Discussing Recent Life-changing Experiences in Your Essay with the Help of Sample Medical School Personal Statements
Are you a college student in the process of writing your own essay or personal statement for medical school admission? Well, if you just can’t seem to think of a good topic that will trigger the interest of the admission officers reading your article, then you can just simply try writing about your “recent life-changing experiences,” and how they have made a significant impact on your life as a college student. Here are some guiding tips on how to effectively write the personal statement for medical school and get into the medical school school that you want.
Drafting an outline
Everyone in this world has his own story. And these are what we call our “life experiences.” They are the minor and major events in our life that, in one way or the other, have affected us significantly. They are what we go through every day of our lives, giving us new knowledge and insights about so many things in life.
The concept of life experiences is a rather broad topic, so as a writer, you should make an outline of what you need to discuss until you have narrowed them down to the most important issues you should focus on. Life experiences as the theme of your essay can be vague and ineffective if written in the wrong way. As a writer, you must give focus or theme to your essay. So try to recollect vividly which events in your life had the greatest impact to you as a person and as a student. Describe the experience and discuss whether it was a good or bad event and how it has impacted you.
Ask yourself probing such as the following: Did it bring any new knowledge for you? New insights perhaps? What was the general outcome of your experiences? Did a new personality emerge from the experience? Was the experience for a positive or negative change? All these should support your main idea in the essay to add depth or specificity, which makes an essay a very credible one. In other words, elaborate on all the details if you are writing a life experience essay.
Telling your story
The essay or personal statement is actually your chance to tell your story and share a private part of you to your reader. However, remember to control your emotions. Some writers have the tendency to let their emotions overwhelm them and therefore, create an awful abstract or overall theme of the essay. What you should do instead is involve the school admission officers in your essay. You can do this by presenting a lot of significant events that happened to you. Also, identify which experience was the most turning point in your life and explain your reasons why. Ask what were the results of these experiences and how important they were. Finally, zero in on how valuable this experience is to you, and to your future. But remember also to not make too much descriptions as these may also bore your readers. It’s already enough that you highlight how such experiences changed your outlook of life for the better and how these experiences have transformed you into a better and more self-assured person.
The key here is to make it a point that your readers, while reading your essay, empathize with what happened to you. If you were able to move your readers to put their place in your shoes, then you have successfully sent your message across. It only means one thing, and that is, you have definitely succeeded in convincing the medical school admissions officers to grant you a slot in the medical school.
Photo Credit : Nic’s events
