Writing a Personal Statement

Each year, OPHA hosts several workshops and write-ins for applicants co-sponsored by the Writing Center. We strongly encourage you to take advantage of these resources to help you brainstorm, free-write and edit your application essays.

General Writing Tips

Do:

• Answer the question “why medicine?” This is the core prompt that many candidates fail to answer; instead, they simply document chronological resume items and accomplishments.

• Compel your reader by describing clinical, shadowing, volunteering and research experiences that demonstrate you know why you want to be a physician.

• Talk about yourself. This is your personal statement; readers are interested in your upbringing, growth and transformations, not the stories of a physician you shadowed, your role model, or family members you took care of.

• Develop a narrative. What is the patient population you would like to serve? How do you interpret social determinants of health? How did you demonstrate the core competencies? How do you see yourself as an agent of change?

• Show, not tell. Do not say “I have an excellent bedside manner;” use descriptive language and examples to show your readers how you deliver compassionate care.

• Be genuine and be yourself. Any applicant could have 200 hours volunteering experience—it is how you handle those patient encounters that make you unique.

Do not:

• Say you chose medicine because: “I love science,” “The human body is fascinating,” “I have a sick family member,” “I like helping people,” or “I was sick and a doctor cured me.”

• Resume dump, or focus on “why I qualify for medical school.”

• Spend too much time setting up the story.

• Start your essay with a quote.

• Only talk about research. Research is valuable if you want to become a physician-scientist (MD-PhD), but a healthcare provider requires clinical experiences.

• Only talk about personal hardship and challenges. How did you leverage those challenges to uplift you and your community?

Medical School Personal Statement Prompts 

The American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) Prompts / 5300 character limit

• Why have you selected the field of medicine?
• What motivates you to learn more about medicine?
• What do you want medical schools to know about you that hasn’t been disclosed in other sections of the application?
• Unique hardships, challenges, or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits
• Comments on significant fluctuations in your academic record that are not explained elsewhere in your application

The American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOMAS) Prompts / 5300 character limit

Keep the statement general as this essay is sent to all the programs you apply to. Even if you plan to apply to only one program, we still strongly recommend keeping your statement general in case you later apply to additional programs.

Texas Medical & Dental Schools Application Services (TMDSAS) Prompts / 5000 character limit

• Medical school applicants: The personal essay asks you to explain your motivation to seek a career in medicine. You are asked to include the value of your experiences that prepare you to be a physician. The essay is limited to 5000 characters, including spaces.
• Dental school applicants: The personal essay asks you to explain your motivation to seek a career in dentistry. You are asked to discuss your philosophy of the dental profession and indicate your goals relevant to the profession. The essay is limited to 5000 characters, including spaces.
• Veterinary school applicants: The personal essay asks you to describe opportunities and challenges (veterinary-related and non-veterinary-related) you have experienced and how these have helped to prepare you to enter the veterinary profession. The essay is limited to 5000 characters, including spaces.

MD-PhD Prompts

1. MD-PhD Essay / 3000 character limit
   State your reasons for pursuing the combined MD-PhD degree. Your response will be forwarded only to your designated MD-PhD program(s).

2. Significant Research Experience Essay / 10,000 character limit
   Please specify your research supervisor’s name and affiliation, the duration of the experience, the nature of the problem studied and your contributions to the research effort. If your research resulted in a publication on which you were an author, please enter the full citation in the Work/Activities section of your application.

American Association of Colleges of Podiatric Medicine Applicant Service (AACPMAS) / 4500 character limit

• Write a brief statement expressing why you are interested in becoming a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine. Provide information about your development for a career in Podiatric Medicine.

Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA) / 5000 character limit

• Write a brief statement expressing why you are interested in being a Physician Assistant.