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• 2024 Medical School Secondary Essays Examples

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Our team of physician and medical student editors had the pleasure of helping students craft the following medical school secondary essays. 

“Why This School” Essay

Adversity essay, diversity essay, “how will you contribute to our school” essay, “future goals” essay, “academic lapses or breaks” essay, “why d.o.” essay, why are secondaries important, tell us about any specific reason(s) (personal, educational, etc.) why you see yourself here at the wake forest school of medicine..

The ending of the motto of the Moravian church, which has a strong historical connection with Winston-Salem, is “…in all things, love.” This concluding statement is an apt description of how I attempt to live my life. Wake Forest upholds such values of inclusion and love through the Lovefest tradition and programs such as the student-run DEAC Clinic. After working at free clinics in rural areas, I am committed to becoming a physician that will promote systems of care in the community. With my exposure to rural primary care, I want to use the Rural/Underserved Health experience offered to Wake Forest students through the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians to further my understanding and training in this career path. Furthermore, as an extension of working in primary care, I am interested in being a geriatrician. Wake Forest, as one of the best geriatric hospitals in the country, has a curriculum that aligns with my interests. I am confident that through research, service, and patient care, Wake Forest will shape me into a leader of rural health care for the geriatric community.

Application Status: Accepted |School of choice: Wake Forest School of Medicine | Class of 2024

More Examples and Writing Tips for a Convincing  Medical School “Why Us” Essay | Click Here

Describe a significant challenge you have experienced in your life, share the strategies you employed to overcome the challenge, and what you learned from the experience..

One personal adversity I have overcome is my lack of self-confidence. I was always a quiet child who grew up with two older sisters doing most of the talking. As I aged, I came out my shell to an extent and became more outgoing. I have always struggled in one particular area: public speaking. My passion for medicine grew early as I observed my eldest sister work alongside physicians during her nursing training. However, my shy nature led me to select pre-nursing as my major, since nursing does not require the ability to speak publicly like being a physician often does. I did not truly consider a career as a doctor until my anatomy and physiology professor suggested I do so after recognizing my drive, aptitude, and passion. Even so, it took introspection and time to recognize that I held the potential to become a successful physician.

Over my undergraduate career, I have participated in many group presentations during classes without the benefit of being taught how to successfully prepare. On every occasion, I would become so nervous that I was unable to sleep the entire night prior. By the time I presented, I would be so distracted that I could not think straight, let alone get my point across clearly. This went on until I had the opportunity to participate in a class called Peer Instruction in Laboratory Occupational Training (PILOT), which was an extension of a class that I had succeeded in, Quantitative Biological Methods.

PILOT was designed to expose students to research articles and assist with laboratory techniques and homework. A large part of the grade for the class consisted of teaching a laboratory section of around 40 students for 15 minutes. I almost opted out of the class because of this requirement, but ultimately decided it was a great opportunity to work through my personal fear of public speaking and build my self-confidence.

I set a schedule six weeks ahead of the presentation to begin preparing. A few helpful peers offered advice, telling me that knowing what I wanted to say verbatim was a good way to improve confidence. Thus, I practiced daily until three weeks before the class. I found another tip online: practicing in the actual location of the presentation can help reduce nerves. Subsequently, I approached one of my laboratory teaching assistants and asked if he would let me practice in the laboratory. He was an excellent teaching assistant and took the time to watch me practice and provide feedback.

Ultimately, I felt that I was able to present eloquently and received an excellent grade. Life is full of challenges, and I learned that preparation is key to success. I planned and prepared early, pulled from available resources, and implemented advice from faculty and peers. This experience taught me that I do have the aptitude, strength, and drive to succeed in medical school and overcome any obstacle that I might face. I am eager to embrace more personal growth and realize my full potential as I continue on to medical school.

Application Status: Accepted |School of choice: Nova Southeastern University College Of Osteopathic Medicine | Class of 2024

More Examples and The 6 Steps for Writing the Medical School Adversity Essay | Click Here

“do you consider yourself a person who would contribute to the diversity of the student body of tufts university school of medicine” if yes, briefly explain why..

I am a Muslim, Saudi woman, but I am not the preconceived notions of being close minded, uncultured, or oppressed. I’m a passionate helper, an open-minded extrovert, and a curious explorer of the world. 

Though I grew up attending a school that taught me to be a leader and encouraged competition, and though travelling the world allowed me to explore new cultures, homogeneity was the ‘norm’ everywhere I went until I attended school in the US. George C. Marshall High School showed me how enriching diversity is. There, in a mixture of backgrounds and ethnicities, I was an ‘other’ among many ‘others’. The following year in Nebraska was different, and I experienced the damage of prejudice when I was the only ‘other’. My experiences drove me to work to bring different people together to give back. Years later, at NYU, this personal passion pushed me to create a volunteer tutoring nonprofit organization. 

I believe the ‘other’ in me, with the uncommon background, the unique experiences, and the interesting perspectives, will contribute to the diversity of the student body at Tufts.

Application Status: Accepted |School of choice: Albert Einstein College of Medicine | Class of 2024

Click here for More Examples and Steps on How to Write an Effective Medical School Diversity Essay

Explain how interactions with people who are different from you have shaped your worldview and relate how you would enrich the VTC community.

From my academic and work experiences, I have frequently worked with people who are different from myself. Working with students and professors from different backgrounds through college helped me appreciate different viewpoints, especially during my bioethics training.  Listening to my classmate, who was a Catholic hospice nurse, explain her differing stance on end-of-life care showed me to appreciate the legitimacy of different opinions. Likewise, I learned from sociology graduate students about the issue of the medicalization of mental illness, which I had not had to consider prior to speaking and working with them. These experiences will help me contribute to the community by enabling me to approach problems from multiple lenses and to listen to and value the input of experts in different fields.

My experiences engaging with different individuals will help me to enrich the community at Virginia Tech. As a tutor, I have been able to work with students of different ages and backgrounds with unique learning goals. For example, my student, Danny, was an adult student taking classes at a community college and had failed his statistics course three times before meeting with me. Even though I had excelled in math classes during school, I was able to listen to his frustrations and identify different ways to help him learn the content and be able to apply it for quizzes and exams. I helped him navigate through the material, and he ended up passing the course comfortably. By working with a wide variety of students like Danny, I have been able to understand the importance of listening actively to individuals’ struggles and unique experiences to learn about how to best help them and I am excited to apply this skill to help future individuals.

In addition to my experiences tutoring, I have been able to interact with individuals different from myself through volunteering. For example, at Judson Park, I volunteered by helping one resident, Ron, participate in art therapy. Ron had suffered two prior strokes and was wheelchair-bound and hemiplegic. I was able to help bring him down to the art room and organize supplies for him. Ron was unique in his needs, which was why he required individualized care to be able to participate in the art therapy. He also struggled with communicating verbally due to deficits from his prior strokes. I adapted by patiently waiting for him to respond at his own pace and looking for body language cues for what he needed at the moment. He was able to make incredible art creations, showing me the resilience of differently abled individuals.

These experiences have shown me the importance of valuing everyone’s unique perspectives and utilizing that consideration and compassion to help others. I can enrich the VTC community by providing this diverse perspective to help my peers and ultimately serve the greater community as a physician.

Application Status: Accepted |School of choice: University of Virginia School of Medicine | Class of 2024

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After residency, describe the community in which you see yourself practicing medicine..

Currently, I can see myself practicing medicine in a variety of clinical settings: a private specialty care system, a nonprofit medical facility, individual practice, or a different setting. I am open to all of the new experiences that medical school will bring, including exposure to a variety of clinical settings.

I have worked as a medical scribe at the largest non-profit health care provider in Seattle and have also volunteered for a private specialty hospital. Both of these experiences have exposed me to a different type of medical practice, and I have enjoyed both although in different ways. I loved the diversity of patients I encountered at the nonprofit and enjoyed experiencing different clinic visits whether for constipation or throat pain. At the specialty hospital, I was able to encounter unique and rare medical cases that I’ve only read about in books such as spina bifida or hydrocephalus. I was also able to witness the very specialized and personalized care. I am excited to explore the various clinical setting options in medical school and residency, and figure out which environment best suits my strengths and interests!

Application Status: Accepted |School of choice: Stanford School of Medicine | Class of 2024

Use this space if you’d like to address any identified deficiencies in your application.

When I suddenly lost my father to pancreatic cancer shortly before starting college, I was confused and frustrated about my loss. Although I had dreamt of becoming a doctor since I was a little girl, I was newly unsure of whether medicine was right for me. Because I lacked a tangible goal and motivation, my studies and grades suffered during my first years of college. However, once I began volunteering at the Children’s Hospital during my sophomore year, I developed a renewed sense of appreciation and passion for medicine. I started to care a lot more about school and enjoyed learning again. I began working extremely hard in my classes, and slowly but surely, my GPA rose.

Application Status: Accepted |School of choice: Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine   | Class of 2024

How do your professional ambitions align with osteopathic medicine?

My professional ambitions have always aligned with a medical career, ever since I observed my childhood hero and oldest sister, Brittany, work alongside physicians as a registered nurse. At the time, I was only eight years old and not yet privy to the nuances of allopathic versus osteopathic medicine.

Throughout my experiences with the medical profession as a patient and mother, I have found myself disappointed with some of the allopathic medical treatments. I have myself been treated pharmaceutically with medications and became non-compliant with my treatment due to side effects. Several years ago, I was diagnosed with herpetic neuralgia. My neurologist prescription Neurontin, which helped with the symptoms but left me in a fog. I found myself questioning whether there could be a better method.

As an undergraduate student, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to listen to a presentation by a doctor of osteopathy from Lake Eerie College of Medicine in Bradenton, FL. The speaker discussed osteopathic medicine, its principles, and manipulative medicine (OMM). He talked about a time when he bumped into an old friend who had been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis. His friend’s condition was so severe that he needed a cane to ambulate independently. The D.O. performed OMM for his friend and provided him with a set of exercises to perform daily at home. Ultimately, the friend did not require the surgery his allopathic physician had recommended.

After listening to his presentation, I felt as though I had a breakthrough. I realized that I wholeheartedly supported these principles as the better solution that I had been looking for. With osteopathic medicine, I could practice medicine in a traditional manner while wielding a valuable skill set that could spare patients from invasive surgeries and pharmaceutical therapeutics causing undesired side effects.

Furthermore, while studying for the MCAT a year ago, I developed a constant waxing and waning neck pain that would radiate to my right shoulder and down my arm. This worsened over a period of four weeks, and I took increasing amounts of ibuprofen to calm the symptoms. A good friend of mine is a physical therapist who manipulated my spine and sent me home with instructions for an exercise plan. She also taught me how to self-evaluate my posture, which has been valuable in preventing additional episodes. I was incredibly impressed with the outcome of the treatment that used my own body and its muscles to treat the pain without using pharmaceuticals or leaving me with residual deficits. As such, my personal trust in natural treatments has emphasized to me that osteopathic medicine is the path I am meant to follow. 

The more I learn about osteopathic medicine, the more excited I am to incorporate its principles into my future practice. I am thrilled to learn and practice medicine with a holistic approach to evaluate and treat patients. As a healthcare partner to my future patients, I feel inspired to encourage the implementation of prevention, maintenance, and natural remedies into their treatment plans.

Application Status: Accepted |School of choice: Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine   | Class of 2024

Why are secondary essays important?

• Schools ask these questions for a specific reason
• It’s your final chance to make a strong impression
• When they’re done right, you will lockdown an interview spot

Join over 1,500 of our accepted med school applicants by using Motivate MD's review service.

Meet Some of Your Editors

Ansel N., MD,PhD

The ohio state university college of medicine.

Alexa S., MD

University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

Harvard Medical School

Yale School of Medicine

George Washington School of Medicine

DUKE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

University of California San Francisco School of Medicine

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Ansel N., MD/PhD

Radiation Oncology Resident Former Medical School: Ohio State

My name is Ansel Nalin. I am a current Radiation Oncology resident at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. I graduated from the Ohio State University College of Medicine MD/PhD program.

While in medical school, I tutored first- and second-year medical students, helping them review lecture material and prepare for block exams. I taught study strategies to first-year students adjusting to the medical school curriculum. I worked individually with students during board exam preparation. I also led a review course for MD/PhD students prior to taking Step 1. In addition to my role as a tutor, I was also selected by the Ohio State College of Medicine Academic Office staff to serve in a leadership role for two years. In this role I led the team of 40 students on the peer tutoring team. I met weekly with College of Medicine staff to plan academic programs benefitting first- and second-year medical students. Together we organized and managed academic resources for medical students including our peer tutoring programs, group review sessions, and student-led review lectures. I coordinated the tutoring assignments for medical students involved in the program; over 100 students utilized the programs. We oversaw the creation of new student-led anatomy review sessions that were incorporated into the medical school academic program.

While enrolled in the MD/PhD program, I completed my PhD in cancer immunology studying natural killer cell development. I also collaborated on translational research projects seeking to identify new cell-based therapies for cancer. I published multiple papers in high impact journals and had the opportunity to present my work at both local and international conferences. I continue to pursue research that develops immune-based therapies for cancer and plan to pursue a career as a physician-scientist.

I joined the team at Motivate MD to help students achieve their goals in medicine. I have benefitted from the support of many outstanding mentors, and I strive to have a similarly positive impact in helping students succeed. My experiences as a tutor and teaching assistant, in both undergraduate and medical school, have helped me develop excellent skills in communication and mentoring. In addition to my teaching and leadership experience, I have developed specific skills to help students with the application and interview process for medical school and residency programs.

Not only am I familiar with what makes a strong application, I am prepared to help students highlight their strengths in their essays and interviews. I have extensive writing and speaking experience from my graduate studies. I have coached other students in communicating effectively. From my own experience in interviewing for medical school and residency, I can help students gain confidence in their communication skills and clearly express their motivations and goals. As a member of the Motivate MD team, I am passionate about helping students work toward their goal of a successful career in medicine.

I am an OBGYN resident and graduate of the University of Cincinnati. Throughout medical school, I engaged in research at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and UCCOM’s OBGYN department. I have a strong background in mentorship. In medical school, I was a part of an organization that would mentor local Cincinnati youths. I was also involved in mentoring medical students in the years below through her medical scholar’s program. I also have a lot of experience editing medical school essays and mentoring my scribes when I was a chief scribe during my gap years. I took two years off prior to applying for medical school. During this time, I completed research at WashU with a neuroimaging lab as a clinical research coordinator and scribed in an emergency department. The medical application process was daunting for me. I went through the process of taking the MCAT multiple times and struggled to figure out where I would be a competitive applicant. I chose to work for Motivate MD to assist students with this intimidating process and help in areas where I felt I was lacking guidance prior to medical school! I am very excited to get the opportunity to work with you!

Jisoo is a medical student at Harvard Medical School. She has a background in neurobiology wet-lab research, and has a strong interest in mentorship, especially of underserved populations. Everyone has a unique journey to medical school, and Jisoo is committed to helping applicants present their own unique journeys in a meaningful and comprehensive manner. She has lots of experience working with individuals that have diverse pathways to medical school and closely collaborates with applicants from the beginning to the end of their application process, providing individualized support for each applicant.

Hi! My name is Rhys (pronounced like “Reese’s Pieces”) and I am a medical student at Yale School of Medicine.

I have upwards of 9 years experience mentoring peers, most recently aiding students through the premedical path at my undergrad. I also have worked as an executive function/planning tutor for Los Angeles area high school and college students. Earlier in college, I worked as a research aide/teaching assistant helping students leverage “writing-to-learn” in order to improve their understanding of complex concepts.

After graduating  Summa Cum Laude  with a Bachelors of Science in Biomedical Engineering and Health Policy from the University of Southern California in 2021, I took a gap year primarily to scribe at a pediatric clinic to boost my clinical experience hours and to continue to work on a philanthropic start-up I co-founded while at USC.

At USC, I had multiple research experiences ranging from biomedical device research in a hybrid wet lab to policy analysis. I also was heavily involved in pro-bono consulting for non-profits and social enterprises.

I have personal experience approaching the common “Why Medicine?” question from a non-traditional angle (engineering major/activities and low clinical hours compared to non-clinical), tying in a non-standard major “X factor” extracurricular into the overall theme of an application, and expressing interest in dual degrees/interdisciplinary medical careers (policy, public health etc).

I look forward to helping you plan for and execute your unique path to medical school!

George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Hi Everyone! My name is Anthu Gnanakumar and I am a medical student at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences. I majored in neuroscience and minored in English at the University of Virginia prior to taking a gap year and attending medical school. During my gap year, I worked as a medical assistant (MA) at endocrinology and pediatric primary care practices. I really value the hands-on experience I got through being an MA and would highly recommend taking a gap year if you are at all considering it!

I remember being daunted by the significant uptick in medical school applications during the pandemic and can empathize with the ever-increasing competitiveness of getting into medical school. I have mentored and advised multiple peers and friends from high school and college as they navigated the application process and look forward to extending that mentorship to many of you. It is my hope that we can work together to shape your narrative into meaningful essays and interview responses!

Duke University School of Medicine

Hi all! My name is Arthi and I’m a medical student at Duke. I am originally from New Jersey and went to Duke for undergrad where I was able to discover interests in medical humanities, global health, and peer mentorship. Having previously taught in an art studio, I found ways to engage with medical humanities through storytelling and creative arts with elders with dementia. In medical school, I help run a program that allows admitted patients to share their life story and with cartoon creations to simplify medical diagnoses. I also majored in global health and worked on projects in based in Uganda and India during undergrad that focused on studying how evidence-based interventions actually function in practice. I spent my gap year as a global health research assistant which allowed me to gain experience with all stages of project initiation, management, and dissemination. I’m working towards spending Duke’s MS3 research year engaging with global health implementation research on site. I don’t have any family in medicine so I asked for a lot of advice from upperclassmen and medical students throughout. I was a peer tutor for over 3 years and during my senior year, I started a peer advising program that’s goal was to reach beyond just academics. During that time, I mentored many premed students on course choice, finding research and volunteering experiences, applying to summer program and gap year jobs, MCAT, and building a school list. I continued many of these relationships since graduating and have been able to provide continued support through brainstorming and editing primary and secondary applications, interview prep, and ultimately decision making. One thing I’ve come to learn from my process and that my classmates is that there isn’t one right way to do things and it can be valuable to talk through and understand your priorities and the things that make you the most excited and craft your application around those. I know how stressful and draining each step of the application process can be and I would love the chance to provide some of guidance and support I received at whichever turn you need.

NYU Grossman School of Medicine Admissions Committee Experience

Hi! My name is Kate and I’m a current medical student at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City! I’m originally from Kingsport, Tennessee and attended Clemson University where I completed my undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering and a master’s degree in Applied Health Research. I have many years of experience as an advisor and mentor, mainly through working as study abroad ambassador and as a peer tutor and peer mentor through a Women in Engineering organization at my school. Later in college, I also worked as a teaching assistant for a challenging chemical engineering course in my degree. I also volunteered my time as a tour guide and was able to provide loads of advice and guidance to future students through that role. While finishing my master’s degree at Clemson University, I worked as a scribe at a gastroenterology clinic to boost my clinical experience hours. During this time, I also served as a mentor and health coach for a local volunteer organization with a mission to help people get off of government assistance. At Clemson, I had multiple research experiences ranging from social psychology to OB/GYN clinical research. I was also heavily involved with STEM outreach at local schools, ran a pitch competition, and volunteered as a conversational partner for international students who were learning English. I also spent the summer after I graduated college working at Interlochen Arts Camp as a camp counselor and reigniting my passion for theatre and the arts. I have had a slightly more non-traditional path to medicine (engineering degree/extracurriculars, taking a year to do a master’s, working at an arts camp), and I have a lot of experience in how to best weave together your own unique story in order to stand out to admissions committees. As a current medical student, I now spend my time working as an Admissions Ambassador and serving as a mentor to incoming students. I also currently interview for my medical school and so I can provide a lot of insight as I’ve sat on both sides of the Zoom interview screen. I look forward to helping you put your best foot forward in your applications and interviews for medical school!

Hello! I am a medical student at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons planning to apply into neurology this upcoming fall. I have extensive mentoring and advising experience both prior to medical school, when I served as a peer advisor for my undergraduate institution’s pre-health club, and as a medical student, continuing to advise undergraduates on essay writing, interview preparation, and general application and career advice. I also work as a mentor in the local community, tutoring and advising 8 th grade and high school age students interested in the health sciences. I have significant research and publication experience beginning as an undergraduate and continuing throughout medical school, having published four first-author manuscripts while contributing to multiple others. Prior to medical school, I spent a gap year as a National Institutes of Health Post-baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award fellow, a role in which I studied Alzheimer’s disease proteomics and metabolomics. Currently, my research focus has shifted towards neuroinfectious diseases and contributions of infectious exposures to lifetime dementia risk. In addition to clinical medicine, I have a strong interest in public health and anthropology that informs my research and clinical pursuits. 

Hello! My name is Jessica, and I am a medical student at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine. I completed my undergraduate degree in Molecular & Cellular Biology at Johns Hopkins University, along with a minor in Entrepreneurship & Management. At Hopkins, I played on the varsity tennis team, served as a peer tutor, and volunteered at the JHH Sickle Cell Infusion Center. After graduating from college, I took on a full-time position at the Sickle Cell Infusion Center as a clinical research coordinator. I stayed in this role for one gap year, where I ran the largest registry of sickle cell disease patients in the United States, helping to characterize disparities faced in health outcomes and access to care. Since starting medical school, I have become heavily involved in cervical cancer research, volunteering at the Chinese Hospital in downtown San Francisco, and advocating for vulnerable populations. As a first-generation medical student, I understand how overwhelming the application process is and how vital near-peer guidance can be. I’ve helped several applicants through their application writing and interview process, who will all be matriculating to medical school this upcoming fall. I look forward to helping you curate your own story, put your best foot forward, and pursue your dream career!

Great Medical School Personal Statement Examples (2024-2025) Insider’s Guide

A physician and former medical school admissions officer teaches you how to write your medical school personal statement, step by step. Read several full-length medical school personal statement examples for inspiration.

In this article, a former medical school admissions officer explains exactly how to write a stand-out medical school personal statement!

Our goal is to empower you to write a medical school personal statement that reflects your individuality, truest aspirations and genuine motivations.

This guide also includes:

• Real life medical school personal statement examples
• Medical school personal statement inventory template and outline exercise
• AMCAS, TMDSAS, and AACOMAS personal statement prompts
• Advanced strategies to ensure you address everything admissions committees want to know
• The secret to writing a great medical school personal statement

So, if you want your medical school personal statement to earn more more medical school interviews, you will love this informative guide.

Let’s dive right in.

Table of Contents

Medical School Personal Statement Fundamentals

If you are getting ready to write your medical school personal statement for the 2024-2025 application year, you may already know that almost 60% of medical school applicants are not accepted every year . You have most likely also completed all of your medical school requirements and have scoured the internet for worthy medical school personal statement examples and guidance.

You know the medical school personal statement offers a crucial opportunity to show medical schools who you are beyond your GPA and MCAT score .

It provides an opportunity to express who you are as an individual, the major influences and background that have shaped your interests and values, what inspired you to pursue medicine, and what kind of a physician you envision yourself becoming.

However, with so much information online, you are not sure who to trust. We are happy you have found us!

Because the vast majority of people offering guidance are not former admissions officers or doctors , you must be careful when searching online.

We are real medical school admissions insiders and know what goes on behind closed doors and how to ensure your medical school personal statement has broad appeal while highlighting your most crucial accomplishments, perspectives, and insights.

With tight limits on space, it can be tough trying to decide what to include in your medical school personal statement to make sure you stand out. You must think strategically about how you want to present your personal “big picture” while showing you possess the preprofessional competencies med schools are seeking.

When a medical school admissions reviewer finishes reading your medical school personal statement, ask yourself:

• What are the most important things you want that person to remember about you?
• Does your medical school personal statement sum up your personality, interests, and talents?
• Does your medical school personal statement sound as if it’s written from the heart?

It’s pretty obvious to most admissions reviewers when applicants are trying too hard to impress them. Being authentic and upfront about who you are is the best way to be a memorable applicant.

The Biggest Medical School Personal Statement Mistakes

The most common medical school personal statement mistake we see students make is that they write about:

• What they have accomplished
• How they have accomplished it

By including details on what you have accomplished and how, you will make yourself sound like every other medical school applicant. 

Most medical school applicants are involved in similar activities: research, clinical work, service, and social justice work. 

To stand out, you must write from the heart making it clear you haven’t marched through your premedical years and checking boxes.

We also strongly discourage applicants from using ChatGPT or any AI bot to write their medical school personal statement. Writing in your own voice is essential and using anything automated will undermine success.

The Medical School Personal Statement Secret

MedEdits students stand out in the medical school personal statement because in their personal statements they address:

WHY they have accomplished what they have.

In other words, they write in more detail about their passions, interests, and what is genuinely important to them. 

It sounds simple, we know, but by writing in a natural way, really zeroing in on WHY YOU DO WHAT YOU DO, you will appeal to a wide variety of people in a humanistic way. 

MedEdits students have done extremely well in the most recent medical school admissions cycle. Many of these applicants have below average “stats” for the medical schools from which they are receiving interviews and acceptances.

Why? How is that possible? They all have a few things in common:

• They write a narrative that is authentic and distinctive to them.
• They write a medical school personal statement with broad appeal (many different types of people will be evaluating your application; most are not physicians).
• They don’t try too hard to impress; instead they write about the most impactful experiences they have had on their path to medical school.
• They demonstrate they are humble, intellectual, compassionate, and committed to a career in medicine all at the same time.

Keep reading for a step by step approach to write your medical school personal statement.

“After sitting on a medical school admissions committee for many years, I can tell you, think strategically about how you want to present your personal “big picture.” We want to know who you are as a human being.”

As physicians, former medical school faculty, and medical school admissions committee members, this article will offer a step by step guide to simplify the medical school personal statement brainstorming and writing process.

By following the proven strategies outlined in this article, you will be and to write a personal statement that will earn you more medical school interviews . This proven approach has helped hundreds of medical school applicants get in to medical school the first time they apply!

Learn the 2024-2025 Medical School Personal Statement Prompts ( AMCAS , TMDSAS , AACOMAS )

The personal statement is the major essay portion of your primary application process. In it, you should describe yourself and your background, as well as any important early exposures to medicine, how and why medicine first piqued your interest, what you have done as a pre med, your personal experiences, and how you became increasingly fascinated with it. It’s also key to explain why medicine is the right career for you, in terms of both personal and intellectual fulfillment, and to show your commitment has continued to deepen as you learned more about the field.

The personal statement also offers you the opportunity to express who you are outside of medicine. What are your other interests? Where did you grow up? What did you enjoy about college? Figuring out what aspects of your background to highlight is important since this is one of your only chances to express to the med school admissions committee before your interview what is important to you and why.

However, it is important to consider the actual personal statement prompt for each system through which you will apply, AMCAS, AACOMAS, and TMDSAS, since each is slightly different.

Getting into a medical school has never been more competitive. Let the experts at MedEdits help you with your medical school application materials. We’ve worked with more than 5,000 students and 94% have been admitted to medical school.

Need help with your Personal Statement?

Schedule a free 15 Minute Consultation with a MedEdits expert.

2024 AMCAS Personal Statement Prompt

The AMCAS personal statement instructions are as follows:

Use the Personal Comments Essay as an opportunity to distinguish yourself from other applicants. Consider and write your Personal Comments Essay carefully; many admissions committees place significant weight on the essay. Here are some questions that you may want to consider while writing the essay:

• Why have you selected the field of medicine?
• What motivates you to learn more about medicine?
• What do you want medical schools to know about you that hasn’t been disclosed in other sections of the application?

In addition, you may wish to include information such as:

• Unique hardships, challenges, or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits
• Comments on significant fluctuations in your academic record that are not explained elsewhere in your application

As you can see, these prompts are not vague; there are fundamental questions that admissions committees want you to answer when writing your personal statement. While the content of your statement should be focused on medicine, answering the open ended third question is a bit trickier.

The AMCAS personal statement length is 5,300 characters with spaces maximum.

2024 TMDSAS Personal Statement Prompt

The TMDSAS personal statement is one of the most important pieces of your medical school application.

The TMDSAS personal statement prompt is as follows:

Explain your motivation to seek a career in medicine. Be sure to include the value of your experiences that prepare you to be a physician.

This TMDSAS prompt is very similar to the AMCAS personal statement prompt. The TMDSAS personal statement length is 5,000 characters with spaces whereas the AMCAS personal statement length is 5,300 characters with spaces. Most students use the same essay (with very minor modifications, if necessary) for both application systems.

You’ve been working hard on your med school application, reading medical school personal statement examples, editing, revising, editing and revising.  Make sure you know where you’re sending your personal statement and application.  Watch this important medical school admissions statistics video.

2024 AACOMAS Personal Statement Prompt

The AACOMAS personal statement is for osteopathic medical schools specifically. As with the AMCAS statement, you need to lay out your journey to medicine as chronologically as possible in 5,300 characters with spaces or less. So you essentially have the same story map as for an AMCAS statement. Most important, you must show you are interested in osteopathy specifically. Therefore, when trying to decide what to include or leave out, prioritize any osteopathy experiences you have had, or those that are in line with the osteopathic philosophy of the mind-body connection, the body as self-healing, and other tenets.

Medical School Application Timeline and When to Write your Personal Statement

If you’re applying to both allopathic and osteopathic schools, you can most likely use the same medical school personal statement for both AMCAS and AACOMAS. In fact, this is why AACOMAS changed the personal statement length to match the AMCAS length several years ago.

Most medical school personal statements can be used for AMCAS and AACOMAS.

Know the Required Medical School Personal Statement Length

Below are the medical schools personal statement length limits for each application system. As you can see, they are all very similar. When you start brainstorming and writing your personal statement, keep these limits in mind.

AMCAS Personal Statement Length : 5,300 characters with spaces.

As per the AAMC website :   “The available space for this essay is 5,300 characters (spaces are counted as characters), or approximately one page. You will receive an error message if you exceed the available space.”

AACOMAS Personal Statement Length : 5,300 characters with spaces

TMDSAS Personal Statement Length : 5,000 characters with spaces

As per the TMDSAS Website (Page 36): “The personal essay asks you to explain your motivation to seek a career in medicine. You are asked to include the value of your experiences that prepare you to be a physician. The essay is limited to 5000 characters, including spaces.”

Demonstrate Required Preprofessional Competencies

Next, your want to be aware of the nine preprofessional core competencies as outlined by the Association of American Medical Colleges . Medical school admissions committees want to see, as evidenced by your medical school personal statement and application, that you possess these qualities and characteristics. Now, don’t worry, medical school admissions committees don’t expect you to demonstrate all of them, but, you should demonstrate some.

• Service Orientation
• Social Skills
• Cultural Competence
• Oral Communication
• Ethical Responsibility to Self and Others
• Reliability and Dependability
• Resilience and Adaptability
• Capacity for Improvement

In your personal statement, you might be able to also demonstrate the four thinking and reasoning competencies:

• Critical Thinking
• Quantitative Reasoning
• Written Communication
• Scientific Inquiry

So, let’s think about how to address the personal statement prompts in a slightly different way while ensuring you demonstrate the preprofessional competencies. When writing your personal statement, be sure it answers the four questions that follow and you will “hit” most of the core competencies listed above.

1. What have you done that supports your interest in becoming a doctor?

I always advise applicants to practice “evidence based admissions.” The reader of your essay wants to see the “evidence” that you have done what is necessary to understand the practice of medicine. This includes clinical exposure, research, and community service, among other activities.

2. Why do you want to be a doctor?

This may seem pretty basic – and it is – but admissions officers need to know WHY you want to practice medicine. Many applicants make the mistake of simply listing what they have done without offering insights about those experiences that answer the question, “Why medicine?” Your reasons for wanting to be a doctor may overlap with those of other applicants. This is okay because the experiences in which you participated, the stories you can tell about those experiences, and the wisdom you gained are completely distinct—because they are only yours. 

“In admissions committee meetings we were always interested in WHY you wanted to earn a medical degree and how you would contribute to the medical school community.”

Medical school admissions committees want to know that you have explored your interest deeply and that you can reflect on the significance of these clinical experiences and volunteer work. But writing only that you “want to help people” does not support a sincere desire to become a physician; you must indicate why the medical profession in particular—rather than social work, teaching, or another “helping” profession—is your goal. 

3. How have your experiences influenced you?

It is important to show how your experiences are linked and how they have influenced you. How did your experiences motivate you? How did they affect what else you did in your life? How did your experiences shape your future goals? Medical school admissions committees like to see a sensible progression of involvements. While not every activity needs to be logically “connected” with another, the evolution of your interests and how your experiences have nurtured your future goals and ambitions show that you are motivated and committed.

4. Who are you as a person? What are your values and ideals?

Medical school admissions committees want to know about you as an individual beyond your interests in medicine, too. This is where answering that third open ended question in the prompt becomes so important. What was interesting about your background, youth, and home life? What did you enjoy most about college? Do you have any distinctive passions or interests? They want to be convinced that you are a good person beyond your experiences. Write about those topics that are unlikely to appear elsewhere in your statement that will offer depth and interest to your work and illustrate the qualities and characteristics you possess.

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Complete Your Personal Inventory and Outline (Example Below)

The bulk of your essay should be about your most valuable experiences, personal, academic, scholarly, clinical, academic and extracurricular activities that have impacted your path to medical school and through which you have learned about the practice of medicine. The best personal statements cover several topics and are not narrow in scope. Why is this important? Many different people with a variety of backgrounds, interests, and ideas of what makes a great medical student will be reading your essay. You want to make sure you essay has broad appeal.

The following exercise will help you to determine what experiences you should highlight in your personal statement. 

When composing your personal statement, keep in mind that you are writing, in effect, a “story” of how you arrived at this point in your life. But, unlike a “story” in the creative sense, yours must also offer convincing evidence for your decision to apply to medical school. Before starting your personal statement, create an experience- based personal inventory:

• Write down a list of the most important experiences in your life and your development. The list should be all inclusive and comprise those experiences that had the most impact on you. Put the list, which should consist of personal, extracurricular, and academic events, in chronological order.
• From this list, determine which experiences you consider the most important in helping you decide to pursue a career in medicine. This “experience oriented” approach will allow you to determine which experiences best illustrate the personal competencies admissions committees look for in your written documents. Remember that you must provide evidence for your interest in medicine and for most of the personal qualities and characteristics that medical school admissions committees want to see.
• After making your list, think about why each “most important” experience was influential and write that down. What did you observe? What did you learn? What insights did you gain? How  did the experience influence your path and choices?
• Then think of a story or illustration for why each experience was important.
• After doing this exercise, evaluate each experience for its significance and influence and for its “story” value. Choose to write about those experiences that not only were influential but that also will provide interesting reading, keeping in mind that  your goal is to weave the pertinent experiences together into a compelling story. In making your choices, think about how you will link each experience and transition from one topic to the next.
• Decide which of your listed experiences you will use for your introduction first (see below for more about your introduction). Then decide which experiences you will include in the body of your personal statement, create a general outline, and get writing!

Remember, you will also have your work and activities entries and your secondary applications to write in more detail about your experiences. Therefore, don’t feel you must pack everything in to your statement!

Craft a Compelling Personal Statement Introduction and Body

You hear conflicting advice about application essays. Some tell you not to open with a story. Others tell you to always begin with a story. Regardless of the advice you receive, be sure to do three things:

• Be true to yourself. Everyone will have an opinion regarding what you should and should not write. Follow your own instincts. Your personal statement should be a reflection of you, and only you.
• Start your personal statement with something catchy.  Think about the list of potential topics above.
• Don’t rush your work. Composing thoughtful documents takes time and you don’t want your writing and ideas to be sloppy and underdeveloped.

Most important is to begin with something that engages your reader. A narrative, a “story,” an anecdote written in the first or third person, is ideal. Whatever your approach, your first paragraph must grab your reader’s attention and motivate him to want to continue reading. I encourage applicants to start their personal statement by describing an experience that was especially influential in setting them on their path to medical school. This can be a personal or scholarly experience or an extracurricular one. Remember to avoid clichés and quotes and to be honest and authentic in your writing. Don’t try to be someone who you are not by trying to imitate personal statement examples you have read online or “tell them what you think they want to hear”; consistency is key and your interviewer is going to make sure that you are who you say you are!

When deciding what experiences to include in the body of your personal statement, go back to your personal inventory and identify those experiences that have been the most influential in your personal path and your path to medical school. Keep in mind that the reader wants to have an idea of who you are as a human being so don’t write your personal statement as a glorified resume. Include some information about your background and personal experiences that can give a picture of who you are as a person outside of the classroom or laboratory.

Ideally, you should choose two or three experiences to highlight in the body of your personal statement. You don’t want to write about all of your accomplishments; that is what your application entries are for!

Write Your Personal Statement Conclusion

In your conclusion, it is customary to “go full circle” by coming back to the topic—or anecdote—you introduced in the introduction, but this is not a must. Summarize why you want to be a doctor and address what you hope to achieve and your goals for medical school. Write a conclusion that is compelling and will leave the reader wanting to meet you.

Complete Personal Statement Checklist

When reading your medical school personal statement be sure it:

Shows insight and introspection

The best medical school personal statements tell a great deal about what you have learned through your experiences and the insights you have gained.

You want to tell your story by highlighting those experiences that have been the most influential on your path to medical school and to give a clear sense of chronology. You want your statement always to be logical and never to confuse your reader.

Is interesting and engaging

The best personal statements engage the reader. This doesn’t mean you must use big words or be a literary prize winner. Write in your own language and voice, but really think about your journey to medical school and the most intriguing experiences you have had.

Gives the reader a mental image of who you are

You want the reader to be able to envision you as a caregiver and a medical professional. You want to convey that you would be a compassionate provider at the bedside – someone who could cope well with crisis and adversity.

Illustrates your passion for, and commitment to, medicine

Your reader must be convinced that you are excited about and committed to a career in medicine!

Above all, your personal statement should be about you. Explain to your reader what you have done and why you want to be a doctor with insight, compassion, and understanding.

Medical School Personal Statement Myths

Also keep in mind some common myths about personal statements that I hear quite often:

My personal statement must have a theme.

Not true. The vast majority of personal statements do not have themes. In fact, most are somewhat autobiographical and are just as interesting as those statements that are woven around a “theme.” It is only the very talented writer who can creatively write a personal statement around a theme, and this approach often backfires since the applicant fails to answer the three questions above.

My personal statement must be no longer than one page.

Not true. This advice is antiquated and dates back to the days of the written application when admissions committees flipped through pages. If your personal statement is interesting and compelling, it is fine to use the entire allotted space. The application systems have incorporated limits for exactly this reason! Many students, depending on their unique circumstances, can actually undermine their success by limiting their personal statement to a page. That said, never max out a space just for the sake of doing so. Quality writing and perspectives are preferable to quantity.

My personal statement should not describe patient encounters or my personal medical experiences.

Not true. Again, the actual topics on which you focus in your personal statement are less important than the understanding you gained from those experiences. I have successful clients who have written extremely powerful and compelling personal statements that included information about clinical encounters – both personal and professional. Write about whichever experiences were the most important on your path to medicine. It’s always best, however, to avoid spending too much space on childhood and high school activities. Focus instead on those that are more current.

In my personal statement I need to sell myself.

Not exactly true. You never want to boast in your personal statement. Let your experiences, insights, and observations speak for themselves. You want your reader to draw the conclusion – on his or her own – that you have the qualities and characteristics the medical school seeks. Never tell what qualities and characteristics you possess; let readers draw these conclusions on their own based on what you write.

Medical School Personal Statement Examples and Analysis for Inspiration

Below are examples of actual medical school personal statements. You can also likely find medical school personal statements on Reddit.

AMCAS Medical School Personal Statement Example and Analysis #1 with Personal Inventory  

We will use Amy to illustrate the general process of writing an application to medical school, along with providing the resulting documents. Amy will first list those experiences, personal, extracurricular, and scholarly, that have been most influential in two areas: her life in general and her path to medical school. She will put this personal inventory in chronologic order for use in composing her personal statement.

She will then select those experiences that were the most significant to her and will reflect and think about why they were important. For her application entries, Amy will write about each experience, including those that she considers influential in her life but not in her choice of medicine, in her application entries. Experiences that Amy will not write about in her activity entries or her personal statement are those that she does not consider most influential in either her life or in her choice of medicine.

Amy’s personal inventory (from oldest to most recent)

• Going with my mom to work. She is a surgeon — I was very curious about what she did. I was intrigued by the relationships she had with patients and how much they valued her efforts. I also loved seeing her as “a doctor” since, to me, she was just “mom.”
• I loved biology in high school. I started to think seriously about medicine then. It was during high school that I became fascinated with biology and how the human body worked. I would say that was when I thought, “Hmm, maybe I should be a doctor.”
• Grandmother’s death, senior year of high school. My grandmother’s death was tragic. It was the first time I had ever seen someone close to me suffer. It was one of the most devastating experiences in my life.
• Global Health Trip to Guatemala my freshman year of college. I realized after going to Guatemala that I had always taken my access to health care for granted. Here I saw children who didn’t have basic health care. This made me want to become a physician so I could give more to people like those I met in Guatemala.
• Sorority involvement. Even though sorority life might seem trivial, I loved it. I learned to work with different types of people and gained some really valuable leadership experience.
• Poor grades in college science classes. I still regret that I did badly in my science classes. I think I was immature and was also too involved in other activities and didn’t have the focus I needed to do well. I had a 3.4 undergraduate GPA.
• Teaching and tutoring Jose, a child from Honduras. In a way, meeting Jose in a college tutoring program brought my Guatemala experience to my home. Jose struggled academically, and his parents were immigrants and spoke only Spanish, so they had their own challenges. I tried to help Jose as much as I could. I saw that because he lacked resources, he was at a tremendous disadvantage.
• Volunteering at Excellent Medical Center. Shadowing physicians at the medical center gave me a really broad view of medicine. I learned about different specialties, met many different patients, and saw both great and not-so-great physician role models. Counselor at Ronald McDonald House. Working with sick kids made me appreciate my health. I tried to make them happy and was so impressed with their resilience. It made me realize that good health is everything.
• Oncology research. Understanding what happens behind the scenes in research was fascinating. Not only did I gain some valuable research experience, but I learned how research is done.
• Peer health counselor. Communicating with my peers about really important medical tests gave me an idea of the tremendous responsibility that doctors have. I also learned that it is important to be sensitive, to listen, and to be open-minded when working with others.
• Clinical Summer Program. This gave me an entirely new view of medicine. I worked with the forensics department, and visiting scenes of deaths was entirely new to me. This experience added a completely new dimension to my understanding of medicine and how illness and death affect loved ones.
• Emergency department internship. Here I learned so much about how things worked in the hospital. I realized how important it was that people who worked in the clinical department were involved in creating hospital policies. This made me understand, in practical terms, how an MPH would give me the foundation to make even more change in the future.
• Master’s in public health. I decided to get an MPH for two reasons. First of all, I knew my undergraduate science GPA was an issue so I figured that graduate level courses in which I performed well would boost my record. I don’t think I will write this on my application, but I also thought the degree would give me other skills if I didn’t get into medical school, and I knew it would also give me something on which I could build during medical school and in my career since I was interested in policy work.

