsible for tasks in a role in a healthcare setting. That's great information. And I'm just curious from your standpoint Caroline since you have more of the untraditional path what sort of advice would you give to students. Yeah, I would echo that. Obviously, my experience leading up to my PA application was, you know, being a clinician in my own way I was, you know, creating plans, providing care plans for patients, only in the nutrition world so still making autonomous decisions clinical evaluating patients from a holistic standpoint. So that was what I guess made me stand apart in that way but I think you know beyond beyond even clinical roles like say CNA or some of the more traditional ones we might think of anything that is touching a patient or patient facing account so thinking more even like research opportunities I think are really great when you're taking maybe a gap year between applying for medical school or something like that because sometimes in clinical research roles whether you're enrolling in clinical trials or something like that you're you're interacting with patients and you're again practicing that communication communications everything. So, in addition to that and what's already been said any role in which you can take a leadership position whether that be like a club, or something on campus where you are, you know, kind of interacting with a large crowd of people I think speaks a lot. Yeah, thank you so much. And in looking at a personal statement I know a lot of times once you build that wealth of knowledge you have all the experience. It's really hard sometimes to put that on paper, and really putting it on paper in a way that tells a story, and also a sort of showcases that you're ready to take that next step into medical school. So what is your advice for how students can effectively reflect and articulate their medical experiences in a compelling and authentic way when applying. And either one can take the question. I never want to talk over but I'll let you go first Caroline. Oh, sure. That's such a good question Janie and it's a really tough one to answer because everybody's so different we're all going to bring such unique experiences to the table. It's just important to speak authentically and true to yourself. You know, having some sort of narrative I think is really intriguing from in my opinion as somebody who's sat on review boards, you know and admissions committees and things for for incoming students. And that true authentic voice is really what's going to set you apart, but then doing that in a way that still meets the objective criteria showing the things you've learned showing kind of hashing out your experiences telling that story for me I really had to convey a convincing story why I wanted to completely change career paths that was a really hard thing to harness and just 1000 word personal statement so I had to make many, many versions of mine. But I think I was was honest so one of my main reasons which I pursued higher education was was financial I'll be honest. I don't feel like registered dieticians are sometimes paid and compensated to the best of what we do for the patients. In many ways in my previous role I felt like I was almost bleeding like my scope of practice was bleeding into somewhat of a PA role in and of itself so I had sort of been been truthful in that way I sort of called out the elephant in the room and I think that was really a refreshing aspect of my personal statement. And I think we're going to share maybe some excerpts from our personal statements maybe later and that can hopefully prove a point more but but being authentic to yourself but then also not just regurgitating your CV or your resume saying things you've done and the highlights, but in a way that's kind of woven into that narrative. Yeah, thank you so much Caroline. Yeah, that's great feedback and I think I'll just kind of add something that may be a little bit different is that I think that most times when I'm repersonal statements because I do edit on my own as well I've been doing this for years is that I see that. A lot of times people try to make their story fit like a narrative or like a box of like what they think a statement should look like so they'll probably get advice from like an advisor or counselor at school who will tell them do this this and this and it's like their story doesn't fit that narrative and so I, I just think that the best way to get the best personal statement is to be yourself and just like, right like have a session where you just take 10 to 30 minutes is right all your thoughts. Why you want to be a doctor or PA or you know whatever you want to be. And just right and then go through and try to, you know, put different ideas and different paragraphs like I think so many times people try so hard to like make their statement like somebody else's or with advice and what somebody else said but then it kind of leads into the story that they want to tell so I think just know that your story is important and if it's in somewhere. The goal and the art is to make it look good at the end but it doesn't have to look like everyone else's. And yeah and that's a good segue to our next question you sort of touched on this, not necessarily trying to fit within a box but being as authentic as possible. So when you're experienced Dr Kate what are some things or common pitfalls that you've seen or mistakes you've seen students make and how can our audience sort of avoids those when writing their personal statements. You know, I think that I see a lot of like science majors and people who are very like their personality is really different but they try to write like an English major like they will say like, you know, I'll just say something random like I walked down a paved road that was muddy and felt the breeze of like you don't have to write like that like this is not an English paper right like you can write just as you talk right and then we can get you know you can find someone to help you edit or you can edit at the end but you can write