Pre-Med – Page 2 – Penn & Beyond

Advice on Writing an Effective Personal Statement for Medical/Dental School

Mia Carpiniello, Associate Director

Within the next few months, medical and dental school applicants around the country will draft, revise, and ultimately submit their personal statement to admissions committees. So, I thought it would be helpful to re-post my blog post from 2014 with tips on writing an effective personal statement for professional school. Although drafting a personal statement can feel like an intimidating and time-consuming task, please remember that this is also an exciting opportunity to convey who you are as a person, in your own voice. So, dig deep and take your time to compose an essay that accurately illustrates your personal attributes.

The personal statement can be the most daunting part of an application to professional school. What do I write about? How do I eloquently convey my thoughts? How can I possibly stay within the stated space limit? Here are 4 quick tips to help you make the most of this opportunity to share yourself with the admissions committee.

Be self-reflective and introspective. What insights have you learned about yourself through a particular experience? Share one or two of your personal qualities, abilities, or characteristics by focusing on a meaningful experience you had. Do not simply restate your resume in narrative form or summarize all of your college experiences. Rather, convey something about yourself beyond your test scores, transcript, and resume. Use your personal statement to tell the admissions committee something about yourself that they cannot glean from the rest of your application, such as your compassion, determination, or meticulousness.
Be concise and straightforward. Admissions officers will be reading thousands of these essays. They won’t have the patience for rhetorical flourishes. The introductory sentence and paragraph are the most important parts; use them to grab the reader’s attention and create a good first impression.
Keep it positive. A personal statement is usually not the place to explain a weakness in your application, such as a low grade or test score. Save that for the secondary application (for medical school applicants) or a brief addendum.
Proof-read! Again. And Again. And then have someone else read it and give you feedback. Ask that person what your personal statement says about you. Is that the impression you want to make? Finally, be sure to follow character or length limits to demonstrate that you can follow directions.

We in the pre-professional team here in Career Services are happy to help you reflect on your experiences and provide you with feedback on your draft. We also offer Personal Statement Workshops; you can find the dates and times on the Career Services calendar.

Should I Be a Doctor if I Don’t Like My Science Classes?

Carol Hagan, Associate Director

One or two times a month, an advisee will share with me their dislike of their science classes and wonder if they should continue on the path towards medical school. There is not an easy or quick answer to this question and it’s a great discussion to have with your pre-health advisor or important people in your life.

First, elaborate on what it means to “not like your sciences classes.” How many classes have you taken? Is it one class or all of them? Is it only lecture classes or labs and seminars as well? Did you like science in high school? Is it that you like the material, but not the exams? Do you like the classes, but would like them a lot more if they were smaller or there was less grade pressure? Do you dislike the classes because you feel you are not doing well (and are you being too hard on yourself or are you truly struggling)?

It is quite common for students to be a great fit for medicine and not like all their science classes. Some people really do not like physics or chemistry, but are genuinely excited about physiology or neuroscience. Many people dislike the high stakes exams, but adore classes that integrate projects and readings from current journals.

Occasionally, students don’t like their science classes because they are conflicted about pursuing a medical career, or truly do not want it. Maybe they used to want it, or a parent wants it, or they have some other career interest tugging on them. If your heart isn’t in the long-term goal of working in healthcare, it can be very difficult to engage with the challenging scientific coursework.

If you are someone who confidently feels that you don’t like science at all, then you need to reconcile this with your desire to become a doctor. Medicine is a scientific career. You will undertake demanding studies in science in medical school and devote yourself to life-long learning in the sciences. Nearly all of the students we work with who go on to medical school demonstrate enthusiasm for science. It may be that there is another career that will encompass the aspects of medicine that attract you, but without the significant amount of scientific training.

As always, you can make an appointment with a pre-health advisor to talk through this question by calling 215.898.1789.

To Take a Gap Year or Not to Take a Gap Year? That is the (Common Pre-Med/Pre-Dental) Question.

Mia Carpiniello, Associate Director

Are you considering taking time in between college and medical or dental school? You’re not alone. Taking a “gap year” or even multiple “gap years” before embarking on professional school has become increasingly popular. Students often wonder what they can or should do during their one or more gap years. There are many options, as the list of 2015-2016 gap year experiences on our pre-med website indicates.

Ultimately, the decision whether or not to take a gap year is a personal one. The pre-health advising team in Career Services is here to talk through this decision with you as you plan for medical or dental school. In the meantime, check out this interesting article from The Atlantic about one person’s decision to take a gap year before starting an MD/PhD program.

The AAMC’s Fee Assistance Program (FAP) for Applicants

Carol Hagan, Associate Director

Many people who are planning to apply to medical school are not aware of the AAMC’s Fee Assistance Program (FAP). FAP can greatly reduce the expense of applying to medical school with a lowered registration fee, free MCAT preparation materials, free access to the Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) and waived AMCAS fees for up to 15 medical schools for a combined value of over $1,500.