As you can see from Amy’s personal inventory list, she has many accomplishments that are important to her and influenced her path. The most influential personal experience that motivated her to practice medicine was her mother’s career as a practicing physician, but Amy was also motivated by watching her mother’s career evolve. Even though the death of her grandmother was devastating for Amy, she did not consider this experience especially influential in her choice to attend medical school so she didn’t write about it in her personal statement.

Amy wrote an experience-based personal statement, rich with anecdotes and detailed descriptions, to illustrate the evolution of her interest in medicine and how this motivated her to also earn a master’s in public health.

Amy’s Medical School Personal Statement Example:

She was sprawled across the floor of her apartment. Scattered trash, decaying food, alcohol bottles, medication vials, and cigarette butts covered the floor. I had just graduated from college, and this was my first day on rotation with the forensic pathology department as a Summer Scholar, one of my most valuable activities on the path to medical school. As the coroner deputy scanned the scene for clues to what caused this woman’s death, I saw her distraught husband. I did not know what to say other than “I am so sorry.” I listened intently as he repeated the same stories about his wife and his dismay that he never got to say goodbye. The next day, alongside the coroner as he performed the autopsy, I could not stop thinking about the grieving man.

Discerning a cause of death was not something I had previously associated with the practice of medicine. As a child, I often spent Saturday mornings with my mother, a surgeon, as she rounded on patients. I witnessed the results of her actions, as she provided her patients a renewed chance at life. I grew to honor and respect my mother’s profession. Witnessing the immense gratitude of her patients and their families, I quickly came to admire the impact she was able to make in the lives of her patients and their loved ones.

I knew I wanted to pursue a career in medicine as my mother had, and throughout high school and college I sought out clinical, research, and volunteer opportunities to gain a deeper understanding of medicine. After volunteering with cancer survivors at Camp Ronald McDonald, I was inspired to further understand this disease. Through my oncology research, I learned about therapeutic processes for treatment development. Further, following my experience administering HIV tests, I completed research on point-of-care HIV testing, to be instituted throughout 26 hospitals and clinics. I realized that research often served as a basis for change in policy and medical practice and sought out opportunities to learn more about both.

All of my medically related experiences demonstrated that people who were ‘behind the scenes’ and had limited or no clinical background made many of the decisions in health care. Witnessing the evolution of my mother’s career further underscored the impact of policy change on the practice of medicine. In particular, the limits legislation imposed on the care she could provide influenced my perspective and future goals. Patients whom my mother had successfully treated for more than a decade, and with whom she had long-standing, trusting relationships, were no longer able to see her, because of policy coverage changes. Some patients, frustrated by these limitations, simply stopped seeking the care they needed. As a senior in college, I wanted to understand how policy transformations came about and gain the tools I would need to help effect administrative and policy changes in the future as a physician. It was with this goal in mind that I decided to complete a master’s in public health program before applying to medical school.

As an MPH candidate, I am gaining insight into the theories and practices behind the complex interconnections of the healthcare system; I am learning about economics, operations, management, ethics, policy, finance, and technology and how these entities converge to impact delivery of care. A holistic understanding of this diverse, highly competitive, market-driven system will allow me, as a clinician, to find solutions to policy, public health, and administration issues. I believe that change can be more effective if those who actually practice medicine also decide where improvements need to be made.

For example, as the sole intern for the emergency department at County Medical Center, I worked to increase efficiency in the ED by evaluating and mapping patient flow. I tracked patients from point of entry to point of discharge and found that the discharge process took up nearly 35% of patients’ time. By analyzing the reasons for this situation, in collaboration with nurses and physicians who worked in the ED and had an intimate understanding of what took place in the clinical area, I was able to make practical recommendations to decrease throughput time. The medical center has already implemented these suggestions, resulting in decreased length of stays. This example illustrates the benefit of having clinicians who work ‘behind the scenes’ establish policies and procedures, impacting operational change and improving patient care. I will also apply what I have learned through this project as the business development intern at Another Local Medical Center this summer, where I will assist in strategic planning, financial analysis, and program reviews for various clinical departments.

Through my mother’s career and my own medical experiences, I have become aware of the need for clinician administrators and policymakers. My primary goal as a physician will be to care for patients, but with the knowledge and experience I have gained through my MPH, I also hope to effect positive public policy and administrative changes.

What’s Good About Amy’s Medical School Personal Statement:  

Paragraphs 1 and 2: Amy started her personal statement by illustrating a powerful experience she had when she realized that medical caregivers often feel impotent, and how this contrasted with her understanding of medicine as a little girl going with her mother to work. Recognition of this intense contrast also highlights Amy’s maturity.

Paragraph 3: Amy then “lists” a few experiences that were important to her.

Paragraph 4: Amy describes the commonality in some of her experiences and how her observations were substantiated by watching the evolution of her mother’s practice. She then explains how this motivated her to earn an MPH so she could create change more effectively as a physician than as a layman.

Paragraph 5: Amy then explains how her graduate degree is helping her to better understand the “issues in medicine” that she observed.

Paragraph 6: Amy then describes one exceptional accomplishment she had that highlights what she has learned and how she has applied it.

Paragraph 7: Finally, Amy effectively concludes her personal statement and summarizes the major topics addressed in her essay.

As you can see, Amy’s statement has excellent flow, is captivating and unusual, and illustrates her understanding of, and commitment to, medicine. She also exhibits, throughout her application entries and statement, the personal competencies, characteristics, and qualities that medical school admissions officers are seeking. Her application also has broad appeal; reviewers who are focused on research, cultural awareness, working with the underserved, health administration and policy, teaching, or clinical medicine would all find it of interest.

med school personal statement examples

Osteopathic Medical School Personal Statement Example and Analysis #2

Medical School Personal Statement Example Background: This is a nontraditional applicant who applied to osteopathic medical schools. With a 500 and a 504 on the MCAT , he needed to showcase how his former career and what he learned through his work made him an asset. He also needed to convey why osteopathic medicine was an ideal fit for him. The student does an excellent job illustrating his commitment to medicine and explaining why and how he made the well-informed decision to leave his former career to pursue a career in osteopathic medicine.

What’s Good About It: A nontraditional student with a former career, this applicant does a great job outlining how and why he decided to pursue a career in medicine. Clearly dedicated to service, he also does a great job making it clear he is a good fit for osteopathic medical school and understands this distinctions of osteopathic practice.. 

Working as a police officer, one comes to expect the unexpected, but sometimes, when the unexpected happens, one can’t help but be surprised. In November 20XX, I had been a police officer for two years when my partner and I happened to be nearby when a man had a cardiac emergency in Einstein Bagels. Entering the restaurant, I was caught off guard by the lifeless figure on the floor, surrounded by spilled food. Time paused as my partner and I began performing CPR, and my heart raced as I watched color return to the man’s pale face.

Luckily, paramedics arrived within minutes to transport him to a local hospital. Later, I watched as the family thanked the doctors who gave their loved one a renewed chance at life. That day, in the “unexpected,” I confirmed that I wanted to become a physician, something that had attracted me since childhood.

I have always been enthralled by the science of medicine and eager to help those in need but, due to life events, my path to achieving this dream has been long. My journey began following high school when I joined the U.S. Army. I was immature and needed structure, and I knew the military was an opportunity to pursue my medical ambitions. I trained as a combat medic and requested work in an emergency room of an army hospital. At the hospital, I started IVs, ran EKGs, collected vital signs, and assisted with codes. I loved every minute as I was directly involved in patient care and observed physicians methodically investigating their patients’ signs and symptoms until they reached a diagnosis. Even when dealing with difficult patients, the physicians I worked with maintained composure, showing patience and understanding while educating patients about their diseases. I observed physicians not only as clinicians but also as teachers. As a medic, I learned that I loved working with patients and being part of the healthcare team, and I gained an understanding of acute care and hospital operations.

Following my discharge in 20XX, I transferred to an army reserve hospital and continued as a combat medic until 20XX. Working as a medic at several hospitals and clinics in the area, I was exposed to osteopathic medicine and the whole body approach to patient care. I was influenced by the D.O.s’ hands-on treatment and their use of manipulative medicine as a form of therapy. I learned that the body cannot function properly if there is dysfunction in the musculoskeletal system.

In 20XX, I became a police officer to support myself as I finished my undergraduate degree and premed courses. While working the streets, I continued my patient care experiences by being the first to care for victims of gunshot wounds, stab wounds, car accidents, and other medical emergencies. In addition, I investigated many unknown causes of death with the medical examiner’s office. I often found signs of drug and alcohol abuse and learned the dangers and power of addiction. In 20XX, I finished my undergraduate degree in education and in 20XX, I completed my premed courses.

Wanting to learn more about primary care medicine, in 20XX I volunteered at a community health clinic that treats underserved populations. Shadowing a family physician, I learned about the physical exam as I looked into ears and listened to the hearts and lungs of patients with her guidance. I paid close attention as she expressed the need for more PCPs and the important roles they play in preventing disease and reducing ER visits by treating and educating patients early in the disease process. This was evident as numerous patients were treated for high cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, and diabetes, all conditions that can be resolved or improved by lifestyle changes. I learned that these changes are not always easy for many in underserved populations as healthier food is often more expensive and sometimes money for prescriptions is not available. This experience opened my eyes to the challenges of being a physician in an underserved area.

The idea of disease prevention stayed with me as I thought about the man who needed CPR. Could early detection and education about heart disease have prevented his “unexpected” cardiac event? My experiences in health care and law enforcement have confirmed my desire to be an osteopathic physician and to treat the patients of the local area. I want to eliminate as many medical surprises as I can.

Texas Medical School Personal Statement Example and Analysis #3

Medical School Personal Statement Example Background: This applicant, who grew up with modest means, should be an inspiration to us all. Rather than allowing limited resources to stand in his way, he took advantage of everything that was available to him. He commuted to college from home and had a part-time job so he was stretched thin, and his initial college performance suffered. However, he worked hard and his grades improved. Most medical school admissions committees seek out applicants like this because, by overcoming adversity and succeeding with limited resources, they demonstrate exceptional perseverance, maturity, and dedication. His accomplishments are, by themselves, impressive and he does an outstanding job of detailing his path, challenges, and commitment to medicine. He received multiple acceptances to top medical schools and was offered scholarships.

What’s Good About It: This student does a great job opening his personal statement with a beautifully written introduction that immediately takes the reader to Central America. He then explains his path, why he did poorly early in college, and goes on to discuss his academic interests and pursuits. He is also clearly invested in research and articulates that he is intellectually curious, motivated, hard working, compassionate and committed to a career in medicine by explaining his experiences using interesting language and details. This is an intriguing statement that makes clear the applicant is worthy of an interview invitation. Finally, the student expresses his interest in attending medical school in Texas.

They were learning the basics of carpentry and agriculture. The air was muggy and hot, but these young boys seemed unaffected, though I and my fellow college students sweated and often complained. As time passed, I started to have a greater appreciation for the challenges these boys faced. These orphans, whom I met and trained in rural Central America as a member of The Project, had little. They dreamed of using these basic skills to earn a living wage. Abandoned by their families, they knew this was their only opportunity to re-enter society as self- sufficient individuals. I stood by them in the fields and tutored them after class. And while I tried my best to instill in them a strong work ethic, it was the boys who instilled in me a desire to help those in need. They gave me a new perspective on my decision to become a doctor.

I don’t know exactly when I decided to become a physician; I have had this goal for a long time. I grew up in the inner city of A City, in Texas and attended magnet schools. My family knew little about higher education, and I learned to seek out my own opportunities and advice. I attended The University with the goal of gaining admission to medical school. When I started college, I lacked the maturity to focus on academics and performed poorly. Then I traveled to Central America. Since I was one of the few students who spoke Spanish, many of the boys felt comfortable talking with me. They saw me as a role model.

The boys worked hard so that they could learn trades that would help them to be productive members of society. It was then I realized that my grandparents, who immigrated to the US so I would have access to greater opportunities, had done the same. I felt like I was wasting what they had sacrificed for me. When I returned to University in the fall, I made academics my priority and committed myself to learn more about medicine .

Through my major in neuroscience, I strengthened my understanding of how we perceive and experience life. In systems neurobiology, I learned the physiology of the nervous system. Teaching everything from basic neural circuits to complex sensory pathways, Professor X provided me with the knowledge necessary to conduct research in Parkinson’s disease. My research focused on the ability of antioxidants to prevent the onset of Parkinson’s, and while my project was only a pilot study at the time, Professor X encouraged me to present it at the National Research Conference. During my senior year, I developed the study into a formal research project, recruiting the help of professors of statistics and biochemistry.

Working at the School of Medicine reinforced my analytical skills. I spent my summer in the department of emergency medicine, working with the department chair, Dr. Excellent. Through Dr. Excellent’s mentorship, I participated in a retrospective study analyzing patient charts to determine the efficacy of D-dimer assays in predicting blood clots. The direct clinical relevance of my research strengthened my commitment and motivated my decision to seek out more clinical research opportunities.

A growing awareness of the role of human compassion in healing has also influenced my choice to pursue a career in medicine. It is something no animal model or cell culture can ever duplicate or rival. Working in clinical research has allowed me to see the selflessness of many physicians and patients and their mutual desire to help others. As a research study assistant in the department of surgery, I educate and enroll patients in clinical trials. One such study examines the role of pre-operative substance administration in tumor progression. Patients enrolled in this study underwent six weeks of therapy before having the affected organ surgically excised. Observing how patients were willing to participate in this research to benefit others helped me understand the resiliency of the human spirit.

Working in clinical trials has enabled me to further explore my passion for science, while helping others. Through my undergraduate coursework and participation in volunteer groups I have had many opportunities to solidify my goal to become a physician. As I am working, I sometimes think about my second summer in Central America. I recall how one day, after I had turned countless rows of soil in scorching heat, one of the boys told me that I was a trabajador verdadero—a true worker. I paused as I realized the significance of this comment. While the boy may not have been able to articulate it, he knew I could identify with him. What the boy didn’t know, however, was that had my grandparents not decided to immigrate to the US, I would not have the great privilege of seizing opportunities in this country and writing this essay today. I look forward to the next step of my education and hope to return home to Texas where I look forward to serving the communities I call home.

Final Thoughts

Above all, and as stated in this article numerous times, your personal statement should be authentic and genuine. Write about your path and and journey to this point in your life using anecdotes and observations to intrigue the reader and illustrate what is and was important to you. Good luck!

Medical School Personal Statement Help & Consulting

If all this information has you staring at your screen like a deer in the headlights, you’re not alone. Writing a superb medical school personal statement can be a daunting task, and many applicants find it difficult to get started writing, or to express everything they want to say succinctly. That’s where MedEdits can help. You don’t have to have the best writing skills to compose a stand-out statement. From personal-statement editing alone to comprehensive packages for all your medical school application needs, we offer extensive support and expertise developed from working with thousands of successful medical school applicants. We can’t promise applying to medical school will be stress-free, but most clients tell us it’s a huge relief not to have to go it alone.

MedEdits offers personal statement consulting and editing. Our goal when working with students is to draw out what makes each student distinctive. How do we do this? We will explore your background and upbringing, interests and ideals as well as your accomplishments and activities. By helping you identify the most distinguishing aspects of who you are, you will then be able to compose an authentic and genuine personal statement in your own voice to capture the admissions committee’s attention so you are invited for a medical school interview. Our unique brainstorming methodology has helped hundreds of aspiring premeds gain acceptance to medical school.

Sample Medical School Personal Statement

Example Medical School Personal Statement

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The Medical School Personal Statement: How To Stand Out

Posted in: Applying to Medical School

Impressive GPAs and MCAT scores, research experience, physician shadowing, and meaningful volunteer work are only one part of a successful medical school application . You may meet all other medical school requirements , yet face rejection.

One thing can help you stand above the rest : A compelling personal statement.

The medical school personal statement is important because it highlights your hard work, your pre-medical school accomplishments, and why you’re a better candidate than everyone else. 

In other words: Who are you, what makes you unique, and why do you deserve a spot in our school?

We’ve helped thousands of prospective medical students increase their odds at acceptance with better personal statements. Now, we’ll show you exactly how to do it. 

Working on your personal statement? Speak with a member of our enrollment team who can walk you through the step-by-step med school application process from start to finish.

Table of contents, what’s in a great med school personal statement.

An excellent medical school personal statement should contain:

• Passion for an area of the healthcare field.
• Storytelling that captures the reader’s attention from the first sentence.
• Emotion and personality to show (not tell) admissions committee members who you are.
• A unique answer to the question, “Why do you want to be a doctor?”

A powerful personal statement shows that you are the kind of candidate who will make an exceptional physician and be a valuable asset to the school during your medical education. Additionally, it helps to distinguish your application from the many other students with similar MCAT scores and GPAs.

A weak personal statement would, in turn, have the opposite effect.

Not only does the personal statement weed out unqualified candidates, but it also serves as a foundation for many interview discussions and questions . 

Admission committee members often only have a few minutes to review an application. Personal statements provide them with the right amount of information. Since it’s possible this is the only part of your application they’ll read, it needs to be perfect .

When writing your personal statement, you’ll also want to note the AAMC core competencies that are expected of all medical professionals. Some, if not all, of these competencies should shine through in your application essay.

The AAMC premed competencies include: 

• Professional competencies:  Factors like communication skills, interpersonal skills, commitment to learning and growth, compassion, dependability, and cultural awareness and humility
• Science competencies:  Understanding of human behaviors and living systems, both of which are best demonstrated in data-driven measures like research, MCAT scores, and science GPA (in other words, not things that necessarily need to be displayed in your personal statement)
• Thinking & Reasoning competencies:  Critical thinking, reasoning, scientific inquiry, and written communication

It’s important to show passion for something specific — a group of underserved people, a type of patient, the benefit of a particular area of medicine, etc. Your passion should be evident, non-generic, and authentic. Ask yourself, “What makes a good doctor?”

It’s crucial to avoid cliches in your personal statement, like claiming you want to become a doctor “to help people.”

Dr. Renee Marinelli, Director of Advising at MedSchoolCoach, warns that certain cliches may not truly represent meaningful experiences that influenced your decision to pursue medicine.

You may have decided to become a doctor from experiencing a kind physician as a child, but that personal experience doesn’t convey genuine passion. Your enthusiasm for medicine doesn’t need to originate from a grand experience or sudden revelation.

Your interest in medicine probably developed gradually, perhaps when you fell in love with psychology during college and volunteered at nursing homes. You don’t need a lifelong dream to demonstrate passion and become an outstanding doctor.

2. Storytelling

A memorable personal statement captures the reader’s attention from the first sentence, which you can do with an interesting personal story or anecdote. Including some creativity, ingenuity, humor, and character.

Immersing the admissions committee in your personal statement allows you to show , not just tell , how your experiences have impacted your journey to medicine.

Don’t repeat the data your admissions committee can read on the rest of your application — SHOW the passions and experiences that have led you to this field using a narrative approach.

Consider the following examples of statements about a student’s volunteer experience at a food pantry:

"“Through my work at the local food pantry, I came to understand the daily battles many individuals face, and it allowed me to develop deeper empathy and compassion.” “When I saw Mr. Jones, a regular at the kitchen, struggling to maneuver his grocery cart through the door, I hustled over to assist him. My heart sunk when I saw he was wearing a new cast after having been assaulted the night prior.”

Which do you think performed better in terms of conveying personal characteristics? Your personal statement is a deep dive into one central theme, not about rehashing all of your experiences. 

3. Emotion & Personality

An engaging personal statement allows your unique personality and real emotions to shine through.

As Dr. Davietta Butty, a Northwestern School of Medicine graduate, avid writer, pediatrician, and MedSchoolCoach advisor, puts it,

“I think the best personal statements are the ones that showcase the applicant’s personality. Remember that this is your story and not anyone else’s, and you get to say it how it makes sense to you.” 

This is why storytelling is such an important part of personal statement writing. Your writing process should involve quite a bit of writing and editing to express emotion in a relatable, appropriate way.

A Note On Writing About Tragedy

One way you can show who you are is by expressing an appropriate level of emotion, particularly about challenging or tragic experiences. (But don’t worry — not everyone has a tragic backstory, and that’s perfectly fine!)

If you are discussing a tragedy, don’t go into an extended explanation of how you feel — show emotion and your personality while sticking to the plot.

Personal tragedies, such as the death of a loved one, can powerfully motivate a personal statement. In a field where life and death constantly clash, experiences with death might appear impressive qualifications; however, approach them cautiously.

Focus on the reasons behind your motivation, rather than the details of the tragedy. Explain how the experience impacted your medical career aspirations, including skill development or perspective changes.

How have you applied these new skills or perspectives? How would they contribute to your success as a medical student?

4. Why You Want To Be a Doctor

Becoming a doctor is no small feat. What journey brought you here?

Writing things like “I want to help people” or “I want to make a difference” won’t set you apart from all the other students applying for medical school .

Knowing who you want to serve, why you want to help them (in story form), and where you’d like to end up will show admissions officers that you are serious about your medical career.

After all, this career doesn’t just involve many years of post-graduate education — you need a significant motivation to see this career through. That’s what admissions committees are looking for!

Read Next: Medical School Interviews: What To Do Before, During & After  

How long is a personal statement for medical school?

Your statement is limited to:

• 5,300 characters (including spaces) on the AMCAS application ( MD programs )
• 5,000 characters on the TMDSAS (Texas MD programs)
• 5,300 characters for AACOMAS ( DO programs )

That’s roughly 500-700 words, or 3 double-spaced pages of text.

We typically suggest our students divide their personal statement into about 5 full paragraphs — an intro, 2-3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Pro tip: Do not type directly into the text box — if something goes wrong, you’ll lose all of your work. Write in another program first, then copy and paste the edited copy into the application text box.

Use a text-only word processing tool (TextEdit on Mac devices or Basic Text Editor on Windows), or type the essay into Microsoft Word or a Google Doc. Just remember to save the file as a *.rtf. This will eliminate formatting issues when you copy and paste the essay into the AMCAS box.

How To Write a Personal Statement For Medical School

Your personal statement is an opportunity to showcase your passion for medicine and your unique experiences. Be genuine, focused, and concise; your personal statement will leave a lasting impression on medical school admissions committees.

Some questions you may want to consider while writing your personal statement are:

• Why have you selected the field of medicine?
• What motivates you to learn more about medicine?
• What do you want medical schools to know about you that has yet to be disclosed in another application section?

In addition, you may wish to include information such as unique hardships, challenges, or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits. Comment on significant academic record fluctuations not explained elsewhere in your application.

With thousands of students, we’ve developed a nine-step process for how to write a personal statement that’s sure to get noticed. Follow these steps in order to uplevel your personal statement writing.

1. Choose a central theme.

Sticking to one central theme for your personal statement may sound tricky, but sticking with a central theme can give your statement more of a rhythm.

Here are a few examples to use when thinking of a central theme:

• What is an experience that challenged or changed your perspective on medicine?
• Is there a relationship with a mentor or another inspiring individual that has significantly influenced you?
• What was a challenging personal experience that you encountered?
• List unique hardships, challenges, or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits.
• What is your motivation to seek a career in medicine?

2. Choose 2-4 personal qualities to highlight.

Keep this part brief and highlight the strengths that will make you an exceptional doctor.

What sets you apart from others? What makes you unique? What are you particularly proud of about yourself that may not be explained by a good GPA or MCAT score?

Here are a few examples of quality traits great doctors possess:

• Persistence
• Reliability
• Accountability
• Good judgment under pressure
• Excellent communication skills
• Leadership skills

3. Identify 1-2 significant experiences that demonstrate these qualities.

In this section, you should include that these experiences exemplify the qualities above and outline your path to medicine.

The top experiences college admissions seek are research projects , volunteer activities, and mentorship.

Here are a few ways to narrow down what makes an experience significant:

• Which experiences left you feeling transformed (either immediately, or in retrospect)?
• Which experiences genuinely made you feel like you were making a difference or contributing in a meaningful way?
• Which experiences radically shifted your perspectives or priorities?
• Which experiences have truly made you who you are today?

Pro tip: If you’re still in your third year of pre-med and want to participate in more experiential projects that will support your future medical career, check out Global Medical Brigades . We partner with this student-led movement for better global health, and brigades are a transformative way to begin your medical career.

4. Write a compelling introduction.

Your personal statement introduction is the first thing the admissions committee will read. The first paragraph should be a catchy, attention-grabbing hook or story that grabs the reader’s attention and sets up the main point of your essay.

Check out this webinar for more examples of what makes a great introduction.

5. Use storytelling to write the body paragraphs.

Since the goal is to achieve depth rather than breadth (5,000 characters isn’t a lot!), focus on key experiences instead of discussing everything you’ve accomplished. Remember, you’ll have the Work & Activities section to share other relevant experiences.

Use the following five-step formula to elaborate on important experiences in the body paragraphs of your personal statement:

• Discuss why you pursued the experience.
• Mention how you felt during the experience.
• Describe what you accomplished and learned.
• Discuss how your experience affected you and the world around you.
• Describe how the experience influenced your decision to pursue medicine.

The best personal statements tell a story about who you are. “Show, don’t tell,” what you’ve experienced — immerse the reader in your narrative, and you’ll have a higher chance of being accepted to medical school.

6. Create an engaging conclusion.

Your goal is to make the person reading want to meet you and invite you to their school! Your conclusion should:

• Talk about your future plans.
• Define what medicine means to you.
• Reflect on your growth.
• Reiterate how you’d contribute to your school’s community and vision.

7. Use a spellchecker to proofread for basic errors.

Misusing “your” instead of “you’re” or misspelling a few important words can negatively impact how your personal statement is received. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation should be perfect on your personal statement.

Use Grammarly or a similar spellchecker to check for errors before completing your personal statement. You can also use an AI tool like ChatGPT for proofreading, although it’s more likely to make sweeping changes.

8. Edit your draft.

Editing your personal statement a few times over will benefit you in the long run. Give yourself time to write, edit, reread, and re-edit your personal statement before submitting it with your application.

You can use AI technology like ChatGPT for small edits or to help you add in information where you might feel stuck, but don’t rely too much on it.

9. Ask a few trusted people to read your draft.

Have at least one friend, family member, and at least one person who’s a medical professional review your draft. A  professor in your pre-med program would be a great person to review your draft.

Be willing to receive as much feedback as your trusted people are willing to give. Don’t get caught up in obsessing over one statement you really like if all three of your readers suggest cutting it.

If you’d like a professional eye on your personal statement, consider a personal statement editing service. Our editors are medical professionals, often who have reviewed personal statements and applications submitted to admissions committees.

We’d love to help you craft a personal statement that’s sure to stand out.

30 prompts to inspire your personal statement.

Here are 30 prompts to inspire your personal statement: 

• Describe a defining moment in your life that solidified your desire to pursue a career in medicine.
• Discuss a challenging situation you faced and how it shaped your perspective on healthcare.
• Reflect on a time when you made a meaningful impact on someone’s life through your actions or support.
• Explain your motivation for wanting to become a physician and how it has evolved over time.
• Describe a personal quality or skill that will contribute to your success as a medical professional.
• Discuss the importance of empathy and compassion in the medical profession and share a personal experience demonstrating these qualities.
• Reflect on a specific medical case or patient that inspired you and how it influenced your future goals.
• Share a story about an interaction with a mentor or role model who has inspired your path in medicine.
• Describe a time when you overcame adversity or faced a significant challenge in your journey to medical school.
• Explain how your background, culture, or upbringing has influenced your perspective on healthcare.
• Discuss a medical issue or topic you’re passionate about and why it’s important to you.
• Describe your experience working or volunteering in a healthcare setting and the lessons you’ve learned.
• Reflect on a time when you had to adapt or be resilient in a challenging situation.
• Discuss how your interest in research or innovation will contribute to your career as a physician.
• Share a personal experience that has shaped your understanding of the importance of teamwork in healthcare.
• Describe a leadership role you’ve held and how it has prepared you for a career in medicine.
• Discuss the impact of a specific medical discovery or advancement on your decision to pursue medicine.
• Reflect on your experience with a particular patient population or community and how it has influenced your perspective on healthcare.
• Share your thoughts on the role of social responsibility in the medical profession.
• Explain how your experiences with interdisciplinary collaboration have prepared you for a career in medicine.
• Describe a time when you advocated for a patient or their needs.
• Share your experience with a global health issue or project and how it has impacted your perspective on healthcare.
• Discuss your interest in a specific medical specialty and why it appeals to you.
• Reflect on a time when you encountered an ethical dilemma and how you resolved it.
• Describe an experience that demonstrates your commitment to lifelong learning and personal growth.
• Share a story about a time when you had to think critically and problem-solve in a healthcare setting.
• Discuss how your experiences with diverse populations have informed your approach to patient care.
• Describe an experience that highlights your ability to communicate effectively with others in a medical setting.
• Reflect on a time when you demonstrated your commitment to patient-centered care.
• Share your thoughts on the importance of balance and self-care in the medical profession and how you plan to maintain these practices throughout your career.

Avoid These Common Personal Statement Mistakes

Avoid these 5 common mistakes students make when writing their personal statements: 

• Clichés : “I just want to help people,” “from a young age,” “I’ve always wanted to,” and “for as long as I can remember,” are just some of the overused phrases in personal statements. Other clichés we’ve seen often include saying that you’ve wanted to be a doctor for your whole life, using overly dramatic patient anecdotes, or prideful-sounding stories about how you saved a life as a pre-med student. Eliminate clichés from your writing.
• Typos/grammatical errors: We covered this already, but the grammar in your statement should be flawless . It’s hard to catch your own typos, so use grammar checking tools like Grammarly and ask your readers to look for typographical errors or grammar problems, too.
• Name-dropping: At best, naming a prominent member of the medical community in your statement sounds braggadocious and will probably be brushed off. At worst, an adcom reader may think poorly of the person you mention and dismiss you based on the connection. If you do know a well-known and well-respected person in the medical field and worked closely with them, request a letter of recommendation instead.
• Restating your MCAT score or GPA : Every character in your personal statement counts (literally). Don’t restate information already found on your application. If your application essay is being read, an algorithm has already identified your prerequisite scores as being worthy of reviewing the rest of your application.
• Using extensive quotes from other people: This is your chance to show who you are. Quoting a philosopher or trusted advisor in these few precious characters takes away from the impact you can have. A single short quote might be okay if it’s highly relevant to the story you’re telling, but don’t go beyond that.

Should you use ChatGPT to help you write?

ChatGPT is a great AI tool to help you get your personal statement off the ground. However, since this is your personal statement, ChatGPT won’t be able to effectively write transitions or tie your personal statement together.

Only you can effectively convey what being a doctor means to you. Only you carry the experiences in your mind and heart that have compelled you to pursue this competitive profession. Don’t rely on artificial intelligence to fake those experiences — it will show, and not in a good way.

We’ve found that ChatGPT can help speed the processes of ideation , editing, and grammar-checking. If you’re not using it to emulate human experiences but just treating it as a helpful assistant, go for it! 

When should you start writing your personal statement?

Begin writing your personal statement early enough to have months of reflection and editing time before your application cycle begins. We recommend writing your personal statement as the first step when applying to medical school , starting in December or January before applications open.

As you progress, anticipate revising multiple versions of your draft. Spend time reflecting on your life experiences and aspirations.

Dr. Katzen, MedSchoolCoach Master Advisor and previous admissions committee member at GWU, recommends starting your personal statement in December/January if you plan to apply in May/June (you should!). 

This gives you plenty of time to have others review it or to get professional personal statement editing services. It also gives you time to write multiple drafts and be 100% satisfied with your final essay.

9 Personal Statement Examples That Led To Med School Acceptance

We’ve included some of our favorite medical school personal statement examples below. Each of these was written by a student who was accepted at one or more programs of their choice.

1. Embracing Diversity: Healing Through Cultural Connections

Student Accepted to Case Western SOM, Washington University SOM, University of Utah SOM, Northwestern University Feinberg SOM

With a flick and a flourish, the tongue depressor vanished, and from behind my ear suddenly appeared a coin. Growing up, my pediatrician often performed magic tricks, making going to the doctors’ feel like literal magic. I believed all healthcare facilities were equally mystifying, especially after experiencing a different type of magic in the organized chaos of the Emergency Department. Although it was no place for a six-year-old, childcare was often a challenge, and while my dad worked extra shifts in nursing school to provide for our family, I would find myself awed by the diligence and warmth of the healthcare providers.

Though I associated the hospital with feelings of comfort and care, it sometimes became a place of fear and uncertainty. One night, my two-year-old brother, Sean, began vomiting and coughing non-stop. My dad was deployed overseas, so my mother and I had no choice but to spend the night at the hospital, watching my brother slowly recover with the help of the healthcare providers. Little did I know, it would not be long before I was in the same place. Months later, I was hospitalized with pneumonia with pleural effusions, and as I struggled to breathe, I was terrified of having fluid sucked out of my chest. But each day physicians comforted me, asking how I was, taking time to reassure me that I was being taken care of, and explaining any questions related to my illness and treatment. Soon, I became excited to speak with the infectious disease doctor and residents, absorbing as much as I could to learn more about different illnesses.

In addition to conventional medical settings, I also came to view the magic of healing through other lenses. Growing up, Native American traditions were an important aspect of my life as my father had been actively involved with native spirituality, connecting back to his Algonquin heritage. We often attended Wi-wanyang-wa-c’i-pi ceremonies or Sun Dances, for healing through prayer and individuals making personal sacrifices for their community. Although I never sun danced myself, I spent hours in inipis, chewing on osha root, finding my own healing through songs. In addition to my father’s heritage, healing came from the curanderismo traditions of Peru, the home of my mother, who came from a long line of healers, which involved herbal remedies and ceremonies in the healing of the mind, body, energy and soul. I can still see my mother preparing mixtures of oils, herbs, and incense while performing healing rituals. The compassion and care she put into healing paralleled the Emergency Department healthcare providers.

Through the influence of these early life experiences, I decided to pursue a career in the health sciences. Shortly after starting college, I entered a difficult time in my life as I struggled with health and personal challenges. I suddenly felt weak and tired most days with aches all over my body. Soon, depression set in. I eventually visited a doctor, and through a series of tests, we discovered I had hypothyroidism. During this time, I also began dealing with an unprocessed childhood trauma. I decided to take time off school, and with thyroid replacement hormones and therapy, I slowly began to recover. But I still had ways to go, and due to financial challenges, I made the difficult decision to continue delaying my education and found work managing a donut shop. Unbeknownst to me, this experience would lead to significant personal growth by working with people from all walks of life and allowing me time for self-reflection. I found myself continuously reflecting on the experiences in the hospital that defined my childhood and the unmatched admiration I had for healthcare workers. With my renewed interest in medicine, I enrolled in classes to get my AEMT license to get more experience in the medical field.

As my health improved, I excelled in my classes, and after craving the connections of working with others, I became a medical assistant. In this position, I met “Marco,” a patient who came from Mexico for treatment. Though I spoke Spanish while growing up, I had little experience as a medical interpreter. However, I took the opportunity to speak with him to learn his story. Afterwards, he became more comfortable, and I helped walk him through the consultation process, interpreting the physician’s words and Marco’s questions. This moment showed me the power of connecting with others in their native language. As a result, I began volunteering at a homeless clinic to continue bridging the language barrier for patients and to help advocate for the Latinx community and those who struggle to find their voice.

My journey to become a doctor has been less direct than planned; however, my personal trials and tribulations have afforded me the opportunity to meet and work with incredible people who have been invaluable to my recovery and personal development. Most importantly, I have seen the value of compassionate and empathetic care. Though I have not recently witnessed any sleight of hand or vanishing acts, what healthcare providers do for patients can only be described as magic. I look forward to bringing my diverse background as a physician and expanding my abilities to help patients in their path to healing.

2. The Calling to Heal From the Battlefield

Student Accepted to Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Harvard Medical School, Yale SOM

I’ll never forget his screams of pain.

It was the first time I had heard a man cry for help, and it shook me to my core. It had been a long night of training in South Korea for me and my fellow Army Rangers. We were reaching the end, heavy with exhaustion, when my friend took the direct impact of an explosive to his leg. The shockwave momentarily rattled my sense of balance. Struggling to see in the dark, I switched on my headlamp. In that instant, all I could focus on was his face. His eyes darted back and forth, sweeping the surroundings for any semblance of help, but all I could do was stand there and watch as our medics treated him.

No amount of training prepared me to see a friend in pain. As I watched the helicopter fly him away, I couldn’t help but think— even though I’d gone through some of the best military training in the world, in that moment, I could do nothing for him. Fortunately, he is okay, but had there been no medic available, the situation could have ended with tragedy. That night, I realized that through a career in medicine, I could be more than just a bystander to suffering— I could be in the position to not only reduce unnecessary pain but to also help those affected by conflict and trauma be restored to the fullness of life.

Upon returning home from this deployment, I shifted my focus to developing my skills in trauma care. I completed various trainings on caring for casualties in a combat environment and preparing non-medic Rangers to provide self-aid or buddy-aid in the absence of a medical provider. In a final scenario-based training lane, I helped lead my team in the treatment and packaging of a trauma patient for evacuation, setting a record time in our company and earning a military medal. This achievement, however, was only the beginning. These trainings and my successes served as a foundation that I built upon to ensure I could provide life-saving care in combat situations.  I continued to hone this skillset over my next two combat deployments as a machine gunner to Afghanistan, where, I was prepared to use these critical abilities to decrease mortality on the battlefield. In medicine, like in the army, the actual practice of one’s craft may be life or death. Therefore, evolving both dependability and proficiency during training is imperative in preparation for that final test, both in war and in medicine.

After leaving the military, confronting injury and trauma continued to be a reality. A year after exiting the service, two Army Ranger leaders whom I knew were critically injured on a mission overseas. One was my former team leader, who was shot in the neck, and the other was caught in an explosion that later resulted in a triple amputation. The relentless efforts of doctors and nurses is the reason why both of these brave men are alive today. Recognizing that without the diligent care of these medical professionals, these men would not have survived, I became ever more dedicated to serving others.

While in college, this dedication pushed me to routinely visit the West Haven VA Hospital to provide a community of support for the older, disabled veterans there. I first began visiting this hospital for my own medical care but witnessing the suffering of the other veterans at the hospital spurred me to return repeatedly not as a patient, but as a friend to my fellow veterans.  As a veteran and student, seeing and hearing about the pain and loss of function experienced by many other veterans reminded me of the importance of advocacy in healthcare: to understand, to care for, and to fight for those who are unable to do so themselves.

I continued to see these effects of conflict while volunteering as a tutor to individuals from the Middle East who were affected by the very war I served in. Alaa lives in Syria and dreams of becoming a surgeon. Together, Alaa and I discussed chemistry, biology, and math. Despite his love of learning and dedication, the instability of his community, which was plagued by violence, often barred him from focusing on his studies and committing to a routine tutoring schedule. Although I’ll never intimately know the reality of growing up in a war-torn country, working with Alaa taught me to keep the bigger picture of healthcare in mind. It reminded me that a career as a physician would provide me with the capability to help those like Alaa who are affected by conflict.

When I reflect on medicine, I draw many parallels to my life in army special operations. The training is intense, the hours are long, and the structure is hierarchical. The mission, above all else, is to provide the best outcome for those around you. On my journey to a career in medicine, I plan to continue to add to what I’ve learned from my experiences so far: humility, empathy, dependability, communication, teamwork, and leading from the front. For over four years I lived by the Ranger Creed, and I plan to imbue the same ethos in serving as a physician— to keep myself mentally alert and morally straight, to shoulder more than my share of whatever task presents itself.  In crossing from the path of a warrior to that of a healer, I hope to continue a life of service to improve the human condition and reduce unnecessary suffering in the world one person at a time.

3. Community-based Health and Empathy: Serving Underserved Communities in Crisis

Student Accepted to Weill Cornell

My path to medicine was first influenced by early adolescent experiences trying to understand my place in society. Though I was not conscious of it at the time, I held a delicate balance between my identity as an Indian-American and an “American-American.”

In a single day, I could be shooting hoops and eating hotdogs at school while spending the evening playing Carrom and enjoying tandoori chicken at a family get-together. When our family moved from New York to California, I had the opportunity to attend a middle school with greater diversity, so I learned Spanish to salve the loss of moving away and assimilate into my new surroundings.

As I partook in related events and cuisine, I built an intermixed friend group and began to understand how culture influences our perception of those around us. While volunteering at senior centers in high school, I noticed a similar pattern to what I sometimes saw at school: seniors socializing in groups of shared ethnicity and culture. Moving from table to table, and therefore language to language, I also observed how each group shared different life experiences and perspectives on what constitutes health and wellness. Many seniors talked about barriers to receiving care or how their care differed from what they had envisioned. Listening to their stories on cultural experiences, healthcare disparities, and care expectations sparked my interest in becoming a physician and providing care for the whole community.

Intrigued by the science behind perception and health, I took electives during my undergraduate years to build a foundation in these domains. In particular, I was amazed by how computational approaches could help model the complexity of the human mind, so I pursued research at Cornell’s Laboratory of Rational Decision-Making. Our team used fMRI analysis to show how the framing of information affects its cognitive processing and perception. Thinking back to my discussions with seniors, I often wondered if more personalized health-related messaging could positively influence their opinions. Through shadowing, I had witnessed physicians engaging in honest and empathetic conversations to deliver medical information and manage patients’ expectations, but how did they navigate delicate conflicts where the patients’ perspectives diverged from their own?

My question was answered when I became a community representative for the Ethics Committee for On Lok PACE, an elderly care program. One memorable case was that of Mr. A.G, a blind 86-year-old man with radiation-induced frontal lobe injury who wanted to return home and cook despite his doctor’s expressed safety concerns. Estranged from family, Mr. A.G. relied on cooking to find fulfillment in his life. Recognizing the conflict between autonomy and beneficence, I joined the physicians in brainstorming and recommending ways he could cook while being supervised. I realized that the role of a physician was to mediate between the medical care plan and the patient’s wishes in order to make a decision that preserves their dignity. As we considered possibilities, the physicians’ genuine concern for the patient’s emotional well-being exemplified the compassion that I want to emulate as a future doctor. Our discussions emphasized the rigor of medicine—the challenge of ambiguity and the importance of working with an individual to serve their needs.

With COVID-19 ravaging our underserved communities, my desire to help others drove me towards community-based health as a contact tracer for my county’s Department of Public Health. My conversations uncovered dozens of heartbreaking stories that revealed how inequities in socioeconomic status and job security left poorer families facing significantly harsher quarantines than their wealthier counterparts. Moreover, many residents expressed fear or mistrust, such as a 7-person family who could not safely isolate in their 1 bedroom/1 bath apartment. I offered to arrange free hotel accommodations but was met with a guarded response from the father: “We’ll be fine. We can maintain the 6 feet.” While initially surprised, I recognized how my government affiliation could lead to a power dynamic that made the family feel uneasy. Thinking how to make myself more approachable, I employed motivational interviewing skills and even simple small talk to build rapport. When we returned to discussing the hotel, he trusted my intentions and accepted the offer. Our bond of mutual trust grew over two weeks of follow-ups, leaving me humbled yet gratified to see his family transition to a safer living situation. As a future physician, I realize I may encounter many first-time or wary patients; and I feel prepared to create a responsive environment that helps them feel comfortable about integrating into our health system.