how you speak you don't have to make it sound like somebody in the 1800s wrote it right so I think a lot of times people tend to do that where they get the feedback that the first paragraph has to be very compelling but compelling doesn't mean that you have to write descriptive adjectives for everything you say that you just mean you shared a story that may be shocking to the reader to hear about right so that's definitely something I see people do a lot and what they'll do is they'll have a lot of like for both so very like they kind of Rambo and they kind of do a lot of descriptive adjectives but then the actual purpose is lost so just be sure that you're like getting to the point and you're not spending too much time being descriptive towards distracting. Yeah, thank you. Any advice to share in this area. Sure. I don't know if we have any pre PA students in the in the chat right now but one of mine. It sounds so silly, but it's a pet peeve of PAs is where you say physicians assistant and make it apostrophe, knowing you know what roles have to be because maybe some of the more nitty gritty grammatical things. Also knowing, you know, how to avoid run on sentences or when you need commas, you know, just making sure everything is spelled correctly I can't tell you how many times I see spelling errors so making sure, even if English isn't your first language to making sure that the just the syntax of it sounds good and there's a good flow. We may have some international students in the in the room tonight so just something to be be aware of. Additionally, I think, like Dr. Klon said, you want the first paragraph to be compelling. I think it don't fall into the cheese trap either with that so many times I see like a quote or something to start off a personal statement, and that is so overdone don't feel like you have to do that and make that be like you're like you can sinker in the beginning. Just, just be yourself. Yeah, this is great advice. And I've been hosting these webinars for a little bit and when you see student across the spectrum of, I have a lot of experience I'm ready to write my personal statement, and then you have a student who's, well I don't have a lot of experience what can I put on my personal statement. What advice would you give for students to be able to demonstrate their commitment to the medical field, wherever they fall in that spectrum whether it's having a lot of experience not as much to add to their personal statement. And I think it's case in point to all of our backgrounds mean Dr. Klon had a, you said undergraduate and communications that's, that's not necessarily direct medical experience but she's able to parlay it into something that's made her so successful in the medical field. I myself, I was actually a music major to start out with and I've really reinvented myself multiple times over. So just realizing that anything can count as experience. Yes, we want relevant clinical experience for medical school applications or the like. But just knowing that you can have those translational skills, and it's all about just being able to show what, what challenged you what event in your life, how you handle that and then what the outcomes of that were you know just as you would in a job interview or something of that nature. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I think that a lot of 10 people struggle with, you know, I don't have enough experience what I talk about or they tend to just like list out all their experience so I think I would say, like Carolyn said earlier, the experiences that you have a big impact with or that you have leadership in and kind of highlighting that versus just like listing out everything you did I think people tend to fixate on like one patient encounter, and they kind of talk about that but I think more importantly is to show how you grew from an experience right like not focusing on the patient or like one experience but rather how that role helped you in your career as an ex-Y or Z. Yeah, no that's helpful. So in your experience Dr. Kay and looking at all the personal statements that you've gone through. What are some examples if any that you can provide of meaningful medical experience or patient interaction that students should be putting in their personal statements knowing that not everything they've done can fit or should be on there. So I think like leadership roles should definitely you know be on there so if you work a leader of a club, and you've been in the club for like more than a year or so definitely include that I think if you were like a medical assistant or somewhere you have direct patient care like Caroline said earlier, definitely include that because that's also profound. And, you know, honestly, if you also like she said earlier if you do like even bench experience but it helped in a way that it really change your perspective on medicine or the way you want to pursue medicine include that so just anything that really shifted you are your growth I think sometimes we think that that has to be a specific type of training but it doesn't have to be but definitely if you're a leader of a group or if you've been doing direct patient care whether it's as a medical assistant ascribe a, you know, a technician, all that is really profound medical experience and it deserves a spot in your statement. Awesome. I will also add to and this is maybe more specific to PA but could be the same for pre MDs volunteer work is something that applicants and committee members are really looking for for PA specifically so being able to demonstrate how you've shown, you know leadership and maybe a volunteer position. I think it's also important on a personal statement. And how is it to convey empathy and cultural competency so stepping away from your clinical experience I imagine that it's also important to be able to get to the heart and soul of whoever is reading your personal statements so how important is it from what you've done and sort of all the personal statements you've read through how important is it on the