Failing to gain admittance to medical school after a grueling application cycle can be disappointing. After all of your hard work, the prospect of improving your application for a subsequent cycle may seem nearly impossible, especially given that some aspects, like your undergraduate GPA, may be unalterable.
If you are one of the many students faced with the task of reapplying to medical school, it is important to focus on revising those aspects of your application that are under your direct control.
Perhaps more than any other section of your application, the personal statement can be molded to reflect the strides you have made since the previous application cycle.
Here are three tips for modifying your personal statement for another round of applications to medical school.
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1. Recognize that large-scale revision is required: When reapplying, remember that some medical schools have already reviewed your application and submitting a barely revised version of last year’s essay will not impress admissions committees.
Consider writing another draft of the personal statement — not simply cleaning up lengthy sentences and improving your word choice.
Read your previous essay carefully and decide how being a reapplicant has changed your outlook on your prospective medical career. Brainstorm new avenues that your personal statement could take and eliminate ideas that are no longer as relevant to your application as they once were.
Be sure to highlight any major changes in how you see your future. You may find that your emphasis on the volunteer position you held in the emergency department as a college freshman no longer reflects your current understanding of what it means to be a doctor.
In addition, challenges that you faced in the past may no longer illustrate your current readiness for medical school as well as those you have faced in the intervening time between applications.
Focus on what is new about you, and consider dropping your emphasis on the volunteering or shadowing you did early in college in lieu of a focus on newer experiences.
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2. Demonstrate growth but don’t forget prior strong points: Medical schools are interested in how you have matured as a prospective student since your last application cycle. That maturity may be reflected in new volunteer or work experiences, additional coursework or an improved MCAT score.
Whatever routes you have taken to improve your application, be sure to highlight the personal, academic or professional growth you have experienced as a result.
Do you feel more academically prepared to enter medical school after completing a master’s degree? Or has volunteering in a hospice setting allowed you to grasp the delicacy of life and the role of medicine in mortality in a new way?
In addition, incorporate aspects of your previous essay that have been reinforced since your last application. How have your new experiences enhanced your understanding of old ones? How has your conception of medicine changed in light of both the strengths you highlighted in your previous essay and personal changes since your last application?
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3. Continue to demonstrate commitment to medicine: No matter whether you are applying to medical school for the first or third time, admissions committees wish to know that you are sure about your choice to attend medical school.
There is no room in your application for doubt that medicine is the right choice for you, and your essay is the prime place to demonstrate how committed to a career in medicine you are.
Instead of writing that you have always wanted to help people or that you have wanted to be a doctor since you were a child, highlight recent experiences that have led to a careful and conscious decision to continue pursuing this career path. For instance, did a medical mission trip since your last application create an interest in global health?
Rather than leaving your explanation of why you would like to pursue medicine untouched, provide concrete proof that you have continued to deepen your understanding of both the physician’s role in the medical setting and how you might fit into that role.
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How to Revise a Medical School Personal Statement Before Reapplying originally appeared on usnews.com
