Personal Statement for Grad School

[Lysis]

So, I took the GRE and I'm holding off with the MCAT until fall or next spring. I want to get in to this biomedical sciences program at my school for a Master's. I have my letters ( I think...catching 1 of my professors sucks ).

Anyway, I need to do my personal statement and then I'm done with all this chump work! LOL I've been reading samples and suggestions, and a theme that seems to be common is to bring up points that no one else can do.

I was originally going to lobby for my pharmaceutical interest, but one of my clients who is in the area trying to market a fertility drug in Australia told me that the field is all politics and I should be prepared for a lot of disappointment. I don't want to get into all that, so I'm going with choice #2 - infectious disease - mainly virology.

So, for those who don't already know, my BF OD'd on opiates and benzos last year and it has made a huge impact on my life. I basically did a 180 and changed a lot of my focus. I read that introducing stories that made an impact on your life are good to include, but I'm not sure if I should include mine. The thing is that I believe it could give my goals substance in a personal statement, and it is the reason I have switched from a med school focus to research. I'm wondering if this would be seen as a bad thing in a personal statement though.

Anyone else put something traumatic in their statements? I think I could create a kickass opener to grab the reader, but I don't know how grad schools would view something like this. I wrote it in my statements to my professors writing me LORs, so I'm thinking it is ok?

 

[PlurredChemistry]

I was originally going to lobby for my pharmaceutical interest, but one of my clients who is in the area trying to market a fertility drug in Australia told me that the field is all politics and I should be prepared for a lot of disappointment. I don't want to get into all that, so I'm going with choice #2 - infectious disease - mainly virology.

What are the specifics of the program you're applying for? Do you need to specify your interest right now?

I basically did a 180 and changed a lot of my focus. I read that introducing stories that made an impact on your life are good to include, but I'm not sure if I should include mine.

Yes, you should. But don't focus on the OD, focus on how that lead you to where you are now. Too often people get hung up on the personal aspect of personal statements without realizing that they're also trying to show why they're appropriate for the relevant program.

The thing is that I believe it could give my goals substance in a personal statement, and it is the reason I have switched from a med school focus to research. I'm wondering if this would be seen as a bad thing in a personal statement though.

Is this transition more of a NO medicine or more of a YES research sort of thing? Do you think it is important to bring up this transition? I suppose within the context of the OD, you'd have to, but you could frame it more in the 'I became MORE interested in research' rather then 'I was set on medicine UNTIL'...

Anyone else put something traumatic in their statements?
I think I could create a kickass opener to grab the reader, but I don't know how grad schools would view something like this. I wrote it in my statements to my professors writing me LORs, so I'm thinking it is ok?

I wrote about fairly controversial things in my personal statement (transgenderism), and did it in a fairly eye-opening way (several interviewers complimented me about it), but my personal statement was about me AND medicine, not transgenderism. Your personal statement should be about you AND science, not your BFs OD story.

This worked out well for me (got into a handful of excellent schools), but most of the schools I applied to weren't super responsive (liberal places liked me and my harm reduction stuff).

I can send you a copy of my PS if you like and would be happy to proof your PS too.

My advice? Write write write. Use the OD story to get you started. Even if you don't end up using the OD stuff, you will probably be able to use some of what you get out of it from telling the story in a PS format. My first draft looked NOTHING like my final draft.

Good luck!

 

[Lysis]

Thanks Plurred! If you wouldn't mind sending me your personal statement, I'd love to see it as a sample. I read some samples on Purdue's website, but I wasn't really impressed by them. If you wouldn't mind proofing mine and giving thoughts, that would rock. My deadline is May 1st, so I want to have it wrapped up by the end of the week. I'm pretty wordy when I get started. It's just that first paragraph that's hard to pull out.

I've read that the first paragraph needs a hook, so I've been trying to envision my story in my head. I get that it shouldn't be about my BF's OD, but I was considering doing something like a one-liner about the loss of someone I loved dearly to an overdose made me realize the importance of my goals in research.

I plan to study virology and immunology. This was always my second choice even when I was considering med school, so it's been my backup plan in case med school didn't work out. Of course, I know better than to say this in a personal statement, but I'll be very happy studying in the field.

I don't want to be too controversial. I want my story to grab readers without saying "She associates with drug addicts. Maybe she's one too."

 

[Afatsum]

Writing an anecdote can be an effective way to engross your reader and provide a nice platform for the reasons why you are the right candidate for a certain program. Equally important to understand though, is the tendency of an ill conceived or ostensibly irrelevant anecdote to become overwhelming and detract from the purpose for which you are writing. Make sure to address the prompt, and form a valid response to the specific questions/concerns/issues which it has raised.

Unfortunately the aforementioned anecdote does not fit the bill of what you are writing for.

Although you don't include the prompt, the general purpose of most prompts is to assess your credibility for a given program by measure of how well you can articulate why you would be a good fit.

I strongly recommend that you don't include an account of the nature which you have alluded to. You must understand after all that the person who will be reading this is human, and moreover, probably doesn't much value or care for drug use, for that matter, anything of a nature that is morally suspect. Now, I'm not saying that that experience didn't have a profound effect on you; it's just that, practically speaking, you would be much better off demonstrating a "good" quality, rather than your affinity for being the kind of person that the program doesn't want, if not as a function of the circumstances of your story, then because of your insensitivity and seeming naivete for including something of a touchy nature in a serious context of a graduate admission essay.

 

[PlurredChemistry]

Unfortunately the aforementioned anecdote does not fit the bill of what you are writing for.

Yeah, it deffo sounds like the OD stuff is what led you away from medicine rather than into immunology or virology (unless your BF OD involved some sort of OTC stuff and had an allergic reaction or you're specifically interested in some sort of virus delivered gene therapy for addiction treatment).