Through my clinical and non-clinical experiences, I have witnessed the far-reaching impact of physicians, from building lasting connections with patients to being a rock of support during uncertain times. I cannot imagine a career without these dynamics—of improving the health and wellness of patients, families, and society and reducing healthcare disparities. While I know the path ahead is challenging, I am confident that I want to dedicate my life to this profession.

4. Creating a Judgment-Free Zone with The Power of Acceptance in Healthcare

Student Accepted to George Washington SOM and Health Sciences, Drexel University COM

Immigrating into a foreign country without speaking a word of the language is a terrifying task for anyone. My mentee at Computers4kids, Sahil, came to the United States at seventeen and had been struggling to integrate with society due to the language barrier. Although I was born in the United States, I can empathize with the struggle he encounters daily, since both my parents and many members of my family have dealt with the same issues. Often, these barriers exacerbate mundane issues the immigrant population faces as they have difficulty finding people who can understand and care for them. Since I am bilingual in Farsi, when Sahil approached me with his driving instructions manual written in Dari, I thought I could teach him the rules of the road with no issues. I asked him to read the first sentence, but he diverted his gaze and mumbled that he did not know how to read. As I realized he seemed embarrassed by his illiteracy, I placed my hand on his shoulder and assured him that he could learn. I increased my weekly hours at the site to spend an equal amount of time on the rules of the road and on phonetics and reading. Within a few months, he was more comfortable greeting others around the Computers4Kids site and participating in interactive projects. Upon reflection, I appreciate the importance of creating a judgment-free zone that encourages learning and reciprocal care. Once Sahil noticed that I saw him no differently after learning of his illiteracy, he was ready and willing to work on the basics of language and reading, instead of solely memorizing words.

I did not realize how pivotal a judgment-free zone in a medical environment is until I worked at the University of Virginia Emergency Department as a medical scribe. Although I had scribed at a smaller hospital before, I had always strived for a position at a high-volume healthcare center and level one trauma center. Close to the end of a long shift, I walked into the room of a patient with the chief complain of ‘Psychiatric Evaluation’.  A male patient with schizophrenia was hyperventilating and speaking through tears as he described seeing his deceased wife and daughter everywhere he looked. Between short breaths, he mentioned he was going to Florida to attack the person who “murdered his family”. The resident diffused the situation by acknowledging the patient’s feelings and suggesting that he stayed for psychiatric help instead of flying to Florida. Eventually, the patient agreed and was admitted. Seeing the resident create this judgment-free environment was eye opening, as the previously distressed patient was now accepting counseling. The powerful influence of acceptance can lead to valuable insights about patients’ lives, potentially increasing the range of care one can administer.

I decided to transition to primary care in the most recent fall season because I would be able to build a more personal relationship with families in my community. I began working at Union Mill Pediatrics and was finally able to serve the community I grew I up in. I was given the responsibility of acting as the primary contact for a few families with children who have autism. Dr. Maura and I perused the plan of care for one of these children, Ayaan, determined by the Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), to ensure that set therapeutic goals were reasonable and generalizable. When I asked Salwa, Ayaan’s mother, about some of the goals set by her BCBA and the school, she mentioned they would repeat exercises he already knew how to complete. I informed Salwa of her right as a patient to bring up her concerns with Ayaan’s teachers. I was overjoyed when she updated me that she instructed Ayaan’s teacher to continue putting his hearing aid in despite Ayaan’s constant cries. Salwa explained that the tantrums would curb after two days, which proved to be true. Similarly to how I encourages Salwa to advocate for her son, I will advocate for my patients and help them develop confidence to speak about their needs. After finding her voice as the patient’s guardian, Salwa gained the confidence to ask about a support group as she faces difficulties raising Ayaan alone. After some research, I found a few active groups to send her. By proving to Salwa I had her best interests in heart, she opened up to me about her mental health issues, which enabled me to extend the appropriate resources her way.

I have witnessed the potential that physicians have at work to forever change a family’s quality of life by being open-minded and remaining judgment-free. As a physician, I will aim to provide for my community through attentive healthcare and community service. I will advocate for my patients with cultural, language or socioeconomic barriers to healthcare. Building a trusting relationship with my future patients can result in a more productive office visit and enhance my ability to administer holistic care. My goal is for patients to leave their visit with not only a reasonable plan of care, but also a greater appreciation of their health and their rights as patients.

5. The Intersection of Medicine and Creativity

Student Accepted to Hackensack Meridian SOM, Nova Southeastern CoOM/KPCOM

Growing up, I inherited a deep admiration for medicine. From my grandfather’s chilling stories as a forensic psychiatrist assessing mental fitness, to my father’s heroic accounts as a pediatric dentist operating on toddlers with severe tooth decay, I was enamored with the honor of healing. These exposures nurtured my natural curiosity and innate aptitude for the sciences. Yet my mother, who had studied dance and theatre, instilled in me a fervent love of the arts and creative practice. Following in her footsteps, I took up multiple musical instruments, attended a high school for the arts, and earned a degree in art history coupled with a dance minor. Still, my dream was to pursue medicine, and though it seems counterintuitive, my love of art has only facilitated my enduring love of science, reinforcing why pursuing a career as a holistic, health-centered physician is my deepest aspiration.

My affinity for the health sciences began in the dance studio, where I devoted many hours of my adolescence. Dance, insidious in its promotion of grotesque health practices, demanded that I limit my calories to 1,200 a day counting everything from ibuprofen to a stick of gum, and to dance through a severe hamstring tear. My conceptions of health were severely warped until college dance came to my rescue. These new progressive teachers uplifted dancers of all physical and cognitive abilities, distributed scientific journals on effective warm-up techniques, and abandoned conventional dance norms. I was disturbed by all the unlearning I had to do, but eager to reacquaint myself with my body and disseminate new knowledge. Thus, I was honored when dance again presented an opportunity in health, as I was hired to teach dance at my childhood summer camp. Here, I could separate my curriculum from unreasonable physical expectations and interpersonal competition. I found a fierce sense of joy and fulfillment from being an advocate for physical and emotional health, and I knew I wanted to continue helping others heal while also deconstructing my own negative health experiences.

These formative experiences in the arts profoundly supported my intellectual development, allowing me to thrive in science-based settings and ultimately prompting me to seek out colleges with robust research programs. At the University of Michigan, I had the privilege of participating in a campus research lab, undoubtedly resulting in my most valuable college experience. The world of scientific inquiry can be intimidating, but after a year of reading dozens of papers and learning novice lab protocols, I began my own independent investigation of zebrafish retinas. My goal was to uncover the mechanisms of retinal regeneration in fish, thus addressing vision loss. The excitement I felt in utilizing challenging lab techniques, working with animals, witnessing the culmination of my efforts through image analysis, and being a part of such life-altering research was unmatched. What once seemed like magic was now tangible; I was an artist helping craft the solutions to science’s unanswered questions. In the context of my multidisciplinary interests, my research reinforced the creative, humanitarian side of science, and that science was where I felt compelled to take action and build a career.

Art continued to deepen my passion for and understanding of medicine. The revolutionary approaches of my dance teachers modeled the importance of critique as it pertains to health. This was not a new concept to me; my high school art teachers had urged us to challenge institutional weaknesses. It was not until college, however, that I realized how this line of thinking intersects with medicine. Studying art history, I repeatedly encountered artists whose work tackled issues in health. Keith Haring confronted the AIDS crisis when society had turned on the gay population, and Marc Quinn confronted the disease of addiction in his self-portrait sculptures, made entirely of his own frozen blood. Art, I learned, is so often a response to disease, be it physical, mental, or sociological. These artists had been champions of health in light of its stigmas and politics; art thus fostered new intentions, instilling within me an ardent goal of social activism through medicine.

Art has contributed to my journey, and while it is not my ultimate goal, I hope to incorporate my artistically based insights into my work in science and medicine as a health and social justice advocate. I am driven to continue exploring these intersections, having compiled an entire portfolio on the connection between dance and science, researched disability in the arts, and pursued my personal interest in LGBTQ+ health advocacy by connecting with and shadowing a variety of gender care physicians. My intention to pursue medicine is personal, fulfilling, and pressing, and I take seriously the responsibility I will have as a physician to be a mogul for change in areas of healthcare that compromise the human experience. Further, my natural inclination towards science and involvement in academic research has instilled in me the confidence and skills necessary to be an effective medical practitioner. With this balanced mindset, I know I will contribute to a more ethical and well-rounded approach to healthcare.

6. Innovation in Medicine and a Quest for Discovery

Student Accepted to Johns Hopkins SOM, Washington University SOM, Hofstra Zucker SOM

As a notoriously picky nine-year-old with a penchant for grilled cheese, I was perplexed when I learned that my younger sister, Rachel, had been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. I felt a sting of betrayal knowing my comfort food was the culprit for Rachel’s terrible stomach aches. Yearning to understand how my favorite food was poisoning my favorite person, I developed an insatiable desire to discover the “why” behind Celiac. As Rachel’s doctor explained her disease, I was both fascinated that a simple protein could cause so much damage and inspired by the doctor’s compassion. He described every detail in a way Rachel would understand, addressed her every concern, and held her hand when she was scared. I wanted to be just like Rachel’s doctor so that I too could use science to decipher medical mysteries while also reassuring my patients that I would be their advocate and help them heal.

My interest in medicine drove me to learn more about what it meant to be a doctor. As a freshman in high school, I arranged a shadow day with Dr. M, a cardiologist. He taught me about echoes, showed me a pacemaker implantation, and in the midst of a cardioversion, even beckoned me over to press the button that discharged the defibrillator. I could not contain my excitement recounting how much I had learned during my first day in a clinical setting. From there, my curiosity skyrocketed and I embarked on a relentless pursuit to explore the spectrum of the medical field. I was moved by the supportive atmosphere of the NICU, struck by the precision involved in ophthalmology, absorbed by the puzzle-like reconstruction of Mohs surgery, and awed by the agility of cardiothoracic surgery. Between high school and college, I shadowed over a dozen physicians, cementing my interest and furthering my passion for a future medical career.

My college classes allowed me to immerse myself further in the study of the human body. Following my fascination with cancer, I secured an internship working on a melanoma immunotherapy clinical trial at the National Institutes of Health. I savored the stimulation, grasping new experimental techniques and developing assays; but my work took on even greater meaning when I learned that my grandfather had been enrolled in an early-stage immunotherapy trial himself while battling mucosal melanoma. Although immunotherapy did not heal my grandfather, I was immensely proud to be advancing the science years later. Through long nights and evolving experiments, I gave the trial its final push through an FDA approval checkpoint; ultimately, my contributions will help more grandparents go into remission. The most fulfilling moments came every Monday when I accompanied the leading physician scientists on their rounds. As I met patients, listened to their stories, and celebrated their improvements, the pulsating blister on my thumbpad from endless pipetting became akin to a medal of honor. Reflecting on these encounters, I wanted to continue driving scientific innovation, but I also wanted a more active and personal impact in the patient’s experience.

My desire to connect with patients brought me to Alliance Medical Ministry, a clinic serving uninsured, disadvantaged communities in North Carolina. I stepped up to lead efforts to organize a community COVID-19 vaccination clinic, communicating personally with every eligible patient and arranging vaccine appointments for over a thousand people across the hardest hit areas of Raleigh. The experience became even more rewarding when I trained to administer vaccines, becoming a stable, anchoring presence from the beginning to the end of the process. One memorable patient, “Amy,” had not seen a doctor in years because of the associated financial burden. When she came to the clinic suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis, she was not even aware of her diabetes diagnosis. While I waited with her for transportation to the ER, she expressed her fears about contracting COVID at the hospital. However, she emphatically dismissed my suggestion about receiving a vaccine. I listened intently to all her concerns. Not only was she worried about the vaccine infecting her with the virus, but also her history of being denied healthcare due to her socioeconomic status had instilled fears that she would not be taken care of should she have an adverse reaction. I took her hand in mine and reassured her of the clinic’s mission to provide care regardless of ability to pay. I further explained everything I knew about how the vaccine worked, its safety and efficacy, and how my body reacted when I received my own injection. I could not help but beam behind my N95 when days later, Amy returned, sat in my chair and confidently rolled up her sleeve for me to give her the protective shot.

I have grown by exploring the multifaceted world of medicine through shadowing, pioneering research to advance patient care at the NIH, and cultivating trusting relationships with patients from the vaccine clinic. As a doctor, my desire to be an innovative thinker and problem solver will fuel my unrelenting quest for discovery throughout a lifetime of learning. Most importantly, I aspire to use my medical knowledge to improve lives and establish meaningful patient partnerships, just as Rachel’s doctor did with her.

7. Transforming Pain into Purpose: Inspiring Change in the Field of Medicine

Student Accepted to UCSF SOM, Harvard Medical School

Countless visits to specialists in hope of relief left me with a slew of inconclusive test results and uncertain diagnoses. “We cannot do anything else for you.” After twelve months of waging a war against my burning back, aching neck and tingling limbs, hearing these words at first felt like a death sentence, but I continued to advocate for myself with medical professionals. A year of combatting pain and dismissal led me to a group of compassionate and innovative physicians at the Stanford Pain Management Center (SPMC). Working alongside a diverse team including pain management specialists and my PCP, I began the long, non-linear process of uncovering the girl that had been buried in the devastating rubble of her body’s pain. From struggling with day-to-day activities like washing my hair and sitting in class to thriving as an avid weightlifter and zealous student over the span of a year, I realized I am passionate about preventing, managing and eliminating chronic illnesses through patient-centered incremental care and medical innovation.

A few days after my pain started, I was relieved to hear that I had most likely just strained some muscles, but after an empty bottle of muscle relaxers, the stings and aches had only intensified. I went on to see 15 specialists throughout California, including neurologists, physiatrists, and rheumatologists. Neurological exams. MRIs. Blood tests. All inconclusive. Time and time again, specialists dismissed my experience due to ambiguous test results and limited time. I spent months trying to convince doctors that I was losing my body; they thought I was losing my mind. Despite these letdowns, I did not stop fighting to regain control of my life. Armed with my medical records and a detailed journal of my symptoms, I continued scheduling appointments with the intention of finding a doctor who would dig deeper in the face of the unknown. Between visits, I researched my symptoms and searched for others with similar experiences. One story on Stanford Medicine’s blog, “Young Woman Overcomes Multiple Misdiagnoses and Gets Her Life Back”, particularly stood out to me and was the catalyst that led me to the SPMC. After bouncing from doctor to doctor, I had finally found a team of physicians who would take the profound toll of my pain on my physical and mental well-being seriously.

Throughout my year-long journey with my care team at the SPMC, I showed up for myself even when it felt like I would lose the war against my body. I confronted daily challenges with fortitude. When lifting my arms to tie my hair into a ponytail felt agonizing, YouTube tutorials trained me to become a braiding expert. Instead of lying in bed all day when my medication to relieve nerve pain left me struggling to stay awake, I explored innovative alternative therapies with my physicians; after I was fed up with the frustration of not knowing the source of my symptoms, I became a research subject in a clinical trial aimed at identifying and characterizing pain generators in patients suffering from “mysterious” chronic pain. At times, it felt like my efforts were only resulting in lost time. However, seeing how patient my care team was with me, offering long-term coordinated support and continually steering me towards a pain-free future, motivated me to grow stronger with every step of the process. Success was not  an immediate victory, but rather a long journey of incremental steps that produced steady, life-saving progress over time. My journey brought me relief as well as clarity with regard to  how I will care for my future patients. I will advocate for them even when complex conditions, inconclusive results and stereotypes discourage them from seeking continued care; work with them to continually adapt and improve an individualized plan tailored to their needs and goals, and engage in pioneering research and medical innovations that can directly benefit them.

Reflecting on the support system that enabled me to overcome the challenges of rehabilitation, I was inspired to help others navigate life with chronic pain in a more equitable and accessible way. Not everyone has the means to work indefinitely with a comprehensive care team, but most do have a smartphone. As a result, I partnered with a team of physicians and physical therapists at the University of California San Francisco to develop a free mobile application that guides individuals dealing with chronic pain through recovery. Based on my own journey, I was able to design the app with an understanding of the mental and physical toll that pain, fear, and loss of motivation take on patients struggling with chronic pain. Having features like an exercise bank with a real-time form checker and an AI-based chatbot to motivate users, address their concerns and connect them to specific health care resources, our application helped 65 of the 100 pilot users experience a significant reduction in pain and improvement in mental health in three months.

My journey has fostered my passion for patient-centered incremental medicine and medical innovation. From barely living to thriving, I have become a trailblazing warrior with the perseverance and resilience needed to pursue these passions and help both the patients I engage with and those around the world.

8. Overcoming Bias, Stigma, and Disparities in Medicine

Student Accepted to University of Florida COM

Growing up as a Black woman, my family’s experiences with racial bias in medicine were central to my perception of doctors. From my grandmother’s forced electric shock therapy in the Jim Crow South that resulted in severe brain damage, to my father’s ignored appendicitis that led to a near-death infection after rupturing, every trip to the doctor came with apprehension. Will these strange men with sharp tools heal me or hurt me? This question repeated in my head as I prepared to undergo my first surgery to remove suspiciously inflamed lymph nodes at age 11. I woke up groggy from anesthesia with a negative cancer diagnosis but a blistering third degree burn. The surgeon had successfully removed the malignant masses but had left the cauterizing iron resting on my neck in the process. Today when I look in the mirror and see the scar, I am reminded of the troubling reality that myths such as black people having thicker skin and less sensitive nerve endings are still pervasive in the medical field. By challenging the systemic disparities in medicine that disadvantage minority populations, I vow to my inner child that I will be a different kind of doctor, a doctor who values the patient as much as the procedure.

My experiences with a variety of communities, minority and majority, stem from growing up in a military household that came with frequent relocations. I was exposed to a wide range of communities from an early age—rural Oregon to tropical Hawaii, industrious Japan to politicized D.C, sunny San Diego and finally to radical Berkeley where I  began my pre-medical education. I chose to view medicine from an anthropological lens while at Cal and supplemented my coursework with community service.  As co-coordinator of UC Berkeley’s chapter of Peer Health Exchange, my 9th grade students were, at first,  mistrusting –even with my Angela Davis-esque afro, I was clearly not from Oakland and not quite old enough to be lecturing them. But it was the Good Samaritan Law lecture, during which students learned they would not face police penalty for calling 911 if a friend was in trouble, that I finally gained their trust. One student shared, “I always worried that I wouldn’t be able to call for help because I’m undocumented.”  Later as a health advocate at UCSF, I encountered the same sentiment from families in the pediatric clinic who worried that accessing healthcare for a sick child might put their immigration or legal status at risk. I learned that to get to the root of barriers to access, trust is invaluable. Navigating marginalized spaces with cultural competency is an asset that I pride myself in.

I carried this foundation into my research and clinical work on HIV, a disease that disproportionately affects Black and Brown communities and is often left untreated by the stigmas surrounding medicine for these communities. As an HIV PreP Navigator at the Oasis clinic, I was on rotation when a thirteen-year-old girl was referred to the clinic after testing positive for HIV. We analyzed her T cell count and viral load, and discovered she fit the AIDs criteria.   In the following weeks, we worked on medication adherence, and as the girl’s CD4 count rose, so did her spirits and mine. Medicine is more than just a diagnosis and prescription—it is active compassionate treatment. It is holding steady when the entire ground seems to shake with the magnitude of an illness. It is being able to look a patient in the eye and truly see them despite the myriad of differences.

The disparities and differences in patient circumstances has been emphasized by the COVID-19 pandemic. Recognizing this disproportionate effect of the virus on minority communities, I worked at a COVID-19 testing facility in one of the most underserved and impoverished communities in the Los Angeles’ area. Assuring patients of the safety of Covid testing measures was a big part of the job. “Have you done it?” They would ask. “What about Tuskegee?”  Being Black, I felt the burden of responsibility that came with these questions. How could I have such faith in medicine knowing the traumatic past? My response was simple, “I believe in the science. I can explain PCR testing to you if you like.” By eradicating some of the mystery surrounding these lab techniques, people felt more comfortable.  The opportunity to serve as a trusted community leader by directly interacting with patients and working on a team with doctors, EMTs, and nurses amid an international crisis reaffirmed my journey into medicine.

Zora Neale Hurston once wrote, “mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to ‘jump at de sun.’ We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.” As an aspiring physician, these words have served as a motivating mantra. To “get off the ground” for me means to become the first medical doctor in a lineage of sharecroppers and farmers. Medicine has been my “sun” for as long as I can remember; its promise to bring light has kept me jumping at every opportunity. Like my grandmother, my father, and so many others, I have experienced disparity in medicine. The scars that mar our bodies are my constant reminder that there is much work to be done. I see medicine as the ability to directly enact that change, one patient at a time.

9. Navigating Personal Struggles to Become a Compassionate Physician

Student Accepted to Touro CoOM, Nova Southeastern CoOM/KPCOM

I fight the heavy sleepiness that comes over me, but before I know it, I am out like a light. Forty-five minutes later, I wake up with a sore throat, watery eyes, and an intensely cold, painful feeling plaguing my entire right leg. Earlier, my parents and I arrived at the Beckman Laser Institute for another treatment of my port-wine stain birthmark. Despite my pleas to not undergo these procedures, my parents still took me twice a year. As I was rolled into the cold, sterile operating room on a gurney, I felt like I was experiencing everything from outside of myself. Despite my doctor’s and nurses’ best efforts to comfort me, I felt my heart racing. Feelings of apprehension and fear of the unknown flooded my senses at the sight of beeping machines and tubes that seemed to go everywhere. As the anesthesiologist began to administer the “sleepy juice,” I felt sad, realizing that my birthmark was a permanent resident on my leg and that I would have to receive this treatment for the rest of my life.

As an adult, I am grateful my parents continued to take me to the laser institute. Starting treatment so early aided in the lightening of my birthmark, which did wonders to improve my self-confidence. However, I suffered daily, feeling like I constantly had to hide something about myself. I kept my secret from everyone except my parents. Despite there being several medical doctors in my family, I knew that any sign of illness or disease would be held against me socially amongst other Egyptians. My secrecy was made even more difficult by the advice of my doctor to avoid certain physical activities, as they could worsen the underlying pathology of the veins in my legs. On his advice, I only wore long pants and would not run with other children during recess and gym class. This all added to the isolation I felt growing up, not knowing anyone with a similar condition to mine. Even as a child, no amount of explaining or encouragement could make me understand the benefit of those painful laser treatments.

What eventually changed my perspective was the team of compassionate doctors and nurses who have been caring for me since I began this journey. I was particularly touched when one of my doctors shared with me that she had also undergone a procedure that she would be performing on me. In that moment, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. Not only was she a specialist in the field, but her empathy for what I would soon go through became a source of instant comfort and ease for me. I knew that what she said was heartfelt, and not simply an attempt to convince me to undergo a procedure. I realized then that one of the reasons I had felt so afraid was because I had been alone in what I was going through.

A few years later, I attended a conference held by the Vascular Birthmark Foundation, where a variety of specialists convened to discuss port-wine stain birthmarks and other related conditions. Once we arrived at the hotel where the conference would take place, I met a woman who had a facial port-wine stain birthmark. As we began sharing stories about our experiences with our condition, we connected over how difficult it had been to receive treatment. We both knew what it felt like to be told that the birthmark was simply a cosmetic issue, and that any form of treatment we received would have no corrective purpose, if it was even considered treatment in the first place. There was a certain sense of freedom that I felt in finally being able to talk about my illness with someone I could trust to understand. Thinking back to the doctor who connected with me over a procedure she had also experienced as a patient, I felt truly called in that moment to pursue my goal of becoming a vascular physician. My goal would be to become a source of comfort and familiarity for patients who struggle as I have, to give them the same relief that I experienced from finally being understood.

Despite the pains I went through, I now realize that the experiences I have had as a patient can help me better understand what it means to be a physician. By being an excellent listener and openly sharing my experiences with receiving treatment, I can foster an honest and safe physician-patient relationship. I believe this approach will not only comfort my patients, but also help them make informed decisions about their treatment. My commitment to this approach has also led me to choose a DO path for my medical career. Having researched the holistic treatment approach that a DO delivers, I realized that being treated by a DO would have done wonders for my self-confidence and overall health as a young patient. The aspects of my port wine stain that were always left untreated were the emotional and social side effects of my condition. As a DO in the dermatology or interventional radiology specialty, I hope to gain the tools to provide empathetic and comprehensive care to my patients that reassures them that they are not alone in their journey to better health.

Want to read a few more great samples? We also broke down the things that make these 3 personal statements excellent and compelling.

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2 Med School Essays That Admissions Officers Loved

Here are tips on writing a medical school personal statement and examples of essays that stood out.

2 Great Med School Personal Statements

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A compelling medical school admissions essay can address nearly any topic the applicant is interested in, as long as it conveys the applicant's personality.

A personal statement is often a pivotal factor in medical school admissions decisions.

"The essay really can cause me to look more deeply at the entire application," Dr. Stephen Nicholas, former senior associate dean of admissions with the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons , told U.S. News in 2017. "So I do think it's pretty important."

A compelling medical school admissions essay can address nearly any topic the applicant is interested in, as long as it conveys the applicant's personality, according to Dr. Barbara Kazmierczak, director of the M.D.-Ph.D. Program and a professor of medicine and microbial pathogenesis with the Yale School of Medicine.

“The passion that the writer is bringing to this topic tells us about the individual rather than the topic that they’re describing, and the essay is the place for us to learn about the applicant – who they are and what experiences have brought them to this point of applying to medical school,” she told U.S. News in 2017.

Rachel Rudeen, former admissions coordinator for the University of Minnesota Medical School , says personal statements help medical schools determine whether applicants have the character necessary to excel as a doctor. "Grit is something we really look for," she says.

Evidence of humility and empathy , Rudeen adds, are also pluses.

Why Medical Schools Care About Personal Statements

The purpose of a personal statement is to report the events that inspired and prepared a premed to apply to medical school, admissions experts say. This personal essay helps admissions officers figure out whether a premed is ready for med school, and it also clarifies whether a premed has a compelling rationale for attending med school, these experts explain.

When written well, a medical school personal statement conveys a student's commitment to medicine and injects humanity into an admissions process that might otherwise feel cold and impersonal, according to admissions experts.

Glen Fogerty, associate dean of admissions and recruitment with the medical school at the University of Arizona—Phoenix , put it this way in an email: "To me, the strongest personal statements are the ones that share a personal connection. One where a candidate shares a specific moment, the spark that ignited their passion to become a physician or reaffirmed why they chose medicine as a career."

Dr. Viveta Lobo, an emergency medicine physician with the Stanford University School of Medicine in California who often mentors premeds, says the key thing to know about a personal statement is that it must indeed be personal, so it needs to reveal something meaningful. The essay should not be a dry piece of writing; it should make the reader feel for the author, says Lobo, director of academic conferences and continuing medical education with the emergency medicine department at Stanford.

A great personal statement has an emotional impact and "will 'do' something, not just 'say' something," Lobo wrote in an email. Admissions officers "read hundreds of essays – so before you begin, think of how yours will stand out, be unique and different," Lobo suggests.

How to Write a Personal Statement for Medical School

Lobo notes that an outstanding personal statement typically includes all of the following ingredients:

• An intriguing introduction that gets admissions officers' attention.
• Anecdotes that illustrate what kind of person the applicant is.
• Reflections about the meaning and impact of various life experiences .
• A convincing narrative about why medical school is the logical next step.
• A satisfying and optimistic conclusion.

"You should sound excited, and that passion should come through in your writing," Lobo explains.

A personal statement should tie together an applicant's past, present and future by explaining how previous experiences have led to this point and outlining long-term plans to contribute to the medical profession, Lobo said during a phone interview. Medical school admissions officers want to understand not only where an applicant has been but also the direction he or she is going, Lobo added.

When premeds articulate a vision of how they might assist others and improve society through the practice of medicine, it suggests that they aren't self-serving or simply interested in the field because of its prestige, Lobo says. It's ideal when premeds can eloquently describe a noble mission, she explains.

Elisabeth Fassas, author of "Making Pre-Med Count: Everything I Wish I'd Known Before Applying (Successfully) to Medical School," says premeds should think about the doctors they admire and reflect on why they admire them. Fassas, a first-year medical student at the University of Maryland , suggests pondering the following questions:

• "Why can you really only see yourself being a physician?"
• "What is it about being a doctor that has turned you on to this field?"
• "What kind of doctor do you imagine yourself being?"
• "Who do you want to be for your patients?"
• "What are you going to do specifically for your patients that only you can do?"

Fassas notes that many of the possible essay topics a med school hopeful can choose are subjects that other premeds can also discuss, such as a love of science. However, aspiring doctors can make their personal statements unique by articulating the lessons they learned from their life experiences, she suggests.

Prospective medical students need to clarify why medicine is a more suitable calling for them than other caring professions, health care fields and science careers, Fassas notes. They should demonstrate awareness of the challenges inherent in medicine and explain why they want to become doctors despite those difficulties, she says.

Tips on Crafting an Excellent Medical School Personal Statement

The first step toward creating an outstanding personal statement, Fassas says, is to create a list of significant memories. Premeds should think about which moments in their lives mattered the most and then identify the two or three stories that are definitely worth sharing.

Dr. Demicha Rankin, associate dean for admissions at the Ohio State University College of Medicine , notes that a personal statement should offer a compelling portrait of a person and should not be "a regurgitation of their CV."

The most outstanding personal statements are the ones that present a multifaceted perspective of the applicant by presenting various aspects of his or her identity, says Rankin, an associate professor of anesthesiology.

For example, a premed who was a swimmer might explain how the discipline necessary for swimming is analogous to the work ethic required to become a physician, Rankin says. Likewise, a pianist or another type of musician applying to medical school could convey how the listening skills and instrument-tuning techniques cultivated in music could be applicable in medicine, she adds.

Rankin notes that it's apparent when a premed has taken a meticulous approach to his or her personal statement to ensure that it flows nicely, and she says a fine essay is akin to a "well-woven fabric." One sign that a personal statement has been polished is when a theme that was explored at the beginning of the essay is also mentioned at the end, Rankin says, explaining that symmetry between an essay's introduction and conclusion makes the essay seem complete.

Rankin notes that the author of an essay might not see flaws in his or her writing that are obvious to others, so it's important for premeds to show their personal statement to trusted advisers and get honest feedback. That's one reason it's important to begin the writing process early enough to give yourself sufficient time to organize your thoughts, Rankin says, adding that a minimum of four weeks is typically necessary.

Mistakes to Avoid in a Medical School Personal Statement

One thing premeds should never do in an admissions essay is beg, experts say. Rankin says requests of any type – including a plea for an admissions interview – do not belong in a personal statement. Another pitfall to avoid, Rankin says, is ranting about controversial political subjects such as the death penalty or abortion.

If premeds fail to closely proofread their personal statement, the essay could end up being submitted with careless errors such as misspellings and grammar mistakes that could easily have been fixed, according to experts. Crafting a compelling personal statement typically necessitates multiple revisions, so premeds who skimp on revising might wind up with sloppy essays, some experts say.

However, when fine-tuning their personal statements, premeds should not automatically change their essays based on what others say, Fogerty warns.

"A common mistake on personal statements is having too many people review your statement, they make recommendations, you accept all of the changes and then – in the end – the statement is no longer your voice," Fogerty wrote in an email. It's essential that a personal statement sound like the applicant and represent who he or she is as a person, Fogerty says.

Dr. Nicholas Jones, a Georgia-based plastic and reconstructive surgeon, says the worst error that someone can make in the personal statement is to be inauthentic or deceptive.

"Do not lie. Do not fabricate," he warns.

Jones adds that premeds should not include a story in their personal statement that they are not comfortable discussing in-depth during a med school admissions interview . "If it's something too personal or you're very emotional and you don't want to talk about that, then don't put it in a statement."

Medical School Personal Statement Examples

Here are two medical school admissions essays that made a strong, positive impression on admissions officers. The first is from Columbia and the second is from the University of Minnesota. These personal statements are annotated with comments from admissions officers explaining what made these essays stand out.

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10 Successful Medical School Essays

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-- Accepted to: Harvard Medical School GPA: 4.0 MCAT: 522

Sponsored by A ccepted.com : Great stats don’t assure acceptance to elite medical schools. The personal statement, most meaningful activities, activity descriptions, secondaries and interviews can determine acceptance or rejection. Since 1994, Accepted.com has guided medical applicants just like you to present compelling medical school applications. Get Accepted !

I started writing in 8th grade when a friend showed me her poetry about self-discovery and finding a voice. I was captivated by the way she used language to bring her experiences to life. We began writing together in our free time, trying to better understand ourselves by putting a pen to paper and attempting to paint a picture with words. I felt my style shift over time as I grappled with challenges that seemed to defy language. My poems became unstructured narratives, where I would use stories of events happening around me to convey my thoughts and emotions. In one of my earliest pieces, I wrote about a local boy’s suicide to try to better understand my visceral response. I discussed my frustration with the teenage social hierarchy, reflecting upon my social interactions while exploring the harms of peer pressure.

In college, as I continued to experiment with this narrative form, I discovered medical narratives. I have read everything from Manheimer’s Bellevue to Gawande’s Checklist and from Nuland’s observations about the way we die, to Kalanithi’s struggle with his own decline. I even experimented with this approach recently, writing a piece about my grandfather’s emphysema. Writing allowed me to move beyond the content of our relationship and attempt to investigate the ways time and youth distort our memories of the ones we love. I have augmented these narrative excursions with a clinical bioethics internship. In working with an interdisciplinary team of ethics consultants, I have learned by doing by participating in care team meetings, synthesizing discussions and paths forward in patient charts, and contributing to an ongoing legislative debate addressing the challenges of end of life care. I have also seen the ways ineffective intra-team communication and inter-personal conflicts of beliefs can compromise patient care.

Writing allowed me to move beyond the content of our relationship and attempt to investigate the ways time and youth distort our memories of the ones we love.

By assessing these difficult situations from all relevant perspectives and working to integrate the knowledge I’ve gained from exploring narratives, I have begun to reflect upon the impact the humanities can have on medical care. In a world that has become increasingly data driven, where patients can so easily devolve into lists of numbers and be forced into algorithmic boxes in search of an exact diagnosis, my synergistic narrative and bioethical backgrounds have taught me the importance of considering the many dimensions of the human condition. I am driven to become a physician who deeply considers a patient’s goal of care and goals of life. I want to learn to build and lead patient care teams that are oriented toward fulfilling these goals, creating an environment where family and clinician conflict can be addressed efficiently and respectfully. Above all, I look forward to using these approaches to keep the person beneath my patients in focus at each stage of my medical training, as I begin the task of translating complex basic science into excellent clinical care.

In her essay for medical school, Morgan pitches herself as a future physician with an interdisciplinary approach, given her appreciation of how the humanities can enable her to better understand her patients. Her narrative takes the form of an origin story, showing how a childhood interest in poetry grew into a larger mindset to keep a patient’s humanity at the center of her approach to clinical care.

This narrative distinguishes Morgan as a candidate for medical school effectively, as she provides specific examples of how her passions intersect with medicine. She first discusses how she used poetry to process her emotional response to a local boy’s suicide and ties in concern about teenage mental health. Then, she discusses more philosophical questions she encountered through reading medical narratives, which demonstrates her direct interest in applying writing and the humanities to medicine. By making the connection from this larger theme to her own reflections on her grandfather, Morgan provides a personal insight that will give an admissions officer a window into her character. This demonstrates her empathy for her future patients and commitment to their care.

Her narrative takes the form of an origin story, showing how a childhood interest in poetry grew into a larger mindset to keep a patient's humanity at the center of her approach to clinical care.

Furthermore, it is important to note that Morgan’s essay does not repeat anything in-depth that would otherwise be on her resume. She makes a reference to her work in care team meetings through a clinical bioethics internship, but does not focus on this because there are other places on her application where this internship can be discussed. Instead, she offers a more reflection-based perspective on the internship that goes more in-depth than a resume or CV could. This enables her to explain the reasons for interdisciplinary approach to medicine with tangible examples that range from personal to professional experiences — an approach that presents her as a well-rounded candidate for medical school.

Disclaimer: With exception of the removal of identifying details, essays are reproduced as originally submitted in applications; any errors in submissions are maintained to preserve the integrity of the piece. The Crimson's news and opinion teams—including writers, editors, photographers, and designers—were not involved in the production of this article.

-- Accepted To: A medical school in New Jersey with a 3% acceptance rate. GPA: 3.80 MCAT: 502 and 504

Sponsored by E fiie Consulting Group : “ EFIIE ” boasts 100% match rate for all premedical and predental registered students. Not all students are accepted unto their pre-health student roster. Considered the most elite in the industry and assists from start to end – premed to residency. EFIIE is a one-stop-full-service education firm.

"To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The tribulations I've overcome in my life have manifested in the compassion, curiosity, and courage that is embedded in my personality. Even a horrific mishap in my life has not changed my core beliefs and has only added fuel to my intense desire to become a doctor. My extensive service at an animal hospital, a harrowing personal experience, and volunteering as an EMT have increased my appreciation and admiration for the medical field.

At thirteen, I accompanied my father to the Park Home Animal Hospital with our eleven-year-old dog, Brendan. He was experiencing severe pain due to an osteosarcoma, which ultimately led to the difficult decision to put him to sleep. That experience brought to light many questions regarding the idea of what constitutes a "quality of life" for an animal and what importance "dignity" plays to an animal and how that differs from owner to owner and pet to pet. Noting my curiosity and my relative maturity in the matter, the owner of the animal hospital invited me to shadow the professional staff. Ten years later, I am still part of the team, having made the transition from volunteer to veterinarian technician. Saving a life, relieving pain, sharing in the euphoria of animal and owner reuniting after a procedure, to understanding the emotions of losing a loved one – my life was forever altered from the moment I stepped into that animal hospital.

As my appreciation for medical professionals continued to grow, a horrible accident created an indelible moment in my life. It was a warm summer day as I jumped onto a small boat captained by my grandfather. He was on his way to refill the boat's gas tank at the local marina, and as he pulled into the dock, I proceeded to make a dire mistake. As the line was thrown from the dock, I attempted to cleat the bowline prematurely, and some of the most intense pain I've ever felt in my life ensued.

Saving a life, relieving pain, sharing in the euphoria of animal and owner reuniting after a procedure, to understanding the emotions of losing a loved one – my life was forever altered from the moment I stepped into that animal hospital.

"Call 911!" I screamed, half-dazed as I witnessed blood gushing out of my open wounds, splashing onto the white fiberglass deck of the boat, forming a small puddle beneath my feet. I was instructed to raise my hand to reduce the bleeding, while someone wrapped an icy towel around the wound. The EMTs arrived shortly after and quickly drove me to an open field a short distance away, where a helicopter seemed to instantaneously appear.

The medevac landed on the roof of Stony Brook Hospital before I was expeditiously wheeled into the operating room for a seven-hour surgery to reattach my severed fingers. The distal phalanges of my 3rd and 4th fingers on my left hand had been torn off by the rope tightening on the cleat. I distinctly remember the chill from the cold metal table, the bright lights of the OR, and multiple doctors and nurses scurrying around. The skill and knowledge required to execute multiple skin graft surgeries were impressive and eye-opening. My shortened fingers often raise questions by others; however, they do not impair my self-confidence or physical abilities. The positive outcome of this trial was the realization of my intense desire to become a medical professional.

Despite being the patient, I was extremely impressed with the dedication, competence, and cohesiveness of the medical team. I felt proud to be a critical member of such a skilled group. To this day, I still cannot explain the dichotomy of experiencing being the patient, and concurrently one on the professional team, committed to saving the patient. Certainly, this experience was a defining part of my life and one of the key contributors to why I became an EMT and a volunteer member of the Sample Volunteer Ambulance Corps. The startling ring of the pager, whether it is to respond to an inebriated alcoholic who is emotionally distraught or to help bring breath to a pulseless person who has been pulled from the family swimming pool, I am committed to EMS. All of these events engender the same call to action and must be reacted to with the same seriousness, intensity, and magnanimity. It may be some routine matter or a dire emergency; this is a role filled with uncertainty and ambiguity, but that is how I choose to spend my days. My motives to become a physician are deeply seeded. They permeate my personality and emanate from my desire to respond to the needs of others. Through a traumatic personal event and my experiences as both a professional and volunteer, I have witnessed firsthand the power to heal the wounded and offer hope. Each person defines success in different ways. To know even one life has been improved by my actions affords me immense gratification and meaning. That is success to me and why I want to be a doctor.

This review is provided by EFIIE Consulting Group’s Pre-Health Senior Consultant Jude Chan

This student was a joy to work with — she was also the lowest MCAT profile I ever accepted onto my roster. At 504 on the second attempt (502 on her first) it would seem impossible and unlikely to most that she would be accepted into an allopathic medical school. Even for an osteopathic medical school this score could be too low. Additionally, the student’s GPA was considered competitive at 3.80, but it was from a lower ranked, less known college, so naturally most advisors would tell this student to go on and complete a master’s or postbaccalaureate program to show that she could manage upper level science classes. Further, she needed to retake the MCAT a third time.

However, I saw many other facets to this student’s history and life that spoke volumes about the type of student she was, and this was the positioning strategy I used for her file. Students who read her personal statement should know that acceptance is contingent on so much more than just an essay and MCAT score or GPA. Although many students have greater MCAT scores than 504 and higher GPAs than 3.80, I have helped students with lower scores and still maintained our 100% match rate. You are competing with thousands of candidates. Not every student out there requires our services and we are actually grateful that we can focus on a limited amount out of the tens of thousands that do. We are also here for the students who wish to focus on learning well the organic chemistry courses and physics courses and who want to focus on their research and shadowing opportunities rather than waste time deciphering the next step in this complex process. We tailor a pathway for each student dependent on their health care career goals, and our partnerships with non-profit organizations, hospitals, physicians and research labs allow our students to focus on what matters most — the building up of their basic science knowledge and their exposure to patients and patient care.

Students who read her personal statement should know that acceptance is contingent on so much more than just an essay and MCAT score or GPA.

Even students who believe that their struggle somehow disqualifies them from their dream career in health care can be redeemed if they are willing to work for it, just like this student with 502 and 504 MCAT scores. After our first consult, I saw a way to position her to still be accepted into an MD school in the US — I would not have recommended she register to our roster if I did not believe we could make a difference. Our rosters have a waitlist each semester, and it is in our best interest to be transparent with our students and protect our 100% record — something I consider a win-win. It is unethical to ever guarantee acceptance in admissions as we simply do not control these decisions. However, we respect it, play by the rules, and help our students stay one step ahead by creating an applicant profile that would be hard for the schools to ignore.

This may be the doctor I go to one day. Or the nurse or dentist my children or my grandchildren goes to one day. That is why it is much more than gaining acceptance — it is about properly matching the student to the best options for their education. Gaining an acceptance and being incapable of getting through the next 4 or 8 years (for my MD/PhD-MSTP students) is nonsensical.

