- What is the purpose of a Personal Statement?
A personal statement is an opportunity for you to support or enhance other parts of your application. It is your first chance to help the admissions committee understand your motivation for pursuing your chosen career path, while giving them a sense of who you are. The personal statement tells your story and the context that shaped who you are as a person - your values, interests, and goals. Your statement should elevate your application and make the admission committee feel something.
2) What kind of content does/should a Personal Statement have?
When looking for what to include in a personal statement or what to include in a masters personal statement or what to include in a personal statement, you should mainly include the following things:
- Information about yourself
- Why you want to study the subject
- Your passion for the subject
- What type of student you are
- Any previous assessments that you've done that relate to the course that you're applying for
- Your achievements
- Your hobbies
3. How do you write a Personal Statement?
Step 1: Reflect
Take a moment to assess why you want to join your chosen profession. Use the following questions to help guide your thoughts and write down your reflections:
Motivation:
o Why are you applying?
o What inspires you to pursue this profession? o What makes you so passionate about this?
Fit:
o What are your values?
o How do these align with the values of the profession? o What personal qualities do you have that will enable you to positively contribute to the profession?
⚫ Capacity:
o What are your most defining experiences?
o What competencies did you develop/demonstrate through these experiences?
o What errors or regrets have taught you something about yourself?
o How have you changed/grown from your experiences?
■ Vision:
o What do you want to do and be? o What impact do you want to have?
Step 2: Brainstorm
Start thinking about what you want your central message to be. Review the Personal Statement prompt. Using your notes from your reflection, start grouping like thoughts and look for an emerging theme. Remember, this is
YOUR personal statement. Think about the aspect of yourself you want to convey to the admissions committee.
Possible Topics:
Explain your clinical experience and what you have learned about the patient-provider relationship.
A diverse/unique experience or event and how it shaped you. A leadership role you played and how it challenged you.
⚫ Athletes: How have you been molded your discipline and teamwork responsibilities? ⚫ Study Abroad: How has your appreciation for diversity and gaining a global perspective shaped your outlook?
Artists/Musicians: How has your focus/discipline/creativity contributed to your interest in healthcare?
Volunteers: How can you apply your compassion, altruism, and dedication of time/energy to medicine?
Step 3: Execution
Once you have a well-developed thesis statement, start writing! At this point, focus on your message and save editing for later. You should open with a hook and conclude by reinforcing your thesis. It is helpful to use an essay outline to make sure your statement stays on point and paragraph outlines to keep structure within the paragraph and help with flow.
Essay Outline:
Introduction (Motivation)
Paragraph Outline:
Initial inspiration, provides context
Body (Fit and Capacity) Action/Experiences
Change
Insight into change/growth
Step 4: Editing and Proofing
Point (Introduction to the main point of the paragraph) Evidence
Explanation of how/why it is relevant to the profession Link (Transition to next paragraph)
Conclusion (Vision) Future goals
Read over your essay and analyze it line by line (consider reading aloud). As you are reading, ask yourself if this essay could apply to any other profession. If so, it is not specific enough.