Latest / Admissions Straight Talk / Is There Such a Thing as Too Many Drafts? Writing a Standout Med School Personal Statement [Episode 612]

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Is There Such a Thing as Too Many Drafts? Writing a Standout Med School Personal Statement [Episode 612] · Admissions Straight Talk

• 0:00
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Did you know it takes 10 ideas to get one great one?
• 0:04
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: My guest today, accepted consultant Alicia Nimonkar, talks about that concept.
• 0:10
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: If you can write too many drafts of a personal statement, and how to tell when your personal statement is done.
• 0:17
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Well, I'm looking forward to this conversation.
• 0:42
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: So today we are talking about the all-important personal statement.
• 0:47
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Most medical school and other healthcare graduate programs use a holistic review process.
• 0:53
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: So, in your opinion, does the personal statement still carry the same amount of weight or importance that it used to?
• 1:01
  Alicia Nimonkar: Yes.
• 1:02
  Alicia Nimonkar: One thing that I want to bring students' attention to is the pre-med competencies that the AMC uses.
• 1:10
  Alicia Nimonkar: So these are incredibly helpful, and I recommend that you keep these in mind as you're writing your personal statement.
• 1:19
  Alicia Nimonkar: Obviously, it's not possible to cover all of them, but you do maybe want to look at is there one, two, or three that really stand out as a theme for you that come up again and again throughout your life and throughout your experiences.
• 1:36
  Alicia Nimonkar: And I'm going to read those out.
• 1:38
  Alicia Nimonkar: I hope that's okay.
• 1:38
  Alicia Nimonkar: That's great.
• 1:39
  Alicia Nimonkar: Yeah, so the competencies are cultural awareness, cultural humility, empathy and compassion, ethical responsibility to self and others, interpersonal skills, oral communication, reliability and dependability, resilience and adaptability, service orientation, teamwork and collaboration, and the last two sections are for science, human behavior, and then living systems, and then thinking and reasoning.
• 2:16
  Alicia Nimonkar: So critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, scientific inquiry, written communication.
• 2:22
  Alicia Nimonkar: So you want to look at how these things have come up for you throughout your life, throughout your activities, which of these can you feature or highlight in your personal statement?
• 2:35
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: I think that's great advice.
• 2:37
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: And I mean, really, when somebody is reviewing their entire application, they should be looking at those competencies both in their personal statement and in their work and activities to make sure we see those everywhere.
• 2:54
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: But we we do want to start at the personal statement to make sure, as you suggest, one, two, or three are really evident.
• 3:04
  Alicia Nimonkar: Yeah, and I mean I think they they'll come up again and again.
• 3:07
  Alicia Nimonkar: It'll be clear to people.
• 3:09
  Alicia Nimonkar: And sometimes it's helpful, I think, to talk it through with someone like us, right, experts in the application process, because we can help you more clearly see maybe these trends or patterns in your own life that you might not see.
• 3:21
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Right.
• 3:22
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Great advice.
• 3:23
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Well, when I first start working with clients, I'm not sure if it's the same with you.
• 3:27
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: I'm often asked, this is a hypothetical quote, how many drafts do you think it will take until my personal statement is done?
• 3:37
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: So I'd like to hear how do you answer that question.
• 3:41
  Alicia Nimonkar: So typically I do have a master's degree in composition and rhetoric as well as English literature.
• 3:48
  Alicia Nimonkar: So I love um the writing piece.
• 3:51
  Alicia Nimonkar: I love, love, love that.
• 3:52
  Alicia Nimonkar: I love helping other people with their writing.
• 3:54
  Alicia Nimonkar: I love doing my own writing.
• 3:56
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, so typically with the students I work with, we do an outline first.
• 4:01
  Alicia Nimonkar: And that outline is basically us looking at the competencies, looking at what are the patterns, the themes in your life.
• 4:08
  Alicia Nimonkar: Sometimes I'll have people do a timeline, and that's fun of important things that have come up over time.
• 4:14
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, just more data points, right, the easier it can be to see a pattern like that.
• 4:20
  Alicia Nimonkar: And just talking it through.
• 4:22
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, once we come up with an outline, typically my clients do on average two to three drafts.