scale of most important not as important as it to include those components in a personal statement. So I speak obviously from, you know, a position of white privilege I'll just call it out like it is. And so definitely think it's important for me to acknowledge that and obviously I'm going to have different backgrounds than maybe some others on this call tonight. But I think showing empathy is absolutely paramount. It's something that all committee members and admissions committee are looking for we want somebody who's able to meet the patient where they are in their journey and be able to connect with people of all different backgrounds. And speaking from the PA kind of realm specifically working for underserved areas is definitely something that committee members are seeking just because the PA specialty is we are trained as primary care providers first and foremost. Obviously working in underserved areas is important because there is such a need. I myself was always interested in working with people in underserved communities. My significant other is Venezuelan and I do speak Spanish. And so being able to, you know, provide healthcare and those type of environments was always something I wanted to do. And so tried to convey that in my personal statement not only because it truly was authentic to myself, but it was always also a preferred kind of aspect of my particular program that I was applying for. You know, being able to not just check that box and saying like, oh yeah I want to work with underserved communities or oh yes being empathetic is important and kind of sounding like robotic almost in a sense, but again, weaving how empathy is important into maybe patient interactions or what you had spoken previously in your personal statement, alluding to that as something you were focused on, whether it was again working in research or working as a CNA or whatever clinical role that you had. Yeah, just to echo that absolutely I agree with Caroline which you said, and I guess another thing I can say is that you don't. You can show your cultural competence and don't have to use like a clinical experience to back it up so what I mean by this is that if you feel like you have grown as a person and have learned how to be more culturally competent because of personal life experience, whether that's like where you went to school where you worked, you know just interactions you've had. That is the purpose of a personal statement is to show personal growth right and so don't look for always like you know like I say the art of a personal statement and this kind of answers the question of somebody in the chat who said do we have to read less experiences in our CV. The art of it is to combine those experiences with your personal life and kind of tell a story of how both of those impacted your growth. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I imagine there are a lot of tips resources out there that students can take advantage of when crafting their personal statements. What resources have you found to be most helpful in your journey when you were crafting yours. We can start with you doc okay. I was seeing a Caroline what's going to talk. But you're responding to a question in the chat go ahead. Okay I'll just go ahead. I think. So it's been like what like eight years since my personal statement from from out school and I'll speak to like even my presidency one personally like I think I'm a writer like at heart so I think for me I just I took someone's piece which I saw. I like to school like you know, and I took the advice of brainstorm writing which is essentially just like writing up my thoughts and revising them so I would just say like if you don't know where to start with resources, literally just a quick Google search on the personal statement that you're writing will pop up a lot of you know samples and like advice tips and there's like tons of websites I don't want to just list one or two because there's tons. So I think at the time I definitely did like to Google search to see where to start but I think what helped me the most essentially was like I mentioned earlier like just taking some time to like write all your thoughts out and then starting them out at the end. That was kind of my big print and then thinking more recently to presidency when I was applying for the match. During that time, I think like we're talking about soon is like kind of taking advice from other people with matching the specialty I wanted. That's kind of what I did and if you actually like I said, just quick Google search of like X specialty personal statement you'll see like samples online so that's pretty helpful as a starting point again it's really tricky though because you don't want it to sound like somebody else's but you also want to see how somebody else was able to convey a message. Thank you. Yeah I definitely agree with all those ideas and statements. I think also. I love the idea of like Dr clone said you know writing down all of your ideas and kind of patchworking them together later. Just think back to like English class 101 your intro your body and your outro and kind of understanding the framework and the bones of a good statement and a good essay if you will, but then knowing to how you can weave in your ideas in a way that flows well and I think you can only do that by just brain dumping everything on a big piece of paper and just having like a, just a free flow brainstorming and being okay with the fact that your, your personal statement is going to have so many iterations I think I literally had like maybe 20 versions of my statement before I finally got to something that I liked so I took at least two or three months to write mine, not to put any pressure and anybody in the chat you know if you've got a due date coming up but knowing that it's a process and you have to let things marinate and sit on it. Another tip that I have to is have as many people read the statement as possible, knowing ahead of time that at the end of the day, the buck stops with you it's your statement you get