-- Accepted To: Imperial College London UCAT Score: 2740 BMAT Score: 3.9, 5.4, 3.5A

My motivation to study Medicine stems from wishing to be a cog in the remarkable machine that is universal healthcare: a system which I saw first-hand when observing surgery in both the UK and Sri Lanka. Despite the differences in sanitation and technology, the universality of compassion became evident. When volunteering at OSCE training days, I spoke to many medical students, who emphasised the importance of a genuine interest in the sciences when studying Medicine. As such, I have kept myself informed of promising developments, such as the use of monoclonal antibodies in cancer therapy. After learning about the role of HeLa cells in the development of the polio vaccine in Biology, I read 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' to find out more. Furthermore, I read that surface protein CD4 can be added to HeLa cells, allowing them to be infected with HIV, opening the possibility of these cells being used in HIV research to produce more life-changing drugs, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PreP). Following my BioGrad laboratory experience in HIV testing, and time collating data for research into inflammatory markers in lung cancer, I am also interested in pursuing a career in medical research. However, during a consultation between an ENT surgeon and a thyroid cancer patient, I learnt that practising medicine needs more than a scientific aptitude. As the surgeon explained that the cancer had metastasised to her liver, I watched him empathetically tailor his language for the patient - he avoided medical jargon and instead gave her time to come to terms with this. I have been developing my communication skills by volunteering weekly at care homes for 3 years, which has improved my ability to read body language and structure conversations to engage with the residents, most of whom have dementia.

However, during a consultation between an ENT surgeon and a thyroid cancer patient, I learnt that practising medicine needs more than a scientific aptitude.

Jude’s essay provides a very matter-of-fact account of their experience as a pre-medical student. However, they deepen this narrative by merging two distinct cultures through some common ground: a universality of compassion. Using clear, concise language and a logical succession of events — much like a doctor must follow when speaking to patients — Jude shows their motivation to go into the medical field.

From their OSCE training days to their school’s Science society, Jude connects their analytical perspective — learning about HeLa cells — to something that is relatable and human, such as a poor farmer’s notable contribution to science. This approach provides a gateway into their moral compass without having to explicitly state it, highlighting their fervent desire to learn how to interact and communicate with others when in a position of authority.

Using clear, concise language and a logical succession of events — much like a doctor must follow when speaking to patients — Jude shows their motivation to go into the medical field.

Jude’s closing paragraph reminds the reader of the similarities between two countries like the UK and Sri Lanka, and the importance of having a universal healthcare system that centers around the just and “world-class” treatment of patients. Overall, this essay showcases Jude’s personal initiative to continue to learn more and do better for the people they serve.

While the essay could have benefited from better transitions to weave Jude’s experiences into a personal story, its strong grounding in Jude’s motivation makes for a compelling application essay.

-- Accepted to: Weill Cornell Medical College GPA: 3.98 MCAT: 521

Sponsored by E fie Consulting Group : “ EFIIE ” boasts 100% match rate for all premedical and predental registered students. Not all students are accepted unto their pre-health student roster. Considered the most elite in the industry and assists from start to end – premed to residency. EFIIE is a one-stop-full-service education firm.

Following the physician’s unexpected request, we waited outside, anxiously waiting to hear the latest update on my father’s condition. It was early on in my father’s cancer progression – a change that had shaken our entire way of life overnight. During those 18 months, while my mother spent countless nights at the hospital, I took on the responsibility of caring for my brother. My social life became of minimal concern, and the majority of my studying for upcoming 12th- grade exams was done at the hospital. We were allowed back into the room as the physician walked out, and my parents updated us on the situation. Though we were a tight-knit family and my father wanted us to be present throughout his treatment, what this physician did was give my father a choice. Without making assumptions about who my father wanted in the room, he empowered him to make that choice independently in private. It was this respect directed towards my father, the subsequent efforts at caring for him, and the personal relationship of understanding they formed, that made the largest impact on him. Though my decision to pursue medicine came more than a year later, I deeply valued what these physicians were doing for my father, and I aspired to make a similar impact on people in the future.

It was during this period that I became curious about the human body, as we began to learn physiology in more depth at school. In previous years, the problem-based approach I could take while learning math and chemistry were primarily what sparked my interest. However, I became intrigued by how molecular interactions translated into large-scale organ function, and how these organ systems integrated together to generate the extraordinary physiological functions we tend to under-appreciate. I began my undergraduate studies with the goal of pursuing these interests, whilst leaning towards a career in medicine. While I was surprised to find that there were upwards of 40 programs within the life sciences that I could pursue, it broadened my perspective and challenged me to explore my options within science and healthcare. I chose to study pathobiology and explore my interests through hospital volunteering and research at the end of my first year.

Though my decision to pursue medicine came more than a year later, I deeply valued what these physicians were doing for my father, and I aspired to make a similar impact on people in the future.

While conducting research at St. Michael’s Hospital, I began to understand methods of data collection and analysis, and the thought process of scientific inquiry. I became acquainted with the scientific literature, and the experience transformed how I thought about the concepts I was learning in lecture. However, what stood out to me that summer was the time spent shadowing my supervisor in the neurosurgery clinic. It was where I began to fully understand what life would be like as a physician, and where the career began to truly appeal to me. What appealed to me most was the patient-oriented collaboration and discussions between my supervisor and his fellow; the physician-patient relationship that went far beyond diagnoses and treatments; and the problem solving that I experienced first-hand while being questioned on disease cases.

The day spent shadowing in the clinic was also the first time I developed a relationship with a patient. We were instructed to administer the Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) test to patients as they awaited the neurosurgeon. My task was to convey the instructions as clearly as possible and score each section. I did this as best I could, adapting my explanation to each patient, and paying close attention to their responses to ensure I was understood. The last patient was a challenging case, given a language barrier combined with his severe hydrocephalus. It was an emotional time for his family, seeing their father/husband struggle to complete simple tasks and subsequently give up. I encouraged him to continue trying. But I also knew my words would not remedy the condition underlying his struggles. All I could do was make attempts at lightening the atmosphere as I got to know him and his family better. Hours later, as I saw his remarkable improvement following a lumbar puncture, and the joy on his and his family’s faces at his renewed ability to walk independently, I got a glimpse of how rewarding it would be to have the ability and privilege to care for such patients. By this point, I knew I wanted to commit to a life in medicine. Two years of weekly hospital volunteering have allowed me to make a small difference in patients’ lives by keeping them company through difficult times, and listening to their concerns while striving to help in the limited way that I could. I want to have the ability to provide care and treatment on a daily basis as a physician. Moreover, my hope is that the breadth of medicine will provide me with the opportunity to make an impact on a larger scale. Whilst attending conferences on neuroscience and surgical technology, I became aware of the potential to make a difference through healthcare, and I look forward to developing the skills necessary to do so through a Master’s in Global Health. Whether through research, health innovation, or public health, I hope not only to care for patients with the same compassion with which physicians cared for my father, but to add to the daily impact I can have by tackling large-scale issues in health.

Taylor’s essay offers both a straightforward, in-depth narrative and a deep analysis of his experiences, which effectively reveals his passion and willingness to learn in the medical field. The anecdote of Taylor’s father gives the reader insight into an original instance of learning through experience and clearly articulates Taylor’s motivations for becoming a compassionate and respectful physician.

Taylor strikes an impeccable balance between discussing his accomplishments and his character. All of his life experiences — and the difficult challenges he overcame — introduce the reader to an important aspect of Taylor’s personality: his compassion, care for his family, and power of observation in reflecting on the decisions his father’s doctor makes. His description of his time volunteering at St. Michael’s Hospital is indicative of Taylor’s curiosity about medical research, but also of his recognition of the importance of the patient-physician relationship. Moreover, he shows how his volunteer work enabled him to see how medicine goes “beyond diagnoses and treatments” — an observation that also speaks to his compassion.

His description of his time volunteering at St. Michael's Hospital is indicative of Taylor's curiosity about medical research, but also of his recognition of the importance of the patient-physician relationship.

Finally, Taylor also tells the reader about his ambition and purpose, which is important when thinking about applying to medical school. He discusses his hope of tackling larger scale problems through any means possible in medicine. This notion of using self interest to better the world is imperative to a successful college essay, and it is nicely done here.

-- Accepted to: Washington University

Sponsored by A dmitRx : We are a group of Chicago-based medical students who realize how challenging medical school admissions can be, so we want to provide our future classmates with resources we wish we had. Our mission at AdmitRx is to provide pre-medical students with affordable, personalized, high-quality guidance towards becoming an admitted medical student.

Running has always been one of my greatest passions whether it be with friends or alone with my thoughts. My dad has always been my biggest role model and was the first to introduce me to the world of running. We entered races around the country, and one day he invited me on a run that changed my life forever. The St. Jude Run is an annual event that raises millions of dollars for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. My dad has led or our local team for as long as I can remember, and I had the privilege to join when I was 16. From the first step I knew this was the environment for me – people from all walks of life united with one goal of ending childhood cancer. I had an interest in medicine before the run, and with these experiences I began to consider oncology as a career. When this came up in conversations, I would invariably be faced with the question “Do you really think you could get used to working with dying kids?” My 16-year-old self responded with something noble but naïve like “It’s important work, so I’ll have to handle it”. I was 16 years young with my plan to become an oncologist at St. Jude.

As I transitioned into college my plans for oncology were alive and well. I began working in a biochemistry lab researching new anti-cancer drugs. It was a small start, but I was overjoyed to be a part of the process. I applied to work at a number of places for the summer, but the Pediatric Oncology Education program (POE) at St. Jude was my goal. One afternoon, I had just returned from class and there it was: an email listed as ‘POE Offer’. I was ecstatic and accepted the offer immediately. Finally, I could get a glimpse at what my future holds. My future PI, Dr. Q, specialized in solid tumor translational research and I couldn’t wait to get started.

I was 16 years young with my plan to become an oncologist at St. Jude.

Summer finally came, I moved to Memphis, and I was welcomed by the X lab. I loved translational research because the results are just around the corner from helping patients. We began a pre-clinical trial of a new chemotherapy regimen and the results were looking terrific. I was also able to accompany Dr. Q whenever she saw patients in the solid tumor division. Things started simple with rounds each morning before focusing on the higher risk cases. I was fortunate enough to get to know some of the patients quite well, and I could sometimes help them pass the time with a game or two on a slow afternoon between treatments. These experiences shined a very human light on a field I had previously seen only through a microscope in a lab.

I arrived one morning as usual, but Dr. Q pulled me aside before rounds. She said one of the patients we had been seeing passed away in the night. I held my composure in the moment, but I felt as though an anvil was crushing down on me. It was tragic but I knew loss was part of the job, so I told myself to push forward. A few days later, I had mostly come to terms with what happened, but then the anvil came crashing back down with the passing of another patient. I could scarcely hold back the tears this time. That moment, it didn’t matter how many miraculous successes were happening a few doors down. Nothing overshadowed the loss, and there was no way I could ‘get used to it’ as my younger self had hoped.

I was still carrying the weight of what had happened and it was showing, so I asked Dr. Q for help. How do you keep smiling each day? How do you get used to it? The questions in my head went on. What I heard next changed my perspective forever. She said you keep smiling because no matter what happened, you’re still hope for the next patient. It’s not about getting used to it. You never get used to it and you shouldn’t. Beating cancer takes lifetimes, and you can’t look passed a life’s worth of hardships. I realized that moving passed the loss of patients would never suffice, but I need to move forward with them. Through the successes and shortcomings, we constantly make progress. I like to imagine that in all our future endeavors, it is the hands of those who have gone before us that guide the way. That is why I want to attend medical school and become a physician. We may never end the sting of loss, but physicians are the bridge between the past and the future. No where else is there the chance to learn from tragedy and use that to shape a better future. If I can learn something from one loss, keep moving forward, and use that knowledge to help even a single person – save one life, bring a moment of joy, avoid a moment of pain—then that is how I want to spend my life.

The change wasn’t overnight. The next loss still brought pain, but I took solace in moving forward so that we might learn something to give hope to a future patient. I returned to campus in a new lab doing cancer research, and my passion for medicine continues to flourish. I still think about all the people I encountered at St. Jude, especially those we lost. It might be a stretch, but during the long hours at the lab bench I still picture their hands moving through mine each step of the way. I could never have foreseen where the first steps of the St. Jude Run would bring me. I’m not sure where the road to becoming a physician may lead, but with helping hands guiding the way, I won’t be running it alone.

This essay, a description of the applicant’s intellectual challenges, displays the hardships of tending to cancer patients as a milestone of experience and realization of what it takes to be a physician. The writer explores deeper ideas beyond medicine, such as dealing with patient deaths in a way to progress and improve as a professional. In this way, the applicant gives the reader some insight into the applicant’s mindset, and their ability to think beyond the surface for ways to become better at what they do.

However, the essay fails to zero in on the applicant’s character, instead elaborating on life events that weakly illustrate the applicant’s growth as a physician. The writer’s mantra (“keep moving forward”) is feebly projected, and seems unoriginal due to the lack of a personalized connection between the experience at St. Jude and how that led to the applicant’s growth and mindset changes.

The writer explores deeper ideas beyond medicine, such as dealing with patient deaths in a way to progress and improve as a professional.

The writer, by only focusing on grief brought from patient deaths at St. Jude, misses out on the opportunity to further describe his or her experience at the hospital and portray an original, well-rounded image of his or her strengths, weaknesses, and work ethic.

The applicant ends the essay by attempting to highlight the things they learned at St. Jude, but fails to organize the ideas into a cohesive, comprehensible section. These ideas are also too abstract, and are vague indicators of the applicant’s character that are difficult to grasp.

-- Accepted to: New York University School of Medicine

Sponsored by MedEdits : MedEdits Medical Admissions has been helping applicants get into medical schools like Harvard for more than ten years. Structured like an academic medical department, MedEdits has experts in admissions, writing, editing, medicine, and interview prep working with you collaboratively so you can earn the best admissions results possible.

“Is this the movie you were talking about Alice?” I said as I showed her the movie poster on my iPhone. “Oh my God, I haven’t seen that poster in over 70 years,” she said with her arms trembling in front of her. Immediately, I sat up straight and started to question further. We were talking for about 40 minutes, and the most exciting thing she brought up in that time was the new flavor of pudding she had for lunch. All of sudden, she’s back in 1940 talking about what it was like to see this movie after school for only 5¢ a ticket! After an engaging discussion about life in the 40’s, I knew I had to indulge her. Armed with a plethora of movie streaming sights, I went to work scouring the web. No luck. The movie, “My Son My Son,” was apparently not in high demand amongst torrenting teens. I had to entreat my older brother for his Amazon Prime account to get a working stream. However, breaking up the monotony and isolation felt at the nursing home with a simple movie was worth the pandering.

While I was glad to help a resident have some fun, I was partly motivated by how much Alice reminded me of my own grandfather. In accordance with custom, my grandfather was to stay in our house once my grandmother passed away. More specifically, he stayed in my room and my bed. Just like grandma’s passing, my sudden roommate was a rough transition. In 8th grade at the time, I considered myself to be a generally good guy. Maybe even good enough to be a doctor one day. I volunteered at the hospital, shadowed regularly, and had a genuine interest for science. However, my interest in medicine was mostly restricted to academia. To be honest, I never had a sustained exposure to the palliative side of medicine until the arrival of my new roommate.

The two years I slept on that creaky wooden bed with him was the first time my metal was tested. Sharing that room, I was the one to take care of him. I was the one to rub ointment on his back, to feed him when I came back from school, and to empty out his spittoon when it got full. It was far from glamorous, and frustrating most of the time. With 75 years separating us, and senile dementia setting in, he would often forget who I was or where he was. Having to remind him that I was his grandson threatened to erode at my resolve. Assured by my Syrian Orthodox faith, I even prayed about it; asking God for comfort and firmness on my end. Over time, I grew slow to speak and eager to listen as he started to ramble more and more about bits and pieces of the past. If I was lucky, I would be able to stich together a narrative that may or may have not been true. In any case, my patience started to bud beyond my age group.

Having to remind him that I was his grandson threatened to erode at my resolve.

Although I grew more patient with his disease, my curiosity never really quelled. Conversely, it developed further alongside my rapidly growing interest in the clinical side of medicine. Naturally, I became drawn to a neurology lab in college where I got to study pathologies ranging from atrophy associated with schizophrenia, and necrotic lesions post stroke. However, unlike my intro biology courses, my work at the neurology lab was rooted beyond the academics. Instead, I found myself driven by real people who could potentially benefit from our research. In particular, my shadowing experience with Dr. Dominger in the Veteran’s home made the patient more relevant in our research as I got to encounter geriatric patients with age related diseases, such as Alzhimer’s and Parkinson’s. Furthermore, I had the privilege of of talking to the families of a few of these patients to get an idea of the impact that these diseases had on the family structure. For me, the scut work in the lab meant a lot more with these families in mind than the tritium tracer we were using in the lab.

Despite my achievements in the lab and the classroom, my time with my grandfather still holds a special place in my life story. The more I think about him, the more confident I am in my decision to pursue a career where caring for people is just as important, if not more important, than excelling at academics. Although it was a lot of work, the years spent with him was critical in expanding my horizons both in my personal life and in the context of medicine. While I grew to be more patient around others, I also grew to appreciate medicine beyond the science. This more holistic understanding of medicine had a synergistic effect in my work as I gained a purpose behind the extra hours in the lab, sleepless nights in the library, and longer hours volunteering. I had a reason for what I was doing that may one day help me have long conversations with my own grandchildren about the price of popcorn in the 2000’s.

The most important thing to highlight in Avery’s essay is how he is able to create a duality between his interest in not only the clinical, more academic-based side of medicine, but also the field’s personal side.

He draws personal connections between working with Alice — a patient in a hospital or nursing home — and caring intensely for his grandfather. These two experiences build up the “synergistic” relationship between caring for people and studying the science behind medicine. In this way, he is able to clearly state his passions for medicine and explain his exact motives for entering the field. Furthermore, in his discussion of her grandfather, he effectively employs imagery (“rub ointment on his back,” “feed him when I came back from school,” etc.) to describe the actual work that he does, calling it initially as “far from glamorous, and frustrating most of the time.” By first mentioning his initial impression, then transitioning into how he grew to appreciate the experience, Avery is able to demonstrate a strength of character, sense of enormous responsibility and capability, and open-minded attitude.

He draws personal connections between working with Alice — a patient in a hospital or nursing home — and caring intensely for his grandfather.

Later in the essay, Avery is also able to relate his time caring for his grandfather to his work with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients, showcasing the social impact of his work, as the reader is likely already familiar with the biological impact of the work. This takes Avery’s essay full circle, bringing it back to how a discussion with an elderly patient about the movies reminds him of why he chose to pursue medicine.

That said, the essay does feel rushed near the end, as the writer was likely trying to remain within the word count. There could be a more developed transition before Avery introduces the last sentence about “conversations with my own grandchildren,” especially as a strong essay ending is always recommended.

-- Accepted To: Saint Louis University Medical School Direct Admission Medical Program

Sponsored by Atlas Admissions : Atlas Admissions provides expert medical school admissions consulting and test preparation services. Their experienced, physician-driven team consistently delivers top results by designing comprehensive, personalized strategies to optimize applications. Atlas Admissions is based in Boston, MA and is trusted by clients worldwide.

The tension in the office was tangible. The entire team sat silently sifting through papers as Dr. L introduced Adam, a 60-year-old morbidly obese man recently admitted for a large open wound along his chest. As Dr. L reviewed the details of the case, his prognosis became even bleaker: hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, cardiomyopathy, hyperlipidemia; the list went on and on. As the humdrum of the side-conversations came to a halt, and the shuffle of papers softened, the reality of Adam’s situation became apparent. Adam had a few months to live at best, a few days at worst. To make matters worse, Adam’s insurance would not cover his treatment costs. With no job, family, or friends, he was dying poor and alone.

I followed Dr. L out of the conference room, unsure what would happen next. “Well,” she muttered hesitantly, “We need to make sure that Adam is on the same page as us.” It’s one thing to hear bad news, and another to hear it utterly alone. Dr. L frantically reviewed all of Adam’s paperwork desperately looking for someone to console him, someone to be at his side. As she began to make calls, I saw that being a physician calls for more than good grades and an aptitude for science: it requires maturity, sacrifice, and most of all, empathy. That empathy is exactly what I saw in Dr. L as she went out of her way to comfort a patient she met hardly 20 minutes prior.

Since high school, I’ve been fascinated by technology’s potential to improve healthcare. As a volunteer in [the] Student Ambassador program, I was fortunate enough to watch an open-heart surgery. Intrigued by the confluence of technology and medicine, I chose to study biomedical engineering. At [school], I wanted to help expand this interface, so I became involved with research through Dr. P’s lab by studying the applications of electrospun scaffolds for dermal wound healing. While still in the preliminary stages of research, I learned about the Disability Service Club (DSC) and decided to try something new by volunteering at a bowling outing.

As she began to make calls, I saw that being a physician calls for more than good grades and an aptitude for science: it requires maturity, sacrifice, and most of all, empathy.

The DSC promotes awareness of cognitive disabilities in the community and seeks to alleviate difficulties for the disabled. During one outing, I collaborated with Arc, a local organization with a similar mission. Walking in, I was told that my role was to support the participants by providing encouragement. I decided to help a relatively quiet group of individuals assisted by only one volunteer, Mary. Mary informed me that many individuals with whom I was working were diagnosed with ASD. Suddenly, she started cheering, as one of the members of the group bowled a strike. The group went wild. Everyone was dancing, singing, and rejoicing. Then I noticed one gentleman sitting at our table, solemn-faced. I tried to start a conversation with him, but he remained unresponsive. I sat with him for the rest of the game, trying my hardest to think of questions that would elicit more than a monosyllabic response, but to no avail. As the game ended, I stood up to say bye when he mumbled, “Thanks for talking.” Then he quickly turned his head away. I walked away beaming. Although I was unable to draw out a smile or even sustain a conversation, at the end of the day, the fact that this gentleman appreciated my mere effort completely overshadowed the awkwardness of our time together. Later that day, I realized that as much as I enjoyed the thrill of research and its applications, helping other people was what I was most passionate about.

When it finally came time to tell Adam about his deteriorating condition, I was not sure how he would react. Dr. L gently greeted him and slowly let reality take its toll. He stoically turned towards Dr. L and groaned, “I don’t really care. Just leave me alone.” Dr. L gave him a concerned nod and gradually left the room. We walked to the next room where we met with a pastor from Adam’s church.

“Adam’s always been like that,” remarked the pastor, “he’s never been one to express emotion.” We sat with his pastor for over an hour discussing how we could console Adam. It turned out that Adam was part of a motorcycle club, but recently quit because of his health. So, Dr. L arranged for motorcycle pictures and other small bike trinkets to be brought to his room as a reminder of better times.

Dr. L’s simple gesture reminded me of why I want to pursue medicine. There is something sacred, empowering, about providing support when people need it the most; whether it be simple as starting a conversation, or providing support during the most trying of times. My time spent conducting research kindled my interest in the science of medicine, and my service as a volunteer allowed me to realize how much I valued human interaction. Science and technology form the foundation of medicine, but to me, empathy is the essence. It is my combined interest in science and service that inspires me to pursue medicine. It is that combined interest that makes me aspire to be a physician.

Parker’s essay focuses on one central narrative with a governing theme of compassionate and attentive care for patients, which is the key motivator for her application to medical school. Parker’s story focuses on her volunteer experience shadowing of Dr. L who went the extra mile for Adam, which sets Dr. L up as a role model for Parker as she enters the medical field. This effectively demonstrates to the reader what kind of doctor Parker wants to be in the future.

Parker’s narrative has a clear beginning, middle, and end, making it easy for the reader to follow. She intersperses the main narrative about Adam with experiences she has with other patients and reflects upon her values as she contemplates pursuing medicine as a career. Her anecdote about bowling with the patients diagnosed with ASD is another instance where she uses a story to tell the reader why she values helping people through medicine and attentive patient care, especially as she focuses on the impact her work made on one man at the event.

Parker's story focuses on her volunteer experience shadowing of Dr. L who went the extra mile for Adam, which sets Dr. L up as a role model for Parker as she enters the medical field.

All throughout the essay, the writing is engaging and Parker incorporates excellent imagery, which goes well with her varied sentence structure. The essay is also strong because it comes back full circle at its conclusion, tying the overall narrative back to the story of Dr. L and Adam, which speaks to Parker’s motives for going to medical school.

-- Accepted To: Emory School of Medicine

Growing up, I enjoyed visiting my grandparents. My grandfather was an established doctor, helping the sick and elderly in rural Taiwan until two weeks before he died at 91 years old. His clinic was located on the first floor of the residency with an exam room, treatment room, X-ray room, and small pharmacy. Curious about his work, I would follow him to see his patients. Grandpa often asked me if I want to be a doctor just like him. I always smiled, but was more interested in how to beat the latest Pokémon game. I was in 8th grade when my grandfather passed away. I flew back to Taiwan to attend his funeral. It was a gloomy day and the only street in the small village became a mourning place for the villagers. Flowers filled the streets and people came to pay their respects. An old man told me a story: 60 years ago, a village woman was in a difficult labor. My grandfather rushed into the house and delivered a baby boy. That boy was the old man and he was forever grateful. Stories of grandpa saving lives and bringing happiness to families were told during the ceremony. At that moment, I realized why my grandfather worked so tirelessly up until his death as a physician. He did it for the reward of knowing that he kept a family together and saved a life. The ability for a doctor to heal and bring happiness is the reason why I want to study medicine. Medical school is the first step on a lifelong journey of learning, but I feel that my journey leading up to now has taught me some things of what it means to be an effective physician.

With a newfound purpose, I began volunteering and shadowing at my local hospital. One situation stood out when I was a volunteer in the cardiac stress lab. As I attached EKG leads onto a patient, suddenly the patient collapsed and started gasping for air. His face turned pale, then slightly blue. The charge nurse triggered “Code Blue” and started CPR. A team of doctors and nurses came, rushing in with a defibrillator to treat and stabilize the patient. What I noticed was that medicine was not only about one individual acting as a superhero to save a life, but that it takes a team of individuals with an effective leader, working together to deliver the best care. I want to be a leader as well as part of a team that can make a difference in a person’s life. I have refined these lessons about teamwork and leadership to my activities. In high school I was an 8 time varsity letter winner for swimming and tennis and captain of both of those teams. In college I have participated in many activities, but notably serving as assistant principle cellist in my school symphony as well as being a co-founding member of a quartet. From both my athletic experiences and my music experiences I learned what it was like to not only assert my position as a leader and to effectively communicate my views, but equally as important I learned how to compromise and listen to the opinions of others. Many physicians that I have observed show a unique blend of confidence and humility.

What I noticed was that medicine was not only about one individual acting as a superhero to save a life, but that it takes a team of individuals with an effective leader, working together to deliver the best care.

College opened me up to new perspectives on what makes a complete physician. A concept that was preached in the Guaranteed Professional Program Admissions in Medicine (GPPA) was that medicine is both an art and a science. The art of medicine deals with a variety of aspects including patient relationships as well as ethics. Besides my strong affinity for the sciences and mathematics, I always have had interest in history. I took courses in both German literature and history, which influenced me to take a class focusing on Nazi neuroscientists. It was the ideology of seeing the disabled and different races as test subjects rather than people that led to devastating lapses in medical ethics. The most surprising fact for me was that doctors who were respected and leaders in their field disregarded the humanity of patient and rather focused on getting results from their research. Speaking with Dr. Zeidman, the professor for this course, influenced me to start my research which deals with the ethical qualms of using data derived from unethical Nazi experimentation such as the brains derived from the adult and child euthanasia programs. Today, science is so result driven, it is important to keep in mind the ethics behind research and clinical practice. Also the development of personalized genomic medicine brings into question about potential privacy violations and on the extreme end discrimination. The study of ethics no matter the time period is paramount in the medical field. The end goal should always be to put the patient first.

Teaching experiences in college inspired me to become a physician educator if I become a doctor. Post-MCAT, I was offered a job by Next Step Test Prep as a tutor to help students one on one for the MCAT. I had a student who stated he was doing well during practice, but couldn’t get the correct answer during practice tests. Working with the student, I pointed out his lack of understanding concepts and this realization helped him and improves his MCAT score. Having the ability to educate the next generation of doctors is not only necessary, but also a rewarding experience.

My experiences volunteering and shadowing doctors in the hospital as well as my understanding of what it means to be a complete physician will make me a good candidate as a medical school student. It is my goal to provide the best care to patients and to put a smile on a family’s face just as my grandfather once had. Achieving this goal does not take a special miracle, but rather hard work, dedication, and an understanding of what it means to be an effective physician.

Through reflecting on various stages of life, Quinn expresses how they found purpose in pursuing medicine. Starting as a child more interested in Pokemon than their grandfather’s patients, Quinn exhibits personal growth through recognizing the importance of their grandfather’s work saving lives and eventually gaining the maturity to work towards this goal as part of a team.

This essay opens with abundant imagery — of the grandfather’s clinic, flowers filling the streets, and the village woman’s difficult labor — which grounds Quinn’s story in their family roots. Yet, the transition from shadowing in hospitals to pursuing leadership positions in high schools is jarring, and the list of athletic and musical accomplishments reads like a laundry list of accomplishments until Quinn neatly wraps them up as evidence of leadership and teamwork skills. Similarly, the section about tutoring, while intended to demonstrate Quinn’s desire to educate future physicians, lacks the emotional resonance necessary to elevate it from another line lifted from their resume.

This essay opens with abundant imagery — of the grandfather's clinic, flowers filling the streets, and the village woman's difficult labor — which grounds Quinn's story in their family roots.

The strongest point of Quinn’s essay is the focus on their unique arts and humanities background. This equips them with a unique perspective necessary to consider issues in medicine in a new light. Through detailing how history and literature coursework informed their unique research, Quinn sets their application apart from the multitude of STEM-focused narratives. Closing the essay with the desire to help others just as their grandfather had, Quinn ties the narrative back to their personal roots.

-- Accepted To: Edinburgh University UCAT Score: 2810 BMAT Score: 4.6, 4.2, 3.5A

Exposure to the medical career from an early age by my father, who would explain diseases of the human body, sparked my interest for Medicine and drove me to seek out work experience. I witnessed the contrast between use of bone saws and drills to gain access to the brain, with subsequent use of delicate instruments and microscopes in neurosurgery. The surgeon's care to remove the tumour, ensuring minimal damage to surrounding healthy brain and his commitment to achieve the best outcome for the patient was inspiring. The chance to have such a positive impact on a patient has motivated me to seek out a career in Medicine.

Whilst shadowing a surgical team in Texas, carrying out laparoscopic bariatric procedures, I appreciated the surgeon's dedication to continual professional development and research. I was inspired to carry out an Extended Project Qualification on whether bariatric surgery should be funded by the NHS. By researching current literature beyond my school curriculum, I learnt to assess papers for bias and use reliable sources to make a conclusion on a difficult ethical situation. I know that doctors are required to carry out research and make ethical decisions and so, I want to continue developing these skills during my time at medical school.

The chance to have such a positive impact on a patient has motivated me to seek out a career in Medicine.

Attending an Oncology multi-disciplinary team meeting showed me the importance of teamwork in medicine. I saw each team member, with specific areas of expertise, contributing to the discussion and actively listening, and together they formed a holistic plan of action for patients. During my Young Enterprise Award, I facilitated a brainstorm where everyone pitched a product idea. Each member offered a different perspective on the idea and then voted on a product to carry forward in the competition. As a result, we came runners up in the Regional Finals. Furthermore, I started developing my leadership skills, which I improved by doing Duke of Edinburgh Silver and attending a St. John Ambulance Leadership course. In one workshop, similar to the bariatric surgeon I shadowed, I communicated instructions and delegated roles to my team to successfully solve a puzzle. These experiences highlighted the crucial need for teamwork and leadership as a doctor.

Observing a GP, I identified the importance of compassion and empathy. During a consultation with a severely depressed patient, the GP came to the patient's eye level and used a calm, non-judgmental tone of voice, easing her anxieties and allowing her to disclose more information. While volunteering at a care home weekly for two years, I adapted my communication for a resident suffering with dementia who was disconnected from others. I would take her to a quiet environment, speak slowly and in a non-threatening manner, as such, she became talkative, engaged and happier. I recognised that communication and compassion allows doctors to build rapport, gain patients' trust and improve compliance. For two weeks, I shadowed a surgeon performing multiple craniotomies a day. I appreciated the challenges facing doctors including time and stress management needed to deliver high quality care. Organisation, by prioritising patients based on urgency and creating a timetable on the ward round, was key to running the theatre effectively. Similarly, I create to-do-lists and prioritise my academics and extra-curricular activities to maintain a good work-life balance: I am currently preparing for my Grade 8 in Singing, alongside my A-level exams. I also play tennis for the 1st team to relax and enable me to refocus. I wish to continue my hobbies at university, as ways to manage stress.

Through my work experiences and voluntary work, I have gained a realistic understanding of Medicine and its challenges. I have begun to display the necessary skills that I witnessed, such as empathy, leadership and teamwork. The combination of these skills with my fascination for the human body drives me to pursue a place at medical school and a career as a doctor.

This essay traces Alex's personal exploration of medicine through different stages of life, taking a fairly traditional path to the medical school application essay. From witnessing medical procedures to eventually pursuing leadership positions, this tale of personal progress argues that Alex's life has prepared him to become a doctor.

Alex details how experiences conducting research and working with medical teams have confirmed his interest in medicine. Although the breadth of experiences speaks to the applicant’s interest in medicine, the essay verges on being a regurgitation of the Alex's resume, which does not provide the admissions officer with any new insights or information and ultimately takes away from the essay as a whole. As such, the writing’s lack of voice or unique perspective puts the applicant at risk of sounding middle-of-the-road.

From witnessing medical procedures to eventually pursuing leadership positions, this tale of personal progress argues that Alex's life has prepared him to become a doctor.

The essay’s organization, however, is one of its strengths — each paragraph provides an example of personal growth through a new experience in medicine. Further, Alex demonstrates his compassion and diligence through detailed stories, which give a reader a glimpse into his values. Through recognizing important skills necessary to be a doctor, Alex demonstrates that he has the mature perspective necessary to embark upon this journey.

What this essay lacks in a unique voice, it makes up for in professionalism and organization. Alex's earnest desire to attend medical school is what makes this essay shine.

-- Accepted To: University of Toronto MCAT Scores: Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems - 128, Critical Analysis and Reading Skills - 127, Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems - 127, Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior - 130, Total - 512

Moment of brilliance.

Revelation.

These are all words one would use to describe their motivation by a higher calling to achieve something great. Such an experience is often cited as the reason for students to become physicians; I was not one of these students. Instead of waiting for an event like this, I chose to get involved in the activities that I found most invigorating. Slowly but surely, my interests, hobbies, and experiences inspired me to pursue medicine.

As a medical student, one must possess a solid academic foundation to facilitate an understanding of physical health and illness. Since high school, I found science courses the most appealing and tended to devote most of my time to their exploration. I also enjoyed learning about the music, food, literature, and language of other cultures through Latin and French class. I chose the Medical Sciences program because it allowed for flexibility in course selection. I have studied several scientific disciplines in depth like physiology and pathology while taking classes in sociology, psychology, and classical studies. Such a diverse academic portfolio has strengthened my ability to consider multiple viewpoints and attack problems from several angles. I hope to relate to patients from all walks of life as a physician and offer them personalized treatment.

I was motivated to travel as much as possible by learning about other cultures in school. Exposing myself to different environments offered me perspective on universal traits that render us human. I want to pursue medicine because I believe that this principle of commonality relates to medical practice in providing objective and compassionate care for all. Combined with my love for travel, this realization took me to Nepal with Volunteer Abroad (VA) to build a school for a local orphanage (4). The project’s demands required a group of us to work closely as a team to accomplish the task. Rooted in different backgrounds, we often had conflicting perspectives; even a simple task such as bricklaying could stir up an argument because each person had their own approach. However, we discussed why we came to Nepal and reached the conclusion that all we wanted was to build a place of education for the children. Our unifying goal allowed us to reach compromises and truly appreciate the value of teamwork. These skills are vital in a clinical setting, where physicians and other health care professionals need to collaborate as a multidisciplinary team to tackle patients’ physical, emotional, social, and psychological problems.

I hope to relate to patients from all walks of life as a physician and offer them personalized treatment.

The insight I gained from my Nepal excursion encouraged me to undertake and develop the role of VA campus representative (4). Unfortunately, many students are not equipped with the resources to volunteer abroad; I raised awareness about local initiatives so everyone had a chance to do their part. I tried to avoid pushing solely for international volunteerism for this reason and also because it can undermine the work of local skilled workers and foster dependency. Nevertheless, I took on this position with VA because I felt that the potential benefits were more significant than the disadvantages. Likewise, doctors must constantly weigh out the pros and cons of a situation to help a patient make the best choice. I tried to dispel fears of traveling abroad by sharing first-hand experiences so that students could make an informed decision. When people approached me regarding unfamiliar placements, I researched their questions and provided them with both answers and a sense of security. I found great fulfillment in addressing the concerns of individuals, and I believe that similar processes could prove invaluable in the practice of medicine.

As part of the Sickkids Summer Research Program, I began to appreciate the value of experimental investigation and evidence-based medicine (23). Responsible for initiating an infant nutrition study at a downtown clinic, I was required to explain the project’s implications and daily protocol to physicians, nurses and phlebotomists. I took anthropometric measurements and blood pressure of children aged 1-10 and asked parents about their and their child’s diet, television habits, physical exercise regimen, and sunlight exposure. On a few occasions, I analyzed and presented a small set of data to my superiors through oral presentations and written documents.

With continuous medical developments, physicians must participate in lifelong learning. More importantly, they can engage in research to further improve the lives of their patients. I encountered a young mother one day at the clinic struggling to complete the study’s questionnaires. After I asked her some questions, she began to open up to me as her anxiety subsided; she then told me that her child suffered from low iron. By talking with the physician and reading a few articles, I recommended a few supplements and iron-rich foods to help her child. This experience in particular helped me realize that I enjoy clinical research and strive to address the concerns of people with whom I interact.

Research is often impeded by a lack of government and private funding. My clinical placement motivated me to become more adept in budgeting, culminating in my role as founding Co-President of the UWO Commerce Club (ICCC) (9). Together, fellow club executives and I worked diligently to get the club ratified, a process that made me aware of the bureaucratic challenges facing new organizations. Although we had a small budget, we found ways of minimizing expenditure on advertising so that we were able to host more speakers who lectured about entrepreneurship and overcoming challenges. Considering the limited space available in hospitals and the rising cost of health care, physicians, too, are often forced to prioritize and manage the needs of their patients.

No one needs a grand revelation to pursue medicine. Although passion is vital, it is irrelevant whether this comes suddenly from a life-altering event or builds up progressively through experience. I enjoyed working in Nepal, managing resources, and being a part of clinical and research teams; medicine will allow me to combine all of these aspects into one wholesome career.

I know with certainty that this is the profession for me.

Jimmy opens this essay hinting that his essay will follow a well-worn path, describing the “big moment” that made him realize why he needed to become a physician. But Jimmy quickly turns the reader’s expectation on its head by stating that he did not have one of those moments. By doing this, Jimmy commands attention and has the reader waiting for an explanation. He soon provides the explanation that doubles as the “thesis” of his essay: Jimmy thinks passion can be built progressively, and Jimmy’s life progression has led him to the medical field.

Jimmy did not make the decision to pursue a career in medicine lightly. Instead he displays through anecdotes that his separate passions — helping others, exploring different walks of life, personal responsibility, and learning constantly, among others — helped Jimmy realize that being a physician was the career for him. By talking readers through his thought process, it is made clear that Jimmy is a critical thinker who can balance multiple different perspectives simultaneously. The ability to evaluate multiple options and make an informed, well-reasoned decision is one that bodes well for Jimmy’s medical career.

While in some cases this essay does a lot of “telling,” the comprehensive and decisive walkthrough indicates what Jimmy’s idea of a doctor is. To him, a doctor is someone who is genuinely interested in his work, someone who can empathize and related to his patients, someone who can make important decisions with a clear head, and someone who is always trying to learn more. Just like his decision to work at the VA, Jimmy has broken down the “problem” (what his career should be) and reached a sound conclusion.

By talking readers through his thought process, it is made clear that Jimmy is a critical thinker who can balance multiple different perspectives simultaneously.

Additionally, this essay communicates Jimmy’s care for others. While it is not always advisable to list one’s volunteer efforts, each activity Jimmy lists has a direct application to his essay. Further, the sheer amount of philanthropic work that Jimmy does speaks for itself: Jimmy would not have worked at VA, spent a summer with Sickkids, or founded the UWO finance club if he were not passionate about helping others through medicine. Like the VA story, the details of Jimmy’s participation in Sickkids and the UWO continue to show how he has thought about and embodied the principles that a physician needs to be successful.

Jimmy’s essay both breaks common tropes and lives up to them. By framing his “list” of activities with his passion-happens-slowly mindset, Jimmy injects purpose and interest into what could have been a boring and braggadocious essay if it were written differently. Overall, this essay lets the reader know that Jimmy is seriously dedicated to becoming a physician, and both his thoughts and his actions inspire confidence that he will give medical school his all.

The Crimson's news and opinion teams—including writers, editors, photographers, and designers—were not involved in the production of this content.

• Medical School Application

Medical School Secondary Essay Examples from Accepted Applicants!

Plus tips for answering the 5 most common med school secondary essay prompts.

Before we jump into medical school secondary essay examples, you need to know that the main purpose of the secondary medical school application is to determine whether you are a good “fit” with the mission and values of the school you are applying to. Medical schools send out secondary essays to further assess the unique characteristics of each applicant that have not been addressed in the  AMCAS Work and Activities  section or your medical school personal statement . This post will go over medical school secondary essay examples from students who were accepted, and tips for writing strong essays that application committees will love. 

>> Want us to help you get accepted? Schedule a free strategy call here . <<

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Article Contents 16 min read

Medical school secondary essays: "why our school" prompt.

The most important component of answering this prompt is doing your research. Do you have a thorough understanding of the school's mission statement and values? What population or populations are they most interested in serving? How do they describe their student body? What curriculum-enriching activities are available to their students? Do they have a strong research program? Is their curriculum a good fit for your learning style? Are all of these things in line with your own values, career goals, and learning needs?

Being informed will demonstrate an interest in the program, allowing you to write a response showing that you will be a genuinely good fit for the school.

“Questions like these are an opportunity for you to shine and show the faculty what sets you apart from the other candidates … In your response, it is important to highlight things that are relevant to the institution’s mission and values while also explaining qualities that would make you a great asset to the program … it is important to always tailor your response to the school and program you are applying to, including for this question.” – Dr. Neel Mistry, MD

Would you like us to help you with your medical school secondary essays ","buttontext":"free strategy call","buttoncolor":"#ffffff","addtrustpilot":"false","bannerundertext":" ","belowbuttontext1":null,"belowbuttontext2":null,"trustpilot":false}" :url=""https:\/\/bemoacademicconsulting.com\/contact-schedule-free-strategy-call"" code="banner1" background-color="#000066" button-color="#ffffff" banner-image> to answer this prompt, it can be useful to think about how to choose a medical school and what you’re looking for. “my main priority [in choosing a med school] was location. since i knew i was going to spend four years there, i wanted it to be in a location that i could see myself having support and enjoying. beyond that i looked at opportunities for research support, patient population diversity, and locations where students matched. i also thought about where rotations occur during third year as i wanted to focus on hospitals where rotations were not scattered and centralized to a main hospital center.” – dr. monica taneja, md, university of maryland school of medicine..

What are you most excited about when you think of attending this school? Research? Global health? Community outreach? "}]" code="timeline1">

Medical School Secondary Essay Example: Why Our School?

Write a critical analysis of your personal and scholastic qualifications for the study of medicine, the realization of your professional ambitions, and why you are choosing to apply to our school.

