Section 11

Health Professions School Application Process: A Guide for Writing Your Personal Statement*

Cynthia Lewis

Almost all health professions schools require that applicants write one or more essays. This section is intended to provide guidance as you work on your essay.

A very important part of the application is a page where you are asked to give some personal comments. Most people find this personal statement to be the most difficult part of the application. It can take a great deal of time to write a good statement; don't wait until the last minute to begin work on it. Some college pre-health programs require submission of a draft essay one year prior to its official submission. Also available may be peer review of essay drafts sponsored by your pre-health professions advisor. Use all the resources that are available to you. But above all, be scrupulously honest about yourself and remember that you are the author.

Remember that in many cases, the application essay will be the only statement the health professions school will have from you; in all cases, it will be one of the first things reviewed and will remain in your application file for a year. Also, bear in mind that you may be asked to comment at length on any activity or interest you mention in your personal statement when you're having your interviews.

The essay part of your application is where you have a chance to let an admissions committee know something about you as a person and why you, rather than someone else, should be admitted into a health professions school. Therefore, you shouldn't use it merely to list things that will appear in other parts of the application, such as grades, extracurricular activities, and honors. Rather, you should use the essay to provide a more personal perspective.

Think of the essay as an opportunity to distinguish yourself from all other applicants. What is it that you would like the schools to know about you that they may not have been able to get from the rest of your application? Here you can elaborate on your work experience, volunteer positions, and any number of significant experiences such as travel or work abroad, or a year out. Certainly, you will want to mention your motivation for a health professions career. Be as specific as you can, avoiding general statements like I want to be a doctor because I enjoy working with people and I like biology. How do you know you like working with people-what have you done to test this interest? What is it about medicine that appeals to you?

Characteristics Admissions Committees Look for in Your Essay

If an application committee is looking at your essay, they have probably already decided that you can handle the academic load in a health professions school. Therefore, they are probably reading the essay to see whether or not they think you will be a good physician or dentist. What they generally look for are:

  • A positive self-concept
  • The ability to assess yourself realistically
  • The ability to articulate your views clearly and persuasively
  • The ability to deal with racism, sexism, or classism
  • Long-range goals (rather than short-range ones)
  • Whether or not you have someone on whom you can depend if trouble arises
  • Leadership ability
  • A desire to work with people (rather than test tubes)
  • Demonstrated interest in the health profession of choice

Some Questions You Should Try to Answer in Your Essay

In addition to trying to demonstrate the above qualities, you should also try to write your essay so it answers the following questions:

  • When did you decide you wanted to become a health professional?
  • Did you have any exposure to role models who influenced your decision to become a health professional?
  • How have you demonstrated your interest and commitment to your decision to become a health professional?
  • How have you demonstrated the personal qualities and character that are ideally necessary and sought in a future health professional?
  • Why do you want to be a health professional?
  • What type of health professional do you wish to become. . .type of specialty or practice?
  • What particular geographic area and community are you interested in with respect to your future practice?
  • How do you plan to pursue and attain your goals? Be specific.
  • Are you interested in doing something aside from or in addition to practicing medicine? Why?

How do you go about structuring your essay? The following steps indicate the priority of tasks and the order in which they should be attacked.

1. Select no more than about eight topics you wish the admissions committee to know about you. What you leave out is just as important as what you put in, so you are making value judgments about these topics.

2. Put the topics in an outline form so that one topic flows into another and the sequence of ideas makes sense to you.

3. Now that you have an outline, develop each idea into a rich paragraph (or even two).

4. Take each sentence and focus on making each word count. Many students have difficulty writing clear, concise, direct sentences. Don't be redundant. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself whether each sentence could have been written by someone other than yourself. If so, or if you are telling the reader what you believe a health practitioner "should" do or be, then this has no place in a "personal" statement. Craft each sentence with care and ask others to tell you what they think about ideas in your essay. Another common problem is that you, the writer, who has the greatest knowledge of yourself, may skip pertinent background information. You assume that the reader knows what you know, and that may not be the case.

5. Now that you have a first draft essay, go back to correct all technical parts of its structure, such as grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation. Get an expert's opinion (an English faculty member may be a good choice of an expert).

6. This next step may be the most difficult of all-discerning the tone and attitude of your essay. Although it is crucial that your essay be "personal," if every sentence begins with "I did . . ." or "My interest is . . .," the admissions committee may perceive you to be indifferent to the welfare of others. So now you need to edit your essay to provide the tone that reflects your personal philosophy and add "sparkle" to it.

