Only 1000 words

[Guest ioncannon97]

I am having considerable difficulty saying everything I want to say in the essay in only 1000 words. Any advice from previous applicants or those with experience with such essays?

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

Often it can be tough, with your own essay, to recognize and edit the less essential parts of your writing. In this regard, it can be useful to have another pair of eyes read your essay and identify any parts that don't add particular strength or may be less relevant to the responses that address the issues to which you are trying to respond.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest peachy]

Personally, I started out with the McMaster submission first because it was more focussed than the Toronto one. I then used the answers to those questions as the basic building blocks for my Toronto and Queen's submissions. I found it easier to work with the small paragraphs at first, because there's so much choice in 1000 words, whereas for many of the McMaster questions (for me, anyways) I was sure about what I wanted to write for them, because they were so short and specific.

 

(and I was accepted to U of T and Queen's, and didn't get an interview at Mac ... go figure!)

 

Good luck!

[Guest aneliz]

Write what you want to say without worrying too much about limits to start off with.... then be a ruthless editor... you need to get rid of all of the extraneous words and ideas. This means getting rid of word hogging connector phrases:

 

As an example:

 

"At this point in time" = "now"

 

" An example of my..." = "for example;"

 

etc. You will be surprised how many 'empty' words and phrases you can axe.

 

Good luck! It can be done!

[Guest thesaug]

Another thing to keep in mind...write the essay according to the characters...as thats how the limit is in the application...i dont know how much of a difference (if any) there is between the two limits...just thought you should know

[Guest UTMed07]

1000 words...but 8000 characters

I read through the U of T section of the OMSAS Guide for this year. The essay specs have changed. The essay is now limited to a 1000 words. Also, the instructions suggest there is less focus on structure. In years past, U of T had a list of things the applicant should write about. Personally, I believe it was a good idea; in my opinion, it made the structure of the essay more-or-less obvious.

 

I think that the old guidelines are interesting to skim. While they are quite similar to what is written in this year's OMSAS booklet (and aren't useful as such), they might you give you an idea of how to structure your essay. To that end, I've done a little copy 'n paste and thus reproduced for you the relevant section of what was in OMSAS' 2003 guide.

 

Last year's OMSAS Guide (Ontario Medical School Application Service 2003):

The Personal Statement should address the following topics and questions:

1.Describe yourself, and why you have decided to apply to medical school.

2.Describe the undergraduate (or graduate, if applicable) course of study you have pursued. Explain why you made your choices, and how you think these have prepared you for your future.

3.Give one or more examples of your personal skills and abilities that will enable you to work in small groups, and describe an example of a situation in which you’ve been motivated to learn outside of formal school/college.

4.Give one or more examples of your personal skills and attributes that will help you to communicate with people and care for the sick.

5.What challenges and stressful situation do you expect to encounter in medical school? Give an example of a challenge you have dealt with in the past, and how this has prepared you to meet challenges in the future.

6.What problems (including ethical) do you foresee in practising medicine? How will you deal with these problems?

7.Why do you consider yourself to be a good candidate for entrance into medicine?

 

My essay was nine paragraphs--one introductory, the seven suggested by the points above (somewhat reordered) and one to summarize/wrap-up.

 

I am having considerable difficulty saying everything I want to say in the essay in only 1000 words.

I encountered more-or-less the same problem, until I realized that my essay was essentially nothing more than a list of my autobiographical sketch. After re-thinking the thing I focused on a just a few things from my sketch. In other words, in my opinion, the essay should draw on just a few things from the autobiographic sketch, show how these relate to medicine and why they demonstrate you would make an excellent physician.

 

(edited to get rid of a bunch of errors... I could really use a copy editor )

[Guest ioncannon97]

Thanks for the responses guys. I have managed to get my essay down to 1000 words. However, I have not answered all of the questions listed above. Do you think U of T still wants us to answer all of these in our essay even though I didn't read it anywhere in this year's application booklet?

[Guest peachy]

I'm sure they don't expect you to have looked up the instructions from a year ago! And congrats on finishing so early

[Guest UTMed07]

Do you think U of T still wants us to answer all of these in our essay even though I didn't read it anywhere in this year's application booklet?

You don't have to answer all those questions. I just threw them out there 'cause the way it was written in the past, in my humble opinion, suggested a structure. That said, I think how the questions differ is interesting... but that is just me.