When I was in kindergarten, I was playing tag with my friends when I noticed a kid sitting on the bench. He seemed visibly anxious and left out of the fun so I felt compelled to invite him to play with us. This sense of compassion lay the foundation for my desire to study medicine. As I grew older, I became more inquisitive about the natural world and wanted to know how everything worked and fit together. I started to become passionate about chemistry, mathematics and biology, finding that those subjects gave me the tools to understand my surroundings. I felt empowered with every new concept I would learn; however I never quite felt as though I knew enough. It was only when my friend asked for help with her mental illness that I realized just how much I did not know and how unequipped I was to help someone in this situation. The clash between my sense of compassion and my lack of knowledge and ability to help drove me to want to study medicine.

As I ventured into college, my knowledge-seeking tendencies manifested in an interest in biomedical engineering. I chose this degree for its ability to teach me about the design and manufacturing of groundbreaking medical technologies such as skin-grafts, medical imaging devices, and prostheses. I dreamt of pushing clinical innovations and finding the next technology to revolutionize patient care. Aside from educating myself in medical technology, my college years gave me a lasting perspective and understanding of the Hispanic community’s struggles. I once accompanied my friends to volunteer in a mobile clinic. It was early in the morning when a nurse told me to put up a sign that read: “We do not check IDs.” At first, I was confused, but after careful consideration, I realized that it was to not deter illegal immigrants from seeking medical aid. As the day went on and patients came in, I noticed that most did not have the means to afford regular health and dental care. Most of them prayed that their illnesses would go away on their own because they did not have the means to get professional help. This experience really opened my eyes to the plight of underserved communities and reinforced my decision to pursue medicine so that I could help serve those who were unable to help themselves.

I applied to X University for its opportunities to allow me to work with underserved communities and develop the technical and interpersonal skills to provide patients from these communities the best care. I hope to combine my experience within medicine and engineering to push clinical technologies and advancements further to provide cheap and effective alternatives to current medications and treatments to drive down the cost of healthcare so that it can become available to more people.  

Questions surrounding cultural competency delve into your ability to interact with people whose culture, beliefs, or values are different from your own. Are you able to help people in a way that is in line with their values and belief system, even if these values and beliefs are not in line with your own? It is also important to realize the vital role that effective communication plays in bridging cultural differences.

Similar to the TMDSAS personal characteristics essay, your essay should focus on the barriers you encountered, the communication strategies you employed to overcome these barriers, how you helped the person in a way that respected their beliefs, and how you will apply this lesson in the future.

Great ideas for narratives that could address the diversity secondary essay prompt include:

• A time when you used your problem-solving skills to help someone from a socio-cultural background different from your own.
• A time you advocated for someone from a different socio-cultural background from your own.
• How you used your communication skills to overcome a language barrier and help someone.
• A reflection on what you learned from working with people with a different background from your own.
• A reflection on communicating with people with a different background from your own.
• A reflection on learning about and accepting the difference in beliefs of people with a different background from your own.
• A reflection on an interaction with an individual whose values were different from your own.

Medical School Secondary Essay Example: Diversity Essays

A. Describe how you relate to someone who is very different from you. Examples of differences may be cultural, racial, religious, economic, gender/sexual orientation, lifestyle.

The world is so diverse and it can be easy to resign to only care for and be informed of one’s own personal interests. To connect with someone else is to choose to forgo ignorance and aim to understand other people and their backgrounds. This is a choice that is made every day when we decide how to interact in society.

In my first year of university, I roomed with a person who immigrated from Colombia. I saw how difficult it was for her to transition to a new country and to overcome cultural barriers. Instead of accepting the fact that our cultures rendered us incompatible, I decided to educate myself on her culture. I started to read of the political unrest in Colombia, I found Latin music we could listen to, and I utilized my basic Spanish to try to make her feel at home. Five years later, we still live together and are the best of friends. It's clear that a little effort trying to understand the life and journey of someone else can go a long way to building connections and trust.

Would you rather watch a video? Here are the most common medical school secondary essay prompts:

B. Please discuss the diversity that you would bring to our school of medicine and the profession of medicine.

The challenges I faced as a first-generation immigrant has taught me several valuable lessons, which have influenced my pursuit of medicine. Here in the States, I am granted liberties that are otherwise unattainable in Vietnam- specifically access to quality healthcare and opportunities for growth and enrichment. My first exposure to medicine did not transpire in a hospital but instead took place in a small tent affiliated with a roaming clinic.

The significant gap in healthcare accessibility, advancement, and quality between the States and the developing countries were increasingly apparent when I returned to Vietnam to visit my family. In time, I also realized that these similar circumstances and situations exist in my local community as well. This has inspired me to advocate for the underserved population because I, myself, can identify with their struggles. During our financial crisis, my family received overwhelming support and generosity from several neighborhood communities. I wish to return the kindness. Now more than ever, in a time where immigrants are restricted access, I must fight to give them a voice.

I also bring with me the traditions and culture of a Vietnamese American. I have developed my own understanding of the diverse facets of the Asian American identity and the ripple effect it has on the community. Through lion dancing and partnering with the Vietnamese and Chinese communities, I grasped the important role that communities play in providing resources. To become one of the few Vietnamese doctors in the area would allow me to address the needs of the community and give me a platform to collaborate with other communities of color. One of my goals is to break down the language barriers and stigmas surrounding the older Asian community and help them achieve their health goals.

I bring a steadfast mindset of advocating for the underserved in my community and as an immigrant Vietnamese American, I aim to use my position to influence decisions that will benefit the entire community.

Medical School Secondary Essays: "Overcoming Challenges" Prompt

This prompt is looking at what medical schools typically refer to as “resilience”. The reality is that you will be faced with a wide variety of challenges during your medical training. Medical schools are looking for candidates who are equipped with mature coping strategies, enabling them to proficiently navigate whatever life, or medical school, decides to throw at them.

You can use any example from your own life to address this prompt. Ideas include:

• A time when things did not go according to plan.
• Overcoming a setback.
• Overcoming an illness or injury.
• Dealing with the illness of a loved one.

The important thing to remember with this prompt is to keep it positive. Focus on the strategies you used to overcome the hurdle that presented itself to you, and what you learned from the situation. Review some adversity essays for medical school for inspiration.

“It is not only important to highlight the situation in detail but to also reflect on your actions. Drawing upon lessons from this experience and how you used what you learned to make changes the next time around is key to demonstrating a growth mindset.” – Dr. Neel Mistry, MD.

Describe a challenging situation you faced and what you did to address it.

My sister was diagnosed with epilepsy at 3 months old, and it has been a continual learning experience. She never qualified for an autism diagnosis, but her behaviors resembled an autistic or neurodivergent individual. As an 8-year-old, I did not notice public reactions to my sister’s behaviors.

But, as we both grew older, I became embarrassed when people would stare at her, or notice her behavioral differences. Behavioral incidents continued to occur throughout my time in high school and college. However, I have grown into a more empathetic person who better understands the difficulties my sister faces. I won’t deny that sometimes it is still embarrassing, but I remind myself that she struggles to control her behaviors and it is not her fault.

The best way I can help her as a sister is to be there for her and try to help her through the emotions she may not be able to express all the time. Understanding my sister has made me into a stronger, more confident and empathetic woman.

Medical School Secondary Essays: "Future Goals" Prompt

It’s okay not to know exactly what kind of doctor you want to be or what medical specialty you want to pursue. For this prompt, reflect on the experiences that cemented your decision to pursue medicine.

• What was it specifically about these experiences that made you want to become a doctor?
• What fascinated you the most? Why?
• What patient population did you enjoy working with the most? Why?

You can then go on to say what kind of doctor you would like to be, or, if you haven't decided, suggest more generally which direction you would like to see your career take (i.e. mention a patient population you think you would like to work with). Many students change their minds once having been in medical school a couple of years, so it’s reasonable to say that you will keep your eyes open and continue to explore every opportunity!

Medical School Secondary Essay Example: Your Future Goals

Professionalism and the ability to gain respect in the community in which you live is of utmost importance as you embark upon a career as a physician. What three professional qualities do you feel a Student Doctor must be able to demonstrate as he/or she makes the transition into the study and practice of medicine? How will you demonstrate those qualities as a medical student at RowanSOM?

There are many valuable attributes a student doctor must possess, but the three of which I consider the most valuable are self-discipline/reflection, open-mindedness/sensitivity, and teamwork skills.

Possessing self-discipline and self-reflection skills are key for any student doctor planning on tackling the arduous medical courses that will come their way. Through my undergraduate career, I have constantly improved upon my academic study strategies to adapt to the rigors of upper-level biological courses. I realize that when one way does not work it is crucial to consult peers, advisors, and professors to improve my approach. Such changes included recording my lectures, attending more office hours, and even seeking resources outside of my lecture material to supplement my knowledge. I use this principle in my personal health goals as well. For example, my favorite hobby that I use to keep me grounded is going to the gym, where I attempt to break my fitness plateaus by researching and consulting peers. It is this drive to constantly improve myself that will allow me to overcome the many obstacles that will come my way during my medical pursuit.

In addition, it is important for student doctors to be open-minded and sensitive when understanding patients from diverse backgrounds. My research experience at the Center for Addiction, Personality, and Emotion Research enriched my understanding of the socioeconomic and environmental factors that are involved in developing addiction disorders. Learning about the neurobehavioral and psychological processes that underlie addictive behavior reinforced my awareness of the health disparities that arise from environmental and social systems in my local community. It is imperative to understand the patient outside of their symptoms in order to realize the other factors involved in their diagnosis. I aim to one day use this knowledge to inform my future patients of preventative measures and how to overcome their environmental strains.

Lastly, it is crucial for student doctors to develop teamwork skills when entering the field of medicine. Physicians have to be prepared to engage and work within different teamwork structures or environments with other specialists to provide high-quality care for their patients. My experiences as an EMT taught me firsthand how critical it is to build long-lasting relationships based on trust with your team. I have spent countless hours getting to know my EMS crew to ensure that we built a sense of camaraderie that would allow us to work well together during calls. I remember one occasion when my partner was flustered during a stressful call and could not remember the next step in delivering a treatment protocol to a patient. I noticed he was frustrated and subtly reminded him of the next step. Based on our relationship and trust, he acted on my advice and later thanked me for the assistance. Knowing that we always had each other’s back gave us the reassurance and confidence we needed to handle the many unpredictable calls that came our way. I hope to strengthen this same sense of teamwork as a future physician.

If you have an academic lapse or took a break that you wish to explain to the admissions committee, you may want to prepare this prompt in advance. The most important things to focus on are:

• Clearly, yet briefly, explain the situation that led to the break or lapse.
• Outlining how you moved past the situation.
• Outlining what you learned from the situation, and how you will manage similar situations going forward.

“The best way to address red flags is to be open and honest … and provide open reflection on how you grew from the experience.” – Dr. Monica Taneja, MD.

“what i would do in these situations is talk about the red flag/gap in an open and honest way without sounding closed off or confrontational about it … essentially, you are taking something that would normally be considered a negative and spinning into a positive.” – dr. jaime cazes, md, university of toronto temerty faculty of medicine., medical school secondary essay example: academic lapses or breaks.

If you have taken a gap year(s), please explain what you have been, or will be, doing since graduating from your undergrad institution. 

I threw myself into the medical school application process during my final year of my undergrad degree. Realizing that my application was lacking, I have spent the time since graduation gaining volunteer and leadership experience, improving my MCAT score, and taking science prerequisite courses.

Taking post-baccalaureate classes proved advantageous. I was thrilled when my MCAT score improved significantly, going from 505 to 517. My score was a testament to the hard work and dedication I put into my organic chemistry and molecular biology courses, and to the time management, accountability, and work ethic I refined in studying for the MCAT.

While pursuing post-baccalaureate science courses improved my academics, volunteering at a seniors’ care center has opened my eyes to the issues facing seniors and those who care for them. Once, upon entering the facility, I heard a patient calling for help; he had fallen and could not get back into his wheelchair. Per volunteer protocol, I cannot physically assist the residents into their chairs. However, after determining that he was not physically hurt, I calmly reassured him that I was getting help and informed the nurses of his situation. This incident and other experiences at the center allowed me to develop and practice skills such as enforcing appropriate boundaries, working with others, and handling unexpected and stressful circumstances with poise.

From my various experiences, I have developed and refined my belief system and skill set. I've developed a greater sensitivity to those facing physical or mental limitations, and a dedication to serving my community in overcoming such challenges. I’ve learned the value of being empathetic and showing compassion in the process. I've developed the critical traits and values that I am certain this school would be proud of, whether as a student or as a physician.

Pre-writing your secondaries for med school is key! Here's how:

Medical School Secondary Essays: Tips from Our Experts and Students

1. submit your essays as soon as you can.

Submitting your essays early means you can take advantage of medical schools’ rolling admissions process. As soon as medical school secondary essays are received, decisions about interview invites are made. Submitting early means a better chance of securing an interview, and therefore an acceptance letter. Being delayed with your secondaries can cost you both! One of our students, Rishi, had to reapply after submitting his secondaries too late and receiving zero interview invites.

“[One of] the things that really I think prevented me from getting in the first time around is I was just very delayed with my secondaries … I didn't even get any interviews that first cycle because I was so late on my secondaries.” – Rishi, former BeMo student.

Planning your secondaries well ahead of time also ensures you’re not rushing to write, proof, rewrite and finalize your essays.

“It is advisable to start preparing for secondaries as early as possible so that you have enough time to revise and go through multiple iterations of edits prior to submitting. Also, getting a fresh pair of eyes to have a look is never a bad idea.” – Dr. Neel Mistry, MD.

2. pre-write your med school secondary essays.

Some of you may be realizing at this point that you’ve applied to 10-20 schools and that each will likely send somewhere between 2-10 prompts. That’s a lot of essay writing! To get on top of this, we recommend pre-writing your secondary essays.

“Secondaries were a lot of work especially after completing all of the primary application materials. I tried to pre-write secondaries starting in mid-June as there aren’t many changes year to year in prompts, which are easily found online. For each school I read their mission statement and tailored my answers to their priorities. Since many essays also overlap between schools, I was able to morph different essays based on length to reduce overall writing. Pre-writing allowed me to have [less than] 1 week turn around on all of my secondary application returns.” – Dr. Monica Taneja, MD.

If you check out our comprehensive list of medical school secondary essay prompts , you can pull out common themes for the schools you are most interested in applying to. You should then create an essay outline or rough essay that addresses each of these themes.

“A lot of these prompts, they might be worded a little bit different … but there's some broad [question] types. If you compare a couple of schools, there will be some overlap and that's helpful because you can write what are these common skeletons that will allow you to be more efficient.” – Rishi, BeMo student.

Though schools may change their prompts from year to year, pre-planning at least some of your essays will make you much more efficient with your writing, allowing you to create consistently well-thought-out essays. 

Just like with your medical school personal statement, your personal stories will help your secondary essays stand out and be more memorable to the admissions committee.

“These application readers are reading a large volume of essays and sometimes they're not spending as much time as you might think. They are kind of glancing over every word so you have to think like what they are going to remember from this when they read it.” – Rishi, BeMo student.

As part of your pre-writing plan, start brainstorming personal experiences or influences you can talk about in your secondaries to make your points and keep your readers’ attention.

Medical school secondary essays are meant to provide medical school with more specific information about your candidacy and fit for their programs. The questions are geared towards the missions, requirements, and goals of each program. They are usually sent out once primary applications have been submitted.

Some schools will list a deadline (UCLA secondary essays are due after fifteen days). If the school does not specify a deadline, you should aim to submit your secondaries no later than 2 weeks after receiving the invites to complete them.

Some of the most common med school secondary prompts include "Why our school?", "Cultural Competency", "Overcoming Challenges", and "Future Goals". Pay attention to the wording of the prompts, as they may not include this direct terminology, but you should approach them with specific strategies to answer them.

Each medical school will have its own secondaries requirements. Some may ask for 1 or 2 essays, while others may require 10. Check the requirements of your schools of choice to make sure.

Yes, there are some medical schools without secondary essays , but these are rare. Check with the programs of your choice to make sure.

Many med schools recycle their secondary prompts from year to year. Plus, there are some common themes that all secondaries explore. Check out the old prompts from your schools of choice to start planning general outlines for your essays.

Most likely, you will be eliminated from the applicant selection pool right away. Med schools will want to see your dedicated and commitment to their school, which secondaries demonstrate. If you are late or do not submit them at all, you will no longer be considered for a position in their medical school.

If you applied to many med schools, there is a chance you will have trouble completing all the secondaries on time. If this is your position, you should certainly try to complete all of them on time and of good quality. Focus on the schools you want to attend and where you have the highest chance of acceptance and complete their secondaries first.

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Have a question ask our admissions experts below and we'll answer your questions.

Wynne Milhouse

Hello! Would it be okay to write about how not getting into medical school the first time was a time of adversity, even if it was on a secondary for a school I didn't apply to last time (or if it was)? I feel as if this prompt may show up for schools that I did and did not apply to two years ago, but not getting into medical school the first time WAS a big hurdle, and I have made significant changes to combat this. Is it okay to talk about that, or will that reflect poorly on me? Thanks! Best, Wynne Milhouse

BeMo Academic Consulting

Hello Wynne! Thank you very much for your question. Absolutely, you should write about not getting into med school the first time even if you are writing secondaries for a school you did not apply to last time. You can even mention that you are now applying to this school because you improved your research and found that this would be a more suitable choice for you. Let us know if you have any other questions!

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Medical school personal statement examples.

Get accepted to your top choice medical school with your compelling essay.

THE TOP 10 MEDICAL SCHOOLS

HAVE AN AVERAGE ACCEPTANCE RATE OF 5.3%

A GREAT MEDICAL SCHOOL PERSONAL STATEMENT IS KEY IN THE APPLICATION PROCESS

If you want to get into the best school, you need to stand out from other applicants.  

U.S. News   reports the average medical school acceptance rate at the top 100 med schools at 6.35% , but our med school clients enjoy an 85% ACCEPTANCE RATE .

How can you separate yourself from the competition successfully? By creating a great personal statement.

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Here we present medical school personal statement examples to give you ideas for your own essay.

Pay close attention to the consistent format of these effective personal statements:

ENGAGING INTRODUCTION / UNIFYING THEME / COMPELLING CONCLUSION

Give the admissions committee readers a clear picture of you as an individual, a student, and a future medical professional. Make them want to meet you after they finish reading your essay.

Here's what you'll find on this page:

• How Sample Med School Essays Can Help You
• Before you Start Writing
• Writing Your Opening Paragraph
• Writing Your Body Paragraphs
• Writing Transitions
• Writing Your Conclusion
• Common Elements Between Personal Statements

Five Don'ts for Your Medical School Personal Statement

• Personal Statement Examples & Analysis
• Frequently Asked Questions

How can these sample med school essays help you?

You plan to become a physician, a highly respected professional who will have great responsibility over the health and well being of your future patients. How can you prove to the admissions committee that you have the intelligence, the maturity, the compassion, and the dedication needed to succeed in your goal? 

The medical school personal statement examples below are all arguments in favor of top med schools accepting these applicants. And they worked. The applicants who wrote these essays were all accepted to top medical schools - most to multiple schools. They show a variety of experiences and thought processes that all led to the same outcome. However, while the paths to this decision point vary widely, these winning essays share several things in common. 

As you read them, take note of how the stories are built sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, adding to the evidence that the writer is worthy of acceptance. This evidence includes showing a sustained focus, mature self-reflection, and professional and educational experiences that have helped prepare the applicant to succeed. 

As you write your medical school personal statement , include your most compelling, memorable and meaningful experiences that are relevant to your decision to become a doctor. Each sentence should add to the reader’s understanding of who you are, what your strengths are, and why you will make an outstanding physician. Your resulting essay will help the adcom appreciate your intellectual and psychological strengths as well as your motivations, and conclude that you are worthy of acceptance into a top medical school. 

Techniques for creating successful medical school personal statements

Before you start writing your med school personal statement.

Before you start writing your medical school personal statement you will need to choose a topic that will reflect who you are and engage the reader. There are a few strong ways to proceed. Try freewriting with a few of the following topic ideas.

Why medicine? Do you have a personal experience that made you certain about being a physician? How, when, did you know this was the right career for you? Is there a doctor you know (or knew) who emulates an altruistic moral character, someone who won your deepest respect? Can you show this person in action or describe them as they model inherent qualities, those for which you will strive as a physician?

How has a clinical experience been a real growth moment for you? Can you tell that story? Sometimes a clinical experience is deeply personal, something experienced by you or by someone in your family. Sometimes a clinical experience is about a patient whose situation taught you something deeply valuable, something honestly insightful about what good care means, about humanity, about empathy, about compassion, about community, about advantage and disadvantage, about equity and inclusion. 

Choose an experience outside the comfort of your own community, an experience where you were the outsider (uncertain, facing ambiguity) and this experience brought about a fresh, resonant understanding of yourself and others, an understanding that made you grow as a person, and perhaps brought about humility or joy in light of this geographical or cultural dislocation. Often this prompt includes traveling to other countries. Yet, it could work just as beautifully discovering people in close places that were previously unfamiliar to you – the shelter in the next town over, a foster home for medically unstable children, the day you witnessed food insecurity firsthand at a local church and decided to do something about disparity.

Read other successful personal statements in guides and publications. You can read sample personal statements that work here: medical school personal statement examples

The prompts above have great possibilities to be successful because they locate experiences that require better than average human understanding and insight. When we re-convey a moving human experience well, we tell a story that aims to bring us together, unite us in our common humanity. Telling powerful stories about humanity, in the end, presents your deeper attributes to others and demonstrates your capacity to feel deeply about the human condition. 

Be careful how often you use the first person pronoun, though you may use it. Revise for clarity many more times than you might do in other writing moments. Choose precise vocabulary that sounds like you, and, of course, revise so that you present to your readers the most pristinely grammatical you. 

Once you’ve looked at the sample medical school personal statements in the link above, try freewriting again according to one of the themes listed that applies to you. For instance, perhaps your prior freewriting aimed to describe a moment in your life that seeded your interest in medicine. Great. Save that file. Now, start again with a different topic, perhaps one from the linked page of sample personal statements. For instance, let your freewriting explore the time you traveled to another country to participate in a public health mission. What person immediately comes to mind? Hopefully this person is quite different from you in identity and culture. Make sure this comes across. Describe the scene when you first encountered this person. What happened? Tell that story. Why do you think you remember this person so vividly? Did the experience challenge you? Did you learn something deeper and perhaps more complex about humanity, about culture, about your own assumptions about humanity? Hopefully, you grew from this experience. How did you grow? What do you now understand that you did not understand before having had this experience? Hindsight may very well bring about perspective that demonstrates that you now understand the value of that human encounter. 

Here is a cautionary bit of advice about writing about childhood. Yes, it is relatively common to have had a formidable experience in childhood about illness, health, healthcare, medicine or doctors. Right? Most of us have had at least one critical health issue in our own family when still a child. Sometimes it is absolutely true that a moment in childhood began your interest in healthcare. 

One may have had a diagnosis as a child that turned one’s life path toward being health-aware. For instance, are you a juvenile-onset, Type I diabetic? Do you have a cognitive or physical disability? Were you raised in a home with someone who had a critical illness or disability? Did a sibling, parent or grandparent get gravely sick when you were young? 

Upon writing-up any of these situations for your personal statement, there is a catch-22. For medical school application activities, the rule of thumb is “nothing from high school.” So why then is it sometimes a good idea to write about a childhood situation in a personal statement? The answer has to do with the uniqueness of your story and the quality of hindsight through which you narrate it.

Let us slow down for a moment on the issue of writing about childhood. Typically, traditional applicants to medical school are steadfastly dedicated to their academic and pre-professional aims. Science curriculum, especially pre-med curriculum, is demanding and rigorous, and it trains science students to excel in empirical thinking and assessment. 

Sometimes, when asked to write a personal essay, hard core science students feel the rug pulled out from under them. Are you more confident and meticulous about action steps and future plans than you are confident about being a sage looking back on your life? Chances are your answer is “yes.” 

Of course you can write; you’re a smart person and a very good student. Yet, writing a heartfelt, perceptive essay about yourself or an aspect of your life for an application to medical school is unnerving even as you understand why your application might benefit from story-telling. Yes, your application should benefit from your engaging, authorial presence in the essay. An application that lacks this is wholly at a disadvantage. 

Perhaps you are gravitating to the choice to share a story about your childhood. 

For instance, what if you sat down to free-write the following prompt:

Draft an essay about a childhood experience that ingrained medicine as one of your inherent interests. Do so in a manner that demonstrates the value of hindsight while telling it.

Is it hard to stay calm about this prompt right now even though this prompt is precisely what could make your personal statement successful? The idea of this prompt is what many successful applicants have written well, and you can too. Why not seek professional guidance for your personal essay? Accepted has consultants who advise applicants through this process. We advise you on the whole process of developing a successful idea for an essay, help you mine your experiences, outline your strongest ideas, and after you’ve written them up, edit your drafts. You can view these personal statement services here: Essay Package

Back to tips. The key to writing a personal statement that frames a moment in childhood well is to stand firmly in the present and stay descriptive and perceptive. Write up that experience trusting you have insight. Quite a bit of time has passed since then, and that distance has given you the opportunity to see things a little differently now. 

Let’s presume you want to write about how as a child you had an older sibling with a cognitive impairment. You and your family witnessed time and again doors being shut, so to speak, on his ability to be included in school events or community events.

Free writing A: My older brother, G, had moderate cognitive impairment. He was never given field time in soccer games. When this happened, G cried. When this happened, I cried and felt hurt by how much time my parents spent trying to calm him down, eventually leaving the field, holding him close and bringing us back home, another Saturday wrecked. 

Example A has no benefit of hindsight.

Free writing B (with some hindsight): My older brother, G, had moderate cognitive impairment. Most of the time, kids were kind to him. “Hey G, how are you, man?,” they would say and high-five him. Most kids greeted him, offered him snacks and a seat on the sideline blanket. It was touching to see him included and seen at soccer games.

Further hindsight: G was rarely played in the game. 

Reflective comment: No harm would have been done in letting him play. It’s clear to me now how much more work we each need to do about inclusion. Community-based team sports are pretty good about extending kindness at the sidelines, but that is not the same thing as letting all kids play in the game. I am still grateful for every kindness extended to my brother, but perhaps letting him play in the game would have demonstrated to kids and parents alike a deeper message about the importance of inclusion over winning. The coaches meant no harm, but that is precisely how unconscious bias plays. Afterall, community by its very definition is about inclusion.

Standing tall on this matter brings out a maturity and vocabulary to master this kind of personal writing that Free Writing A lacks. You don’t want to go back in time and join your younger self and narrate from that perspective. The “return” to your former child typically results in replicating a childlike emotional capacity – and chances are, that’s not you anymore. You’ve seen more. You’ve grown more. You’re now formally educated. You’re more skilled at making connections between ideas and experiences. You can narrate a scene or circumstance and attach awareness of what you realize now it means – like the over-narratives of documentaries where the author sheds true insight about the meaning of past events. 

Most traditional applicants to medical school are just a few years older than teenagers. 

When hindsight brings great clarity and insight to the significance of an experience, we demonstrate a keener maturity and an understanding that in authoring an experience we have a responsibility to demonstrate how a personal experience becomes a valuable portal to understanding the situation of others. Hindsight done well can be a stunningly beautiful and engaging narrative skill.

Perhaps you would rather write about a clinical experience? If you write about patients, change names, change gender, change some context to assure anonymity. Nearly all healthcare workers are concerned about telling patient stories because we worry about appropriating someone else’s experience, or feel we may not have the right, literally since HIPAA set rules on patients’ privacy rights in 1996. We should be concerned about telling patients’ stories; however, how we tell them is key in honoring them. When we honor patients and convey their stories to others we demonstrate the reciprocity of the professional relationship. Physicians no longer have a prescriptive, patrician role. Physicians are no longer sole authorities. Physicians and patients establish a reciprocal relationship, a two way street wherein a physician steps into a space of illness with the patient and walks with them, with the goal of healing, curing and advocating for them. When doctors tell stories, they establish that patients matter, that these encounters matter, that doctors think about patients and often learn from them. 

How we write patient stories is best done humbly, of course. We can narrate a story that becomes exemplary for its insight and empathy – after all, insight and empathy are desirable traits of a physician. Be sure to show rather than tell, most of the time. Be sure to capture the sensory detail of people and place. For instance, is the patient sitting on a blue plastic chair under ultraviolet lights in the waiting room of a free clinic? Is a woman with her gray hair twisted in a bun wearing a cotton hospital gown, waiting against a concrete wall in a tiny examination room with the door open? (Setting makes a character more real.) 

Finally, your story perspective, what you see and understand, becomes another way of revealing who you are. 

How to write your opening paragraph:

A strong opening paragraph for a story begins “several pages in.” A strong story begins with you, the narrator, already standing in the ocean with water splashing at your knees. This is called a hook: “D began to bleed after the second attempt to start an intravenous line.” 

Then, get the basic narrative facts down, the 5 W’s, the who, what, where, when and why, so your readers will not be confused: “She was a patient in the infusion clinic in the cancer pavilion of a major Boston hospital. She came to the clinic for her first round of chemotherapy.”

What else about this moment engaged you? Did D come to her appointment alone via an Uber ride? Why wasn’t anyone with her? How did that make you feel? Did the two of you hold a conversation while you were trying to start an IV? Why do you think she started to bleed? How did she respond when she saw you were having trouble starting this IV? Why didn’t she have a Medi-port yet? Here, you are building fuller context for her story. Don’t race through the scene; rather, build it, slowing down time, using images and sensory details to “paint” with your words. Smaller details, necessary ones, help you portray D as an individual. 

“Semper Fidelis was tattooed on her forearm. ‘Thank you for your service,’ I said.” 

“‘This cancer thing,’ she said, ‘this is nothing.’”

“D’s comment set me back. She had triple-negative breast cancer. She had blood running down her arm to her hand, between her fingers and onto a stiff, white pillow case on which she rested her arm. Triple-negative breast cancer was much more than nothing. In fact, it was very serious.” 

What questions came to mind that provide several ways of reading this moment? Write them down. For instance,

• Did D not know about the gravity of her diagnosis?
• Was she steely and tough yet informed?
• Did she live through something much worse while enlisted as a Marine?

The questions themselves may wander too much to serve your personal statement as a succinct essay, which it needs to be. However, the answers to those questions may be exactly the additional content you need to develop this story’s acumen and perception as you demonstrate how getting to know the patient is a critical skill in order to help her. And now a theme is starting to come through: a doctor treats a patient, not a diagnosis. Voilà!

Moving forward: How does a doctor reframe clinical assumptions in this instance? What does a future doctor learn from a circumstance like this? 

Notice in the example above that the writing is active, uses details, and vivid language.

This writer has a palpable connection to the moment. One key to choosing one experience over another for your personal statement is how visual and vivid your recollection is. Often, moments worth mining for meaning are easy to recollect because they still have unresolved messages that need to be understood. Writing experiences helps us find their meaning, their sense. 

Notice as well, the scene above captures a moment of ambiguity, a concept particularly difficult for many health science professionals to embrace because there are multiple ways of looking at and understanding something. Stories send empiricism into the wind. People are not solely empirical. There is the self that is the body, which can be understood empirically, but there’s also the self that inhabits the body, the thinking/feeling/being and perceiving self. Stories are not about right answers. Stories attend to sentience and explore humanity. Patients’ lives are rife with uncertain moments, uncertain decisions, uncertain treatments, uncertain consequences, and uncertain outcomes. How does a physician engage with health uncertainty, understand it, and navigate it through pathways of humanity rather than pathways of diagnosis?

How does health care challenge you to grow in humanistic ways?

How to write your body paragraphs:

Once you have written a compelling scene, it might be a good idea to reflect upon why you were drawn to write about this experience in particular before your proceed. How does this scene illustrate meaningfully something worth explaining about becoming a physician? For instance, D’s scene was illustrative of an unexpected shift in perception that mattered when treating a patient with a serious cancer diagnosis. This unexpected shift happened to you, not to her. D’s been living with herself aplenty. Her point of view surprised you, not her, and reveals an incongruence between her perspective on her illness and yours.

Brief moments of ambiguity like this one can make us talk to each other, make us want to do something, can bring us to explore some further niche, specialty or research. Perhaps D brought you to peruse PubMed to research “Issues in Clinical Practice when Caring for Veterans” to see if you could find articles to help you help D and other veterans. Perhaps D’s comment was so truthful that you now volunteer with a veterans’ organization to scribe their stories for a war history museum? This “call to action” is a worthy story in a personal statement. Tell D’s story and conclude it with empathy and action. (Taking action to help is a demonstration of empathy.) Mindfully showing the experience with D as a catalyst to a path of action to help those under duress -- in distress, in crisis, or adrift in inequity -- matters.

Perhaps, follow this conclusion with a brief explanation of what principles now guide your humanistic path to medical school as long as they are principles that matter to your choice schools. 

Here are a few things to avoid in writing your medical school personal statement. Avoid talking about your scholastic path in preparation for medical school in your essay. The essay is not a place to reiterate scholastic achievements, for instance, a high GPA, academic honors, academic awards, publications, or MCAT scores because they’re front and center in other areas of your application. 

Instead, frame your medical school personal statement around a formidable experience that directly or indirectly led you to pursue medicine. This could be a struggle that you’ve overcome that demonstrates your fortitude (the story of a sociocultural disadvantage or disability), the first time you deeply understood the ramifications of health care disparities you will not forget. Likely, this would be a personal story about yourself or a family member, a clinical story or a mission trip, or a story about a patient from some other volunteer work that you’ve done. 

Additional topic ideas for your personal statement: What is a successful doctor? What does a successful life as a doctor look like? What happens to your understanding of best practices when a patient’s situation makes a best practice unrealistic, and what is the remedy? What epiphany, small or large, resides in you now since having mined a critical, clinical experience? Do you see a difference in the way you respond to patients since having had this experience? How has clinical experience matured you, deepened your awareness of living? If a patient experience became a catalyst for you to branch out or deepen your healthcare exposure opportunities, talk about that too. What opportunities? Why?

Writing effective transitions:

You are now ready to proceed to a conclusion that leaves your readers, the admissions committee, with a lasting impression of you – your life, your mind, your character -- as a 21 st century physician. 

Chances are, you’ll need to transition from the previous discussion of a time in the past to squarely speak about yourself here and now or in a comment toward the future. 

Can you sum up your main idea for the past experience? Consider the benefit of using a word or phrase -- thus, just as, hence, accordingly, in the same way, correspondingly -- and present your central idea again but only in a few repetitive words (called parallelism) or with synonymous words, creating internal unity in the essay. 

Be careful how you do this. The phrasing should feel necessary and fluid rather than reductive or even worse, phrasing that sounds like filler. 

The shift you’re making is from then to now, or from then to now and to the future as in “all this is to say.” Would you benefit from a fact, a quote, a statistic, or an informed prediction on the state of medicine, public health, or the future of medicine? 

Grammar tips: 

Transitional words can indicate:

• a process: first, second, next, finally…
• time: by lunch time, that evening, two weeks later…
• spatial sequences: down the block, two miles west, one bed over…
• logic sequences: likewise, however, evidently, in other words…
• meta-thought: as I say this, looking back, I have nothing left to say…

If grammar and idea flow are a concern, have a look at Accepted’s editing services: Med School Essay Package

A consultant will walk you through the inception of an essay, an outline, and editing from first through final drafts, including suggestions for idea development and transitions from one idea to another.

How to write your conclusion:

A strong conclusion for your medical school personal statement can highlight the relevance of a timely issue (for instance, the physician shortage in the U.S.), make broader inferences about something you’ve already discussed (for instance, the broader implications of a particular health care disparity), or a call to action that you now embrace (for instance, community-based work that you did during the pandemic that now has become a central interest). Altruism, or understanding another’s disadvantaged situation, should not be represented in your conclusion as “ideas alone.” Commitment to serve others is not solely aspirational (“As physicians, we must do everything we can about inequity"), but a strong conclusion puts ideals into action (“I have joined Dr. T’s research team to conduct qualitative research about how social strata paradigms impact health care inequity”). Action in the conclusion should be associated with an experience shown earlier in the essay and culminate as a demonstration that you have already begun shaping your path in medicine. You are not waiting to begin but have already begun facing the challenges and responsibilities of future physicians. This kind of conclusion shows vision, maturity, commitment and character.

If the story in the body of your personal statement is about an experience, the conclusion should show your growth since then and keep in alignment how you’ve grown with the medical school values and missions of the majority of schools on your list. So, if you’re applying to top-tier allopathic schools, your growth may be in the depth and orientation of your recent research, or in having established a tighter link between your clinical experience and research. 

If you’re applying to osteopathic schools, your growth should be in keeping with the osteopathic schools’ values and missions on your list and include recent hands-on experience, something with specific tasks and responsibilities, rather than shadowing, since shadowing is often seen as passive experience. It may be that you’ve become a licensed EMT and will work as an EMT in a relevant region or state during the gap year. It may be that you’ve been certified and now work as a harm reduction specialist for a particular organization in a particular city or county. 

If you’re applying to both allopathic and osteopathic schools, each personal statement should align with the academic orientation of each pathway. Using the same personal statement for both AMCAS and AACOMAS applications is rarely a good idea. 

Accepted offers help with the whole application process: Primary Application Package

Other elements that each essay below have in common:

Accepted provides sample medical school personal statements with titles classifying types of narratives that have potential for success. Applicants do have some freedom of choice in what topic will serve their essay best. Why only “some” freedom in topic for this personal essay? Because this essay is one tool you will use to reach a professional goal. 

Not all essays help us reach professional goals. Writers of effective essays must take into account who will read them. Think about who your audience is. In this case, it’s a medical school admissions committee – not a friend, not a parent, not a peer. How will you write an essay on the same topic, let’s say a lab experience that went from bad to revelatory? You’d tell this story quite differently to your lab mates than you would to your professor, than you would to the president of your university, than you would in a grant application. 

Here’s what can happen when the “audience” isn’t considered sufficiently when writing about a passion. Let’s say you love playing soccer, and played on a Division 3 team as an undergraduate. Let’s say it didn’t matter to you that the team was Division 3 as long as it meant you could get on the field and play through your undergraduate years. It’s quite possible that one can write well about playing soccer, but one must do so in such a way that the reader really believes and understands the parallel between doing what you love and a future in medicine. Otherwise, the writer may very well convey that they love soccer. However, when written without the focus that medical school admissions committees will be readers, the essay could end up conveying that the narrator really wants to be a soccer coach, not a doctor. 

So, there’s only some freedom in topic and some freedom in writing approach - and the two must make sense together in order to facilitate accomplishing your goal. 

There is no “one-size-fits-all” to writing a successful medical school personal statement. There are, however, aspects to the sample essays on this site that stand out. 

First, each personal statement example is authored by someone who knows exactly what story they’re telling. No matter what their first draft looked like, by the time the final draft is ready to go, all fuzzy draft moments have been made lucid and engaging. All sections of the essay should have the polish and the same goals. 

• Why am I telling this in this way? 
• To what ends does each scene or moment speak?
• Have I revised enough to make every sentence demonstrate strong writing skills?

Each sample personal statement emphasizes narrative control, engages with a direct voice, has conclusive things to show and say, demonstrates logical steps in idea development, and presents effective framing of the composition as a well-written form that displays strong writing skills. 

Even when an essay includes a “bookend” structure (a narrative structure that begins and ends with X, with middle content about Y), the story of Y (i.e. a mission trip in Mexico) is the primary story framed by the X bookend story (i.e. the love of running) to give ballast to the context in which this writer wants us to understand the mission trip as well, as a parallel story of challenge, commitment, exhilaration, exhaustion and necessity.

The same is true for stories that contain contrasts. If you’ve traveled ten mile or ten thousand miles, it is quite possible you’ve encountered different assumptions than your own about health care, health care access, trust, understanding of middle-class or first-world beliefs about health, understanding beliefs from poor and disadvantaged communities, illness, health care in contrast with a different cultural standard than what you’re used to, different beliefs about health care access, and a lack of or cautious trust in deference to doctors. (See the “Nontraditional Applicant” and “The Traveler.”) The key to this kind of essay is first demonstrating the contrasts between the two realities (yours and the patient’s reality) and their relative assumptions. Second, demonstrate an understanding of beliefs amid the two experiences and aim to reconcile their adverse assumptions.

However you proceed with the paragraph by paragraph progression of your medical school personal statement, be sure to see how there’s deeper intuition or knowledge associated with how the ideas progress. Do not repeat yourself, or reiterate a statement or idea unless you are clearly doing so for rhetorical emphasis.

Then, kiss your draft goodnight. Let it sit for two or three days, and return to it time and again with fresh eyes – to trim, tighten, clarify, improve tone and intention, and importantly, to make sure you have direct regard for your audience, who it is, what they’re looking for, and how you are the person whom they seek, as you maintain a tone and direction consistent with your goals and what you’re seeking from an admissions committee. 

Many students focus on their own or family members’ medical conditions in their personal statements. The essay sometimes reads like a medical history. Taking this approach can hurt your application for several reasons: It may alert them to conditions that could impact your ability to perform in medical school,   indicate that you lack boundaries by oversharing , or suggest a lack of maturity in focusing only on yourself and family – rather than on helping others or serving the community.

Anything you share in your personal statement can be brought up in your interview. If you share details of painful events, losses, or failures that you have not yet processed or come to terms with, that disclosure could come across as an invitation for the reader to pity you. Accepting long-term changes in our lives transforms us; we are constantly evolving through our experiences. Until you have integrated this information into your identity, depending on how impactful it was, you may not be able to use the experience to shed insight on yourself quite yet. Use negative experiences that are at least a year or older depending on how long it takes you to process and reflect. Most importantly,   use them to show growth and resilience , not to create pity.

• DON’T demonstrate a lack of compassion or empathy. One of the creepiest essays I’ve ever read – it still sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it – was a student’s description of how much she enjoyed anesthetizing and removing the brains of mice. Her intention was to share her love of science, research, and learning but the feverish glee with which she described these procedures lacked compassion for the creatures that lost their lives for her research project. This lack of respect for the sacredness of life made it an easy decision to reject her application. Research was probably a better path for her, especially since she wasn’t able to gauge the reaction her statements would have on her audience.
• DON’T bargain. The least fun essays to read are those that contain more promises than a politician’s speech. They include statements like, “If accepted into this program, I will….” The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. If you really want to demonstrate what you are capable of achieving during your medical education,  give examples of what you have already accomplished . This approach is far stronger than making hollow promises.
• DON’T complain. Criticizing or pointing out the failures of healthcare professionals who have treated you or whom you have observed in the past will only reflect negatively on you. Since your application will be reviewed by doctors, as well as admissions professionals, it’s critical that you do not insult those from whom you are seeking acceptance. While it is true that medical mistakes and lack of access to care have devastating consequences for patients, their families and communities, identifying ways to improve in these areas without pointing any fingers would be more effective. By demonstrating your realistic knowledge of patient needs and sharing potential solutions, you can present yourself as an asset to their team.

Be careful what you write. Create a personal statement that is honest (not bitter), reveals your personality (not your medical history), and delivers a compelling explanation for your motivations for entering medicine (not empty promises). 

Do you want our expert advice on your medical school personal statement?

