Effectively Discussing Your Dream Medical Specialization in Your Essay with the Help of Sample Medical School Personal Statements
If you are a student aiming for acceptance to a top medical school, one good theme you can write about for your personal statement is on “medical specialization selection.” This is all about a medical practitioner selecting which field of expertise he or she should take for his or her future career as a doctor. Everybody knows that choosing the field of specialization is very difficult and is a major decision to make. Here are some essay writing tips to help you get into your dream medical school by coming up with a clearly written personal statement that will adhere to the standards of the admission officers.
Choosing a focus
First, you should choose a focus or theme for your main topic. Having a theme enhances the ability of the reader to understand your message, because your ideas appear more organized and therefore has a clear direction. Your focus which, in this case is, your “dream medical specialization,” should be emphasized as related to your values that have shaped you as an individual, not to mention your perceptions that have made you decide to go for that particular specialization. Therefore, include in your writing the experiences and events in your life that have made an impact why you are now choosing this particular field of specialization in medicine.
Creating a frame for your focus
After choosing a theme and making an outline for all your information, you should start with a frame of focus, which is actually how you will introduce your statement. You may do this by writing down things about what makes your dream specialization so special to you, or you can provide details that will support and form the shape of your essay, such as indentifying the factors that enhanced your decision to go for this chosen field of medicine. See, the frame of focus not only introduces the theme, or you as the applicant, rather, it also stimulates the interest of your readers. This is why it plays a vital role for your acceptance to medical school because it entails getting the approval of the admission officers by merely reading your personal statement.
Playing with words
Use sensory details to describe your dream specialization. Choose carefully the words you say. State your reasons why the particular field has become your desired field of specialization. You could elaborate that it fits your interests, personality, and experiences, and that you believe your personal satisfaction and fulfillment will be realized only with this chosen specialization. Furthermore, you may explain in detail how your previous accomplishments and achievements have directed you in choosing a certain specialization. Another tip would be to share your personal emotions and opinions about your dream specialization, so as to put a more personal touch to your personal statement; and therefore, successfully get the “yes” of the admissions committee.
For example, you might want to specialize in pediatrics, a medical field that is popularly known to be about the health and welfare of infants and children. If that’s the case, then relate the nature of job of pediatricians with your interests, lifestyle, experiences, and personality. And surely, you’ll be able to convince the medical school admissions committee that you deserve to be a part of their school.
Most of these tips can be found in many sample personal statements. These essays are free and can easily be found online. Just remember not to commit any plagiarism when you browse through these samples. Always keep in mind that these are merely guides for you to emulate.
Photo Credit : The Alianess
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
The AMA style is the proper format used in citing references used in the text. Developed by the American Medical Association, the AMA style is used in writing research papers or documents on science, medicine, and other health-related topics. This citation style is not only used by medical practitioners and medical journalists but also by medical professors and medical students.
General guidelines in AMA style
All sources, which are enumerated at the end of the paper, are listed according to their chronological appearance on the text. For text reference purposes, each source entry must be properly numbered, not bulleted. All citation elements, regardless of the source type, must be separated by periods.
Element chronology for book citations:
* author’s name
* chapter title
* editor’s name/translator’s name
* book title
* volume number
* book edition
* place of publication
* book publisher
* copyright year
* page numbers
General rules in citing books
If some of the elements are unavailable in your source, then just skip them and follow the same chronology. Page numbers are only included in book citations if the specific pages of the book are directly cited on the paper. When writing the author’s name, always follow the “<last name>, <first name> <middle initial>” format.
Element chronology for journal articles:
* article title and subtitle
* abbreviated name of journal
* year of publication
* volume number
* supplement number
* page numbers
General rules in citing journal articles
Unlike in book citations, there is no need to write down the first name of the writer in journal article citations. Just follow the “<last name>, <first name initial> <middle initial>” format.
Element chronology for Internet sources:
* author’s name
* article or webpage name
* URL source
* date accessed
General rules in citing Internet sources
Citation of Internet sources, although not advised, is now accepted in the AMA style. If the Internet source is an abstract of a study or an article in an online journal, then indicate it inside brackets. You must always include the proper notation of the online journal cited in the text.
Photo Credit : David G. Romero