to decide to decide what edits and critiques you want. But I think having people from all different backgrounds both medical and non read personal statements, you get such good feedback because everybody has unique life experiences, and they may you know shed light on something you had no idea really stood out or really sounded and you might be able to get something different from that. And then I agree, you know, always having role models and looking for people who have done what you want to do right so I had several PAs share their personal statements with me, and I kind of looked at what worked and what didn't and then kind of partly that parlayed that into my own work. Yeah, that's that's good and it's a good segue to my question as well and I see one in the chat that talks about what specific characteristics do panelists or panels look for and thank you for your response to that Dr. K. I'm just curious if you had anything to share in that regard, and you talk about intro body outro and that sounds very simplified and some students might still be wondering well what do I put in my intro what do I put in the body. If you have like examples that you can share with us to see what a personal statement could look like. We're open to that. Yeah, I'm happy to share an excerpt of mine. I think for me personally I had to, like I mentioned earlier, explain and kind of convey where I was currently what role I was in characteristics and strengths of mine that I built and that I showed that role then but then, you know, I had to explain in the body of my personal statement my drive for wanting to change careers and areas of work within the clinical field. And so I sort of did that and several body paragraphs and then I ended it by kind of summarizing what I had said earlier. So explaining that I would make a good candidate for the program based on what they were looking for and previously I had demonstrated ways in which I showed that. Should I go ahead and read now or do we want to. Okay. So in the beginning I won't read that because it is so unique to me but I tried to kind of create like a striking scenario something that I actually did do. I'll just go ahead and read the beginning to. So my, my previous career as part of my job as a dietitian I worked in cystic fibrosis. So we were constantly conveying bad news to parents. We were the first kind of team that the parents met with after their baby had flagged positive on the newborn screen for having cystic fibrosis so my intro statement goes like this. My hand was shaking as I pushed open the clinic door, I hesitated a moment taking a deep breath because I knew once inside would be communicating the words that would forever change young families life, your child has cystic fibrosis. So here comes an indelible moment when you and your team are the messengers of a frightening new reality, one where an imagined future of expected milestones is instantly changed. At that moment clinical practice collides with humanity and how that moment is approached, both professionally and emotionally is critical. My collective life and career experiences have prepared me for such moments, becoming a physician assistant will allow me to address such situations and the best way possible. So that was my intro, my first body paragraph. As the registered dietitian RD I did that to save word count because word counts on these statements are really tight. As the RD for the Mayo cystic fibrosis center I educate patients as part of a multidisciplinary team, cultivating positive relationships with both the individual individual patient and the parent is crucial if I'm to be successful with each case, and such success centers on navigating family dynamics and understanding cultural differences. With that awareness in mind I'm able to communicate vital information in such a way that everyone understands. So showing my communication as a strength that was kind of one of my pillars of strengths. I'm able to communicate vital information okay and sorry I said that already, sometimes family conflicts or individual personalities dominate an appointment. So this must be constantly flexible, ready to redirect attention conversation and attitudes. My role as RD in this specialty is unique because I have the responsibility of managing patients pink reddit enzyme replacement therapy, and physicians consult me to make initial dose recommendations. Without proper adjust adjustment of this medication patients with CF would be unable to gain appropriate weight to maintain lung function. So just to kind of explain what I was doing there, I had to show in a very tight condensed paragraph, some of my skills so communication, being flexible in the moment, working and trying to meet patients where they were when we were dealing with really chaotic kind of stressful scenarios, and then also showing the fact that I was doing more than just the typical dietician telling you to eat your fruits and veggies right, I was working with physicians I was getting consulted. So, trying to kind of convey that in one in one paragraph was a little bit easier said than done but again I'm not saying mine's perfect. There are certain certain things that you know some people would say oh cringy but for me it worked and I got in and now I'm practicing so that's that. So thank you for sharing Carolina I'm sure that's helpful for folks on the call Dr can anything to add to that in terms of really how to condense all of your experience into intro body outro. I like pull up my old I just somehow found my old personal statement and now you're like that's a cry so I'm not going to reread it because it's a lot of personal stuff. But one thing I'll say is like just reading it like I see that I had the spirit of a hustler and I kind of put it into like, I'll kind of talk about how I put that into a statement because what I mean by that and the reason I kind of encouraged that is because I think I really I was like hard working and resilient throughout my statement and I think to summarize the answer your question I think