Med School Personal Statement Consultant Dr. Mary Mahoney

Med School Personal Statement Examples and Analysis

Now let’s explore what you can learn from some of these outstanding sample med school essays.

Medical school personal statement example  #1: Emergency 911 

“Call 911!” I shouted to my friend as I sprinted down the street. The young Caucasian male had been thrown fifteen yards from the site of impact and surprisingly was still conscious upon my arrival. “My name is Michael. Can you tell me your name?” In his late twenties, he gasped in response as his eyes searched desperately in every direction for help, for comfort, for assurance, for loved ones, for death, until his eyes met mine. “Flail chest,” I thought to myself as I unbuttoned his shirt and placed my backpack upon his right side. “Pulse 98, respiration 28 short and quick. Help is on the way. Hang in there, buddy,” I urged.

After assessing the patient, the gravity of the situation struck me into sobriety. The adrenaline was no longer running through my veins — this was real. His right leg was mangled with a compound fracture; his left leg was also obviously broken. The tow-truck that had hit him looked as though it had run into a telephone pole. Traffic had ceased on the six-lane road, and a large crowd had gathered. However, no one was by my side to help. “Get me some blankets from that motel!” I yelled to a bystander and three people immediately fled. I was in charge.

But my patient was no longer conscious; his pulse was faint and respiration was low. “Stay with me, man!” I yelled. “15 to 1, 15 to 1,” I thought as I rehearsed CPR in my mind. Suddenly he stopped breathing. Without hesitation, I removed my T-shirt and created a makeshift barrier between his mouth and mine through which I proceeded to administer two breaths. No response. And furthermore, there was no pulse. I began CPR. I continued for approximately five minutes until the paramedics arrived, but it was too late. I had lost my first patient.

Medicine. I had always imagined it as saving lives, curing ailments, alleviating pain, overall making life better for everyone. However, as I watched the paramedics pull the sheets over the victim’s head, I began to tremble. I had learned my first lesson of medicine: for all its power, medicine cannot always prevail. I had experienced one of the most disheartening and demoralizing aspects of medicine and faced it. I also demonstrated then that I know how to cope with a life-and-death emergency with confidence, a confidence instilled in me by my certification as an Emergency Medical Technician, a confidence that I had the ability to take charge of a desperate situation and help someone in critical need. This pivotal incident confirmed my decision to pursue medicine as a career. 

Of course healing, curing, and saving is much more rewarding than trying and failing. As an EMT I was exposed to these satisfying aspects of medicine in a setting very new to me — urban medicine. I spent most of a summer doing ride-alongs with the Ambulance Company in Houston. Every call we received dealt with Latino patients either speaking only Spanish or very little broken English. I suddenly realized the importance of understanding a foreign culture and language in the practice of medicine, particularly when serving an underserved majority. In transporting patients from the field to the hospitals I saw the community’s reduced access to medical care due to a lack of physicians able to communicate with and understand their patients. I decided to minor in Spanish. Having almost completed my minor, I have not only expanded my academic horizons, I have gained a cultural awareness I feel is indispensable in today’s diverse society.

Throughout my undergraduate years at Berkeley I have combined my scientific interests with my passion for the Hispanic culture and language. I have even blended the two with my interests in medicine. During my sophomore year I volunteered at a medical clinic in the rural town of Chacala, Mexico. In Mexico for one month, I shadowed a doctor in the clinic and was concurrently enrolled in classes for medical Spanish. It was in Chacala, hundreds of miles away from home, that I witnessed medicine practiced as I imagined it should be. Seeing the doctor treat his patients with skill and compassion as fellow human beings rather than simply diseases to be outsmarted, I realized he was truly helping the people of Chacala in a manner unique to medicine. Fascinated by this exposure to clinical medicine, I saw medicine’s ability to make a difference in people’s lives. For me the disciplines of Spanish and science have become inseparable, and I plan to pursue a career in urban medicine that allows me to integrate them.

Having seen medicine’s different sides, I view this as a multifaceted profession. I have witnessed its power as a healing agent in rural Chacala, and I have seen its weakness when I met death face-to-face as an EMT. Inspired by the Latino community of Houston, I realize the benefits of viewing it from a holistic, culturally aware perspective. And whatever the outcome of the cry "Call 911!" I look forward as a physician to experiencing the satisfaction of saving lives, curing ailments, alleviating pain, and overall making life better for my patients.

Lessons From Med School Sample Essay #1: Emergency 911

This essay is one of our favorites. The applicant tells a story and weaves a lot of information into it about his background and interests. Note how the lead grabs one’s attention and the conclusion ties everything together.

What makes this essay work?

• A dramatic opening paragraph

This essay has an unusually long opener, but not only is it dramatic, it also lays out the high-stakes situation of the writer desperately trying to save the life of a young man. As an EMT, the writer is safe in sharing so much detail, because they establish their bona fides as medically knowledgeable. With the urgent opening sentence (“Call 911!”) and the sad final sentence (“I had lost my first patient.”), the writer bookends a particularly transformative experience, one that confirmed their goal of becoming a doctor.  

• A consistent theme

The theme of a med school essay in which the applicant first deals with the inevitable reality of seeing a patient die can become hackneyed through overuse. This essay is saved from that fate because after acknowledging the pain of this reality check, the writer reports that they immediately committed to expanding his knowledge and skills to better serve the local Hispanic community. While not an extraordinary story for an EMT, the substance, self-awareness, and focus the writer brings to the topic makes it a compelling read.

• Evidence supporting the stated goal

This applicant is already a certified EMT, which serves as evidence of their serious interest in a medical career. In going on ambulance ride-alongs, the writer realized the barrier in communication between many doctors and their Spanish-speaking patients, which inspired the writer to take steps to both learn medical Spanish and shadow a doctor in a Mexican clinic. These concrete steps affirm that the applicant has serious intent.

Medical School Personal Statement Example #2: The Traveler

"On the first day that I walked into the Church Nursing Home, I was unsure of what to expect. A jumble of questions ran through my mind simultaneously: Is this the right job for me? Will I be capable of aiding the elderly residents? Will I enjoy what I do? A couple of hours later, these questions were largely forgotten as I slowly cut chicken pieces and fed them to Frau Meyer. Soon afterwards, I was strolling through the garden with Herr Schmidt, listening to him tell of his tour of duty in World War II. By the end of the day, I realized how much I enjoyed the whole experience and at the same time smiled at the irony of it all. I needed to travel to Heidelberg, Germany, to confirm my interest in clinical medicine.

Experiences like my volunteer work in the German nursing home illustrate the decisive role travel has played in my life. For instance, I had volunteered at a local hospital in New York but was not satisfied. Dreams of watching doctors in the ER or obstetricians in the maternity ward were soon replaced with the reality of carrying urine and feces samples to the lab. With virtually no patient contact, my exposure to clinical medicine in this setting was unenlightening and uninspiring. However, in Heidelberg, despite the fact that I frequently change diapers for the incontinent and deal with occasionally cantankerous elderly, I love my twice-weekly visits to the nursing home. Here, I feel that I am needed and wanted. That rewarding feeling of fulfillment attracts me to the practice of medicine.

My year abroad in Germany also enriched and diversified my experience with research. Although I had a tremendously valuable exposure to research as a summer intern investigating chemotherapeutic resistance in human carcinomas, I found disconcerting the constant cost-benefit analysis required in applied biomedical research. In contrast, my work at the University of Heidelberg gave me a broader view of basic research and demonstrated how it can expand knowledge – even without the promise of immediate profit. I am currently attempting to characterize the role of an enzyme during neural development. Even though the benefit of such research is not yet apparent, it will ultimately contribute to a vast body of information which will further medical science.

My different reactions to research and medicine just exemplify the intrinsically broadening impact of travel. For example, on a recent trip to Egypt, I visited a small village on the banks of the Nile. This impoverished hamlet boasted a large textile factory in its center where many children worked in clean, bright, and cheerful conditions weaving carpets and rugs. After a discussion with the foreman of the plant, I discovered that the children of the village learned trades at a young age to prepare them to enter the job market and to support their families. If I had just heard about this factory, I would have recoiled in horror with visions of sweatshops running through my head. However, watching the skill and precision each child displayed, in addition to his or her endless creativity, soon made me realize that it is impossible to judge this country’s attempts to deal with its poverty using American standards and experience.

Travel has not only had a formative and decisive impact on my decision to pursue a career in medicine, it has also broadened my horizons – whether in a prosperous city on the Rhine or an impoverished village on the Nile. In dealing with patients or addressing research puzzles, I intend to bring the inquiring mind fostered in school, lab, and volunteer experiences. But above all, I intend to bring the open mind formed through travel.

Lessons From Medical School Sample Essay #2: The Traveler

No boring repetition of itinerary from this seasoned traveler! This student ties their travels to their medical ambitions through the effective use of short anecdotes and vivid images. Can you sense the writer’s youthful disappointment during early clinical experiences and mature satisfaction working in the retirement home?

This applicant effectively links the expansive benefits of travel to their medical ambitions. By sharing vivid anecdotes from and reflections on these experiences, the writer enables the reader to easily imagine them as a talented physician in the future.

• An engaging opening that frames the storyline Many fine application essays open with imagery so vibrant that the writing could be mistaken for fiction. This essay is no different. We meet the writer in the setting of a nursing home overseas, where they question whether their volunteer experiences there will help them determine their career path. Notice how the first sentence reflects a worry, “I was unsure of what to expect,” but by the final sentence, the writer concludes with satisfaction, “I needed to travel to Heidelberg, Germany, to confirm my interest in clinical medicine.” With this framing, we appreciate the essay’s theme.
• Reflections on and contrasts about varied experiences in medicine The writer’s reactions to various encounters reveal a maturing mind-set: the “unenlightening and uninspiring” experience volunteering in a New York hospital versus the feeling of being “needed and wanted” in the nursing home in Heidelberg; the “disconcerting . . . constant cost-benefit analysis required in applied biomedical research” versus the “broader view of basic research and . . . how it can expand knowledge – even without the promise of immediate profit” at the University of Heidelberg. These reflections demonstrate a thoughtfulness born of experience.
• How traveling has expanded his potential as a physician Of the five tightly constructed paragraphs in this substantial essay, the final two paragraphs home in on how travel has had an “intrinsically broadening impact” and stimulated an “open mind” to people and situations. This kind of sophisticated view is a desirable trait to adcoms.
• Out-of-the-box theme Although this essay’s foundation is built on the writer’s sincere and dedicated aspirations for a medical career, they allowed themselves the space to write about the broadening intellectual benefits of travel, linking those benefits to professional potential. Even when writing about children working in a factory in Egypt, this applicant brings an expanded mind-set and greater cross-cultural understanding that will no doubt benefit them in their career.

Medical School Personal Statement Example #3: The Non-Traditional Applicant

"Modest one-room houses lay scattered across the desert landscape, their rooftops a seemingly helpless shield against the intense heat generated by the mid-July sun. The steel security bars that guarded the windows and doors of every house seemed to belie the large welcome sign at the entrance to the ABC Indian Reservation. As a young civil engineer employed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, I was far removed from my cubicle in downtown Los Angeles.

However, I felt I was well-prepared to conduct my first project proposal. The project involved a $500,000 repair of an earthen levee surrounding an active Native American burial site. A fairly inexpensive and straightforward job by federal standards, but nonetheless, I could hardly contain my excitement. Strict federal construction guidelines laden with a generous portion of technical jargon danced through my head as I stepped up to the podium to greet the twelve tribal council members. My premature confidence quickly disappeared as they confronted me with a troubled ancient gaze. Their faces revealed centuries of distrust and broken government promises.

Suddenly, from a design based solely upon abstract engineering principles, an additional human dimension emerged – one for which I had not prepared. The calculations I had crunched over the past several months and the abstract engineering principles simply no longer applied. Their potential impact on this community was clearly evident in the faces before me. With perspiration forming on my brow, I decided I would need to take a new approach to salvage this meeting. So I discarded my rehearsed speech, stepped out from behind the safety of the podium, and began to solicit the council members’ questions and concerns. By the end of the afternoon, our efforts to establish a cooperative working relationship had resulted in a distinct shift in the mood of the meeting. Although I am not saying we erased centuries of mistrust in a single day, I feel certain our steps towards improved relations and trust produced a successful project.

I found this opportunity to humanize my engineering project both personally and professionally rewarding. Unfortunately, experiences like it were not common. I realized early in my career that I needed a profession where I could more frequently incorporate human interaction and my interests in science. After two years of working as a civil engineer, I enrolled in night school to explore a medical career and test my aptitude for pre-medical classes. I found my classes fascinating and became a more effective student. Today, I am proud of the 3.7 GPA I have achieved in competitive post-baccalaureate courses such as organic chemistry, biochemistry, and genetics.

Confident of my ability to succeed in the classroom, I proceeded to volunteer in the Preceptorship Program at the Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center. I acquired an understanding of the emotional demands and time commitment required of physicians by watching them schedule their personal lives around the needs of their patients. I also soon observed that the rewards of medicine stem from serving the needs of these same patients. I too found it personally gratifying to provide individuals with emotional support by holding an elderly woman’s hand as a physician drew a blood sample or befriending frightened patients with a smile and conversation.

To test my aptitude for a medical career further, I began a research project under the supervision of Dr. John Doe from the Orthopedic Department at Big University. The focus of my study was to determine the fate of abstracts presented at the American Society for Surgery of the Hand annual meeting. As primary author, I reported the results in an article for the Journal of Hand Surgery, a peer-reviewed publication. My contribution to medicine, albeit small, gave me much satisfaction. In the future, I would like to pursue an active role in scientific research.

My preparation for a career as a medical doctor started with my work as a professional engineer. From my experiences at the ABC Indian Reservation, I realized I need more direct personal interaction than engineering offers. The rewarding experiences I have had in my research, my volunteer work at the Los Angeles County Hospital, and my post-bac studies have focused my energies and prepared me for the new challenges and responsibilities that lie ahead in medicine."

Lessons From Med School Sample Essay #3: The Non-Traditional Applicant

Here, an older applicant takes advantage of their experience and maturity. Note how this engineer demonstrates their sensitivity and addresses possible stereotypes about engineers’ lack of communications skills.

What works well in this essay?

• A compelling lead This story begins in a hot desert landscape, an unexpected and dramatic starting point. Can’t you just feel the heat and sense the loneliness of the remote Indian reservation? Equally powerful in this first paragraph is when the writer faces the need to suddenly and completely rethink their carefully planned approach to address the tribal leaders. Their excitement is dashed. Their confidence has plummeted. They are totally unprepared for the mistrust facing them and their plan, and they need to improvise –quickly. Who wouldn’t want to read on to see how they resolve this dramatic turn of events?
• Solid storytelling that leads to a satisfying conclusion This nontraditional med school applicant reinvents themself in this essay. After realizing that they want more human involvement and interaction in their work, they take this self-knowledge and show us the steps they took to achieve their new goal. The steps are logical and well thought out, so the writer’s conclusion that they are well prepared in every way for med school makes perfect sense.
• Evidence to support their theme Through taking prerequisite courses in medicine (and achieving high grades) to bedside hospital volunteering (which provides emotional satisfaction) to helping write a medical research paper (which provides a feeling that they are making a meaningful contribution), the writer offers evidence that they are well suited for their new goal of a career in medicine. Each experience shared is relevant to the writer’s story. Any reader will agree that the applicant’s future as a physician is promising.
• A thoughtful perspective From the opening paragraph, the writer shows their ability to adapt to new situations and realities with quick thinking and psychological openness. They assess each stage of their journey, testing it for intellectual value and emotional satisfaction. Journeys of reflective self-discovery are something adcoms value.

Medical School Personal Statement Example #4: The Anthropology Student

"Crayfish tails in tarragon butter, galantine of rabbit with foie gras, oxtail in red wine, and apple tartelettes. The patient had this rich meal and complained of “liver upset” (crise de foie). Why a liver ache? I always associate indigestion with a stomach ache. In studying French culture in my Evolutionary Psychology class, I learned that when experiencing discomfort after a rich meal, the French assume their liver is the culprit. Understanding and dealing with the minor – sometimes major – cultural differences is a necessity in our shrinking world and diverse American society. Anthropology has prepared me to effectively communicate with an ethnically diverse population. My science classes, research, and clinical experience have prepared me to meet the demands of medical school.

I first became aware of the valuable service that physicians provide when I observed my father, a surgeon, working in his office. I gained practical experience assisting him and his staff perform various procedures in his outpatient center. This exposure increased my admiration for the restorative, technological, and artistic aspects of surgery. I also saw that the application of medical knowledge was most effective when combined with compassion and empathy from the health care provider.

While admiring my father’s role as a head and neck surgeon helping people after severe accidents, I also found a way to help those suffering from debilitating ailments. Working as a certified physical trainer, I became aware of the powerful recuperative effects of exercise. I was able to apply this knowledge in the case of Sharon, a 43-year-old client suffering from lupus. She reported a 200% increase in her strength tests after I trained her. This meant she could once again perform simple tasks like carrying groceries into her house. Unfortunately, this glimpse of improvement was followed by a further deterioration in her condition. On one occasion, she broke down and cried about her declining health and growing fears. It was then that I learned no physical prowess or application of kinesiology would alleviate her pain. I helped reduce her anxiety with a comforting embrace. Compassion and understanding were the only remedies available, temporary though they were.

To confirm that medicine is the best way for me to help others, I assisted a research team in the Emergency Room at University Medical Center (UMC). This experience brought me in direct contact with clinical care and provided me with the opportunity to witness and participate in the “behind-the-scenes” hospital operations. Specifically, we analyzed the therapeutic effects of two new drugs – Drug A and Drug B – in patients suffering from acute ischemic stroke. The purpose of this trial was to determine the efficacy and safety of these agents in improving functional outcome in patients who had sustained an acute cerebral infarction. My duties centered around the role of patient-physician liaison, determining patients’ eligibility, monitoring their conditions, and conducting patient histories.

I continued to advance my research experience at the VA Non-Human Primate Center. During the past year, I have been conducting independent research in endocrinology and biological aspects of anthropology. For this project, I am examining the correlation between captive vervet monkeys’ adrenal and androgen levels with age, gender, and various behavioral measures across different stress-level environments. I enjoy the discipline and responsibility which research requires, and I hope to incorporate it into my career.

Anthropology is the study of humans; medicine is the science and art of dealing with the maintenance of health and the prevention, alleviation, or cure of disease in humans. From my work at UMC and my observation of my father’s practice, I know medicine will allow me to pursue an art and science that is tremendously gratifying and contributes to the welfare of those around me. My anthropology classes have taught me to appreciate cross-cultural perspectives and their relationship to pathology and its etiology. Firsthand experience with exercise therapy and nutrition has taught me the invaluable role of prevention. Medical school will now provide me with the technical knowledge to alleviate a crise de foie."

[ Click here to view an excerpt from the original draft of this essay. ]

Lessons From Medical School Sample Essay #4: The Anthropology Student

With a diverse background that includes anthropology studies, work as a certified physical trainer, and experience in clinical medical research, this applicant builds a strong case for their logical and dedicated choice of a medical career.

• An engaging opening that frames the storyline This writer cleverly uses an example from anthropology class, linking the description of a heavy, gourmet French meal to an appreciation for cross-cultural understanding that will be an asset during their medical career. Notice that the writer is not describing their own personal experience here but piggybacked on a class lesson to create a colorful, engaging opening.
• A solid variety of relevant experiences In this six-paragraph essay, the writer links their lessons from anthropology studies to a firsthand understanding based on observing how their surgeon-father related to patients, to becoming a physical trainer directly helping others, and then to two different kinds of medical research. Each experience builds logically and chronologically on what came before, adding to the substance of the applicant’s preparation for medical school.
• A powerful personal experience with a client In the third paragraph, the writer’s experience working with a patient with lupus is particularly strong and memorable. Their initial success with Sharon is followed by an almost immediate and radical decline in her condition. This is a moving anecdote that shows the applicant’s understanding of the limitations of medicine – and the power of compassion.
• An excellent summary paragraph that ties everything together The final paragraph isn’t the place to offer new information, and this one doesn’t. Instead, it reminds the reader about the strong foundation the writer built from academics to career and medical research. Readers will be persuaded that after these experiences and reflections, the applicant truly appreciates “cross-cultural perspectives and their relationship to pathology and its etiology,” as well as the “firsthand experience with exercise therapy and nutrition teaching the invaluable role of prevention.”

Don’t Write Like This!

As the time approached for me to set my personal and professional goals, I made a conscientious decision to enter a field which would provide me with a sense of achievement and, at the same time, produce a positive impact on mankind. It became apparent to me that the practice of medicine would fulfill these objectives. In retrospect, my ever-growing commitment to medicine has been crystallizing for years. My intense interest in social issues, education, and athletics seems particularly appropriate to this field and has prepared me well for such a critical choice...

I’ve been asked many times why I wish to become a physician. Upon considerable reflection, the thought of possessing the ability to help others provides me with tremendous internal gratification and offers the feeling that my life’s efforts have been focused in a positive direction. Becoming a physician is the culmination of a lifelong dream, and I am prepared to dedicate myself, as I have in the past, to achieving this goal.

Lessons from Don’t Write Like This

This is an excerpt from the original draft of the Anthropology Student’s AMCAS essay. We are not including the whole thing because you can get the idea all too rapidly from just this brief portion. Note the abundant use of generalities that apply to the overwhelming majority of medical school applicants. Observe how the colorless platitudes and pomposity hide any personality. Can you imagine reading essays like this all day long? If so, then imagine your reaction to a good essay.

More sample essays

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Med school personal statement FAQs

1. when should i start writing my personal statement for medical school.

Typically, traditional applicants who have a goal of submitting their AMCAS or AACOMAS application in June write their personal statement after they take the MCAT in March. Starting the prewriting for the personal statement earlier than that is fine too; however, if an applicant plans to sit for the MCAT in the early spring, writing a compelling personal narrative while preparing for the MCAT can often be too much. Both require very different kinds of thinking. The intensity of studying for the MCAT, and the empirical thinking it requires, can interfere with the imaginative brainstorming needed to find your topic and develop it.  

Before focusing on the personal statement, look at all the elements of the primary application. As a whole, the personal statement, activities, MMEs, MCAT, transcript, biographical information and letters, will portray you. One element alone is not enough to bring out the whole you. It might help to strategize about how (and where) to highlight different elements of your background, experience, and character in the different parts of the primary application. Then work on the personal statement knowing what aspects of you are already represented in the other sections of the application. This way, each element adds value to the application and contributes to a more complete picture of you.

It makes sense to compartmentalize completing different parts of the application. Many applicants take the time they need to focus on one application component at a time, which seems to help them be thorough. 

Don’t underestimate how much time it takes to write well. Exploring ideas in writing, developing those ideas, showing rather than telling a story, staying clear, writing fluidly, surmising maturely and insightfully, takes much more time than most people anticipate. So, don’t wait until Memorial Day to write your essay and intend to submit on June 1. Give yourself the churn time writing well needs. Also, give yourself time to put a draft down for a day or two and return to it when you’re able to read it afresh. Sometimes, we revise over and over again in one sitting to the point that we can no longer hear the story or its sense because we have been rehearsing and revising a draft to beat the clock. Doing this is a risky way to go about the personal statement. Remember, this essay should be a very impressive part of your application, not merely one more part of the application to finish. At the end of the day, the medical school personal statement is a window that allows others to see you, know you as a person, know you better and beyond your achievements.

2. How do I find the perfect personal statement topic? Does one exist?

Certainly, some ideas are better than others, and one idea might work better for one person and not so well for someone else. However, there is no “perfect” topic. In fact, writing an essay with the approach of trying to out-psych this important application requirement is likely not the strongest way to find your best topic, nor is it the best way to engage your readers. 

Instead, consider the following approach. What is an experience you’ve had that matters greatly in helping others understand who you are as a future physician? Why medicine, not in general, but for you, demonstrated by way of a story about an experience that directly ties to being a physician or indirectly demonstrates your sound character as it corresponds with human qualities medical schools desire. When we read what kinds of people medical schools seek, it’s easy enough to identify quite a few character traits that appeal to many schools: compassion, resiliency, adaptability, selflessness, inclusivity, and altruism among them. What experience, when written with key details and description, reveals who you really are?

3. How do you choose the right amount of personal qualities to list?

A strong medical school personal statement should not replicate other parts of the application, with the exception of it being a specific story that stems from a particular experience associated with one of your activities. Otherwise, there’s no listing in this essay. Unfortunately, some applicants do treat the personal statement as an opportunity to list awards, accolades, and experiences, paragraph by paragraph. Meanwhile, medical school admissions officers can see these awards and experiences in the Experiences section of the application. Rarely, if ever, does this kind of writing bring out voice, vision and identity. Instead, tell a true story, revised with care and precision, that shines with voice, vision and identity.

4. Are there any topics I should avoid for my medical school personal statement?

Certainly, one idea might work better for one person and not so well for someone else. So, there’s a subjectivity in what to write and what not to write. Generally, however, there are some topics to avoid. Don’t write about a time you felt cheated, inconvenienced, frustrated or angry. Sometimes, secondary essay prompts will ask you about a struggle or a mistake, and for these answers, it’s best to show how you turned the situation around or keenly learned from it. Don’t get too caught in childhood. Many applicants do write about a time when they were not yet grown; however, don’t get swallowed by it. Write the scene and then stay in the present to demonstrate your maturity and worthwhile hindsight.

Remember -- no matter what the topic, tone matters. 

5. What kind of experience should I include in my personal statement?

6. can the experience i use on my med school personal statement be from outside of college.

Absolutely. It is relatively common for applicants to only portray themselves as students, and this can be a problem. Sometimes, when applicants write about themselves as excellent students the tone of such a personal statement can sound boastful or pleading. Neither quality is advantageous. 

Seeing oneself in any other light can result in a stronger “snapshot” of who you are, as long as the theme or topic of your personal statement still suits the intention of the application in the first place – demonstrating who you are as an appealing candidate for medical school. When we consider the writing task for the personal statement to be much more story-driven, readers go on a descriptive journey. What journey would you like to share?

7. Should I talk about challenges I’ve faced?

If other parts of your medical school application suggest a struggle – whether a lower MCAT score or a notable weak semester on a transcript – it might be advantageous to explain what happened and how you turned that situation around. Whether writing about a challenge in the personal statement or secondaries, the key is to demonstrate resilience. Applicants with physical or cognitive disabilities may choose to write about seeking assistance -- whether a doctor, therapist or a tutor -- and how learning alternative strategies helped them figure out how to attain higher academic achievement. 

Sometimes challenges are circumstantial. Sometimes families face financial hardship (did the family breadwinner become unemployed and therefore everyone else had to work more hours, including you?), emotional stress (due to an ongoing illness, Covid-19, or a divorce?) or trauma (a death of a loved one, a house fire, a veteran/sibling returning home with PTSD). Sometimes an applicant has been a caregiver for someone in the family. Sometimes an applicant has taken a leave from school because of someone else’s struggles, or the emotional fallout on the applicant from someone else’s struggle – the loss of a childhood friend, for instance. Self-care is reasonable. We might need to share a life moment in order to frame the context of a life struggle, showing it in the context of responsibility rather than recklessness or immaturity. Showing how you stepped up in a challenging time can show that you are accountable and caring, as long as the story is told to these ends, rather than suggesting resentment or self-pity. Again, neither of these tones is advantageous, nor is blame. 

Occasionally applicants have been challenged by a course or by a professor, a classmate or teammate and feel unduly subjected to bias. If there’s discrimination involved, that might be a story to tell. If there’s a personality clash, that might not be a good story to tell. 

Finally, as any story of challenge moves along, it’s important to demonstrate what you did, what you learned, how you adapted, or what you now value from having had this life experience that you did not understand before. 

Being a doctor is rife with challenges. In the end, your readers may come to understand how you are an insightful leader with great resilience or a compassionate, problem-solver.

8. How do I focus my personal statement to show that I want to go into medicine and not another field in healthcare?

Great question. On the one hand, it’s a good idea to demonstrate your compassion for others and empathy for people suffering from illness. On the other hand, these are favorable attributes for nearly all healthcare workers -- not only doctors -- but for physician assistants, nurses, respiratory therapists, social workers and psychologists too. Since most applicants have done some shadowing of physicians, it’s not unusual for these experiences to contain moments of learning about being a physician through shadowing or through work in a clinic. However, the more clinical the story, the better especially if you’re applying to osteopathic schools of medicine. If you’re applying to allopathic schools of medicine, it’s possible you have some interest in being a researcher, so telling a story about working in a physician’s lab might demonstrate your insights into the value of research in light of disease or patient care. If you already have an affinity for a specialty, telling how you came to know this could be the way to go.

9. Do I introduce my desired field of healthcare in my personal statement?

Maybe. If you’re very committed and have demonstrated a trend in your activities from general volunteer work (older listings) to more specialized experience in a field of medicine (more recent listings), it may be a good idea to write up how you came to know one field of medicine was really your passion. 

Bear in mind that announcing a deep interest in a particular field of medicine may make you “a good fit” or “not a good fit” for some schools. So, if you do write up a story about your desired field of medicine for your personal statement, be sure your list of schools corresponds with this. For instance, if you want to be an obstetrician and you convey this in your personal statement, be certain your schools have clinical exposure or better yet offer specializations in obstetrics, or a required rotation through a hospital for women, for instance.

Lastly, by no means must you announce a desired field of healthcare in your personal statement. You may be asked about your specialized interests in medicine in a secondary or in an interview, so it’s a good idea to think this through, but no, you don’t have to tackle this in the personal statement.

10. What should my character limit be? 

The AMCAS and AACOMAS character limit for the personal statement is 5,300 characters with spaces. The TMDSAS character limit for the personal statement is 5,000 characters with spaces. It’s a good idea to use most if not all of this space for your personal statement. Also, try to avoid the temptation to use the same personal statement for AMCAS and AACOMAS. The osteopathic schools seek applicants who know and prefer an osteopathic orientation to medicine, so the AACOMAS personal statement should demonstrate your fit with osteopathic medicine, based on what story you choose to tell and how you tell it, or at the very least, in the conclusion.

11. How do I know when I’m ready to submit my med school personal statement?

I highly recommend getting feedback about this from a strong mentor, advisor or consultant. Accepted offers comprehensive consultation for every part of the writing process, from brainstorming, to outlining, to mentoring on ideas, and editing until a client has a solid final draft in hand, ready for submission. You can review these services here: Initial Essay Package

Generally speaking, when you’ve accomplished FAQ #2 and #3, avoided the pitfalls in #4, revised for clarity and quality of ideas, developed ideas engagingly, and meticulously revised for quality of writing, then, you may be done.

12. What if I don’t have enough space to discuss everything?

Then your topic is too large or unfocused, in which case you need to focus and narrow the scope of your essays. Or you have a bit of editing to do to eliminate wordiness, digressions, or overstatement Ultimately, you want your essay to be focused, clear, and engaging.

13. Should I personalize my personal statement to the med school I am applying to?

Only if you’re applying to one medical school. Otherwise, your personal statement will reach all schools listed in your AMCAS application or AACOMAS application. It is okay, however, to speak toward the ideals of your first choice, aspirational schools on your list. Other times, applicants choose to write toward the schools that are their safest bets. 

Your secondary/supplemental essays will give you plenty of opportunity to show you belong at an individual school.

14.  Can I talk about mental or physical health in my statement?

15. should i address any bad grades that i got in school.

Generally yes, as long as bad grades are truly bad grades. It’s likely that you do not need to address a rogue grade of B on a transcript. If you had a bad semester or two, the question becomes how and where to address them. The answer is an individual one dependent on the context. The one certainty: You definitely don’t want your entire application to be a rationalization of those bad grades. 

See FAQ #7. 

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A guide to 4 medical school secondary application question types

If you’re applying to medical school this cycle and were able to get your primary application in by the end of June, July puts you in the first (of many) waiting game. As you are refreshing the AMCAS page to check the status of your primary application, you can make use of the downtime to prepare yourself for secondaries. Depending on how many schools you are applying to, once your application does get verified, your inbox will seemingly immediately explode with secondaries. Many people feel that they have to submit their secondaries right away (more on that next month), but the sheer volume of essays can be overwhelming. Here are some of the essays you can start thinking about during your weeks “off” to help make the secondary submission process easier. On the whole, aim to write these essays in approximately 300 words, and adjust later for specific word limits, schools, and question-wording.

1. The Diversity Question

Many schools will ask some semblance of the question “How will you bring diversity to our campus?” Students are often overwhelmed by this, but it’s important to think about all of your experiences when trying to answer. Admissions committees are not only looking for ethnic and socioeconomic diversity, but also diversity in educational, professional, and extracurricular experiences. If you pursued an interesting educational path prior to medical school, consider how that would add to a med school class. If you are hoping to bring a diverse background of extracurricular experience to your medical education and future practice, write about that. Anything that you feel makes you stand out is an acceptable topic. 

2. A Personal Challenge

As you likely already have heard, medical school at times can be extremely challenging, and medical schools want to know that you can handle and rebound from personal challenges. The question will usually be pretty straightforward, like “Tell us about a time you overcame a personal challenge,” This essay can be a great opportunity to personalize your application by highlighting an area that is important to you. An important word of advice: don’t turn this essay into a “humble brag.” This can be similar to the ‘what is your biggest weakness?” question you might get during an interview, and you don’t want to be the person who says something like “My biggest challenge was caring too much.” Be honest in picking something that was challenging for you and something that you worked hard to overcome. It can be academic, social, family, or professional, as long as it is a topic that is personally meaningful.

3. Teamwork

Right up there with the challenging part of medicine is the important element of teamwork that is present in every aspect of the field. This is another thing medical schools like to delve into - your ability to work with a team. Schools may ask about a time when you used teamwork to solve a problem or overcome a challenge (like above). Consider the teams you have worked with in the past, whether a lab group, a extracurricular board, or team at work. Generally, choosing to write about working with a team who you really jived with will lead to a more sincere essay; think about that as you are planning your work.

For this essay, DON’T write a generic essay and substitute different school names for every secondary. Not only can this lead to some unfortunate copy-paste errors, but it also does not allow you to personalize your thoughts for each school. Instead, take these few weeks to think about the aspects of medical school that are important to you. Do you really want to work with an underserved patient population? Pursue a specific area of research that you have worked in previously? Start your own service project with institutional support? Identifying these core values will allow you to quickly search for programs that match your values within any specific school, and will greatly expedite the process of writing individual essays. 

There is no clear cut rule for preparing for secondary essays, but I remember finding it helpful to have pre-written some of these common topics before I received a rush of applications. Even if you don’t want to sit down and start writing right away, taking some time to brainstorm about these topics will make the secondary process go much more smoothly. Good luck!

Related Content

AMCAS Work and Activities Examples From Sought-After Matriculants

• By Med School Insiders
• February 22, 2023
• Work and Activities

In this post, we provide eight AMCAS Work and Activities examples, including three most meaningful experience descriptions. We’ll also discuss how to choose your activities, how many to include, and how to write effective activity descriptions.

The AMCAS Work and Activities section summarizes the extracurricular activities you participated in during college. You can include up to 15 different activities, but the space you’re given to discuss these experiences is very limited. Choosing the right experiences and utilizing effective communication are crucial to a successful application.

Read our examples below that come from premeds who received multiple offers and successfully matriculated into their top choice medical school.

The Work and Activities Section

Along with your personal statement , the Work and Activities section is the first place admissions committees look to get a feel for your personality and whether or not you fit the mold of the medical student they’re looking for. The activities you chose to commit to during your years as a premed demonstrate both what you have experience with and what you’re most passionate about. Where did you choose to dedicate your time?

Work and Activities summarizes the wide range of extracurricular activities you participated in during your college career. You can select up to 15 premed experiences, ranging from extracurricular activities to volunteering experiences to jobs to hobbies and more.

You have 700 characters of space to discuss each of the 15 activities and their impact on your decision to become a physician. Of those 15, you can select up to three most meaningful experiences, which gives you 1325 characters of extra space to speak about these experiences in more detail. Since the space to discuss these experiences is quite limited, choosing the right experiences and utilizing effective communication are imperative to your application’s success.

Successful AMCAS Work and Activities Examples

Work and activities example #1 (including most meaningful experience).

Biophysics Research Lab Assistant The focus of the biophysics research lab in which I have worked for almost 2 years is to develop new viral delivery systems with the ultimate purpose of providing corrective genes to children with blood disorders. Specifically, I synthesize antibody-producing constructs that are subsequently expressed in bacteria to label HIV infection during the budding process in conjunction with advanced immunofluorescence imaging. As new discoveries are made in the field, I adapt my experiments to more effectively achieve the lab’s goals. In addition to utilizing cell and molecular biology techniques to create novel vectors, I collaborate with graduate students on their projects. Meaningful Experience Description Upon joining the biophysics lab at the beginning of sophomore year, I expected to learn a useful set of cell and molecular biology techniques as well as familiarize myself with the approach of traditional “wet lab” research. In reflecting on my experience however, I realized that the projects taught me more than how to pipet, ligate, and transform. Each day presented a set of new challenges to overcome, which required me to think critically and, more importantly, work together with my colleagues in a dynamic environment. I learned to view failure as merely the narrowing down of possible options and began to appreciate the amount of careful work that goes into every published article of research. These experiences helped foster a new appreciation for and positively impacted my view on translational research and the advent of novel treatments. In addition, I mentor other undergraduate research assistants on their own projects. Being a part of the flow of knowledge and watching the students succeed was just as satisfying as my purifying a clone for protein expression. Such a feeling confirmed one of my passions that ultimately led me to pursue medicine: to teach and coach others so that they are empowered to improve their own lives as well as those of the community in which they live.

Work and Activities Example #2 (Including Most Meaningful Experience)

Pioneer Leadership Program Each year, the Pioneer Leadership Program (PLP) selects 88 highly qualified students from an incoming class of over 1,400 undergraduates to join a specialized living and learning community with the goal of developing leaders for the 21st century. In addition to unique classes on social justice, civic engagement, and ethics, the program provides opportunities for service and community projects that seek to address “wicked problems” and teach citizen-leadership. Ultimately, completion of the program results in a Leadership Studies minor accompanied by a transformative set of skills, including the evaluation of situations through a critical lens and sustaining crucial conversations. Meaningful Experience Description As a science major, PLP was influential in my development as a mature, socially conscious leader. Specifically, the projects we completed, such as the Community Change Initiative, provided valuable experience in identifying a problem, formulating a plan of action, and swiftly executing that plan. My group addressed the toxic stressors that plague low-income high school students and stymie the development of “non-cognitive” skills like visioning and code switching in an effort to close the achievement gap between such students and their more affluent peers. We created a program called Forward Focus for a cohort of local high school freshmen and sophomores; composed of a series of modules, it focused on fostering success outside of the classroom to indirectly but effectively impact success inside it. Reaching a set of diverse students required leveraging a critically conscious mindset to evaluate and adapt to their attitudes; more importantly, achieving our learning goals hinged on establishing trust between our team, a group of “outsiders,” and kids who must balance school with a job to support their families. In retrospect, PLP provided the unique opportunity to serve and learn simultaneously, which in turn fueled my passion to pursue a career that marries the two elements in a similar manner.

Work and Activities Example #3 (Including Most Meaningful Experience)

DU EMS Club In partnership with DU Campus Safety, the student-run DU EMS Club provides volunteers for the nightly SafeWalk escort program and opportunities for CPR/AED and EMT training. Additionally, it serves as a pre-hospital care and emergency medicine interest group, with meetings and continuing education for both EMTs and non-EMTs. While still in its infancy, the club is working with the university to establish a student EMT rapid response unit to aid in responding to distress calls on campus. This summer, the club is scheduled to provide CPR, First Aid, and AED training to the DU community. Other future goals include expanding educational workshops to other local organizations and fundraising for EMT training scholarships. Meaningful Experience Description As one of the founding members of the EMS club, I have been involved in our maturation from a small group of action-oriented individuals to a dedicated cohort of students serving the DU community. Expectantly, the growth of DU EMS was punctuated by periods of challenge and conflict stemming from administrative red tape and disagreement over our mission and purpose, and in each instance I learned a valuable lesson. For example, when we first began, it seemed like all that was needed to establish a student-run EMT program was to propose the idea to the right people and sign a few waiver forms. Over two years later, we are still working alongside Campus Safety to receive approval for the unit. While such as an experience fostered persistence and ingenuity, I believe the failures and arguments that comprise our struggle more importantly taught me the value of anticipating challenges and being flexible when problem solving. Fortunately, the club has made a positive impact on the campus through the creation of the SafeWalk program and partnership with Denver Health to reserve EMT training seats specifically for DU students. In short, the hours spent building and improving this club have resulted in the embodiment of values and ideals that will undoubtedly serve me in the trials of the future.

Work and Activities Example #4

Collaboration Grant A $5,000 award available semi-annually to select Boettcher scholars who collaborate with Boettcher investigators in their research. The grant provides funds for supplies and a stipend with the purpose of allowing the scholar to contribute to cutting-edge research unencumbered by a lack of resources. To date, I have been awarded three of these grants, totaling $15,000 for salary and supplies. With the means to spend my summers at DU, I can push forward cloning projects and work in a healthcare setting simultaneously; this balance of activities has allowed me to remain a perpetual learner while also developing a greater level of emotional intelligence.

Work and Activities Example #5

Ongoing Shadowing I began shadowing healthcare professionals as early as high school and continue to learn from such experiences even today; in reflecting on the breadth and depth of each interaction, I gleaned many of the qualities physicians possess to care for patients beyond treating the pathophysiology at hand. Each day brought a new lesson, regardless of whether I was observing how an internist interacted with a family who elected to put a patient on comfort measures or analyzing the dynamics of team-based care through the perspective of pharmacists and other non-M.D. providers. In sum, I learned to appreciate the plethora of factors such professionals must consider in achieving better health outcomes.

Work and Activities Example #6

Skin Cancer Prevention Coalition As a part of a diverse team of faculty and staff, I collaborate with the university medical director, health and counseling center, and other campus leaders to provide sun safety related education and resources to students. The coalition’s most effective tool is a Reveal Imager device that is staffed by volunteers at campus events to raise awareness about sun damage. Specifically, the imager is used to promote self-care; by seeing melanin deposits on their own faces, students are more inclined to take steps to protect themselves from UV radiation. In retrospect, this coalition has taught me to value small victories when confronting intimidatingly large problems.

Work and Activities Example #7

Service Learning at University of Glasgow In pursuing service learning while studying abroad, I volunteered at a local community center that provided resources for low income residents of the surrounding high rises. Drawing upon my passion for health and fitness, my main responsibility was to create a “Guide to the Maryhill Hub Gym.” This task brought with it the unique challenge of learning a new set of cultural norms and overcoming communication barriers as I surveyed service-users to shape the goals of the project. Ultimately, the Hub pursued funding to print the guide and include it as a benefit to the gym membership. This experience was supplemented by lessons on critical consciousness in the context of “A Hero’s Journey.”

Work and Activities Example #8

ER Volunteer In working directly with nurses and other ER staff, I helped ensure each patient received an optimal level of care. My responsibilities were many, including the preparation of rooms, restocking of IV trays, and inspection of medical equipment. I also tended to patients’ needs and served as an ambassador between them, their nurses, and their physicians. In doing so, I experienced the satisfaction that comes from putting a smile on someone who is suffering; sometimes, all they needed was a warm blanket or an equally warm companion to share their stories with. Overall, this experience taught me the significance that attending to someone’s emotional needs has on their health outcomes.

