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Admissions officers will
often emphasize that they don't care what you choose to
write about in your essay. They stress this because most
writers err on the side of unoriginality, having tried
too hard to meet the expectations of their imagined
readers, discarding all of their own personality in the
process. Of course, there's truth in their advice: you
should write with the goal of expressing your own values
and conveying the qualities most important to you. You
should frame this discussion in a way that highlights
your unique character. But you must exercise your
creativity with an eye toward the themes and points that
will justify your suitability for medicine. After all,
your ultimate goal is not just to stand out as a
likeable person, but to obtain admission to a medical
school.
In
addition to the challenge of crafting a fresh take on
standard ideas, you face the difficulty of integrating
multiple sophisticated themes into a single coherent
piece. The themes can be grouped into two basic
categories: those that speak to your motivation for
becoming a doctor and those that demonstrate the
characteristics and abilities that qualify you for the
profession.
Within
these two categories we will make recommendations for
more specific points and the various ways you can
approach them. First, however, we will explore what
medical school admissions officers look for in personal
statements. In addition, we will devote a section to the
task of making your essay stand out by emphasizing the
qualities that make you unique, even if they don't seem
obviously related to medicine. Finally, we will offer
tips on how to deal with blemishes on your application,
like low MCAT scores or a lack of work experience.
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