In 2016, fee assistance is granted if each household reported on your application has a 2015 total family income that is 300 percent or less than the 2015 national poverty level [link: familiesusa.org/product/federal-poverty-guidelines] for a family of its size. You will need to submit supporting documents; at minimum, you will be asked to provide copies of IRS Federal Income Tax Forms or W-2/1099 forms for the previous year in addition to a Financial Aid Award Letter and Cost of Attendance information if relevant. The application and detailed instructions are available on the AAMC’s FAP web site.

Be sure to apply early as it can take the AAMC up to 15 business days to make their decision. If you are granted fee assistance, the benefit is good from the time it is granted through the end of the next calendar year.

Q&A With A First-Year Medical Student: Lauren Kus, College ‘15

Lauen Kus, COL ’15, interviewed by Todd Rothman, Senior Associate Director

This is an interesting time of year for many pre-med students – some are well-entrenched in the interview (and “waiting game”) point of the admissions cycle, while others are gearing up to begin the application process for the upcoming admissions cycle this Spring. With that in mind, I thought I would share some insights about the medical school application process – as well as the firsthand experience of the first semester of medical school – from a Penn alumna and my former advisee, Lauren Kus ’15. As an undergraduate student, Lauren majored in Health & Societies (Concentration: Bioethics & Society) and minored in Biology. She is currently in her first year at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Q: What aspect of medical school and/or your medical school training have you enjoyed the most so far?

A: The most enjoyable part about medical school so far for me has been studying subjects that have clear relevance to what I will be doing in my future career. As a pre-med, I felt like a lot of the classes we had to take seemed relatively disconnected from medicine and healthcare. Medical school is very different. Anatomy is notoriously the most daunting class for MS1s, but there was such a clear connection to clinical care that I always felt motivated to study it. You might be able to get through Orgo without fully understanding NMR, but you if you don’t understand the anatomy of the heart, you’ll be in trouble as a future physician.

Q: In what ways is medical school similar to being pre-med at Penn? What has surprised you the most about being a medical student so far?

A: Being pre-med at Penn prepares you well for time management in medical school. You’ll most likely be taking around 5 different classes or subjects. For example, my first semester I took Anatomy, Biochemistry, Cell & Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Intro to Clinical Medicine. It would have been very difficult to manage that course load without the preparation I had from being pre-med at Penn. So, one similarity is time spent studying. You will absolutely spend A LOT of time studying in medical school. For me, it was significantly more than I had even spent at Penn. That was what surprised me the most about being a med student. Just like all Penn pre-meds, I turned down lots of social activities or study breaks in order to get everything done that I needed to for my pre-med classes. I expected to spend about the same amount of time studying in medical school. This was not the case. However, unlike Penn, everyone in your class will be in the same boat. All your friends and classmates will have the same workload, and be forced to spend a significant amount of time studying. So I didn’t feel like I was missing out on other things the way I sometimes did at Penn.

Q: What undergraduate course(s) and/or out-of-the-classroom experiences have proven to be the most useful to you in your first semester of medical school?

A: Any class you can take as an undergraduate that you might have in medical school will be helpful. As an HSOC major, I didn’t take a lot of extra science classes. However, my friends in med school who were, for example, Biochemistry majors found some of our intro courses to be more familiar than they were for me. That being said, you absolutely don’t need to take classes ahead of time (I didn’t and it worked out!). Extracurricularly, the most useful experiences I had were those clinical volunteering and research experiences that required patient interaction. In my Intro to Clinical Medicine class, we are tested on patient interviewing skills. I found it much less stressful than some of my classmates who had less past interaction with patients. Getting comfortable with talking to patients, in any capacity, will absolutely prepare you well for your clinical encounters in med school.

Q: What has impressed you and/or surprised you most about your medical school classmates?

A: I am both impressed and surprised by the wide range of backgrounds that my classmates come from. As an HSOC major at Penn, I was exposed to a certain “type” of medical student. However, there is no one mold that all med students fit. Everyone comes from such unique backgrounds and my classmates have many different interests. This makes sense, I’ve realized, since all of us will end up going into different specialties!

Q: Looking back on your own pre-med preparation and the application process itself, what advice would you give to current applicants in the process?

A: I would say – don’t rush! I applied without a gap year, and found it to be a pretty stressful process. Studying for the MCAT was rushed, and I missed out on a lot my junior year because of it. Senior fall was also a stressful time with applications and interviews. It worked out for me in the end, but I think if I did it over again I might take a gap year. Everyone is different, though, so you should do what works for you and aligns with your priorities. Additionally, I’d say if you’re not entirely sure about medicine, wait to apply. There’s not need to push it if you’re not sure that medicine is for you. I think it would be incredibly difficult to be motivated and successful if I wasn’t 110% sure that medicine was the career for me. Finally, and most importantly, enjoy Penn! My 4 years at Penn were some of the best. However, I think I spent a lot of it worrying about the next step instead of enjoying undergrad. Getting into medical school is a hard road, and being a medical student if tough. You’ll be a happier, healthier, and more successful medical student if you make sure not to burn out before you even make it there.