How To Write A Personal Statement - Medical School (TIPS!)

What is going on everybody welcome back to my channel for those of you who are new around here My name is Michael aka Dr. Cellini and I'm a fifth year interventional radiology resident physician now on today's video We are going to be talking all about the dreaded personal statement Now I personally hate writing personal statements Because it's hard not to sound cheesy And you never know what to talk about And also i'm a terrible writer However, I reached out to my friends and personal statement gurus over at motivate md And we came up with a few tips for you all on how to write the perfect personal statement, so why don't we go ahead and Get on into it. Let's go All right, so let's face it personal statements are extremely difficult to write and if you're anything like me You put them off till the very last minute until you have no other choice but to sit down And write it now, even though I hate writing these personal statements i've gotten pretty good at it Seeing as i've written about three of them now one for getting into med school One for getting into radiology residency and another for interventional radiology fellowship Also, I may have reached out to my friends over at motivate md who are not only personal statement experts and are sponsoring this video today But they sent me back some incredible tips to share with you all Okay, so what's the hardest thing about writing these personal statements to begin with well For one the hardest part for me is that there is literally no format So in this video, I thought it would be best to kind of break down the personal statement paragraph by paragraph So at least you have some sort of guideline or format to follow and if you're lucky I may provide examples from my own personal statements If I can find them it's been quite a bit of time since i've written my medical school personal statement But maybe I can find my radiology one And I will embarrassingly share it Maybe so let's go ahead and get started with paragraph one The intro paragraph now at its core the personal statement is supposed to be a persuasive Essay, your goal is to convince the admissions committee of your worth as an applicant both motivate md and myself Think you should center your essay around two main questions One why do you want to be a physician? and two Why you will be a great physician and since the adcom or admissions committee will be reading like a bajillion essays You want to do your best to kind of stand out and capture the reader after you capture the reader's attention They need to be smoothly transitioned into the thesis and in that thesis you should answer the two aforementioned questions Why you want to be a doctor? And why you will be a great doctor? So I found my application personal statement for getting into radiology residency I can't find my med school one because it's been like 10 years So i'll give you a little example of what I spoke about in my intro paragraph So basically I kind of grabbed the reader's attention, you know Like most medical students my first weeks of class were exciting and terrifying at the same time I knew that I was in for an incredible challenge but relieved to finally begin the journey Then I went to talk about how I was an economics major in undergrad and also an NCAA all-american swimmer You know to kind of build myself up Which is oftentimes the hardest thing for people to do in personal statements and even on interviews Nobody likes to really talk about themselves well some people do But it's hard to kind of talk about yourself and express how good you are to people because it sounds Like you're bragging to them, but that essentially is what an interview is. So I spoke briefly about how I went into real estate after undergrad and then switched over to medical school and why I did it And offered a few examples and then I kind of tied in how I was working in a team environment and how that's good in the radiology environment and then my final sentence Basically, I said Radiologists are important and active members of management teams and central and critical assets to the clinical team I believe that I have the skill set and motivation to meet the unique demands of radiology residency program So I kind of set up the reader with this last sentence Saying that I have the assets to become a good radiology resident And now in the body paragraphs, I will expand on why that's true paragraph two the body paragraphs Now the ordering of the body paragraph reflects the thesis and there are two ways to go about the body paragraph framework You can spend the first body paragraph discussing why you are interested in medicine With the subsequent two highlighting various traits that will make you a great doctor On the other hand each body paragraph can discuss why you are interested in medicine In addition to why you will be a fantastic physician and don't forget you must add examples when talking about this They can't just simply take your word for it You have to provide examples and also the examples provided should be active Which means the writer is the one playing an active role in the story You need to show your ability and express how you demonstrate the traits to become a great doctor Not just simply saying you shadowed a doctor because that's a passive example Because anybody can really sit in a corner of a room and shadow a doctor that doesn't really explain to the reader Why you are going to be a good doctor paragraph three The conclusion now the main thing here is