Don't Make These Mistakes on Your Personal Statement

In a previous post I talked about a general approach to writing the personal statement. Here are some other things you should look out for.

1. Keep skeletons in the closet. Although the essay is meant to be personal, avoid discussing the particulars of your life that you might feel uncomfortable talking about. Anything in your application is fair game and could be brought up in an interview. Don't belabor on about personal issues. Professionalism is regarded as one of the most important characteristics that the admissions committee looks for; keep your essay personal and interesting, and always professional.

2. Keep your essay tight. Proofreading is essential. An essay riddled with grammatical errors looks sloppy. Make sure every word and sentence has relevance to your overall message. Be ruthless in cutting out things that don't serve a purpose in your essay.

3. Be respectful. This means to the medical profession, to other disciplines, and to other professionals you have met along the journey. Complaints and criticisms can give readers an unintended negative impression of you.

4. Steady wins the race. Stories are the substance of life. But if your intention is not clear or if you try too hard to make an obscure or unfitting analogy, this can end up hurting your essay. Always aim for clear, concise, effective writing. Over the top stories can detract readers from the main message.

5. The essay is about you. It is okay to talk about patients or people who have helped or inspired you. But ultimately the essay is about you, not your childhood hero or your ill family member.

Applying to Caribbean Medical Schools

Medical school admissions are becoming increasingly difficult. Thousands of students each year are unable to make the cut, leaving them in a position of having to reapply or choose a different career. However, there is an alternative route to becoming a doctor, and that is through the Caribbean medical schools.

Caribbean medical schools are for profit organizations and are easier to get into and require a much less competitive application for acceptance. However, students from Caribbean medical schools usually have a harder time finding a residency in the United States and oftentimes students have to settle for specialties that may not have been their first choice. Yet despite the rockier road, many doctors practicing now have gone through this path and it should be strongly considered by students with less competitive applications.

The most popular Caribbean medical schools currently are:

1. St. George Medical School
2. AUC Medical School
3. Saba Medical School
4. Ross Medical School

Requirements to apply are the same as for the medical schools based in the United States. Amongst these schools, St. George is regarded by most people familiar with Caribbean medical schools as offering the easiest path to becoming a licensed physician in the United States due to its lower attrition rates and better access to clinical rotations.

The New MCAT

Students applying to medical school will now have to take the new MCAT starting on April 17, 2015. The MCAT will now have 4 subsections as compared to 3 subsections previously. The new sections are broken down as follows:

1. Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems
67 questions
95 minutes long

 2. Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems
67 questions
95 minutes long

3. Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior
67 questions
95 minutes long

4. Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills
60 questions
90 minutes long

The new MCAT has now a total of 261 questions, with 117 more than previously. The MCAT is now 6 hours and 15 minutes long with slightly more time allotted per question.

Perhaps the most abrupt change is the addition of the Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior section, which is broken down as follows: 60% of questions from Introductory Psychology courses
30% of questions from Introductory Sociology courses
10% of questions from Introductory Biology courses

Overall the new exam appears to be similar to the previous versions but with more questions and an additional biopsychosocial component. New review sources should be seeing updates to reflect these changes.

New score reports will appear as follows:

The Medical School Admissions Essay

Writing the personal statement is one of the most challenging parts of the medical school application. Students spend weeks or even months planning, writing, rewriting, and editing their essay, and having gone through the process myself, I know it's no easy task. From my own experience, as well as having edited a number of other applicant essays, I will outline a few tips below to help you construct the best essay possible.

What your essay should address:

1. Who you are.
2. Your career plans.
3. Where you hope to have an impact.
4. When did your interest in medicine develop?
5. How have you demonstrated your interest and commitment to a career in medicine?
6. What makes you a unique candidate?

The above does not mean you form your responses in a Q and A format. Rather, your essay should touch upon 2-4 of these points, and not necessarily explicitly. Remember that you want to be clear and succinct, and don't overdo it with fantastical stories or heartfelt moments. Do however include specific examples that address the points you are trying to make. Your overall goal is to sketch out in the reader's mind a picture of who you are. It does not matter if you use examples from your youth, your college years, or from your extracurricular activities, as long as the experiences are meaningful to you.

Another common mistake is to stray off topic. It is nice to include examples and stories, but don't let these be the main point of the essay. Remember, the essay is about you, and how you came to where you stand now, and why you want to do what it is you plan to do.

After reading your essay, does the reader want to meet you and know more about you, the kind of person you are? Can the reader get a sense of a future doctor, one who is smart, driven, and compassionate? If so, then that is a successful essay.

I won't belabor too much about pertinent topics and being professional in your writing, but do allow time to edit your essay, and do so rigorously. It is your writing, and so you will understandably have emotional attachment to your words, but be ruthless. If the sentence can do without the word, take it out. If the paragraph can do without the sentence, take it out. Even entire paragraphs can and should be taken out, or reduced to a line or two. The editing process should not begin however until you finish your rough draft, otherwise you can develop a case of writersous blockus.

Allow plenty of time to map out your essay and think it through. What helped me was to write specific examples I want to include and the kinds of attributes I wanted to demonstrate about myself. Use this to construct a rough essay. At this point don't care about grammar or mechanics, just write. Once completed, then you start the revision process. Sometimes letting time pass in between edits will help you approach your essay from a different perspective. Writing multiple drafts  or essays is not uncommon, so do so if you must. And finally, have a few trusted friends edit your essay once you are near the completion stage. One important advice I would say is do not give rough drafts for review. It is irritating to an editor to have to purge and clean rough drafts, so make sure the essay is near completion and you have gone through multiple edits yourself. Also, if you think there is questionable content, it's probably a better idea not to include it in your essay.

Overall, an effective essay is honest, clear, and gives the reader a sense of who you are. Good luck!

Medical Ethics

Medical ethics is a topic that is frequently addressed during the interview. They are a bit trickier to answer because oftentimes the situation presented sits in a gray area with no real "right" answer. Although you cannot prepare for every possible question of this category, familiarity with several types of scenarios will help train you to think through unfamiliar or difficult cases.

The following is link to scenarios that are well presented and should help you prepare for these types of questions:


Medical Ethics