7. Your very last consideration should be the length of your essay. Generally, early drafts should be longer, and these can be edited to shorten the essay to the correct length.

Before you begin to write, let's consider the outline of an essay that provides an informative profile of the applicant.

  • It is helpful to begin with a paragraph that introduces aspects of your background that are unique to you. This may be information about your family structure, jobs you have done, extracurricular interests or hobbies, difficulties you may have overcome, or some important accomplishment in your life. There are many starting points-select the one that best epitomizes your uniqueness. Not only will this provide important information to the reader, but it will encourage the reader to read your entire essay with interest.
  • You need to tell the story of your path to the health profession you are hoping to enter. Depending on your age and background, your "story" may be one to three, even four paragraphs long. Be certain to explain what specific event(s) ignited your interest in the profession, why you wish to be a health professional, and what activities you have accomplished to test your motivation, such as working in a medical or dental clinic, becoming a certified phlebotomist, or whatever.
  • It is important that you describe specifically what you feel you have gotten out of these activities, what changes have occurred in your attitudes, what decisions you may have made, and what you have learned about yourself from having participated in these activities. Just listing, "I did a, b and c" has no place in a personal essay.
  • Tell vignettes about your experiences. Your goal is to vividly describe these experiences and your feelings about them for the reader. Tell them about specific instances that made a deep impression on you and why. Health professions schools are looking for people who are interested and committed.
  • You should discuss parts of your life outside of your interest in a health profession. Examples include participation in sports, involvement in the theater or music, leadership of organizations, initiation of programs, or successful completion of an event. Regardless of the activity, tell the reader what you did, why you did it, and what were the outcomes or impact on people involved including yourself.
  • Many students must also work a significant number of hours per week. If this is your case, explain in very specific terms how you have spent your time outside of classes and how it may have affected your academic achievement. If there are any irregularities in your academic record, or below-average grades, give a succinct explanation. This information belongs about two-thirds through your essay, after the reader has gotten to know you a bit.
  • End on an explanation of where you see yourself in the profession five years (or even ten years) from now. Currently, medicine is moving toward managed care and the primary care generalist physician model, and dentistry, veterinary medicine, and podiatry are becoming increasingly specialized. There is also a great need for health care professionals to practice in rural or other underserved settings and to work in interdisciplinary teams. Be clear about your future focus, which may be working in an inner city neighborhood or in a barrio where you may have grown up. Or, you may wish to specialize in a discipline or combine research with a clinical practice, or. . .? What is your dream? But be realistic-your experiences need to corroborate how motivated you are to reach this dream. Tell the reader what you are thinking now. This does not mean that upon application to residency programs you cannot change your mind. You should also be aware that there are now several loan and scholarship programs that require a primary care path in medicine.
  • Working through the essay will help prepare you for questions during the interviews. Ask others to read your essay and see if they have any questions about the content and intent.

In General
  • Always be positive. There are many ways to tell why, for example, you took a year away from college to support a family member. If you have weathered adversity, tell how you have overcome the disadvantage, but don't dwell on the disadvantage.
  • Give the readers enough information to come to the conclusions you wish them to make.
  • It is better if you don't just say "I have demonstrated leadership qualities by. . ." Instead, you should talk about what you have done and gained in such a way the person reading your essay will recognize that you have the qualities listed above.
  • Your goal with this essay is to entice the reader to want to know more about you.
  • Always type your essay. Use a 10 to 12 size font. Be sure to check for typographical errors and punctuation.
  • While considering other people's opinions, your views must be clear. Admissions committees are interested in your perspective and how you came to be who you are and why you are interested in attending their school.

Other Essays

In addition to the major essay required by AMCAS/AACOMAS/AADSAS, most schools also require one or more essays in the secondary application materials. These essays often ask specific questions that you can answer by elaborating on points in your AMCAS/AACOMAS/AADSAS essay. If they do not ask specific questions, try to focus your essay so that it tells why you want to go to that particular school. Since the school already has your application, you should write the secondary essay so it looks related to but differs from your application essay. That is, try to avoid the look of duplication by saying the same things in different words. Use the secondary application to emphasize your ability to work well with people and how "well-rounded" your education and interests are (e.g., minor subjects, languages, hobbies, sports). Each year several highly qualified applicants are not accepted because they wait until very late to complete secondary application materials. That shouldn't be you!

 *Material for this section is based on the book by E.W. Jackson and H. Bardo, Write for Success: Preparing a Successful Professional School Application. Champaign, IL: National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions, Inc., 1989.

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