How Do You Choose Which Activities to Include?

It’s important to think strategically about what you want to include so that you feature a diverse collection of activities that demonstrate the essential qualities admissions committees look for in prospective medical students.

The first thing you should know is admissions committees are primarily looking for activities in a few core areas : clinical exposure, research experience, and community involvement. Participating in activities in each of these areas shows you have the kind of well-rounded experience and relevant interests to know whether or not you actually want to pursue upwards of eight years of medical education and one day become a doctor.

Choose experiences that show longitudinal commitment. Don’t include one-off volunteering activities, no matter how amazing they were. Focus on in-depth experiences that you were immersed in for at least a month, but hopefully much more. Only include a one-off event if you committed yourself to it year after year. Bottom line—Show you are committed to things.

While the bulk of your activities should deal with medicine, such as research and clinical experience, it’s also important to speak about passions related to medicine or completely outside of medicine.

How has your lifelong commitment to learning and practicing the violin prepared you for the rigors of medical school? Help the admissions committee see who you are at this moment and how that will inform your life and values as a future doctor. Demonstrate you are a well-rounded applicant with diverse interests but relate everything back to medicine.

Keep the focus on activities more so than awards, but be sure to include any notable awards, achievements, or scholarships. Numbers are convincing and easy to write about. Scholarships show you’re a strong student, and grants for research shows you’re already on the path to becoming a researcher.

If you’re struggling to decide what to include, remember you can lump certain activities together. For example, your shadowing experiences, in particular, should be grouped together. In the description of the activity, you can speak about the breadth and diversity of medicine you witnessed first-hand. Another example of when to group activities together is if you worked on a few different research projects in the same lab. You could include these experiences as a single entry.

It’s all about finding a balance between what’s unique and what’s longitudinal. Time spent abroad helping underprivileged communities is a unique experience sure to impress admissions committees, while years of research with the same lab shows longitudinal commitment.

When choosing your activities, consider the number of hours you dedicated to the activity, your longitudinal commitment (months to years), and unique experiences. Many of your fellow applicants will have experiences that are very similar to your own.

How can you choose activities that help you stand out and describe them in a way that is unique to you?

Do You Need to Fill Out All 15 Sections?

If you spent your premed years wisely, you should have more than enough experiences to fill out all 15 spots in Work and Activities. That said, it’s not a problem if you don’t fill out all 15, so long as you are able to demonstrate you have a variety of experiences, including ones that span multiple years. Admissions committees want to see you are committed to your activities, and the best way to demonstrate this is with the amount of time you’ve spent participating in the activity.

While you can include 15 activities, you do not need to. You should complete at least 10, but ensure that you only include the experiences that made the greatest impact on you.

You are better off having fewer than 15 activities filled out than including weaker activities, such as ones you spent very little time on, didn’t play a large role in, or completed a long time ago (pre-college.) Just like with your letters of recommendation, including a weak activity is worse than not including it at all. You’re looking for quality not quantity, but hopefully, by the time it comes time to apply, you have both.

Keep in mind that hobbies and non-academic interests can be included in your list of activities so long as you can illustrate how they have positively impacted your life. Admissions committees want to get to know who you are beyond your grades because they are interested in establishing a diverse student body. What will you add to the program and campus?

For example, say you’ve studied piano for years and love to play music. Not only does this show commitment to learning, it could be that the admissions committee is aware of a music club or student band at their school in need of more students. By including this hobby, you’ve just made yourself a more attractive candidate for two reasons.

Learn how to optimize your AMCAS Hobbies , including what schools look for.

Begin gaining experience early on as a premed so that when it comes time to apply, you’re able to show commitment to a few core activities that you have kept up with throughout college. These lengthy experiences show you’ve taken the time to understand what it’s like to work in a medical field.

How to Write Effective Medical School Application Activities

1 | Reflect Back on Your Notes and Journal Entries

The notes and journals you kept during your extracurricular experiences are invaluable when it comes time to write about them on your application. It could be years between when you participated in an activity and when you apply to medical school, so it’s very important to write down relevant details and anecdotes rather than relying on your memory alone.

Our memories are fickle things, so it’s imperative that you keep a journal throughout your extracurricular experiences.

What stands out to you? What anecdotes did you include, and how can they be used to demonstrate your commitment to medicine?

Learn more: How Students Can Harness the Powerful Benefits of Journaling .

2 | Put Yourself Into the Activity Description

Don’t just explain what the activity is—detail your role and experience specifically. What did you learn? How did it affect you?

There is a character limit of 700, so it’s important to follow a formula. Go beyond a resume description. Focus on your responsibilities. Use action verbs. Use numbers. Paint the picture with descriptive language.

Describe what you did. Lead with this, but don’t leave it there. At the end, help the reader understand what it means in the context of medicine. Provide a descriptive overview, then provide small anecdotes. You can’t go into much detail, so how can you make it unique to you?

Avoid generic sentences that admissions committee members will see time and time again, like “This experience taught me leadership skills.” How did it teach you leadership skills? Make every word count. Use one or two sentences to describe what you gained from the experience.

Many students spend too much time describing the activity and not enough time reflecting on and detailing their individual learning experience. You only have so much space, so choose your words carefully. For example, everyone is going to have shadowing as an experience. What was unique about your experience?

3 | Write Your Activities Before Most Meaningful

If you are struggling to decide which activities to choose as your most meaningful, begin by writing all 10-15 of your experiences. This is a task you need to get done anyways, and doing so will give you insight into which experiences you find the easiest to write about.

As you reflect on your experiences, which ones felt the most important to you? Which ones did you feel like you didn’t have enough room to say all that you wanted to? Which ones illustrate length of commitment?

Take Your Application to the Next Level With Med School Insiders

We encourage you to read our complete Work and Activities Section Guide , which includes how to approach this section, mistakes to avoid, and frequently asked questions. We also have guides on the entire Medical School Application Process .

Sign up for our newsletter and follow our blog for the latest medical school application news, guides, and resources. Our content library is filled with articles that will help you prepare for every aspect of your application, as well as how to succeed during medical school and residency.

Med School Insiders can help you create a stand out medical school application. Our team of doctors has years of experience serving on admissions committees, so you’ll benefit from essential insights from people who have been intimately involved with the selection process.

Med School Insiders

2024 AACOMAS Experiences and Achievements Section Guide

Learn about the AACOMAS experiences and achievements section, including why it’s important, what’s included, and how to prepare.

2024 TMDSAS Activities Section Guide

Learn about the TMDSAS activities section, including why it’s important, what’s included, how the chronology works, and how to prepare.

2024 AMCAS Work and Activities Section Guide (Extracurriculars)

Some students consider the Work and Activities section of their application to be less important than other sections. This is a fatal mistake. Learn what it takes to craft an impactful extracurriculars section.

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Medical School Leadership Essay: Complete Guide

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One of the most challenging parts of the application process for many candidates is composing the leadership essay. They find it difficult to define what leadership is. 

Saying you have "strong leadership skills" is simple, but what does that entail? 

Does that imply you guided a 400-person team toward impossible, lofty objectives? 

Does that mean your chances of demonstrating leadership are zero if you have yet to do that? 

No, definitely not.

It is possible to be a leader in any capacity. However, finding or analyzing one's leadership experiences is not always straightforward. 

Still, it is crucial to ace this essay and convince the admissions committee that you are a determined, goal-oriented leader.

This article will guide you through composing your leadership essay. We have gathered the best tips and sample leadership essays to make it easier.

What is a Leadership Essay for Medical School?

Leadership is an essential skill needed in medical school. Moreover, effective leadership is critical for the healthcare industry to execute reforms and change its corporate culture. 

It is because the current state of the American healthcare system is plagued by several issues, such as rising healthcare expenses, unequal access to care, and racial discrimination in medical practice. 

Hence, you must ensure that when you compose your leadership essay for medical school, the admissions committee will know you are ready to take the challenge. 

Consider Paul Farmer , Vivek Murthy , and Atul Gawande as physicians who have sparked change. These physicians are leaders in their fields and have influenced structural change in particular branches of medicine, whether through study, writing, or policy. 

Like the physicians mentioned above, medical institutions seek out students who are willing to put forth an effort to address issues.

Tips for Writing Medical School Leadership Essays

Your medical school secondary essays will flood your inbox once you hit submit on your primary medical school application . 

If you apply to more schools, you will undoubtedly increase your chances of being accepted somewhere. Still, there is a catch: you will proportionally receive excessive secondaries.

How can you maximize your success when 75+ essays fall into your lap simultaneously? 

Keeping in mind that you should apply to 25–30 schools to be on the safe side and that each program has anywhere from one to nine secondary prompts, the question is: how can you?

We have listed some tips for writing secondary essays for medical school to help you get through the writing process.

Plan Your Time Accordingly

You might wonder how long the application process takes before you compose leadership essays for medical school. 

Your medical school secondary essays will trickle in throughout the summer after you submit your primary, usually starting at the end of June.

You will quickly experience writing fatigue because most medical schools automatically send secondaries back to every primary that has been finished. Therefore, your secondary timetable should be carefully thought out. 

Schools will assume you do not care about your essays if you take too long to send them. 

If you send them in a day but do not take the time to proofread them for grammar and other issues, you will come across as a careless applicant.

Think the Way an Admission Committee Would

Professors and students make up a large portion of admissions panels. They will also read countless leadership essays for medical education. 

Reading applications after application, 75% of which sound the same, will make them incredibly bored.

They will undoubtedly have glazed eyes. With your beginning and introduction, in particular, you need to catch their interest. You definitely do not want your reader to yawn straight away! 

Keep your vocabulary straightforward and your grammatical construction simple throughout your answers.

Avoid Reiterating Yourself

Your AMCAS application is already on file with the selection committee. You will benefit from repetition when composing leadership essays for medical school. 

Admissions officers will become tired and unimpressed if you restate what you said in the personal statement with your secondaries.

You must instead present new knowledge. That does not mean you cannot discuss the same experiences or activities; you most definitely can. However, it implies that you must examine each event differently.

Answer the Prompt Clearly

Too many students when writing leadership essays for medical school, too many students get caught up in what they want to say and fail to answer the question. As a result, similar topics for many essays will have minor variations. 

Ensure you respond to each query even though they are essentially asking the same thing.

Before beginning to write, underline each keyword and sentence. 

When writing your leadership essays, be aware of the questions the school is asking, and structure your essay appropriately. Then, make sure your response directly addresses the query and avoids any major detours.

Do Not Forget to Edit and Proofread

You will grow weary of writing once you have gone through many prompts for each of your institutions. 

The temptation, however, to send the first draft should be resisted. Your chances of obtaining an interview may depend on how well your leadership essays are written.

So, if you require a pause, do so. After that, go back and look over the work for any mistakes. 

Your word processor might have missed a grammatical or spelling mistake that you made. For example, it is possible that you wrote the name of one institution by mistake rather than the other. 

You are human, so errors like this can occur. However, if the admissions committee sees them, you will appear to lack professionalism. So do your best to edit.

Enter your text here...

Leadership Essay Sample Prompts 

Writing a leadership essay can be nerve-wracking. You have to impress the admissions committee while being humble at the same time.

 Hence, it would help if you put a lot of thought into developing a brilliant essay. 

To get you started, here are a few leadership essays prompts that you may encounter during your medical school application:

• How can a good leader improve the healthcare system in your country?
• What are your unique leadership skills? How will you apply it in medical school?
• What are the characteristics of a good leader and follower? Which among these qualities do you have and not have? How can you improve?
• Leadership, Curiosity, and Commitment are the three pillars of our program. Describe how you have exhibited one or more of these qualities on your journey to becoming a doctor. Which categories offer the most tremendous potential for personal development, and why?

Sample Medical School Leadership Essays

Your leadership essay plays a crucial role in your medical school application. Remember that you are competing against hundreds of candidates and must find a way to stand out.

Here are a few model leadership essays you could get ideas for your reference.

Leadership Essay for Medical School Sample 1:

I was chosen to serve as the executive director of BerkeleyShelter. During my second year of college, this undergraduate volunteer group runs a shelter for students facing homelessness. The following year, I established HealthGroup, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to reasonably priced medications for people with chronic illnesses. My perception of what it means to be a leader has started to shift due to these activities. 

By creating legislation, collaborating with elected officials, and launching campaigns to increase public knowledge of the problems related to medication prices, HealthGroup attempted to effect change. As the company's creator, I took it upon myself to develop a strategy that other employees and members could adhere to. I believed that as a boss, I was responsible for overseeing the organization's operations. 

However, HealthGroup found it challenging to make any noticeable difference in the cost of prescribed drugs. There were too many barriers brought on by pre-existing issues with the American healthcare system. In reality, not much had altered a year after HealthGroups was founded. So, naturally, I didn't expect the healthcare system to be fixed immediately. Still, I didn't anticipate my efforts to have been so ineffective. 

Before my final year of college, I started considering what I could do as the organization's leader to alter HealthGroup. I realized that I hadn't allowed others to express their opinions; instead, I had presumed that I needed to lead the group by myself. Maybe my role as a leader was to foster an environment where others would voice their opinions rather than to determine the organization's course on my own.

Leadership Essay for Medical School Sample 2:Enter your text here...

"Laura needs the ball, please!" "Okay, keep moving forward; don't let her grab the ball!" "You can outrun her by moving your thighs and putting more effort into running." 

My soccer friends frequently overheard these words during practice and during games. I've played soccer for my school for the past two years. I have forged strong relationships with my colleagues over the past two years and have observed that one of a leader's qualities is the capacity to inspire others. John Quincy Adams once said,  "You are a leader if your actions motivate others to dream bigger, learn more, do more, and become more."

I always wanted to be a leader in any circumstance as a young child. When my class was split into groups to work on projects, for instance, I wanted to be the leader—not bossy or overbearing, but rather to make sure my group produced the finest work. When we have group activities, my peers want me to be in charge because they know I'm smart and will push them until the task is completed.

I was a sophomore in college when I decided I wanted to play on an athletic squad. I knew I wouldn't be our top scorer as a rookie player, but I was confident the experience would be helpful. I stood at the sideline on my first day on the field and carefully observed each squad move.

Even though we worked together, I observed that we weren't playing as a team. We were missing a crucial component. After days of research, I concluded that motivation and unity were the keys to building a stronger team. I inspired my peers to push themselves past their comfort zones during practice. After training, I made them run an additional lap or course for ten more minutes. Even though I occasionally annoyed them, they eventually realized how much my persistence had helped them.

I developed into a leader by inspiring my team members. Leadership capacity is more important than subject-matter expertise for someone to be a good leader. Although I didn't have the best performance or the most goals scored on the squad, I did help the team as a whole. We played as individuals at the start of the season but as a team toward the finish. 

Because I'm always willing to assist others, my leadership abilities and experiences in soccer and the classroom have helped me improve. I need to be able to do that if I want to become an excellent orthodontist. I have acquired it and proven it throughout my existence. I'll keep leading by example and pushing others and myself forward as I have so far.

Additional FAQs – Medical School Leadership Essay

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March 20, 2024

Four Tips for Displaying Teamwork in Your Application Essays

Teamwork – and its close cousin leadership – are highly prized by graduate programs and universities. But if you haven’t worked in a team on any regular basis, don’t worry! You’ve probably got a number of examples of teamwork in your back pocket that you didn’t even realize were there. Consider the following four ideas when you are writing an essay about teamwork.

1. Teams come in many flavors and sizes.

Unless you’ve been living like a hermit for the past several years, you have undoubtedly participated in various groups . Maybe you were a member of a sports team; a dance, music, or theater troupe; or a youth group through your church, synagogue, or community center. You might have been a member of a committee, either as a volunteer or at work. Perhaps you helped organize an event, tutored, been part of a Scout group, or volunteered to be a Big Brother or Big Sister. 

In any of these cases, you likely worked with other people. Even if your interaction was with only one other person, you have material you can discuss in a teamwork personal statement. Yes, working with just one other person, as a mentor or guide, counts! 

2. Show that you were an active listener.

Teamwork and collaboration require effective listening. Discuss a time when you stopped to listen – really listen – to others, patiently and skillfully. Unfortunately, and perhaps unfairly, many young people today have gained a reputation for not being willing to listen to others and for quickly becoming agitated by differing views. Demonstrate to the adcom that this isn’t who you are. Show that your ability to listen to others, to take in other points of view, and to express your understanding of those views helped eased tensions and increased collaboration. This can be an impressive example of your teamwork skills.

3. Discuss morale boosting and conflict resolution.

Have you ever been involved in a project when enthusiasm was flagging, but you found a way to inject renewed excitement into it? Have you brainstormed an idea to strengthen a group, club, or assignment? These are also examples of teamwork. Perhaps you found a way to make peace between two warring members of a group who couldn’t agree on the direction your project or plan should go. If you mediated this conflict and got the two individuals to start working together, that was surely teamwork (and worthy of a peace prize!). 

Any time you proactively got involved with other people (especially when they were being difficult), discovered a better way to get things done, found a middle ground, or thought of a creative new idea, that was teamwork.

4. Consider experiences in your personal life for material.

A client once wrote about her efforts to heal a serious rift in her family after her father passed away. Siblings were fighting for control of the successful family business, and an ugly succession fight ensued. The client patiently coaxed cooperation, even in this personal and emotionally charged environment. She used both shuttle diplomacy and active listening among battling family members, leading to everyone’s agreement to use a mediator to reach a final resolution.  

Another client wrote about having organized a trip with a few friends and how he dealt with a dispute between two of them. Their  bickering had threatened to ruin the long-planned trip. His effective listening and creativity in figuring out an activity that neither of the “combatants” would be able to resist helped defuse the situation and saved the trip from becoming an outright disaster for everyone. In both these situations, the “teams” were small, but the stakes for those involved were high.

We hope you now see that you’ve been working in teams more often than you thought! No doubt you’ll have strong options to choose from when writing a teamwork personal essay.

Watch: Linda Abraham discusses two main ways you can show the adcom that you are a leader .

Our expert admissions advisors can help you identify your teamwork experiences and guide you as you write about them, or assist you with any other component of your application. Schedule a free consultation today!

By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. She is also the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools . Want an admissions expert to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• Fitting In and Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions , a free guide
• Proving Character Traits in Your Essays
• Strategy for Writing an Accomplishment Essay (with examples)

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AMCAS Work and Activities Examples: How to Stand Out

• Cracking Med School Admissions Team

Dr. Rachel Rizal and Dr. Rishi Mediratta , your Cracking Med School Admissions application advisors, have literally read tens of thousands of AMCAS Work and Activities descriptions. We strategize new ways to help our students stand out on their AMCAS Activities section each year. We update this “AMCAS Work and Activities Examples” blog post several times a cycle so that you have the latest, high-yield tips.  Read all our tips to write an outstanding medical school application below. Learn from several AMCAS work and activities examples from successful applicants!

BOOKMARK THIS PAGE TO MAKE IT YOUR GO-TO GUIDE FOR AMCAS ACTIVITIES DESCRIPTIONS!

Last Update May 2024

Learn how to write  excellent AMCAS work and activities descriptions: 

How to Write an AMCAS Activity Description

Amcas activity categories.

• Shadowing descriptions
• Research descriptions
• Clinical descriptions, including Paid and Volunteering
• Non-Clinical Volunteering descriptions
• Paid employment descriptions
• Publication descriptions
• Poster presentation descriptions
• Conferences Attended descriptions
• Honors/Awards/Recognitions descriptions
• Leadership descriptions
• Extracurricular activities descriptions
• Intercollegiate athletics descriptions
• Military service descriptions
• Teaching / Tutoring / Teaching Assistant

AMCAS Work and Activities Tips

• FAQs about AMCAS work and activities
• Cracking Med Medical School Application Packages – get edits for your med school applications!

Need help with your AMCAS primary application, including the AMCAS activity section? Send us a question below .  We can help you shine on your medical school primary applications, secondary essays, and interviews!

OUr Students Were Accepted at These Medical Schools the Past 2 Years!

How To Write an AMCAS Activity Description

The basics: how to fill out the work and activities section .

On the AMCAS application, one of the major sections is the AMCAS Activities section. You have space to fill up to 15 work and activities entries. For each activities entry, you can identify which category best describes your experience, and you have 700 characters to describe the activities, known as the “activity description.”  Additionally, you can designate three of your activities as your most meaningful experiences. For these 3 most meaningful activities , you have an additional 1325 characters to write why this activity is meaningful to you. We have an entire blog post dedicated on how to write your AMCAS most meaningful experiences .

An AMCAS activity description contains several pieces of information, including demographic information and descriptive information.

• Experience Type (Look at AMCAS Activity Categories right below)
• Experience Name
• Organization Name
• Hours per Week
• Contact Name, Title, email, and phone number
• City / State / Country
• Experience Description – 700 characters each
• 3 Most Meaningful Activities – 1325 characters each

The experience description on the AMCAS is where students can really shine and stand out among thousands of applications. It is absolutely critical that you try to optimize the 700 characters allotted. When you look at the AMCAS example below, you’ll see the various elements of a good AMCAS activity description. 

Look at the AMCAS activity description example below to see what an AMCAS activity description looks like to an admission committee application reviewer! 

This is what an AMCAS activities section description looks like filled out

Elements of an AMCAS description:

Your 15 AMCAS activity entries need to complement each other. In some, you may highlight your clinical knowledge. In others, you may talk more about your research and analytical skills. Here are elements you can incorporate into your AMCAS work and activities descriptions. 

• Organization overview: If it is not obvious what the organization what the organization is, then you can write one sentence MAX about the organizations goals and mission. This will help provide context about your extracurricular activity experience. 
• What you did: Write a description highlighting what YOU did for that specific work or activity. Focus on impact. One common mistake our Cracking Med School Admissions team finds is that applicants talk too much about the organization and not enough about what the applicant did during the activity.
• Story:  You may want to discuss a challenge you overcame or a memorable patient. Stories bring you and the individuals you help through your activities to life. We strongly recommend incorporating a story! The stories you include in your AMCAS experience description  should not be the same as the stories that you include in your medical school personal statement . 
• Reflections and Lessons Learned:  You can add specific lessons learned and insights from your experience. The key to standing out is to be very specific.
• Leadership Role:  Highlight any leadership roles you had, especially if you were a Founder or President. 
• Awards / Publications / Impact: If you won any awards, make sure to note them. Finally, if you can tie the activity with how you can relate it to your future career in medicine, you should mention it in the end. You can use a few characters to say “1st author publication” or any other notable presentations or publications. But, you should also have an entire AMCAS activity description dedicated to your publication(s) and another AMCAS activity description dedicated to presentation(s).

As you can see, you can write a lot in 700 characters! It is definitely an art to bring together a solid AMCAS activity section. 

How Many Activities on AMCAS primary application? 

You can put up to 15 activities on your AMCAS application. No, that does not mean you had to be involved with 15 school activities. AMCAS activities include: gap year activities, including gap year jobs and gap year volunteering; summer internships and other summer opportunities; part-time work experiences; and other special talents you possess. 

FAQ: How Many Activities Should I Put on AMCAS? 

Our Cracking Med School Admissions team only wants you to stand out. So, we will only advise you to submit strong applications. From our experience as admissions readers and medical school admissions experts, we see that strong applicants write 13 or more AMCAS activity entries on their AMCAS applications.

AMCAS Experience Hours

Med school applicants can add different date ranges for when they were involved in an activity. For example, if you did an activity two different summers in college, you may have dates ranging 06/2022 – 08/2022 and 06/2023 – 08/2023, and include the hours for each period. 

AMCAS also differentiates between completed hours – for activities that you have already participated in – versus anticipated hours – for anticipated activities. 

There’s an entire strategy as to whether you should split your hours into numerous date ranges or put it as one continuous date. In general, we recommend that our students split their activities into different date ranges when applicable. 

FAQ: What should you do if you are expecting to do the activity this upcoming year? 

If you are doing this activity only in the next year, then you would put one date range, with the end date as the last month you expect to do that activity. For example, you would put the experience date range like 07/2024 – 05/2025 (# of expected future hours).”

FAQ: What should you do if you are expecting to do the activity this upcoming year AND you have already started the activity?

But what if you have already been doing the activity? In this case, we want to showcase the amount of time and dedication you have already done the activity  and  the amount of work that you will continue to do for the experience. Therefore,  our team recommends putting two date ranges: the past and the future. For example, you would put something like 09/2022 – 05/2023 (# of past hours) AND 07/2024 – 05/2025 (# of expected future hours). 

FAQ: Should you even include an anticipated activity?  In general, medical school admissions committee members know that plans change. In general, Drs. Rachel Rizal and Rishi Mediratta do not think you should prioritize writing about an anticipated activity (or anticipated activities). There are some exceptions:

• Anticipated work or research related to a post-graduate award (for example, if you will be pursuing a Fulbright Fellowship or the NIH postbacc program).
• Pursuit of a graduate degree related to your healthcare interests.
• You do not have all 15 work & activities entries filled out, and there is space for a major anticipated activity.
• You want to convey you will have a clinical role during the following year (e.g., full-time medical scribe or full-time medical assistant).

Contact us  or email us at  [email protected] if you have questions about your AMCAS activity hours! We’re master AMCAS activities strategists and we’ll help your AMCAS activities stand out to the medical school admissions committees!

FAQ: Should my AMCAS Descriptions be in Bullet Points or Paragraph Style?

There are two main ways an applicant can write the work activities descriptions for the AMCAS.

• Bullet points: Think about this as “resume” style. These descriptions tend to be to the point and emphasize what an applicant did for each activity.
• Paragraph form: This allows medical school applicants to write more stories and describe their activities. We recommend this format for the AMCAS and AACOMAS. 

It is a personal preference and there is not one correct format to write your AMCAS extracurricular activities descriptions. We’ve seen students succeed both ways! We strongly suggest that you stick to one format, and not alternate between bullet point and paragraph form.

We recommend our students to write most of their AMCAS work and activities descriptions in paragraph form because you can more easily incorporate a story and reflections. 

Must have Elements for Each Activity Description

• What YOU did:  What were your responsibilities? What impact did you have in this organization? Oftentimes, we read descriptions that describe the program or project, and barely touch on what the applicant did. Leaving this out is one of the most common mistakes we see.
• Reflection is KEY:  Reflection shows maturity and growth. Some reflections you can discuss in your description – What lessons did you learn? Did you face any difficulties? How did this experience impact you or change the way you think about patient care and healthcare? What did you gain from this experience that you will bring to the medical field? 

Step Up Your Game: Make Your Activities Descriptions From Good to Great

Add these components to strengthen your AMCAS activities descriptions.

• Awards and Accolades: Did you win any awards? Did you publish your research? Accolades are external validations that support the strength of your medical school application. 
• Leadership:  Especially if you were founder, first author, or president, highlight your leadership role in your activity description and make it bold.
• Impact:  Discuss the impact you had on the organization, project, or people you served. You can think about these questions: How did you impact the patients or individuals you helped – how did you change their lives or health? How did you individually drive your research project? How did your leadership and effort affect that organization’s performance? 

Most Meaningful Experience Remarks

You choose 3 activities that are your “most meaningful activities” and you have an extra 1325 to write a short essay in the “most meaningful experience remarks” description box. Think of your most meaningful experience remarks as mini personal essays. At least one of your most meaningful activities should be a clinical experience / clinical activity. Your most meaningful experience remarks should also complement what you write in the experience description section. Read the research activity example below to see how the “most meaningful experience remarks” and “experience description” can complement each other.

Additionally, we have an entire blog post dedicated to AMCAS most meaningful experience remarks tips! 

There’s a lot of strategy with filling out the work and activities section AMCAS. We’ve helped numerous students strategize about how to present their activities and work experience. And we can help you transform your AMCAS descriptions to your AACOMAS application and TMDSAS application.

If you need a second opinion or need help with how to best position your activities,  don’t hesitate to schedule a call with us by filling out the contact form below. 

AMCAS Work and Activities Categories

In the “Experience Type” field of the AMCAS activity section, there are several AMCAS activities categories that you can choose from for each of your activities. Keep scrolling for AMCAS work and activities categories tips and frequently asked questions ! You can also click the hyperlinks for AMCAS work and activities examples for various categories!

AMCAS Work and Activities Categories:

• Artistic Endeavors
• Community Service/Volunteer – Non-Medical/Clinical
• Community Service/Volunteer – Medical/Clinical
• Conferences Attended
• Extracurricular Activities
• Honors/Awards/Recognitions
• Intercollegiate Athletics
• Leadership – Not listed elsewhere
• Military Service
• Paid Employment – Medical/Clinical
• Paid Employment – Non-Medical/Clinical
• Physician Shadowing/Clinical Observation
• Presentations/Posters
• Publications
• Research/Lab
• Social Justice/Advocacy
• Teaching/Tutoring/Teaching Assistant

If you need to add context about the organization or program, then you can write a short description about the organization or activity background. You do not need a description of the organization if you are writing about a "Teaching Assistant" position; medical school admissions committee members know what teaching assistants do. If you are going to write about the organization in your AMCAS work and activities description, then we typically recommend it to be one sentence in length. We strongly recommend 2 sentences MAX.

There is no better way to get your question answered than to email us at [email protected] or contact us below. However, we want to give you some examples of common premed activities and under what category you can list them on the AMCAS. 

Leadership - Not Listed Elsewhere

• Student club officer
• Student activism/government/Greek activities
• Starting a non-profit/student organization/business
• Academic awards (e.g. honor societies, dean's list)
• Certifications and recognitions you received, including non-clinical certifications (e.g. a black belt in a martial arts, placing in a competition, certified as pilot, EMT certification, CPR certification)
• Competitive research position or grant funding which you had to apply for
• Phi Beta Kappa, Cum Laude, Dean's List

Community Service - Medical/Clinical

• If you are working in close proximity with patients, it is clinical.

Community Service - Non-Medical/Clinical

• If it doesn't fall into the above, you didn't get paid for it, and it isn't a leadership or teaching opportunity, it probably falls here. For example, volunteering for non-profits or charitable organizations, volunteer work you have done at your university.

Teaching/Tutoring/TA

• Activities that fall under these AMCAS work and activities categories not only include formal TA-ing and tutoring, but also mentoring and coaching.
• Use this if you were a keynote speaker, received major recognition, or attended a medical conference related to your interests or research. 
• Typically, we do not suggest students to fill out an activity description that falls under the "conferences attended" category because it's a passive activity. However, if you have fewer than 12 AMCAS activities, we strongly suggest that you think about filling a "conferences attended" description.
• Important Note: If the conference gave you an opportunity to present a poster or presentation, consider labeling it as Presentations/Poster s instead with the name of the conference attended so application screeners can easily find it.

If you’re going to write in bullet-point fashion, make sure to use strong action verbs . Additionally, applicants use the same verbs for multiple bullet points in a row. Don't do this - it does not appeal to the reader.

Here's an example...

Not Ideal Description:

• Helped my research professor in collecting samples for our experiment
• Helped analyze the data for our research paper

Instead, here's a better way to write this description:

• Developed a bioengineered composite scaffold capable of promoting cellular proliferation 
• Analyzed 3,000 samples using STATA to discover that our new scaffolding technique was 30% more efficient than the current standard practice

These tips will help you STAND OUT on your work and activities.

1. You do not need an experience for each activity category.

2. Some AMCAS work and activities categories are stronger than other AMCAS work and activities categories.

Read more details right below in the FAQ section .

Question: Do I need to have an experience for each category?  

Definitely not! You do not have to fill out an activity for each one of the categories. For example, you can have 4 “extracurricular activities” and 0 “artistic endeavors.”

There is a lot of strategy related to choosing categories and activity type, so  contact us if you want help with strategizing and editing help with your AMCAS primary application. We can help you with all parts of the application process! 

Question: Which AMCAS categories are better than others?

You should accurately place your various work and activities experiences in the appropriate categories. However, some activities can be placed in multiple AMCAS categories. And this is where our Cracking Med School Admission s strategy comes in!

Here are common AMCAS category strategies we have recommended to students we help through medical school application editing.

• Many med school applicants will list their school clubs as extracurricular activities. But, when we read their descriptions, they have actually had leadership within the school club! It is better to identify the activity as “leadership” than “extracurricular activities” in almost all cases.
• In more than half of cases, if you LED a community service initiative, we think “leadership” is a better AMCAS category than “Community Service/Volunteer.” However, this is a case by case basis and it depends on whether you have other leadership experiences and other community service activities. Contact us if you have questions on this one.
• Medical school admission committee members will always be more impressed if you presented research at a conference rather than attended a conference. If you did a oral presentation or poster presentation, please label this experience as a “Presentation/Posters” AMCAS category rather than a “Conferences Attended” AMCAS category.
• When premeds serve as Scribes or Medical Assistants, they are working in a clinic (paid or unpaid), speaking with patients, setting up the facilities, conducting vitals, and shadowing physicians all at the same time! In general, you should designate these activities on your AMCAS as Medical/Clinical activities (doesn’t matter if it’s paid or unpaid) and  not the “Shadowing/Clinical Observation.” Medical schools want to see that you are taking an active role in patient care. They do not want you to be merely an observer on the side lines. Don’t get us wrong. Observing is great but having direct clinical exposure is even better!
• This is typically not a strong AMCAS category. Our strongest applicants will not write hobbies on their AMCAS activities section and they will still fill 15 work and activities descriptions. 

The best way to start planning your AMCAS categories and descriptions is to brainstorm using our AMCAS Workbook ! It is totally free. We created it so students can start brainstorming and reflecting on their activities. 

Download the AMCAS workbook directly here or fill out the form right below !

FREE AMCAS Work & Activities Workbook

Use this workbook to write STELLAR AMCAS descriptions. This section is as important as your personal statement.

" * " indicates required fields

Question: What are examples on the AMCAS where a student has written something for the “Other” category?

AMCAS activities section examples for the “Other” category include: 

• Taking care of a sick family members or friend
• Taking care of a sibling
• Other large, personal time commitments

AMCAS Work and Activities Examples

We want to give you samples of common medical school application activities and excellent AMCAS work and activities examples. We want to share our advice on popular premed AMCAS work and activities! Want more examples, download our AMCAS Work and Activities workbook here or fill out the form right above . It is also a brainstorming tool to help you figure out what to write in your activities descriptions! 

Shadowing AMCAS Examples

How to list shadowing on amcas.

• You can list your shadowing on AMCAS either through bullet points or paragraph style.  It depends on the number of different doctors you have shadowed.
• Additionally, you can list shadowing experiences on your AMCAS in 2 different activity descriptions. When do we advise this? If students have 1 medical doctor they’ve shadowed a lot and you want to write about that shadowing experience in detail. OR If you did shadowing abroad vs. shadowing in the United States, then you can have 2 different shadowing AMCAS activities descriptions. 

We always push students to optimize the space by either writing clinical details or insights from their shadowing experiences. 

A common question the Cracking Med School Admissions team receives is, “ How to write about shadowing experiences in the AMCAS work and activities section? ” Read out examples and tips below!

AMCAS Work and Activities Example – Shadowing

STAND OUT: Make Your Activities Descriptions From Good to Great

One thing you can do in  your AMCAS work and activities description is to describe the significance of each shadowing experience or highlight key points. Looking back on the above example, the following sentences definitely stand out on their own:  

• “Observed open heart surgeries” (You’ll never see this in Family Medicine!)
• “Patient consultations…dialysis centers” (Again, unique to nephrology)
• “Attended international infectious disease conferences” (Sounds like an exciting opportunity, and makes one think of the 1995 film Outbreak, starring Dustin Hoffman)

Your AMCAS shadowing experience can give the application reviewer a sense of the broad clinical exposure you have had as a premed student.  For example, this applicant has shadowed in 5 different clinical settings across at least 4 different medical specialties. As evident by the periods of time identified in each shadowing activity, the applicant took advantage of summer breaks and her gap years to shadow various doctors. Her clinical exposure shows her that she was interested in learning more about medicine over a long, sustained period of time. 

Analysis: The applicant has had several shadowing opportunities throughout college, so she decided to mention several of them. The applicant was specific about procedures, types of chief complaints, and patients they encountered in certain shadowing experiences, as much as space would allow. 

The benefit of having a wide range of shadowing experiences is that you can clearly convey that you’ve acquired a multifaceted perspective of healthcare. The best way to do this is to incorporate experiences unique to each specialty in your description.

Other shadowing AMCAS examples:

• OB/GYN: Shadowed live births or fetal ultrasound sessions
• Radiology: Shadowed dark room sessions during an ER shift and learned to differentiate matter based on density on MRI scans.
• Orthopedic Surgery: Shadowed rounds at clubfoot clinic
• Plastic surgery: Shadowed cleft palate repair surgery and follow-up outpatient care clinic.

For more AMCAS activities examples, download our FREE AMCAS work and activities workbook . 

Experience Type: Physician Shadowing/Clinical Observation

Experience Name: Neurosurgery and Nephrology Shadowing

While shadowing residents and faculty neurosurgeons, I observed morning rounds and observed several ventriculoperitoneal shunt surgeries, lumbar spinal fusions, and skull base tumor resections. During one surgery, I was asked to reset a 3D brain mapping device. My requested participation illustrated how treating a patient is not just a one-person job, but a team effort. I also had the opportunity to round with nephrologists at an in-patient hemodialysis clinic. I learned that for patients with chronic kidney disease, maintaining proper phosphorus levels is vital to prevent the weakening of bones and calcification of blood vessels.

Our Cracking Med School Admissions team wanted to show you an AMCAS shadowing description experience example in paragraph form. 

• Give specific procedures and clinical skills you learned – the more specific, the better!  
• You can highlight your favorite patient encounter or procedure

Analysis: This applicant is very interested in neurosurgery and neurology. Therefore, he focused one clinical experience story on a neurosurgery case he witnessed. Additionally, this student shows strong clinical acumen, as he discussed the phosphorus levels with dialysis patients. The more insights you can bring about clinical medicine, the better! But remember, you might get asked about these in your medical school interview . 

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Amcas research experience examples, amcas work and activities – research description tips.

Many med school applicants will have research experience as one of their AMCAS extracurricular experiences. However, the AMCAS research experience entries are the most common fields in which applicants FAIL TO EFFECTIVELY SELL THEMSELVES. We have met students who have invested three years into a research lab, but failed to effectively convey their research experiences. And we’ve coached them through our application advising services to make sure their AMCAS activities help them stand out.

In your AMCAS research activities description, you should highlight the following elements:

• Your specific research study question and goals. Oftentimes, people make the mistake and talk too much about their overall labs’ missions and not enough about their independent research project’s goals.
• What YOU did; many students spend too much space talking about what the lab does in general.
• Skills you applied and learned. This can include: basic research techniques gained; how to write IRB approval applications; grant writing; patient recruitment into clinical studies; research design; analysis; and special programming skills like R and STATA.
• Publication & presentation mentions (although you should also allocate an entire AMCAS experience  for “publications” and another AMCAS experience dedicated to “posters & presentations.”
• How you independently led the research project, and what specific parts of the project.
• Highlight your critical thinking.
• Impact and transformative nature of your research project – what impact will your research have in medicine?

Did you create a research project of your own? Did you mentor somebody in your lab? Make sure to write about these teaching experiences because they show leadership and a propensity to clearly communicate! 

AMCAS Work and Activities Research Example

Here’s a basic science AMCAS research experience example.

Experience Type: Research/Lab

Experience Name: Mycoplasmology Lab Research Assistant

I investigated the proteomic differences of Mycoplasma iowae cells, a pathogen associated with decreased hatchability and leg abnormalities in poultry, grown in aspartic acid and asparagine. I performed multiple SDS-PAGE gels, allowing for comparison of proteins present or absent in whole cell lysate. Additional observations were measured by staining cellular DNA with 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole and calculating the aspect ratios of the cell bodies. Ultimately, I proposed a potential mechanism promoting intracellular survivability and learned to refine my techniques in each subsequent experiment in order to attain reputable results.

Publication: Co-author, Veterinary Microbiology Journal.

• We have a clear idea about the research topic and research project from this medical school research applicant.
• Give specific procedures you learned – the more specific, the better!  
• There was space to highlight the publication

Analysis: We get a good sense that this applicant played a key role in conducting this independent research. Her actions are technical, but the reader still understands the overall topic and her involvement. Added bonus was the publication addition! Not all students will have a publication, and that is okay. Moreover, some students with a publication may not have space. If you have the space, you should strive to put a line about your publications or posters, even if you have a separate AMCAS activity designated for  all your publications, posters, and oral presentations. Dr. Mediratta and Dr. Rizal work with a handful of students each year on their AMCAS applications. Check out our medical school application packages and contact us if you are interested in working with us! 

FAQ: How much of my research experience has to be technical jargon?

You should be able to describe key points of your research, i.e. relevant information, utilized techniques and procedures, etc. in your activity. (Keep in mind that you may have to elaborate on your research during the interview). However, you need to write your description geared towards an individual who does not have a science background and knowledge about your field of study. Additionally, our Cracking Med School Admissions team thinks it’s very important to also describe what you learned from this research project. You can add personal reflections and insights.

Let’s read another AMCAS research example, but this time, we’ll read an excellent description from a student who was in a clinical research role, involved with several research studies.

Experience Name: Breast Cancer Clinical Research at UCLA

At the Breast Cancer Clinic at UCLA, I investigated the barriers to care for breast cancer patients and  coordinated 4 clinical trials. In one of my main studies, I analyzed the oncology registry to assess the utility of ultrasound monitoring following chemotherapy compared to MRI monitoring. I found that ultrasound and MRI were equally effective in distinguishing chemotherapy response. Our work will allow for most cost-effective techniques for oncology management. Throughout my career, I aspire to conduct more research and clinical trials to decrease the costs and barriers to care for oncology patients.

Presentation: 1st author, American Cancer Society Conference

• We have a clear idea about the research topic and research project from this medical school research applicant. The studies were communicated clearly and concisely.
• The applicant told us that she was involved in multiple studies.
• Based on how she talked about a specific project, we understand that the applicant  led at least one of the research projects. And because she did a good job, the reader may infer that she was heavily involved in the 3 other research projects. 
• The reader understands the impact of her work.
• The reader understands the applicant’s career aspirations to improve oncology care and to decrease the overall barriers to care. 

Analysis: Similar to the example above, we also get a good sense that this applicant played a key role in conducting this independent research. This applicant did not have a publication, but she did have a poster, which she mentioned at the end of the activity description. Have questions about YOUR AMCAS research descriptions? Contact Dr. Mediratta and Dr. Rizal!

FAQ: What if I have multiple research projects and studies within the same lab – do I need to talk about all research studies?

Typically, there is not enough room in the 700-character AMCAS activity description to write about  all your research studies. You can mention that you were involved in a number of studies, similar to the clinical research AMCAS description above. We typically advise students who work with us through our Application Packages to include more details about one of the studies. It is important to show the admissions committee that you led a project, and weren’t just collecting data for numerous projects. They want to see that you were critically involved in the research as well as problem-solving through the research project.

FAQ: What if I don’t have posters and presentations to include?

That’s okay! A majority of students do not have posters and publications for their research projects! However, you can still write an EXCELLENT activities descriptions that highlight your strong research work. If there is any extra space, you can discuss what you learned about the research process.

The next AMCAS research experience example is a more creative research example, and the student also selected this as a most meaningful activity.

