8 Tips for Writing Your Med School Personal Statement

A lot of premeds worry about the personal statement because, honestly, writing about yourself can be pretty hard. Today I'm covering 8 things you need to know to write your best medical school personal statement!

The personal statement is a key part of your med school application. A good personal statement won't necessarily get you into med school by itself, but a bad personal statement can definitely mess up your chances, even if your stats are good.

Here are 8 tips for the medical school personal statement:

1. Know how LONG it can take to write. A lot of students wait until May to write their personal statement. Instead, you should write a draft, then go get feedback from other people, make some edits, put it away, come back to it with fresh eyes, do another round of edits, and so on. It takes time and revision to really craft a strong personal statement.

2. Understand who you are and why you want to be a doctor. That's what the personal statement is about, after all. What experiences have led you to want to be a physician? What planted the seed of the idea in your mind, and what watered that seed? Start reflecting now on those memorable experiences that got you interested in medicine.

3. Be aware of the three different application services: AMCAS (MD schools), AACOMAS (DO schools), and TMDSAS (public medical schools in Texas). Since 2019, the maximum personal statement length is the same for AMCAS and AACOMAS: 5,300 characters. For TMDSAS, the length is limited to 5,000 characters, so a bit shorter.

4. Know how MD vs DO affects your personal statement. Many students think they need to talk all about osteopathic medicine when applying to DO schools. But I don't recommend that. The prompt is still just, "Why do you want to be a doctor?" It's not "Why do you want to be an osteopathic doctor?" So you don't need to emphasize osteopathic medicine unless that osteopathic part is actually very important to YOU.

5. Don't try to make it a creative writing piece. The goal is to show the reader why you want to be a physician. I don't recommend doing something super creative like writing a letter to your future self or using a theme that has nothing to do with the writing prompt.

6. Don't turn your personal statement into an argumentative essay. You're not supposed to be arguing why you're going to be a great physician. You haven't worked as a physician yet. You haven't experienced it. So don't try to claim that you know what it takes to be a physician and you're the right person for the job.

7. Trying to "stand out" and "be unique" doesn't help you. There's nothing so unique about you that an admissions committee has never seen it before. And if you think something you did is unique and you try to sell yourself on that point, it's not going to impress an admissions committee who has honestly seen it all before.

8. Write about YOUR experiences. It's okay if your story is similar to other students. What's more important is being authentic to your real reasons for doing this. Don't screw up your personal statement by trying to be too creative because you think your story isn't unique. It is unique. Just be authentic and tell your story with your experiences!

[OD-lfhl]

in lieu of a personal statement i present to you a gif attached to my application of Eric Andre yelling "LET ME IN" while holding onto a gate.

[foofighter]

I think it is important to determine what 3 experiences really caused you to sit and think critically about the path you are embarking upon. Then, from those 3 experiences, draw 3 conclusions that illustrate your enlightenment about medicine as a practice and as an idea. Write the statement almost as you would a documentary exploring different periods in your life, allowing each paragraph to flow into one another seamlessly. When you finally reach the concluding paragraph, then you can combine these three ideas you developed in the preceding paragraphs to ultimately draw your final conclusion: why these things matter to you so much that you cannot see yourself doing anything else besides practicing medicine as a profession. You have to make basically an inductive argument given your experiences, but of course without making it into an argumentative paper about your future competence as a physician. Make it to where that logic is first of all valid, and second of all sound given your experiences. At least this all worked for me a few years back when I received multiple acceptances. I also applied exclusively D.O. and didn't mention osteopathy once in my personal statement.

[bylleish]

You are so brutally honest. I appreciate that.

[AustinNguyenMD]

Thanks for your insight Dr. Gray! Totally agree that the personal statement is nothing to be feared and is a wonderful opportunity to share your personal story to admissions!

[maptomed]

Great video Dr. Gray! I wanted to add one thing that I did personally which I felt helped me greatly. During my early stages I talked over my rough personal statement with close friends. Talking about and having to explain it really showed me which experiences really impact me and which ones not as much. The feedback from my friends was also crucial in perfecting my personal statement.