• 4:29
  Alicia Nimonkar: So, I mean, you wouldn't build a house without a blueprint, right?
• 4:33
  Alicia Nimonkar: Like that house wouldn't stand.
• 4:35
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Right, right.
• 4:36
  Alicia Nimonkar: Absolutely, yeah.
• 4:37
  Alicia Nimonkar: So if you've got an outline, and I personally do not write without outlines, you're right, you know what you're doing, you have a plan, you know what you're building.
• 4:47
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, and that can give you, right, the way to provide strategic details, to provide anecdotes that fit within your theme or themes, right?
• 4:56
  Alicia Nimonkar: It gives you that strategy so that the writing is um as strong as possible.
• 5:01
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um so I would say two to three drafts is typically what I see.
• 5:07
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: And I think that outline is so important, especially for the clients and applicants who start off by saying, I have so many ideas, and I think with the character count or the word count, there's no way they're all going to fit.
• 5:25
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: And so that outline can be helpful to decide what's going to make the cut and what probably won't make the cut.
• 5:34
  Alicia Nimonkar: Well, I so usually the homework before we do the outline is we come up with 10 ideas.
• 5:40
  Alicia Nimonkar: It takes 10 ideas to get to one really great idea, right?
• 5:44
  Alicia Nimonkar: So I'm one of my favorite quotes, all-time favorite quotes, um, is Carol DeWec, the psychologist who wrote Mindsets.
• 5:52
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, and her quote is the secret to life is effort.
• 5:57
  Alicia Nimonkar: I'll say it again.
• 5:58
  Alicia Nimonkar: It's so good.
• 5:59
  Alicia Nimonkar: The secret to life is effort.
• 6:03
  unknown: Right?
• 6:03
  Alicia Nimonkar: Did you think you were gonna get the secret to life during this podcast?
• 6:06
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: I did, but I I think that's amazing.
• 6:09
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Absolutely amazing.
• 6:10
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: So it takes 10 ideas to come up with one best idea or one idea that's really going to stick.
• 6:20
  Alicia Nimonkar: So, what we do is so for homework, they'll come up with the 10 ideas, and it could just they could just jot down like a few phrases.
• 6:25
  Alicia Nimonkar: It doesn't have to be like a paragraph or anything, and we'll go through.
• 6:29
  Alicia Nimonkar: So I'll have the student describe to me each idea, and there's something like I can hear it in their voice.
• 6:35
  Alicia Nimonkar: Like they get really excited and passionate, and um I can I can just tell, like when we get to that one idea that's gonna work, you can tell.
• 6:47
  Alicia Nimonkar: Because right, you have to write a whole personal statement.
• 6:50
  Alicia Nimonkar: So you've got a page and a half.
• 6:53
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, and if it's an idea you're not sure about, or you're like, oh, this is probably what they want to hear, right?
• 6:58
  Alicia Nimonkar: Often it's it's not gonna work as well.
• 7:01
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Right.
• 7:01
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: I I agree with that so much.
• 7:04
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: I've worked with clients before who have been writing, and you can feel the struggle in the writing.
• 7:11
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: You can feel them pulling and forcing, and it the writing almost feels painful.
• 7:20
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: And when they hit on a topic that either brings them joy or or they are familiar with, the writing absolutely flows.
• 7:31
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: And it's a pleasure to read.
• 7:33
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: And I think it is, I don't know if I would say it's a pleasure for them to write.
• 7:38
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Writing for some people, it's very difficult, but but you can tell when you have hit on that topic.
• 7:44
  Alicia Nimonkar: Yes.
• 7:44
  Alicia Nimonkar: And I've had people cover things like um one guy wrote the most amazing personal statement about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in his intro.
• 7:52
  Alicia Nimonkar: And you're like, what on earth?
• 7:54
  Alicia Nimonkar: Right.
• 7:55
  Alicia Nimonkar: But it was like he was the kind of student who was like, Oh, I don't have anything, I'm not interesting.
• 8:01
  Alicia Nimonkar: Very humble and very kind.
• 8:03
  Alicia Nimonkar: And I was like, let's just come up with a list of 10 ideas, right?