that the applicant should not discuss new information here Here is when you should close with a rewritten version of your original thesis to conclude your arguments About why you will be a good doctor and how you will be a good doctor So it's kind of fresh in the mind of the reader So for example what I wrote basically I kind of summarized the prior two paragraphs in my conclusion paragraph And then I kind of tied it all together with a nice eloquent sentence So I said my goal is to become an exceptional radiologist that is confident in my abilities Approachable to my colleagues and capable of delivering the best possible patient care I am fully vested in the study and practice of radiology And very much look forward to contributing to the evolution of the specialty So basically what I did there is kind of summed up everything I didn't provide any new information and kind of left them with Kind of like a motivational Ending like oh this guy this guy knows what's up Or at least that's how I think I did it now. I know this is a ton of information And very overwhelming. However I have your back well Better yet my friends over at motivate md have your back my friends over at motivate md Who are sponsoring this video today have an amazing personal statement review service that I can only wish I had when I was a med student because I mean I was struggling so hard to write these personal statements So if I just had some person to review them that knew what they were doing That would be so useful to me I had my I think I had my mom review them And I mean she's a great writer, but she has no idea about medicine She has no idea what these applications and what these personal statements are for So it's kind of foreign land for her. I would much rather use a company who is tried and true and has actual med students Working for them and editing these personal statements I mean, I would have paid endless amount of money for them But luckily you don't have to so my friends over at motivate md provide custom reviews And they do not believe in the cookie cutter process for se reviews And all reviews and advice are given and tailored to the individual applicant. They provide crucial admission insight By viewing the admission process from the student perspective They have identified patterns that make certain students memorable and competitive Like I said before they literally have editors who have been on med school admissions committees editing these papers Also, they have reached out and spoken to different admission committees at many different med schools and asked them Truly what they look for in personal statements and what makes these applicants successful? So let's just say they know how to write the perfect personal statement Now motivate md has a unique system that ensures your initial essay is reviewed by two talented editors from diverse backgrounds Which helps eliminate bias and adds an extra layer of protection And you get a custom tailored essay out of it. So like I said before these essay writers are no joke They have a rigorous application and screening process And they train their editors which allows them to have the top five percent of all applicants editing these essays Again, these essay editors are real-life medical students and most of them have english and or writing background And also some of them have admission committee experience and might I add the essay review service is actually affordable I'm sure many of you have seen other companies preying on these desperate pre-medical students Charging them anywhere from 300 to a thousand dollars just to proofread one draft But luckily motivate md is not out there to do shady business and provide superior essay review services At a price pre-meds can actually afford Also, if I were you i'd go to motivate md.com and purchase the ultimate acceptance package the ultimate acceptance package for $1,000 is an all-encompassing package for pre-med students who want to highly optimize their time and increase their chances of getting into medical school The package is designed and led by elite med students that know exactly what it takes So what's all included in this all-in-one package? I'm glad you asked so for one you get unlimited personal statement reviews Which is a $350 value you get unlimited amtas activity essay reviews up to 12 extracurricular activity essay reviews Also valued at $350 You get secondary essay editing the secondary essay editing is valued at about $600 So we're getting pretty high here. They also do med school mock interviews Valued at $250 they give you free access to the pre-med app You have constant communication with your editors and they offer customizable packages to fit every student's needs other than personal statement reviews They also offer active essay and secondary essay reviews Also, if you are a subscriber to my channel or watching this video You can get 20 off of any package they offer Including the ultimate acceptance package if you use the code review 2020 So the link will be in my description below use the code review 2020 get 20 off your ultimate acceptance package And get into med school. So that concludes this video I hope you all enjoyed it and I hope you guys go out there and write an amazing personal statement Please make sure you turn on post notifications So you are notified when I post a new video, which is usually about once or twice every week depending on how busy I am Smash that like and subscribe button Follow me on instagram if you don't already. Otherwise, i'll see you all On the next video