How to Write a Personal Statement for Medical School – Easy 5-Step Process

Are you currently staring at a blank document that’s supposed to be your personal statement? Don’t worry – We’ve all been there. Something that always helps me dive into a big task like how to write a personal statement for medical school is taking some time to cook up my plan of attack. After all, the best remedy for deadline anxiety is a step-by-step, realistic strategy that you know you can follow.

In this guide, I’m going to teach you exactly how to write a personal statement for medical school that will truly impress the admission committees!

This post is all about learning how to write a personal statement for medical school.

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Learn How To Write A Personal Statement For Medical School

What Is a Personal Statement?

Although it might not always feel that way, medical schools do care about way more than just your GPA and MCAT scores. They want to get to know the person behind those scores. So they can see whether or not you’ll be a good fit for the school. A personal statement expands your story beyond the grades and scores. After all, those can only say so much about you. 

Don’t think of your personal statement as an opportunity to try to convey your whole life story though. The medical school personal statement character limit is pretty tight. Coming in at just 5,300 characters for the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) application. That’s basically 1.5 pages single-spaced with 12 point font, so be prepared to stay on topic!

Why Is a Personal Statement Important for Medical School?

Your personal statement is your chance to show the admissions committee a glimpse of who you are, what makes you unique from other students, and the main focus – why you have a passion for medicine. This is when you get to show off all the hard work you’ve put in and really tell your story. 

For many students, personal statements are a huge contributing factor to whether or not they make it into the schools on their lists. In fact, according to the Princeton Review, your personal statement combined with your interview could account for 60% or more of your admissions score. It’s definitely something you don’t want to put off until the last moment!

How to Outline Your Personal Statement in 20 Minutes

I guarantee that writing up your first outline for your personal statement will not only relieve some of your anxiety, but also get your flow of ideas going. Next thing you know, you’ll be flying through paragraph after paragraph!

Here are the exact steps you can take to write a great first outline for your personal statement in just 20 minutes. Don’t believe me? Set up your timer and give it a go!

1. Think About What Made You Interested in Medicine

What was the initial spark that made you want to pursue a career in medicine? Write down that spark and come up with a list of 2 or 3 experiences that made it grow stronger.

For me, my initial spark was my pre-med classes in undergrad. They were the most interesting to me when I was choosing my major. After that, the experiences that made my interest grow into a passion were:

• Shadowing an orthopedic surgeon
• Working as an EMT
• Being a caregiver to a quadriplegic mother

2. Get Specific

Now that you have a basic idea of what you want to write about in your personal statement, it’s time to start thinking about the details that will make your story come to life. Write down specific stories and memories from each experience on your list to illustrate how they impacted you.

Here are some of my specific stories:

• Undergraduate: Sitting in my dorm room trying to figure out my life
• Shadowing: Got to watch a knee replacement surgery
• EMT: Handing off a critical patient that flew in from the helicopter and wanting to both know and do more
• Caregiver: Rewarding to help her, but wanted to be part of her care in a different way

3. Focus on Why You Want to Be a Doctor

It’s important to illustrate why your experiences made you want to be a doctor specifically. You could choose to be a nurse, counselor, PA, social worker, etc. What was it about your experiences that made becoming a doctor your top priority? Write down one sentence for each experience that explains why.

Here’s what I wrote down:

• Undergraduate: Want to follow my passions and have a career that excites me
• Shadowing: Confirmed I had found something I would be passionate about
• EMT: Wanted a deeper level of knowledge to be able to diagnose and treat the patient, provide more continuity of care
• Caregiver: Wanted to be part of her medical team to decide her treatment plans and help maximize her health while minimizing complications

4. Decide What You Want to Accomplish

What do you hope to do in the future when you become a physician? How will you use your skills, knowledge, and expertise to make a difference in the lives of others? Write down 1 or 2 things you want to accomplish as a doctor.

My main 2 goals were inspiring other minorities and educating or teaching others in a position as a doctor.

5. Put It All Together

And now, you’re good to go! You should have a solid framework that checks all the boxes for your personal statement. Use the rest of your 20 minutes to start fleshing out your stories. If you get on a roll with it, you might even be able to start writing your first draft.

My Personal Statement Structure

I’ve always found that a surefire way to get your brain juices flowing is to look at inspiration from others. So, to help you get started, let’s take a quick look at the structure I followed for my personal statement (which got me 10 medical school acceptances!).

The general structure was:

• My spark
• A few stories (2 or 3) that strengthened my spark, each with a takeaway that shares why that experience made me want to become a doctor over any other career path
• Conclusion

Now, here’s what that structure looked like in practice.

