Hey guys, if you want to better your personal statement for your primary or secondary app, here's some free advice.
1. Should I use a consulting service for my personal statement?
Sure, if you want to run up a huge bill in applying to med school. Not only will your primaries cost a good amount, the fees for secondaries range can range from $50-$100, which isn't awesome if you're applying to a lot of schools. I really don't think this is necessary, plus, if you use it for your primary essays, your secondaries will probably sound different.
If you've made it this far, chances are you're decent at writing and just need to work at it a bit harder to make a great PS. Here are some free tips, so you don't have to feel preyed upon by people looking to make a buck off of hard-working pre-meds.
2. What should I mention in my PS? Do I start with what I did in undergrad? Is it like a narrated CV?
This is one big problem you want to avoid, and a pretty common one. While you might have a prompt that basically says "Why medicine?" you don't really want to just list a ton of things that you did that are related to medicine.
Your PS should a tell a story of how/why you got interested in medicine (if that's what the prompt is, and it most commonly is). Like all good stories, yours should be interesting, show development in character and maturity on your part, and highlight some important personal qualities.
Also, elaborate, but concisely. For example, don't just mention that volunteering in the ER "made you interested in emergency medicine," mention something you did in particular and how it was a learning/growth experience.
If you do mention stuff from your CV, don't just list it, but rather, incorporate it in a form that serves as a learning experience. You did things to learn something from it, instead of just padding your CV right? Doing things to pad your CV won't help you if you can't write about it in your PS correctly or get asked to elaborate on it during an interview. That can get you.
You can include anything in your life in your PS, as long as it's relevant to your personal growth, developing interest in medicine, and what made you decide for sure you want to do medicine. In your PS, make sure it doesn't read as though you're just interested in medicine, make it sound like you really thought it out and have for sure decided to do medicine. Does that make sense? Sound confident, inspired, and motivated, but sincere, honest, and humble.
3. What if my PS is boring?
Is your PS boring or are you boring? Just kidding. I was lucky to have a lot of cool life experiences, but not many people have. I knew some applicants with really crazy and unique experiences, like being a Navy pilot, but you don't have to be one to get into med school. If you haven't worked in a lab, done volunteering, or shadowing, you really should. I've heard of people with 4.0s and 35+ on the MCATs not getting into med school, and I wonder if that's because they just didn't really do much to be the best applicant they could be besides study.
In the end, your med school class is going to be composed of athletes, artists, musicians, teachers, social workers, etc who've all made medicine their prime focus. If you haven't gotten to do a lot in your life, regardless, write about what makes you unique, awesome, motivated, and a good candidate to study medicine.
Bonus Section: Extracurriculars and Getting into Med School
I wanted to touch on this for a bit. So are you thinking you have to do extracurriculars to get into med school? I think you're most likely right. I'd be able to be 100% sure on this if I knew of some people who only studied and haven't done ECs who got into med school. What looks the best, then? Commitment. That's to say, 2-3 years being involved in one thing you really like, and a couple of other things you're involved in for 1+ years. However, that amount of time I just described is for the typical 4 years of college. If you've been out of college for a while after graduating, you want to keep busy during that time and not look like a lazy person.
ECs aren't just for you to fill in all the boxes on the app, and not some kind of competition with other students, but it's more about seeing if you, the applicant, have a passion for doing something in the "real world" as in, not just studying, something you're excited about, and that is fulfilling to you. I'm a musician, a painter, candlestick-maker (just kidding), but I do those things because I love them and they're fun. Little is more awesome to an interviewer than seeing an applicant speak excitedly about something other than medicine. It shows you're well-rounded and multi-dimensional.
Cheers, guys, I hope this helps you out on your path to med school. As always, I'm available to answer you guys' questions. Good luck!
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