the most important thing is to have a theme. So like even if your intro body and outro have different ideas, the theme should be the same so for example the intro should introduce who you are to the reader but also leave them wondering and wind to them know more about you, and then the body is kind of where I would go into any specific clinical experience, any personal experiences and then you know specifics into why you are a hardworking person why you are resilient why you are a leader why you'd make great PA a great doctor right and then your outro should be essentially the summary and like a selling paragraph you know like hey now you know, I am all these things and this is why what sets me apart from another candidate right so I think, again, another reading and I know Janie we talked about this and I was like can't find my statement I just found it. And I'm actually kind of glad that it's on on screen or I probably cried but I reading it I see that I was like pretty open about my struggles and I think if anything that probably helped me because I like somebody asked in the questions they do ask you about your statements in your interviews. So if you put something in there that you're okay discussing during the interview. It's a great place to be vulnerable I mean I'm honestly no one's going to read this besides you and the admissions committee and if you don't in school they'll never see you again if you get into the school. It's just going to help you and let them know who you are right so don't be afraid to be vulnerable, but I hope that answer the question. Thank you so much to your both for sharing. I do have a question in the Q amp a is there anything specific that could boost my chances of getting accepted into BS MD programs. I don't know if that's what I don't know if the question is within the context of you know a personal statement or just general. Yeah, I don't know it's this person in high school and trying to get into the SMD or they and I'm assuming they're in high school. Can they tell the chat. Yeah, can you tell. Usually it's it's high schoolers are like in high school. Yeah, yeah. So, um, so I know a little bit about the BS MD there's like a few in the country. I'm typically it's just the matter of like being competitive I mean things you can do to show that is to college level classes in high school and do well to AP classes but like, you can do like, I would say like in that case the volunteer work obviously helps but from my understanding, most of those programs are very much like numbers based because they want to see that you can handle the court like the rigor of the BS MD, because they tend to condense program they usually condense them at school, and your bachelor's until like six or seven years. So, unfortunately, a lot of those programs do have a higher emphasis on like GPA, and then like your SAT ACT scores so again, if you ask me specifics we can get into that but like generally that's the theme. Thank you. I was going to ask when I write about the gender gap or minorities in medicine should I avoid mentioning numbers and statistics. You know, I think that it's interesting because I actually wrote a whole statistic in my statement I wrote like how 3% of medical students come from families in the bottom 20% of annual income so because I was really really passionate about increasing representation of like low income specifically. So I wrote that and people love that so I would say don't be afraid to write that as long as you can back that up in an interview when they've asked you like where'd you get the statistic from so just make sure your sources are accurate, and that you're writing like widely known stats on there and not just something that you read on like blog posts or something. Thank you. I'm looking across the chat and Q amp a I don't see any additional questions. So in the meantime, I don't know folks are still typing in what other tips resources how can students get in contact with you both if they have questions about you know, crafting a personal statement, they need additional support just to get in touch with you. Absolutely. I'll sorry Caroline I'm just like talking, but I'm going to just let you talk. So I am definitely. I'm Danny knows and Caroline is I do content creation. And so my page is just like I'll put it in the chat stocked a wide deal so I put post lots of tips on personal statements on my page and all you also like help students one on one and all the information's like on my page but if you want to message me please email me or send me a DM I'm happy to help. And then I do typically share like what students I've worked with like excerpts with their permission from time to time on my page so you know those are also pretty helpful. And also just I think other ways, other tips that I would have for you guys is something that I kept saying but I stand by it and that is just to be yourself and really honor embrace your story like I think we just sleep on ourselves sometimes we have imposter syndrome we think that we're not special like this doesn't matter but like it really does and you know you can take any story and make it profound if you have the confidence to do so. And so I would just say believe in the power, like the power of your story and just like know that it's, it's important you know and maybe not to in your world but like you saying that story out loud and somebody else reading it may find a lot of inspiration and so just don't sleep on yourself like you know don't doubt yourself don't think that your story doesn't matter or that hey this is important or like I'm not going to make it because be going with that mindset. You won't have the creativity to write I really do believe that being in creative space requires some kind of privilege and some kind of like confidence and that just takes some like belief in your future and determination so I'm starting with that would be really helpful to get to a good place. Thank you. I love all those comments I think they're so so true is you know having that that self