• 8:07
  Alicia Nimonkar: And he came to one where it was like, Well, I really love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
• 8:10
  Alicia Nimonkar: And my mom, you know, who's a healthcare provider, made one for me every single day in school.
• 8:18
  Alicia Nimonkar: And I was like, oh gosh, that's kind of that could be good.
• 8:22
  Alicia Nimonkar: That's um, and then he done volunteer work about feeding, you know, the homeless in other countries, and he connected, he did some research on um food and health.
• 8:33
  Alicia Nimonkar: And so it ended up being this silly idea at first, and the intro, it was very funny.
• 8:39
  Alicia Nimonkar: It was a dialogue, and it had you like laughing.
• 8:42
  Alicia Nimonkar: It was very funny.
• 8:43
  Alicia Nimonkar: In comedy, you want to be careful with in the personal statement, but it was funny, and it connected to this larger theme of food and health and culture and human connection.
• 8:56
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, and it's ended up, I have to say, it's probably one of my favorite personal statements that I've seen.
• 9:01
  Alicia Nimonkar: But you can do anything as long as you do it well.
• 9:06
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: I agree.
• 9:06
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: I agree.
• 9:08
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Moving on to the next question, um, which is really answering the title of today's podcast.
• 9:15
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Is there such a thing as too many drafts of a personal statement?
• 9:21
  Alicia Nimonkar: Yes.
• 9:21
  Alicia Nimonkar: Yes.
• 9:24
  Alicia Nimonkar: What I find is that when people say, Okay, final draft, I love it.
• 9:30
  Alicia Nimonkar: And my goal for every client is that they feel like their personal statement represents them and that they just love it, right?
• 9:40
  Alicia Nimonkar: And that they're excited to submit it.
• 9:42
  Alicia Nimonkar: It's like when people get to that final draft and then they decide to show it to a bunch of other people, right?
• 9:50
  Alicia Nimonkar: And they get all this different feedback and oh, I need to change this, change that.
• 9:58
  Alicia Nimonkar: And, you know, if if in my opinion, like, hey, that was ready for submission, it's authentic, it's gorgeous, it represents what you've done, what you've accomplished, um, right, to go and get all that feedback and then to make changes, then you can end up with a kind of Frankenstein situation.
• 10:16
  Alicia Nimonkar: Right.
• 10:17
  Alicia Nimonkar: Right.
• 10:18
  Alicia Nimonkar: Where you know you've asked a lot of different people, and oftentimes it's not people with admissions experience or backgrounds.
• 10:26
  Alicia Nimonkar: So maybe it's a family member who loves you and is like, hey, why don't you want to talk about that thing that happened with grandpa?
• 10:32
  Alicia Nimonkar: Right.
• 10:33
  Alicia Nimonkar: Or an advisor who's, you know, doesn't have medical school or medical admissions experience, saying, Oh, you know, this part doesn't sound as it doesn't flow as well, or, you know, says something that kind of um gives them an idea that, oh, this whole thing needs to be changed when, you know, it was strong.
• 10:55
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Right.
• 10:55
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Right.
• 10:56
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: And I've I've also had that happen to me.
• 11:01
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Um, and I've talked about the concept of too many cooks in the kitchen.
• 11:07
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Yes.
• 11:07
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Right.
• 11:08
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: And so um while I can suggest that we are at final copy, and the client can feel as if we are at final copy, if you show your personal statement to 10 other people, the likelihood is you will get 10 new opinions.
• 11:28
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Yes.
• 11:28
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: And things can get complicated and feel complicated, and um you could never get at final copy if you continue to show that personal statement to more and more people.
• 11:43
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Um, it's okay to continue to get other people's eyes on your personal statement, but know that you will continue to get new opinions.
• 11:55
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: And so there's got to be some point where the client and the consultant or whoever is mentoring this process has to make a critical decision and a personal decision to say, this is what I want to say, this is how I want to present myself, and this is my personal statement, right?
• 12:16
  Alicia Nimonkar: I agree.
• 12:16
  Alicia Nimonkar: Yeah.
• 12:18
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Um, here's a different question.
• 12:20
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Can someone start writing their personal statement too early, as in too far in advance of their application date?
• 12:28
  Alicia Nimonkar: So I, yeah, I do think that that is possible.
