"How to write your essay" book

[wosman]

Hello everyone

 

So I will be applying to medschools in the coming months and I am not sure if i need to make a universal personal essay to send out to all the universities I will apply to. I know each university will ask me to write something on the omsas application, but whether they want the aforementioned essay is something i am not sure of.

 

If the personal essay is required then would purchasing books such as "essays that will get you into medschool" be of any use to me? Or will medschools have caught on to that and look for essays that follow the structure outlined in those books.

 

Thanks for any help!

[maodiddymao]

Every school is different. When I applied there was very little overlap between written submissions. I don't think a book would really help you, just write what they tell you to and you'll be fine.

[terryann]

I did purchase a book re: medical school essays, and the only thing it helped me with was format...and what most people would write. After reading so many, I came to the conclusion that they all sounded the same.

When writing the personal statement, I spent alot of time getting to "know myself"....stengths ...what community service meant the most to me and why, and it was not the one that I did for the longest period of time.

I think what is most important for your personal statement is that is is genuine.....as you say, the adcoms read so many.

Mac and NOSM have specific questions....and as the previous poster said, you just answer the question. Personally, I answered what was true to me not what I thought " they wanted to hear"

Once I wrote my essays, I had people that I trusted read them, people who were not afraid to tell me it needed work. As well, I went to the writing centre at my university.

[RiceWine]

Hello everyone

 

So I will be applying to medschools in the coming months and I am not sure if i need to make a universal personal essay to send out to all the universities I will apply to. I know each university will ask me to write something on the omsas application, but whether they want the aforementioned essay is something i am not sure of.

 

If the personal essay is required then would purchasing books such as "essays that will get you into medschool" be of any use to me? Or will medschools have caught on to that and look for essays that follow the structure outlined in those books.

 

Thanks for any help!

 

some schools don't require these personal essays. however, for those that do, it woudln't hurt to use the book as a guideline (as someone already pointed out). remember, use your school library! Often they would carry such books.

[obamasutra]

Turn away while you still can.

 

Go into a profession with translatable, scalable skills, such as law, finance, or mathematics. You'll have far more options than in medicine.

 

Medicine is a dead-end road for a lot of people, myself included.

[Recycledepot]

I don't think you could possibly make any more of a useless comment obamasutra. Just because you got matched to a primary care residency (oh woe is you, how sucky that must be, my deepest condolences), doesn't mean you have the right to express your disappointment in random threads. Shoo, go be pissed off elsewhere.

 

As to the OP, what other posters have said is true. Try to make your essay genuine and a reflection of who you are. Easier said than done of course. The "How-to" books can have some useful tips in them, but don't take everything they suggest to heart.

 

Finally, when I was going through the application process, I had a template essay that I personalized for each school. Some schools had longer/shorter word limits, others wanted you to answer specific questions, so with a template you can make those adjustments while retaining a relatively consistent theme.

[obamasutra]

I don't think you could possibly make any more of a useless comment obamasutra. Just because you got matched to a primary care residency (oh woe is you, how sucky that must be, my deepest condolences), doesn't mean you have the right to express your disappointment in random threads. Shoo, go be pissed off elsewhere.

 

 

Just as you have the right to spout useless pricky drivel at the advice that I gave the OP, I have the right to give it. You must have a lot of free time, and a lot of pent-up nerd-rage, to have to insult people you never met over the internet. You'd never say those words to mine, or anyone else's, face.

 

My advice is relevant. Medicine is a very limiting field. You have to really know what you're getting into before you apply. There are so many different ways to practice medicine that it cannot be homogenized. Doing internal medicine is completely different than surgery which is completely different than radiology etc. There's a deadline to decide what you're interested in, and you really have to figure that out ASAP. Even when you do, there's no guarantee it will work out. If it doesn't, then you're essentially screwed and have to pick something else because you have heavy debt and no other skills that are employable enough to pay off the debt.

 

Recycledepot, you can go to hell. If you like kicking people when they are down, then you're going to make a horrible physician. God help your patients, because you sure won't.

[Recycledepot]

Uh, you're an idiot. Do you honestly think that when he was asking for help about writing personal statements, he was secretly looking for your jaded insight about the CaRMS process? No wonder you didn't match your first choice specialty. Thanks for derailing this thread, jerk.

 

But I'm not an unreasonable individual. If you'd like to apologize for what you did, but are too embarrassed to do it here, just PM me/OP. Have a nice day.