 Not sure if your medical school personal statement is as amazing as it should be stay tuned for 10 tips Before we dive in make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss a video on all things personal statements and secondaries Hi, I'm dr. Josie with write your acceptance as a professional writer University faculty member and personal statement coach I've helped hundreds and hundreds of students work on their personal statements and get into schools and programs like U.M. Miller UCSF Virginia Tech and Mayo so stay tuned and let's get to it tip one Consider your emotional and intellectual spark moment. So did you have a health scare as a child? did you have a grandmother who was ill or Kind of you had to go to the hospital frequently for whatever reason think about that kind of first encounter with medicine and how Formative it was if you have one and then the intellectual consideration would be what brings you to medicine What are the values that you hold and uphold and hope to kind of continue to live by as a physician? So these potentially could be your introduction and thesis or it could be kind of guiding Thematically especially answering the why what brings you to medicine that could be kind of thematically guiding the personal statement throughout Tip to brainstorm broadly so this will help not only with your personal statement But also with your activity section make sure you list out whether you have a CV whether you have kind of already You know outlines but list out all of the medically related experiences that you've had already Patient-centric experiences are king, right? So content with patient interaction that is number one for me with regards to personal statement Experiences that you can narrate but list out all of your experiences, right? So any medical mission trips any hospice volunteering any pediatric volunteering anything that is Kind of you in a clinical setting and directly behaving and adapting to patient's needs Tip three you should balance between storytelling and critical thinking So whenever possible if you're going to kind of dip into an experience a memory make sure that you are Storytelling so make sure that you kind of employ the five senses whenever possible I want to see here taste touch whenever appropriate, right and think about kind of dipping into that kind of Register from a tone perspective to paint a picture as if you were in a movie So once you have your medically related list going right think about how you can kind of Zoom in through images as if I'm watching a movie and then it can get to something like Entering 82-year-old carriage room at the assistant living facility where I volunteered I noticed the windows were kept shut for most of the day Despite the residents gathering at the bingo game So I hear I can hear kind of gathering people kind of you know, I'm socializing, right? Carrie refused to participate after asking the nurse a bit more about her I learned that she loved and then give very specific examples Sweets type of music so that I can taste and hear and then kind of go in Saying a last line about how you showed up the next day with those sweet or with that kind of music playing in your iPhone Something that really engages with the patients something that is culturally responsive Socially engaging to their kind of where they are right there and then kind of reflect on lessons learned So it doesn't have to be this big big story from beginning middle and end You're plunging right into just the meat and heart of what you need to talk about to then reflect on those specific lessons So tip four always have lessons, right? So if you're gonna tell a story, you're only telling a story You're only giving that raw material to then a tell a specific lesson about that ideally the different kind of Experiences and anecdotes that you narrate in your personal statement are offering up material to have you learn Kind of have different takeaways and learn different lessons so that you have a varied kind of multidimensional awareness of medicine and you come to the table with kind of multiple Experiences tip five think about your essay real estate So kind of visually map out your essay and think about kind of how if you have a spark moment that happened to you That is a passive experience a health scare as a child a parent who was ill Something that kind of you know life through your way that you didn't intentionally seek out Yes, you can honor that you can have that as your beginning if that is the story you want to tell But make sure it is on the shorter end Don't spend two thousand characters and multiple paragraphs on this experience that is a passive kind of experience for you The meat the most important in my opinion kind of sections of your personal statement Are that middle part where you have intentionally now that you've decided to pursue medicine You've intentionally sought out these experiences whether they're volunteering or clinical hours Scribing whatever it is you want to make sure that that's where you spend most of your time Where it is, you know the last four or five years if you've had you know a post-bac or masters that it is relevant Ideally patient-centric in my opinion and that you are actively pursuing kind of these types of relationships and experiences So make sure that you think about kind of the different areas and the different chunks of your essay real estate as a whole You don't want to spend too much time at the beginning or too much time on anything that is passive And then that way you have you give enough space to the intentional Active experiences that really showcase who you are and your values through your journey to medicine Not happy with