Intro Paragraph: My Hook

This always comes as a shock to a lot of applying students, but you don’t actually have to write your personal statement in chronological order. I didn’t! My initial spark was kind of a boring story to tell, and I didn’t think it would make an engaging hook.

Your hook is what captures the attention of the reader right away. It should be an engaging story from your life that also has a solid takeaway in the larger context of your personal statement and your passion for medicine. 

For me, that was a story about a critical patient being flown in via helicopter when I was working as an EMT. My takeaway was about how that moment solidified my decision to continue pursuing medicine so that I could learn the knowledge and skills to one day be able to treat patients like them.

Here’s a little taste of my hook pulled straight from my personal statement:

“Suddenly, the sound of an aircraft flying towards us cut through the silence. I look out of the passenger seat window and see the helicopter we have been waiting for. Approaching the helipad, it seemed as though a single gust of wind could drastically change its trajectory. Despite how precarious it seemed, the pilot landed perfectly in the designated circle. Per protocol, my partner and I wait for the rotors to come to a complete stop before unloading our gurney. The flight crew meets us with their critical patient; a middle aged man suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. I look down and see that he is intubated and has blood seeping from his nose. Minutes later, as we wheeled our patient into the emergency department, I wished I could heal the emotional and physical pain that had caused this injury to occur. Handing him off to the team of doctors and nurses solidified my decision to continue pursuing a career as a physician.”

⁣⁣Second Paragraph: My Spark

In my second paragraph, I told another story about a patient I had as an EMT. I also chose that moment to weave in my spark because I felt it would make the most impact in that context. Remember, you don’t have to write chronologically. Instead, write in the order that tells your story the best and is the most engaging for the reader.

⁣⁣Third Paragraph: My Caregiver Story

My third paragraph contained another story, this time from when I was a caregiver for a quadriplegic mother. My takeaway from this story was that it was very rewarding to impact her quality of life in such a meaningful way. 

Don’t forget to include your takeaways with every story. Just telling a story by itself isn’t effective unless you find a way to tie it back to your dream of pursuing medicine.

⁣⁣Conclusion

I wrapped up my personal statement by talking about what I hoped to do in the future as a physician. It felt like the most meaningful way to draw all my stories together and really drive home my reasons for choosing this path.

Bonus Tips for How to Write a Personal Statement for Medical School

As you work through each draft of your personal statement, here are a few tips to keep in mind.

1. Don’t Get Caught Up on Vocabulary

Lots of students think they need to use fancy words in their personal statements to stand out. But, if you don’t use words like “ambivalent” and “diminutive” in your everyday conversations, it’s probably best to avoid putting them in your personal statement. They might end up sounding awkward or out of place. Instead, focus on showcasing your authentic self by writing in your own unique voice!

2. Make Sure You’re the Main Character of Your Story

We’ve all been wowed by the amazing medical professionals who inspired us to pursue this career path in the first place. But it’s important to remember that your personal statement is meant to be about you. If you’re telling a story that involves someone else you admire, make sure you don’t get lost in talking about only them. The common thread in your stories is you and your passion. And that’s what the admissions officers want to hear about.

3. Avoid Clichés by Showing Instead of Telling

It’s not enough to simply tell a medical school all your best qualities. You have to convince them that you really have those qualities by showing how you’ve demonstrated them in your life. The best way to do that is with stories.

If you say in an essay, “I have compassion” or “I learned to be a great leader from this experience,” then you’re falling into the trap of telling. You want to be able to tell the admissions committee you have those qualities without actually outright telling them. So, instead, think of a story where you used that quality and weave it into your personal statement.

What If It’s Not Good Enough?!

The first time I applied to medical school, I had ZERO clue about writing my personal statement and EC descriptions and made countless mistakes…..forcing takeaways, completely missing to convey my “why medicine”, taking up precious space by listing redundant facts and NOT giving the admissions committee a chance to truly get to know me and my journey.

Strangely enough, I still managed to get one interview at Case Western but never got pulled off the waitlist after that.

The second time around I used aaaaaall the strategies you will learn I could find which was one BIG factor that helped me stand out (despite my low 3.3 GPA) I earned 10 medical acceptances!! If you feel like your story is not good enough, you have no idea how to put it into words or feel so lost on how to get started, this is for you. 

In my Ultimate Guide to Write Your Personal Statement I will lead you through this process one step at a time, with easy-to-follow video lessons, super helpful worksheets, tons of extra tips and mistakes to avoid as well as a lot of real-life examples! So that you get to ditch writer’s block and show them who you truly are (without sounding cliché).

Final Thoughts on How to Write a Personal Statement for Medical School

I bet you’re already overflowing with ideas for your personal statement, so I won’t keep you any longer. Go write that first draft – I know you can do it!

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