confidence to just go for it and you know just throw caution to the wind and I think I know from a personal way that I get caught up in my own imposter syndrome when I think about those lines of oh you know this sounds so so overdone or this somebody's already said this before but you know just having that self confidence and just ignoring all the noise around you isn't really important. So we obviously have a much different career background and path and Dr fun so you know can speak to to PAs or anybody else that maybe is not in the MD track, but I'm also a creator on social media my pages the clinic dietician on Instagram so happy to reach out and further discuss you know some of your questions and things. I have worked maybe not to the same extent that Dr clown has with personal statement writing but definitely have sat on committees for you know incoming students and generally know I think what what people are looking for. Obviously this is just one piece of the giant application puzzle right we look at everything we look at GPA which I can address that question here in a minute. We look at your resume your experiences but the personal statement is your time to really shine and just have fun with it because this is the one. The only part of your application that's really going to highlight your personality so like it's been mentioned before being authentic being creative if you do feel like you are a creative person or you have a vulnerable story to share or something like that this is your moment to do that so and understanding like this is just a jumping block from for further discussion and conversation in your interview, which is the ultimate goal right. I think when it does come to GPA. If you do have say a lower one or something. This is a great way to show that resiliency that we said is important in medicine. Maybe you retook a class or you know you worked on something to further improve your GPA after maybe you have a legitimate reason why your GPA was lower than it needed to be maybe you were caring for a family member who was ill maybe you were caring for personal health issues there's so much more to that story and I really hate it when programs just hang up an applicant's total package based on GPA. I think programs are getting more and more away from that just like they're getting away from some of the standardized test scores and things which I think is really important. I don't know people who say don't test well or maybe don't have that ability maybe you have ADHD and so sometimes, you know, maintaining that 4.0 is just not not conceivable so it's something if it's, I don't know what the threshold would be for, you know, the time to mention GPA, but if you yourself feel like it's a red flag then yeah definitely address the elephant in the room I think being transparent is is really important. And I see we have one more question that just came in what is the right time to start writing your personal statements is it as you are obtaining experience. Do you advise waiting a little bit closer to when you're ready to apply for medical school or PA school, what is the right time. You know, that's a great question. You can always be like oh there's a right time it's like a different time for everybody but just to be more specific I definitely think that six months before you are about to apply is definitely when you should start like brainstorming and writing because I actually believe that like, sometimes you'll write you like what the heck was I thinking when I wrote that right and so you're going to have like multiple what the heck moments and I think to have a really good final statement. Three to six months before like you actually apply is a great time to start writing and that way you have like a brainstorming phase you have a content fixing phase and then you'll have a grant because you know I do think there's like layers to how you edit and I think the first layer will be like fixing the content up making sure it flows well and then you'll do the grammar grammar and making sure you know you get it checked for grammar and everything like that so three six months I think it's like a good starting point. Thank you. Thank you so much. I would agree with that I would say just the sooner the better. You know, I, like I mentioned I had like 20 versions of my personal statement so I think you're not going to be able to show that creativity and authentic self if you feel the pressure of a deadline. So we're most creative when we're kind of in an idle space and we're able to just have the no pressure. I don't care what you say if you're like, if you have that ability to do good work under a deadline just please don't take that mentality and your personal statement give yourself ample time to do this. Thank you so much. I don't see any other questions in the chat or q amp a. So I just want to say thank you to you both for sharing your experience and your insight I hope that our audience have found it very helpful and enlightening. I know one takeaway for me from today's discussion is a personal statement or at least a compelling one is not just about listing your accomplishments it's really talking about how unique you are and your contribution to the medical field. And for those who are joining us for the first time and you're looking for clinical experience that could potentially go on your personal statement. Advanced clinical training is the place to be we offer online certification programs for students who are looking for that direct patient care, and are really looking to excel in the healthcare industry. We hope that you would consider us in your health care journey and I do want to say thank you to Caroline and Dr Colan for joining us today. We hope to see you all in future webinars. And if there are no additional questions in the chat, we can go ahead and end here and then hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Thank you so much. Thanks everyone. This has been great. Yeah, thank you so much. Jamie and everyone else who helped with this. Of course. Bye. Bye.