[emmacummings]

I love your videos. They are super helpful. Thanks so much, keep up the great work.

[ryankelly]

I’ve literally been trying to write my personal statement for the past two weeks (to apply to post bacc programs). This came at a perfect time

[sunsup]

Ok I'm so glad I watched your video. For the past couple of days, I've been trying to write my medical school personal statement and felt totally stuck and demotivated to write. As you said, I looked up tips to write a personal statement. I've read a number of sample essays and they seemed to convey the idea to share your unique experience and here I am feeling like my life has been so boring? But you wouldn't believe how reassuring it felt when I heard you say that "there is nothing unique about you" LOL. The experience that made me want to become a physician is when I got hospitalized for my heart surgery where I met great doctors and patients. I'm glad to hear the backstory about the deans how they read similar stories all the time and how it is ok to be cliche and being like everyone else. Now I think I can write with more confidence and honesty. Thank you!

[alexandrashields]

Thank you! Very very helpful :) I may even buy the book!

[HarpreetSingh-ttio]

When you say your not unique but then say have diversity as a applicant. I teach tai chi and qigong to seniors and seen amazing results from them and one of the main reasons I want to be a doctor

[CutieNails]

I'm actually writing my personal statement for a summer intensive (SHPEP) at the moment and I was really getting stuck. This was awesome advice, thank you so much!

[rimayousuf]

i definitely believe the I got sick, they got sick, someone got sick in my family is the most common ground between most pre-meds. I wrote about growing up in a warzone in Bethlehem (I originally middle eastern and lived there for a chunk of my life) and how I associated medicine with heroism and safety from an early age. It's my story, and there are probably others that have similar experiences. I am just trusting the process and hoping it all goes well.

[nikmirsaderov]

"you are not going to find unique experiences"

*me who has done the Heimlich maneuver 3000ft up in the air while skydiving*

[jakemccormick]

Hey Ryan! Long time lurker. Thank you for all of your wonderful content! You said to comment if we thought we had a unique experience so I wanted to run what could potentially be mine by you: I am the only undergraduate student to start a chapter of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Open School. I don’t know how familiar you are with IHI but I was fortunate enough to receive incredible training in leadership, quality improvement, safety, and patient/family-centered care at several conferences and workshops all around the world when I was an undergrad (which I think is unique because 99% of IHI members are at the grad school or professional level). My experiences with IHI are definitely what “watered the seed” for me and cemented that I want to be a physician in order to lead care teams dedicated to delivering top quality, relationship-centered care. I welcome your honest feedback. Thank you again for all of your generosity, wisdom, and service!

[raerae]

How do you suggest going about writing essays for the topic, "What experiences have you had that have prepared you to be a physician?" I feel like its a trick question lol, I can talk about a lot of experiences but what do I know about what it's like to be prepared to be a physician? Being a premed and being prepared to be a physician I don't feel are easy sides to jump across.

[WavestripeMcKe]

For the potentially unique experience, I had a great uncle who was sterilized and possibly lobotomized while he lived in the asylums of the 50s. He's always been a huge driving force in my journey for medicine because psychology and the inhumane treatments of the past have always been close to my heart. I want to become the type of psychiatrist that people aren't afraid to see because of the treatments of the past or being seen as damaged goods kind of thing. Not sure if you've ever seen an application like that !

[Norie]

Can I write about the field I am inspired to go into? Or that would shut some doors since I have a specialty in mind and the admissions would worry I'm not open to other options?

[allthingschrisee]

So do you have a website that I can send in my personal statement similar to the book?

[Ali-yhqi]

I hated my Medical school application personal was some technical essay on research I did at Hopkins. My grades were ok but the statement made me seem smarter than I actually was. a result I got into med school in Boston.
For my residency essay ( wrote an essay on how being a former bouncer and bartender at a night club was like being a Psychiatrist. Everyone loved it except Northeast ended up in California. Better choice.

[tuckermorris]

As a former flight surgeon in the Air Force, do you have any suggestions for students mentioning military experience, ROTC in my case, in their personal statement?