• 12:32
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um if somebody starts like a year early and say they go on and get some incredible clinical experience that you know really um inspires them.
• 12:45
  Alicia Nimonkar: But this older draft of the personal statement, you know, doesn't have that.
• 12:49
  Alicia Nimonkar: So it's it's helpful, I think, to wait till you're about, I would say like six months is kind of the sweet spot.
• 12:55
  Alicia Nimonkar: I don't know about you, but I think like eight to six months, like starting maybe that fall of the you know, year that you're planning on applying.
• 13:05
  Alicia Nimonkar: That way you give yourself enough time to really do your best work to not be stressed out or doing things at the last minute.
• 13:14
  Alicia Nimonkar: Because it is this is the first chance you have in the personal statement to introduce yourself in your own words to the selection committee.
• 13:24
  Alicia Nimonkar: That's huge, right?
• 13:26
  Alicia Nimonkar: So that's such an important piece of the application.
• 13:31
  Alicia Nimonkar: And because if you, I mean, you know, if you've come across a personal statement where there's a red flag or something alarming or something where it's unfocused or you don't understand what they're trying to say, it's like pass on to the next one, right?
• 13:44
  Alicia Nimonkar: So yeah, that statement does hold quite a bit of um of power.
• 13:51
  Alicia Nimonkar: So I would say starting eight right months, six months um before, and then that way you've probably had those experiences already that you want to talk about, right?
• 14:04
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Yes, yes, I couldn't agree more.
• 14:07
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Um I'm gonna ask you a question that I hadn't pre-planned, but I'm sure you're going to navigate it beautifully.
• 14:14
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Should people talk about, should applicants talk about deficits or missteps they've had in their journey in their personal statement, maybe academic deficits or um something like a nonlinear path?
• 14:33
  Alicia Nimonkar: I would cover only the things that you have addressed.
• 14:37
  Alicia Nimonkar: Because you don't want to come across as a pawn, right?
• 14:42
  Alicia Nimonkar: I have my chest came out.
• 14:47
  Alicia Nimonkar: Yes.
• 14:47
  Alicia Nimonkar: You don't want to come across as a pawn, right?
• 14:50
  Alicia Nimonkar: Or a victim, or somebody who doesn't, you know, who is disempowered, right?
• 14:56
  Alicia Nimonkar: Because you're introducing yourself for the first time in your own words.
• 14:59
  Alicia Nimonkar: So you're telling your story you want to come across, right, as the most powerful powerful piece on the board.
• 15:07
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um yeah.
• 15:09
  Alicia Nimonkar: So you just want to make sure, if you can repeat the question again.
• 15:12
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: So the question was do you recommend that applicants talk about academic deficits, particular challenges, whether it was health challenges, financial, financial challenges, or moments of a nonlinear path in their personal statement?
• 15:32
  Alicia Nimonkar: Yeah, so it's it is about portraying yourself as someone who overcomes things, someone who um is persistent, someone who meets challenges as opportunities.
• 15:43
  Alicia Nimonkar: And there's an incredible book I can recommend.
• 15:46
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, The Obstacle is the way.
• 15:49
  Alicia Nimonkar: Have you heard of this one?
• 15:50
  Alicia Nimonkar: I haven't.
• 15:51
  Alicia Nimonkar: I believe it's Robert Holliday, is the author.
• 15:53
  Alicia Nimonkar: I think I know his last name's Holliday.
• 15:55
  Alicia Nimonkar: Okay.
• 15:56
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, but the obstacle is the way.
• 15:59
  Alicia Nimonkar: So portraying yourself right in a position of power as having overcome those obstacles, as you know, maybe you got a low grade or you had some low grades one term or semester or quarter, but you turned things around, right?
• 16:14
  Alicia Nimonkar: You came back and were victorious.
• 16:16
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, so you want to demonstrate your the challenges you've overcome because that itself is a strength, right?
• 16:23
  Alicia Nimonkar: But if you're just using this space in the essay to complain or to show yourself as a victim, or in my experience in the 18 years I've been doing this, I've never come across a statement where, for example, someone's talked about being bullied.
• 16:42
  Alicia Nimonkar: And I haven't seen anybody get accepted with like that kind of any kind of a victim mentality, any kind of a well, this thing happened to me.