where your personal statement is at comment below. I'd love to help you out so tip six it's kind of related to tip five in the sense that you want to show growth and That's kind of unfair to say. It's one of those easy things to say But how do you actually show it? You want to make sure that one all of the lessons so every experience that you have That you want to make sure that they're not similar Experiences in the sense of you know, they're not all volunteering in the same facility Or they're not all volunteering in the same hospital or all from the medical mission trip that they're not all kind of Similar lessons, right? So you want to really show that one built another up, right? So that you have a takeaway that then leads you to then do research that then that research led you to then conduct some Volunteering or some public health kind of surveys where you were volunteering that one builds the other one up And so then it feels like a cohesive narrative of growth and development as you pursue medicine tip seven And this is one of the most important tips I see this a ton when I am working with students on their personal statements. Don't internalize your feelings So sometimes I see a student that says okay I have a story and then I have a lesson but the story is really kind of they mentioned the patient and then they go Into their own head how they feel bad for the patient how they can't imagine Overcoming that or how they're frustrated that they can't help more that they would want to be adopted to help them Diagnose the kind of you know element or to help them kind of remedy the cure them But that is all kind of internal monologue and no action I want to see you in action directly connecting and adapting and helping that patient, right? So don't do don't waste sentences and lines in your personal statement Regarding this kind of internal monologue that I understand could be thoughtful in the sense of like that was how you were Processing your emotions of the moment, but it doesn't really show me as a reader your values in action And I want to see you in action. That's most important. So like, you know An example when I met 17 year old Adam who survived a house fire and sustained third degree burns over most of his body I could not imagine how he must have felt then the student continued with the internal monologue That they had wanted to help so badly But they didn't know how to connect with Adam and they didn't know how to help him Kind of a find relief, right? So basically the story just drops name drops Adam and then goes into the student's head So not what you want to do You want to be very action-oriented in your stories Just enough to then give the lesson that you learned in that moment in that takeaway tip 8 forget about the character count I know it sounds weird, but I can't tell you how many times I hear students. Oh miss But I have 5200 characters. I can't write another story, but they're spark moment They're not thinking about that as a real estate in their spark moment is 1800 characters or 2000 characters, right? So you want to make sure that you write everything you want to say in many ways You're not going to lose anything because if there's one too many stories or one too many experiences Just kind of save that for later for your amcasts or connectivity section, right? So make sure that you say everything you want to say first then the character count and the editing comes afterward but make sure that the content is really driving your decisions and not the length of where it is right now tip 9 Compliment but do not repeat So yes, your experiences that you narrate and that you kind of signal in your personal statement will show up in your activity section That's only natural, right? But you want to make sure that you use different stories So if you use Kerry's experience in the ALF When you write your activity section, you're going to use Harry's story You're going to use another patient experience and how you kind of like help them or created belonging for them and connected with them So definitely compliment experiences. Yes, you can use, you know, the assisted living facility in your personal statement and in your activities But not the same story. So compliment do not repeat and tip 10 also Probably seven and ten are the most important in my opinion. Know that there is a hierarchy of Experiences I'm for the most part do not advise students to put shadowing experiences in their personal statement It's pretty passive, right? You are watching someone else for the most part be an exceptional physician But you're not acting you're not doing anything. So typically that's a very passive role Scribing for the most part typically can be a pretty passive role So you want to think about the hierarchy of experiences Tend to kind of gravitate So the higher ones tend to be the ones that are patient-centric that you are connecting directly with patients that you are Adapting to their needs going above and beyond whatever your duties and responsibilities were in that moment To create belonging for them to help them to adapt to whatever they need You had XYZ to do and you stop that because you needed to kind of tend to their emotional needs for a moment or family members So really think about those patient-driven experiences as kind of for the most part most important in my opinion that Offer up the most productive Scenarios for them to show you in action and lessons learned for more guidance on how to structure your personal statement How to kind of think about stories helling definitely get my free personal statement guide It's in the description below hit subscribe give us a like and I'll see you soon. Thank you so much