• 16:52
  Alicia Nimonkar: And while I'm certain that that thing did happen, right?
• 16:56
  Alicia Nimonkar: I'm sure like that thing happened.
• 16:59
  Alicia Nimonkar: But if, for example, you go on to um overcome the thing, you know, that was the challenge, and that you helped other people who had to overcome that challenge, that's what I see the most successful.
• 17:13
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, I think the most powerful example I could come up with is a student who had been a victim of sexual assault.
• 17:20
  Alicia Nimonkar: And she later went on to become a victim advocate.
• 17:24
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, and so she would go to hospitals and support women who were going through like right, the exam that's required after an assault.
• 17:34
  Alicia Nimonkar: And, you know, she became a leader in several organizations um to support education, to bring um awareness to to prevent sexual violence.
• 17:45
  Alicia Nimonkar: And she just did amazing things.
• 17:47
  Alicia Nimonkar: And so she did not portray herself as a victim.
• 17:51
  Alicia Nimonkar: You know, she portrayed herself um as someone powerful who had the ability to help others overcome you know the challenges and to educate and prevent those things from happening in the future.
• 18:06
  Alicia Nimonkar: So she came at it from a place of power and um advocacy and finding ways to support others and to empower others and and improve conditions.
• 18:18
  Alicia Nimonkar: It was amazing to work with her.
• 18:21
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Yeah.
• 18:21
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: That is a very, very good story.
• 18:25
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: And I do hope everyone who is listening who is asking the question, can I talk about X can take the example that you just gave and apply it to their own situation, whether it's a personal health challenge, the loss of a family member, and think, okay, if I talk about it, can I come at it from a place of resilience, power, and advocacy?
• 18:53
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Because that's those are really some key pieces.
• 18:56
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: So thank you for sharing that particular story.
• 18:59
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: And the final question today is when does someone know their personal statement is done?
• 19:07
  Alicia Nimonkar: I think you get that feeling when you read it.
• 19:10
  Alicia Nimonkar: So one thing I always do with clients or I offer it, um, and almost everybody actually does it.
• 19:16
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, because I I don't know, I just love this process of working with students and helping them see what is amazing about themselves, right?
• 19:24
  Alicia Nimonkar: Because it's hard to see it in yourself, right?
• 19:27
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, I just love reading through the final draft.
• 19:32
  Alicia Nimonkar: So usually like the outline is fun, it's just a bunch of questions talking, us doing strategy, thinking through things, um, figuring out how to represent things in the most positive way.
• 19:44
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um, and then right, there's the drafts, which are so if you use the outline, the hard work's already been done of strategy of strategic detail of you know what you're gonna cover and how you're gonna cover it.
• 19:57
  Alicia Nimonkar: So the the drafts are just fun um through email.
• 20:01
  Alicia Nimonkar: And then the last part of the personal statement is I recommend that we read through it together.
• 20:07
  Alicia Nimonkar: And you just get that feeling, you know, like when you're reading through it, of like, wow, and you can hear like their excitement.
• 20:15
  Alicia Nimonkar: And most people are surprised that they they didn't think it would be as good as it is.
• 20:20
  Alicia Nimonkar: Um it's like you know, when they're excited to submit it, that is such a good feeling.
• 20:29
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Yes, yes, that is part of the satisfaction of the work that we do, um, which is helping clients and students tell their story and tell it in a way that they didn't think was possible, and that is authentic and creative, and that they're really proud of.
• 20:51
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Yeah.
• 20:51
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Yep.
• 20:52
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Well, I think this has been very helpful.
• 20:57
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: I learned a few things too, which will um help me, and I'm sure that will help the listeners.
• 21:04
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: So thank you so much for your time today.
• 21:06
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Thank you.
• 21:07
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, everybody.
• 21:10
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: Okay, thanks.
• 21:11
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: To connect with Alicia or get free resources helpful for pre med or pre health students, please check the link in our show notes.
• 21:21
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: And thank you to everyone for tuning in.
• 21:23
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe, rate, and share this podcast.
• 21:29
  Dr. Valerie Wherley: We'll be back soon with more conversations to help you get accepted.