Insights to learn from this research AMCAS work activity example: 

From the above experience, note how the research study is limited to one brief – yet extremely descriptive – sentence. Then, the applicant highlighted the laboratory skills & research techniques he gained. As a reader, we can envision this applicant dissecting tissue samples in the lab! 

Second, the applicant’s research example in the AMCAS Work and Activities emphasized two points:

• Learning from his mistakes (“I never wasted my failures”)
• Establishing a pristine work ethic (“scrubbed flasks, washed counters, keeping my mind busy to rub away regrets, rinse thoughts, and repeat…”) and discipline “methodical discipline, meticulous organization…”

Third, look at how the most meaningful experience remarks description complements the experience description. The individual gave additional details that showed impactful experiences during his research journey. The most meaningful experience remarks did not repeat the AMCAS activity experience description. Instead, the applicant told a story about a time when he failed and how the procedure (and the research experience overall) helped him become more disciplined and resilient in research.  The reader learns about the reader’s resilience, critical thinking abilities, and problem solving capabilities. This will help the applicant stand out among thousands of applications!

Another common type of research premedical students write on their AMCAS work and activities section is public health research. Here, we’ll include an AMCAS work and activities example in which a student conducted qualitative public health research.

Experience Name:  Barriers to Immunization in Multi-ethnic parents in Hawaii

For my senior thesis, I conducted a study to explore the barriers to immunizations in parents whose children were not immunized by age 2. I recruited participants and organized 13 focus groups. I learned how to conduct qualitative research, including: creating a standardized questionnaire; coding participant; and analyzing themes from responses. The research found that parental issues like substance abuse, lack of motivation, and limited mobility were core themes as to why children were not immunized. In medical school, I want to continue conducting public health research that understands barriers to preventive care and work with communities to combat challenges.

• We understand in detail what the applicant did for the research project.
• The applicant discusses what the type of research and healthcare issues she wants to pursue in medical school.
• Based on how she talked about a specific project, we understand that the applicant  led this qualitative research project.

Analysis: The applicant did a good job communicating the various steps she did for the research project. We love how she gave the research results and linked them to her desire to improve challenges to preventive care. Compared to the research examples above, this person did not have a presentation or publication, and that’s okay! The applicant used the space effectively in order to walk the reader through details of the research. Have questions about YOUR AMCAS research descriptions? Contact Dr. Mediratta and Dr. Rizal!

AMCAS Clinical and Medical Activities

Amcas work and activities – medical / clinical experience description tips.

Having medical / clinical experiences is a must! There are some medical schools that calculate all your clinical hours and then reject applicants who don’t have enough clinical hours. If you have questions about whether you have enough clinical hours, definitely contact us below!

But, how do you stand out on your medical / clinical AMCAS work and activities descriptions? 

• Include a patient study
• Show your involvement in a person’s medical care
• Discuss the impact you had on an individual’s health
• Give your reflections about taking care of patients. What did you learn about clinical medicine and being a medical doctor? How will you apply what you learned to your medical career?

AMCAS Work and Activities Examples – Medical Experiences

Let’s take a look at different but strong ways to write about your clinical and medical experiences on your AMCAS work and activities section. 

Experience Type: Paid Employment – Medical / Clinical

Experience Name: Dermatology Medical Assistant

I aided dermatologist Dr. Manche in skin cancer removal surgeries. I conducted patient interviews to document medical histories in the “History of Present Illness” (HPI) format. Presenting cases to Dr. Manche using HPI format readies me for future presentations to attending physicians. One 46-year-old patient with a history of prolonged sun exposure presented to our clinic with a growing lesion on their arm. We diagnosed them with melanoma, necessitating immediate surgery. Clarifying our treatment plan, gathering patients’ feedback, and addressing questions strengthened my patient rapport. These experiences are pivotal in shaping me into a physician with strong communication abilities.

• Add a patient story.
• Use medical terminology, when appropriate.
• Show that you were directly involved with patient care.

Insights learned from the Clinical Activity:  

Many medical school applicants are Medical Assistants and Medical Scribes, so we thought this would be a great AMCAS activity description to include! We loved how the student used the term “History of Present Illness” and even gave an example of a brief HPI of a patient. This will show the medical school admissions committee that he has tons of clinical experience and he is functioning at the level of a medical school clinical student! Additionally, we liked this activity description because it showed that the applicant was directly involved in patient care. 

Dr. Mediratta and Dr. Rizal work with a handful of students each year on their AMCAS applications. Check out our medical school application packages and contact us if you are interested in working with us! 

Experience Type: Community Service / Volunteer – Medical / Clinical

Experience Name: President of Stanford Blood Donation Drives

As President, I organized 4 blood drives at Stanford, resulting in 180 pints donated, helping 540 patients. At the drives, I educate donors about the importance of blood donations and closely monitor patients after donations. Once, I was the first to notice a donor who was at risk of fainting on his bike ride home due to his pale complexion. I immediately called our on-staff physician and we continued to monitor the donor until he felt better.

I partnered with other universities to plan blood drives around our community. I created video educational modules to train other students about blood donations. As a physician, I will use my leadership skills to organize health fairs in my community.

• Include any leadership or initiative you took in somebody’s medical care.
• Add #’s and quantitative data when applicable. Frequent #’s include the number of patients you met and the number of health events you organized.
• Include any connection to what you want to do in the future as a physician.

This clinical activity is unique because it showed a premedical student’s leadership in a medical setting. It’s great that the student enumerated the number of blood drives she organized. Since she went to a strong undergrad institution, it’s great that she squeezed in her University’s name (Stanford). We loved how this student discussed her ambitious desire to make a greater impact beyond her university. By saying that she worked with other schools to plan blood drives in the community, we saw this applicant’s commitment to improving the health or her community. Finally, the applicant emphasized leadership by discussing how she was the President, organizing events at school and in the community, and creating video modules. She also stated that she wanted to be a physician leader at the end. This applicant used the space efficiently!

Dr. Mediratta and Dr. Rizal can help you stand out as a leader, even through your clinical experiences! Check out our medical school application packages and contact us if you are interested in working with us! 

• Include your impact and initiatives you led. This will help the reader understand your leadership. 
• Relate the activity to what you learned or how this activity relates to what you will do in your career. Why was this an important life experience? 

For more AMCAS activities volunteering examples, download our free AMCAS work and activities workbook .

AMCAS Community Service and Volunteer Examples

Amcas work and activities – community service & volunteer experience description tips.

Many premeds have volunteered in both clinical and non-clinical settings. To differentiate yourself, you need to write about your experiences with insight and demonstrate passion. Therefore, while it is important to describe your responsibilities, the bulk of your description should focus on the impact you had and the lessons you learned. Furthermore, remember that medical schools want to recruit mature students with rich life experiences. Ultimately, being a doctor is about connecting with patients on a human level, so take advantage of discussing your volunteer experiences and describe what you learned about working with people. 

AMCAS Work and Activities Examples – Volunteer Experiences

Experience Type: Community Service / Volunteer – Non-medical/clinical

Experience Name: Volunteer head basketball coach for at-risk and low-income middle schoolers through Coaching Corps

As a volunteer coach, I ran practices and games. I became a dependable mentor for kids who lacked a consistent figure in their lives. Most recently, I created a virtual basketball class that kept 15 kids across Orange Unified School District physically engaged throughout the pandemic. Working with kids from low-income communities also illustrated the need to increase health education. In one instance, I explained basic preventative health strategies, the importance of vaccines, and what a head injury is to Zane, an 8th grader who shared my teachings with his family. As a physician, I will push policies that open more free clinics and increase public school funding for health education.

• Add a story if you can – especially if you write in paragraph form. 
• Relate the activity to what you learned or how this activity relates to what you will do in your career. What insights did you gain that will help you in your future career as a physician? Why was this an important life experience? 

Insights learned from the Volunteer Activity:  

We gain a sense of compassion and commitment to underserved communities through this applicant’s activity description. It was great that this applicant even included a story of Zane. The applicant goes above and beyond  in teaching his team about preventative health strategies. This shows the applicant’s dedication to health education. Finally, we love how this individual has a vision to improve public schools and healthcare for low-income communities. 

Frequently Asked Questions about AMCAS Volunteering and Community Service

Here are some commonly asked questions about AMCAS volunteering. Read more AMCAS tips and AMCAS FAQs at the end of this blog post!

Typically, we love students to have at least 50 hours from an activity in order to include it as one of the 15 AMCAS activity descriptions. However, if a community service or volunteering project was particularly meaningful, put it in as 1 of your 15 AMCAS activities descriptions! The quality and meaning matter more than the number of hours. 

If you include these smaller-length community service activities, the reader can still learn a lot about you! Stick to the AMCAS work and activities tips we've been preaching throughout this blog post.

• Include stories
• Tell the reader what you gained from the experience

We typically recommend students to combine their smaller volunteer activities into a single AMCAS activity description. Discuss any commonality in your volunteer activities if there is one. For example, students we've worked with through our medical school application packages group their volunteering by writing it was all part of a service fraternity / sorority. Or, some students we've worked with have a "problem they are trying to solve" through their volunteering, such as advocacy, working with individuals with disabilities, or environmentalism. You can still highlight one volunteer activity by adding details, an example, or a story.

AMCAS does not verify your volunteer hours or any of your other hours in any description. There is an honor system though. So, you should put the accurate number of hours you volunteered. Don't stress if it's 161 hours versus 162. Make your best and most accurate estimate of volunteer hours. 

It is also very rare for medical school admissions committees to call individuals you listed as "contact" in your various activities. However, we have heard about rare instances every few years when admission committee members will call individuals on applicant's AMCAS. How do we know this? Because students whom we've done mock interviews with have told us that their medical school interviewer contacted somebody on their AMCAS contact information. 

Any volunteering experience where you interacted with patients or volunteered in a medical or clinical setting counts as clinical volunteering on the AMCAS. These should be unpaid. These including experiences with patients not in physical hospitals and clinics, such as volunteering in the community.

Here are a list of common clinical volunteering we see students list on the AMCAS:

• COVID clinic volunteer
• Mobile health clinical volunteer
• Free clinic volunteer
• Volunteer at a hospital or medical clinic
• Tutoring sick pediatric patients at a Children's Hospital
• Scribing (unpaid)
• Medical assistant (unpaid)
• EMT (unpaid)
• Translator at a clinic
• Crisis Text Line or other Crisis Lines

AMCAS Paid Employment Examples

Many premeds have full-time and part-time work experiences, including tutoring and summer jobs. Some applicants think that these non-clinical work experiences are not relevant, but they definitely are! Additionally, working a job during the school year shows medical school admissions committees that you can handle several responsibilities at a time. 

There are two Paid Employment categories on the AMCAS: 1) Paid Employment. – Medical / Clinical and 2) Paid Employment – Non-Medical / Clinical

Common Paid Employment Activities By Previous Applicants:

• Medical Assistant
• EKG or Medical Procedure Tech

Non-Clinical

• Summer internships, including research, consulting, technology companies
• Full-time jobs, including working for a consulting firm or technology company
• Tutoring (usually part-time)
• Teaching in a classroom
• Restaurant – waitressing or manager
• Research Coordinator or Research Technician

 AMCAS Work and Activities – Paid Employment Description Tips

Some medical school applicants think that they should not write about non-medical jobs they held, especially non-medical part-time jobs. WRONG!  We strongly encourage applicants to include AMCAS activities descriptions for non medical/clinical paid employment. Think your Starbucks barista job is not related to clinical medicine? WRONG! You definitely have learned customer service skills. 

Dr. Rizal wrote an article for the U.S. News that shows how students can leverage their non-clinical experiences:  How to Make Premed Non-Clinical Experiences Relevant to Medicine

We strongly encourage students to link their non-clinical experiences with medicine in their AMCAS descriptions. 

AMCAS Work and Activities Examples – Paid Employment

Analysis of AMCAS Activity Description:

This applicant did a great job in balancing what she did and what she learned. She was able to include a story, and we can visualize the applicant in this story.

We see this student in action! She even says that she performed CPR! We see that this student can apply her theoretical medical training in acute, life-saving settings. 

• If you are discussing a clinical experience, use the same tips from the clinical volunteering experiences that we have already discuss. Bring in skills and procedures that you learned.
• You can write about a lot of aspects of your job. However, highlight the ones that were most impactful to your personal growth and the most impactful to the organization / people you were serving. Additionally, highlight your leadership and initiative in your job. 

Category: Paid Employment

Starbucks Barista – August 2017 – May 2018

• Responsible for training new employees, customer service, and product ordering.
• Worked 20 hours per week while attending school full-time

Mayor’s Office for the City of Memphis – Summer 2018

• Worked at the Mayor’s Office for the City of Memphis.
• Responsible for organizing community events for underserved communities in Memphis.
• Worked on projects related to decreasing health disparities.
• Worked 40 hours per week while taking 1 summer class

Grocery Store Worker – August 2018 – May 2020

• Worked as a cashier for a major grocery store chain.
• Worked 30 hours per week while attending school full-time

Tip: As you can see in this AMCAS activity description, the applicant combined 3 jobs. We suggest appilcants do this when you have more than 15 activities but you want to include all your non-clinical jobs. Remember, non-medical jobs show a lot about a student’s character related to teamwork, hard work, grit, and customer service. Additionally, it can show a person’s commitment to specific populations like immigrants or underserved communities. By combining multiple jobs into one activity, you are able to save 2 spaces in the Work/Activities section. But, you are still able to show that you have significant work experience and have the ability to juggle a job and school. Contact us if you have questions about application strategy !

AMCAS Work and Activities - Publications

Amcas work and activities – publication description tips.

If you do not have a publication, do not worry! You can still get into medical school!

If you do have a publication, kudos to you! It will certainly help increase the strength of your medical school application. It is important to put all your publications in the AMCAS work and activities section. 

Shorten the author list. You do not need to list all the authors in the paper. Because there are very few characters, we advise students to shorten their AMCAS publication description by not listing all the authors.

The typical format we recommend for listing publications on your AMCAS is the following: What author order (1st author among 3 co-authors), Article title, Journal name, Year publication. PMID # so someone can find your abstract on PubMed.

For example: “1st of 6 authors, Increasing Vaccination Access in Middle-Income Countries, Journal of Global Health, 2021. PMID #######.”

If you need to shorten further, you could remove the title, but definitely keep the PMID number. 

• While we typically recommend all your journal publications be listed as bullet points in one activity, there are certain circumstances where you can split your publications into different AMCAS experience entries. For example, let’s say you have multiple publications in two broad topics (health economics & OB/GYN). You might want to put one AMCAS experience entry for your publications in health economics and one AMCAS experience entry for your OB/GYN publications.
• What did you learn about the publication process? 
• What motivated you to study this topic (these topics)? 
• How is this research related to your career?

AMCAS Work and Activities Example – Publications

To maintain privacy and confidentiality, we did not want to use the actual publication from our advisee’s application for an example. The AMCAS publication example below emulates a strong AMCAS publication description.  

1st of 6 authors, Increasing Vaccination Access in Middle-Income Countries, Journal of Global Health, 2021. PMID #######.

I was inspired to conduct research on vaccination access because I learned during my “Vaccines” seminar at Princeton that successful vaccination campaigns required an interdisciplinary effort among pharmaceutical companies, public health officials, health policymakers, & physicians. I aim to continue doing research on access to preventative health services in my future career. 

As we mentioned in our AMCAS publication description tips above, you should include utilize any extra space for any insights about your motivations and/or lessons learned. 

In this AMCAS publication example, the application reader learns that this individual is passionate about vaccinations and conducted a senior thesis in college. The admissions committee members or med school interviewer may be prompted to ask you about your senior thesis, which is great! The application reader also learns that the person understands the various stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem. 

AMCAS Work and Activities - Posters & Presentations

 amcas work and activities – poster and presentation description tips.

The same tips and strategies apply for posters & presentations as what we discussed in the AMCAS publication description tips above. 

First off, what is considered a presentation? Typically, presentations include: 1) poster presentations and 2) oral presentations / podium presentations.

In poster presentation sessions, there is a room full of individuals who each showcase a poster about his or her research. In oral presentations at conferences, a conference participant does a podium presentation in front of a room and presents on his or her research topic. After the podium presentation, the presenter answers questions from the audience. Oral presentations do not include presentations you make for a college class or a school club. You can include university-wide research symposiums for undergraduate students. 

Some people include lectures or talks at large conferences. For example, we had one mentee present to the World Health Organization!

How do you write posters and presentations? 

Because there are very few characters, we advise students to shorten their AMCAS poster presentation description by not listing all the authors.

The typical format we recommend for listing publications on your AMCAS is the following: What author order (1st author among 3 co-authors), Poster or presentation title, Conference you presented at, Year. 

For example: “1st of 6 authors, Increasing Vaccination Access in Middle-Income Countries, United for Sight Global Health & Innovation Conference, 2021.

If you need to shorten it further, you could shorten the name of the conference as long as it will still be recognizable. 

Lastly, if your presentation relates to one of your activities, you can include the poster or presentation as part of another activity description.

Here is an example of how an application included a presentation at the World Health Organization: 

AMCAS Work and Activities Example – Posters & Presentations

To maintain privacy and confidentiality, we did not want to use the actual presentation from our advisee’s application for an example. The AMCAS presentation example below emulates a strong AMCAS poster and presentation description.  

1st of 6 authors, Increasing Vaccination Access in Middle-Income Countries, Yale Global Health Symposium, Poster Presentation, Connecticut, 2021.

2nd of 5 authors, Epidemiology of Hepatitis B, Infectious Disease Conference, Oral Presentation, India, 2020.

I presented my senior thesis work on vaccination access and policy at conferences. I shared ideas to improve vaccination campaigns with global health leaders at these conferences. I learned that partnerships with local NGOs and health centers are key for success. I will continue doing research on access to preventative health services in my future career. 

Analysis of the AMCAS Poster & Presentation Example:

Notice that we still have enough space after the 2 poster presentations. Therefore, you can add more context about why these topics 

Alternatively, students discuss what they learned through presenting. These can be presentation techniques or discussions they had with other individuals at the conference!

• We recommend all your posters and oral presentations be listed as bullet points in one AMCAS activity.
• What did you learn about the presenting your research? 

AMCAS Work and Activities – Poster and Presentation Description FAQs

Question: what if i did a virtual presentation during the covid-19 pandemic .

Poster presentations and oral presentations have been virtual throughout the COVID pandemic. You should definitely include those in your Work and Activities section! 

Our Cracking Med School Admissions team has advised students in which we broadened the definition of presentations. Some of our students have given presentations for City Councils, State Legislatures, and international bodies like the World Health Organization. We typically recommend that they include these accomplishments under the AMCAS Posters and Presentations category. 

Question: What if my presentation is not in the medical field? 

Include your non-medical presentation in your AMCAS activities! We typically recommend med school applicants to include presentations in non-medical fields. We have had students include presentations at poetry readings and history conferences on their AMCAS applications!

 AMCAS Work and Activities – Conferences Attended Tips

Almost all students will not add a “conferences attended” category description in their AMCAS work and activities section. In general, we do think this is a weaker category to write in your AMCAS activities section. 

So, when is it valid to write a “conferences attended” activities description? 

Our Cracking Med School Admissions advisors think that students should put a conferences description attended if: 

• The conference is relevant to your interest
• Chatted with physicians and other healthcare professionals
• Able to articulate what you learned and gained from the conference
• You have less than 10 activities descriptions and need more activities (not ideal that this is the situation though)

AMCAS Work and Activities Example – Conferences Attended

With an interest in surgery, I attended the 2023 International Conference on Surgical Cancer Care in Boston, Massachusetts. Here, I was able to speak and learn from Surgical Oncologists. For example, I spoke to Dr. Patel about his work in pioneering the techniques of Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy and Cytoreductive Surgery throughout Indonesia. I learned about this procedure and the financial barriers indigent cancer patients in Indonesia encounter. This opportunity showed me that complex care in Surgical Oncology is multifactorial. As a fierce advocate for my future patients, I will be cognizant of factors, such as healthcare disparities, that my patients may be facing.

AMCAS Work and Activities - Honors, Awards, and Recognitions

 amcas work and activities – honors, awards, and recognitions.

Believe it or not, many students forget to include awards and honors in their AMCAS activities section!

Do not forget any awards from school, community service, or any other organization that has recognized your awesomeness!

Awards and honors you should include:

• National or international awards and recognitions
• Post-graduate Fellowships and Scholarships like the Fulbright, Rhodes, Marshall, and Gates
• Awards and recognitions from professional societies
• Awards and recognitions from non-profit organizations
• Non-academic awards from school organizations
• Academic awards from your university. Don’t forget the Dean’s List!
• Scholarships from your university
• Special academic recognitions from your university
• Awards received for your research or presentations at research symposiums & conferences

How to list awards on AMCAS

Awards are usually written in a list format. A good format is 1 honor or award per line. 

If you have multiple awards, choose one award organization to write for the contact information. For example, if you have many academic awards, you can put your Major’s Department Chair or your School Registrar’s Office.

STAND OUT: Tips for Optimizing Your Awards AMCAS Description

If students only have 1 or 2 awards, we suggest that you utilize the space to discuss an aspect of your background related to your award.

For example, if you received a community service award, then you can discuss a community service project that you enjoyed. Make sure it doesn’t duplicate information in other activities that you have discussed in your AMCAS activities section. 

As another example, if you receive an academic award from your major, you can discuss your favorite class or your honors thesis. 

AMCAS Work and Activities Example – Honors/Awards/Recognitions

Fulbright Scholarship – Selected as 1 of 10 Fulbright Scholars for the Philippines 2018-2019

Cum Laude – Princeton University

Global Scholar Award – Philippines National Cancer Institute

Dean’s List (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018) – Princeton University

I enjoyed the small, discussion classes at Princeton. My favorite classes were the graduate-level classes in the Princeton School of Public & International Affairs. In one seminar, we discussed the pros and cons of Thailand’s approach to HIV prophylaxis education among sex workers. I will continue pursuing health public policy and advocacy as a physician. 

Insights to learn from this Conferences Attended AMCAS Activities description: 

Your conferences attended AMCAS experience can give the application reviewer the impression that you are a lifelong learner. These activities show that she has made an effort to continue her education in her field of research and reflect on the research that she has conducted. While attending conferences are worthwhile and provide students with the opportunity to learn about a wide variety of topics, we want to stress that solely attending a conference is not as strong as presenting at a conference .

AMCAS Work and Activities - Leadership

 amcas work and activities -leadership activity description tips.

Including impactful leadership experiences in your application can be beneficial for several reasons:

• Demonstrates that you possess qualities that are highly valued in medicine, such as initiative, teamwork, consistency and communication skills. Exemplifying these qualities show medical school admissions committees that you are ready to take on the challenges of a career in medicine.
• Sets you apart. Engaging in leadership activities can help set you apart from applicants who have similar academic achievements. For example, describing an experience in which you have served a community that is important to you can demonstrate that you are committed to making a positive impact in a specific niche of medicine. Ultimately, highlighting the impact that you have made and will continue to make as a future physician.
• Provides examples of your ability to overcome challenges. Leading a multi-faceted healthcare team in the future will be challenging. Admissions committees look for applicants that can overcome obstacles and solve problems. Describing how you adapted to certain circumstances and unexpected situations through examples can attest that you have what it takes to be a successful healthcare leader. These qualities are essential for success in medical school and in your career as a physician.

AMCAS Work and Activities Leadership Example

In the AMCAS example description below, the applicant wrote about starting a non-profit. 

Insights to learn from this Leadership not listed elsewhere AMCAS description: 

From the above experience, note that the applicant describes a unique leadership experience that she is passionate about. Through this description, the application reviewer gains insight into the student’s impact, initiative ability and teamwork skills. Moreover, the applicant shows the admissions committee that she would be an asset to the student body because she is passionate about a specific niche in medicine and demonstrates that she is committed to making a positive impact on others.

• Tell a story! Work on going one step further in your reflections; provide concrete examples to showcase your potential.
• Emphasize your impact. Did you lead a team in a ground-breaking research project? Did you organize a community health fair to educate underserved patient populations that are often overlooked?

Demonstrate your consistency. Committing to your leadership experience for a long period time can demonstrate your passion and provides you with the opportunity to showcase admissions committees that you can make a sustained impact as a leader.

Leadership Not Listed Elsewhere AMCAS Frequently Asked Questions

Question: how many hours for leadership amcas work and activities, question: how to list leadership experience on amcas.

When listing hours for a leadership position on AMCAS you must be honest. Include all hours spent preparing, training, and working in your leadership experience. Estimate the “Hours Per Week” and multiply it by the “Weeks per Year” spent in this position to get the total number of hours.

Question: How to put hours for leadership position on the AMCAS?

One mistake applicants make is to not include time they are planning activities. Make sure to include all the time you invest in planning and organizing the organization (or events)! As we said in the first FAQ above, there is no minimum or maximum number of hours. 

AMCAS Work and Activities - Extracurricular Activity

 amcas work and activities -extracurricular activity description tips, question: what counts as an extracurricular activity .

One common mistake that we mentioned in the “ AMCAS Categories ” section above is that students categorize leadership or community service as an extra-curricular activity. It is not wrong to do this, but it is not ideal because you are not selling yourself as well as you can.

Activities that we typically advise to label as an “Extracurricular Activity” is involvement in a school club without a leadership position. 

• Member of a fraternity or sorority
• Member of a pre-professional club
• Member of a ethnic or diversity club

AMCAS Extracurricular Activities Example

Experience Type: Extracurricular Activities                                     Dates: 02/2018 – 06/2022

Experience Name: Alpha Chi Omega sorority member

Contact Name & Title: B. Evans

Organization Name: Alpha Chi Omega sorority member

In college, I was a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. The sorority was a great way for me to make a close group of friends in my large university. We were involved in various community volunteering project, including the Garden Club, where we taught gardening to inner-city elementary school students in Chicago. After a local organization donated several plant seeds, we worked with students to growing herbs that they could sell in their neighborhoods. This project taught students about budgeting, space parameters, and the conditions needed for seed germination. I realize that as a physician, I have the power to be a resourceful to improve the health of my local community.

• Even though you don’t hold an official leadership position in an activity you would label as an AMCAS Extracurricular Activities, you can still include a story and specific examples.

Analysis of AMCAS Extracurricular Activity description:

We love how the student talked about a specific volunteer project she did with her sorority. From the single entry above, note that the applicant describes a singular, impactful experience from an extracurricular activity he was involved in for two years.

She also tied it to her interest in working with the community, especially urban communities, by saying she taught in an “inner-city” school. Through this description, the application reviewer gains insight into the value the applicant brings to his community and how insightful he is.

Moreover, the applicant shows that he learned important problem-solving skills which he will utilize both in medical school and as a physician.

Finally, we loved the medical school applicant’s integration with her reflections about being a physician in the last sentence.

AMCAS Work and Activities - Intercollegiate Athletics

 amcas work and activities – intercollegiate athletics description tips.

Intercollegiate athletics are a unique part of the college experience that can have a significant impact on undergraduate students both during and after their college years. Whether participating in sports as an athlete, coach, or fan, collegiate athletics offers students the opportunity to develop interpersonal and leadership skills.

Involvement in intercollegiate athletics can be a valuable addition to your AMCAS application. Participation in sports can demonstrate your ability to balance academic and extracurricular commitments, as well as your dedication to teamwork, discipline, and perseverance. Additionally, being a student-athlete often involves time management skills, which can be beneficial in medical school and as a physician. You may also have developed leadership skills as a captain or team member, and these experiences can provide unique examples for your personal statement or interview responses. Overall, highlighting your involvement in intercollegiate athletics can showcase your well-roundedness and ability to excel in multiple areas of your life.

AMCAS Work and Activities Example – Intercollegiate Athletics

Experience Type: Intercollegiate Athletics                                            Dates: 08/2019 – 06/2021

Experience Name: Arizona State University Women’s Tennis

Contact Name & Title: A. Smith

Organization Name: Arizona State University

Tennis has always played an influential role in my life. This sport serves as my primary source of stress relief. As a former team member of ASU’s Women’s Tennis team, I have the ability to remain focused for an extended amount of time and have learned to employ good sportsmanship and discipline in pertinent life skills. I expect to demonstrate these skills as a physician by working hard, upholding the values of the Hippocratic Oath and overcoming adversity and failures. Additionally, tennis will provide me with an outlet in the face of overwhelming responsibilities as a physician.

• Discuss important skills you gained through collegiate sports: teamwork, leadership, communication, and resiliency. 
• Tie to a career in medicine.

Insights to learn from this AMCAS work activity example:

When deciding whether to label your athletics experience as an “Intercollegiate Athletics Experience” or as an “Extracurricular Activity,” note that intercollegiate athletics is conducted between colleges. If you were part of an intramural sports team that was not conducted between colleges, consider listing your involvement as an “Extracurricular Activity.” In addition, although this applicant could have described her athletic skill in detail, she focuses on the valuable non-athletic skills that she can utilize both in medical school, and as a physician. Through involvement in Intercollegiate Athletics, the application reviewer gains insight into the applicant’s dedication and future outlet to recharge as a medical student.

AMCAS Work and Activities - Artistic Endeavors

 amcas work and activities – artistic endeavors.

It can be beneficial to include an artistic endeavor on your AMCAS application because it has the potential to set you apart from others. Although an artistic endeavor will not help you overcome a low science GPA, you can demonstrate that this endeavor will serve as an outlet for stress in the face of overwhelming responsibilities as a medical student.

AMCAS Work and Activities Example – Artistic Endeavors

• Don’t be afraid to put thousands of hours and a long time range (as you can see from the above AMCAS description example). Many people have played a musical instrument or danced since they were younger, and continued it during college! 
• Connect your artistic endeavor with medicine or medical school if you can.

From the above experience, note that the applicant describes an impactful artistic endeavor she has been involved in for nearly a decade. Through this description, the application reviewer gains insight into the applicant’s diversity and dedication. Moreover, the applicant shows the admissions committee that she would be an asset to the incoming class because she has a unique perspective that encourages her humanitarianism .

Question: Can I include activities before college?

In general, we advise our application package students to only include college experiences and gap year experiences. The exception to that is if an individual has been involved in a college experience / gap year experience that he or she started before college. Then, you can add a long time horizon. For example, the harmonium player in the Artistic Endeavor example above played the harmonium for 9 years and even anticipates playing the harmonium during the application cycle! 

AMCAS Work and Activities - Hobbies

 amcas work and activities – hobbies.

Most medical school applicants make the mistake that they should look “well-rounded” and include an activity for each category. That is incorrect. Yes, medical schools want a “diverse” student body class — but that does not mean they are trying to recruit students with different hobbies from one another. That is not the medical school admissions committee’s priority; adcoms want to recruit diverse student bodies in which students have a wide range of passions and talents to improve healthcare. As we stated in the “ AMCAS categories ” section, there are some categories that are stronger than others. The strongest applicants to medical schools have 15 or more activities that are not classified as “Hobbies.”

Again, do not feel like you have to include a hobbies in your AMCAS activities section. 

AMCAS Work and Activities Example – Hobbies

• Similar to artistic endeavors, don’t feel bad if you have 1000+ hours dedicated to a hobby. 

From the above experience, note that the applicant describes a hobby she has been involved in for nearly a decade. Through this description, the application reviewer gains insight into the student’s discipline and determination. Moreover, the applicant shows medical school admissions committees that she would be an asset to the student body because she has a strong coping mechanism to rely on when faced with difficulties.

AMCAS Work and Activities - Military Service

 amcas work and activities – military service description tips.

Thank you for your military service! We commend you.

Some medical school applicants think that military service or ROTC involvement should not be included in their AMCAS 15 activities section. We disagree.

Involvement in military service can be a compelling addition to your AMCAS application. Military service can demonstrate your commitment to serving others, as well as your ability to handle high-pressure situations, adapt to challenging circumstances, and work collaboratively with diverse groups of people. Additionally, military service can provide unique experiences that may have helped shape your character, values, and perspective on the world. Your military background may also be relevant to certain medical specialties, such as emergency medicine or psychiatry, where understanding and working with individuals who have experienced trauma or stress is critical. Overall, highlighting your involvement in military service can demonstrate your leadership, resilience, and dedication to serving others, making you a strong candidate for medical school and the medical profession.

AMCAS Work and Activities Example – Military Service

Experience Type: Military Service                                            Dates: 02/2014 – 06/2016

Experience Name: Combat Medic Specialist

Contact Name & Title: J. Bell

Organization Name: United States Army

As a Combat Medic Specialist, I administered emergency medical care to both soldiers in combat and civilians in humanitarian situations. I have been trained, meticulously, on starting IVs, administering advanced drugs and caring for patients with conditions, such as tension pneumothorax. Aside from working on the field, I trained 19 junior soldiers in first responder courses and provided care during emergencies. With my team, I implemented a curriculum involving navigating disasters, preparing for different causalities, and stabilizing wounded soldiers in the field. This experience fostered my growth as a teacher and taught me the pivotal role collaboration plays in sustaining success.

• Highlight your leadership and teamwork.
• Include a story, if you can. The military service AMCAS activities descriptions we’ve read have been fascinating and inspiring!

An applicant’s service in the military can distinguish him or her from other med school applicants. From the above experience, the application reviewer is able to gauge the applicant’s aptitude for stressful situations, teamwork, and leadership roles. These are important qualities for future doctors. If you have a military background, consider listing your experience as a “most meaningful experience.” You can utilize the additional characters to tell stories that can be applied to medicine.

AMCAS Work and Activities - Teaching / Tutoring / Teaching Assistant

 amcas work and activities – teaching description tips.

Teaching is very relevant to medicine because you will be teaching the public about health topics and you will be educating your patients about how to take care of their health. We all must remember, a career as a physician incorporates lots of peer-to-peer teaching and the option to train the incoming generation of doctors entering the field. Additionally, as an effective clinician, one must stay up to date, each year, as practice standards and guidelines are updated and new medications are released. Thus, with a teaching experience, you can draw many parallels to medicine and demonstrate your leadership capabilities.  It is no surprise that “Doctor” comes from the Latin word “Teacher”!

• Tell a story! Work on going one step further in your reflections; bring the value of your work to life by sharing a personal experience with a student. 
• Connect this with how you envision your role as a physician to be! For example, teaching students with different learning styles could help you be more flexible/adaptable when communicating illnesses to patients.
• If you have multiple teaching experiences, then the lesson learned or application to patient care should be nuanced and different each time. 
• Answer “How does this experience reflect why I will be a good medical doctor?”

Read below for Teaching AMCAS work and activities examples. 

Frequently Asked Question: Can you abbreviate Teaching Assistant as TA on the AMCAS?

Yes. We typically tell students to spell out Teaching Assistant the first time they write it out.

Example: “As a Teaching Assistant (TA) for Organic Chemistry lab.”

AMCAS Work and Activities Teaching Examples

From the above experience, note that the applicant describes a unique overseas teaching experience that will help her stand out from others. Through this description, the application reviewer gains insight into the student’s diversity of thought and skillsets. Moreover, the applicant shows the admissions committee that she would be an asset to the incoming class and future interdisciplinary teams because she values collaboration and teamwork.

Experience Type: Teaching/Tutoring/Teaching Assistant

Experience Name: Huntington Learning Center Tutor

Organization Name: Huntington Learning Center

Total Hours: 1200

I teach students who possess developmental or learning disabilities. My responsibilities include creating a rapport with students over time to shape lessons that fit their unique needs and academic goals while accommodating positivity. For example, I taught the ACT Math and Science curriculum to Mareena, a student diagnosed with ADHD. I created engaging sample problems and strategies to solve these to ensure score improvement . I established a caring relationship with every student and in turn they demonstrated dramatic changes in behavior, effort, and performance. I am confident that this will translate well in a career that incorporates lots of peer-to-peer teaching and patient education.

One thing we love about this activity is that there is a story of a specific individual the applicant helped. Mareena comes to life. From the above experience, note that the applicant describes an insightful teaching experience that will help her stand out from others. Through this description, the application reviewer gains insight into the student’s leadership, adaptability, and commitment to disadvantaged populations. Additionally, we can picture the applicant working with a student, because of the story of Mareena. An admissions committee reader can infer that the applicant will work well with diverse patients and medical professionals. Finally, the applicant shows the medical school admissions committee how this experience has prepared her for a multifaceted career as a future physician.

Experience Name: Organic Chemistry Teaching Assistant

Organization Name: Harvard University

Total Hours: 120

As a Teaching Assistant (TA) for Honors Organic Chemistry, I worked with students who each possessed different learning patterns. This challenged me to adjust to everyone by customizing each student depending on their level of understanding and speed. One of my students, Mina, was struggling with passing their Organic Chemistry course, I knew that our sessions needed to accommodate her personal drive and meta-cognition. Most of our sessions were spent working through complex problems related to concepts such as reaction mechanisms and verbalizing her thought process throughout. As a physician, I will have the aptitude for effectively communicating difficult diagnoses to each patient.

Many times, applicants will write Teaching Assistant descriptions and write all the logistics they did. While that is not wrong,  it does not stand out.

In the above TA description, we read about what this applicant learned through being a TA. We particularly liked this sentence: “This challenged me to adjust to everyone by customizing each student depending on their level of understanding and speed.”

Additionally, there is once again a very specific story of a specific person the applicant worked with. This is what we push our students to do.

How Will You Stand Out?

How will you make your medical school application stand out among the 50,000 other applicants? 

The two big pieces of medical school application tips we give to premeds so that you can stand out are:

• Highlight a niche in medicine you are interested in: Make sure your entire medical school application highlights a niche in medicine you are interested in. It doesn’t have to be a specific medical specialty, like radiology or pediatrics. It can also be an aspect of patient care or a problem in the medical field that you are passionate about. Are you a global health guru? Love research? Figure out your niche. And highlight these strengths throughout your medical school application. For example, say you are interested in health education. You should highlight this passion in your personal statement, AMCAS activities reflections, secondary essay applications, and your medical school interviews.
• Paint a picture of your s elf through stories:   Our Cracking Med School Admissions team has found that stories are the most powerful way to display an applicant’s relationships with other individuals, teamwork, compassion, and empathy. Your AMCAS personal statement, AMCAS letters of recommendation, and secondary essays should all include stories.

More AMCAS Work and Activities Tips

Amcas work and activities tip #1:, don’t talk too much about your extracurricular activities themselves. instead write more about what you did and the impact you had..

One of the common mistakes we see applicants make is that they do not focus their AMCAS activities section on THEM. Instead, they write too much about the organization or what the team accomplished as a whole. While it is important to show that you are a team player, it should not be at the expense of the reader learning about YOU. When filling out the AMCAS activities section, remember to explain WHY you did something and your personal motivations. One of the key components of a good application is the ability to weave the entire application into a coherent story. Explaining your motivations is a great way to connect your past experiences to your future goals and aspirations. It’s also a great place to talk about your personal reflections on how you’ve grown as a person.

For examples of great AMCAS activities descriptions, download our AMCAS work & activities workbook  here . 

AMCAS Work and Activities Tip #2:

Don’t duplicate information on your primary application and your secondary applications.

To be successful on your AMCAS application, you must combine a variety of stories together to explain why you are a good match for a medical school. Avoiding redundancy is key here, which goes to say that you do NOT want to be repeating information an admissions committee already knows about you. This seems obvious, yet you’d be surprised how many pre-med applicants either re-state information in their secondaries, or complain that they don’t have enough unique stories to craft a winning application.

If you want to write about the same activity in your personal statement, AMCAS activities section, and your specific medical school secondary essays, we definitely support it. However, you should highlight different aspects about the activity. For example, you could use a hospital shadowing opportunity to write both about the rigors of the emergency room, and in a separate essay, you can talk about a personal interaction you had with a patient in the emergency room. Although both of these experiences came from shadowing, they reveal totally different yet essential qualities of a medical professional. And, if you talk about emergency medicine in different activity entries, then you can showcase your interest in emergency medicine.

AMCAS Work and Activities Tip #3:

Spelling and grammar mistakes .

No matter how many times some people are told to proofread and get essays edited, spelling and grammar mistakes always seem to slip through the cracks on the AMCAS application and on secondary applications as well. Unfortunately, that doesn’t give them an excuse, and spelling and grammar mistakes will be looked at unfavorably and taken as carelessness. It’s simple – get your essays edited!

AMCAS Work and Activities Tip #4:

Don’t forget to put all your activities down in your amcas activities section.

This happens more commonly than you think.

Some premed applicants have expressed that they feel they shouldn’t put non-medical related activities in their application because non-clinical activities may be perceived as a lack of focus and doesn’t contribute to their medical school candidacy. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, going “too deep” on a certain activity and not showing a variety of experiences can contribute to not getting any secondaries! Don’t feel bad to show you are well-rounded! However, also remember that there is a difference between a well-rounded applicant and an unfocused applicant. You should be able to explain how your diverse experiences have shaped you as a person and how these experiences will help you succeed in medical school and beyond.

AMCAS Work and Activities Tip #5:

Don’t forget to put all your honors and awards.

On a similar note to med school applicants forgetting to write down their activities, many premeds forget to write all their leadership positions and awards.  We are often on the phone with our premed advisees making sure they don’t forget about a lab presentation or a “Dean’s List” nomination.

The most common information premeds forget on their primary medical school applications: Students forget to put awards, honors, and leadership positions for each activity. Don’t forget to add your presentations, posters, or any other recognitions you’ve had! Even presenting in a lab meeting or to a small group of students should be recognized!

AMCAS Work and Activities Tip #6:

Show depth and commitment through your activities.

One of the common medical school application mistakes students make is that they do not show enough depth and commitment through their activities. From an admissions committee members’ perspective, this results in generic-sounding AMCAS extracurricular activities descriptions and essays. 

There are many opportunities for you to show commitment and passion with your activities throughout your medical school application.  First, your AMCAS work and activities section is a good place to show depth. Be sure to enter the number of activity hours you’ve committed to each activity. It goes without saying that you should choose activities you’ve spent a considerable amount of time across a long period of time. Note: activities picked up 3 months before applying to medical school are usually not strong activities.

Second, write a detailed description of the activity, and any leadership roles you’ve taken on shows commitment. Literally, we’ve been trying to highlight how to write strong AMCAS activities section examples throughout this entire “AMCAS Work and Activities Examples” blog post!

A second way to show your commitment to your activities and the people around you is through your essays – both your personal statement and your secondary essays. As we stated above in our 2 biggest medical school application advice section, be sure to tell stories. You can tell stories about how you have made a difference to an individual, how you have helped your community, and how you have made changes in an organization you lead. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Responses by Dr. Rachel Rizal and Dr. Rishi Mediratta – your Cracking Med School Admissions premed advisors

Work with us through our medical school application packages ! We will personally edit all your essays, and our packages include  unlimited edits!

We love helping students with their medical school applications! Simply leave us a message in the contact form below.

If you want personalized advising and detailed help with your medical school application, including personal statement edits and activities description edits, then check out our medical school application packages . 

Yes! In fact, we have many tips and pieces of wisdom to share with medical school applicants about their impactful experiences. We wrote an entire blog post dedicated towards the AMCAS most meaningful experience descriptions.

In case you missed it, there is also a research most meaningful experience remarks in the research activity description example . 

Here's our best practice - we advise students to have at least 13 activities. If you don't have this many activities, make sure you aren't forgetting any of your part-time jobs, awards, or extracurricular activities.

Remember, you can add non-clinical employment, like working as a barista or as an executive assistant to your AMCAS activities!

Most commonly, people forget that they did a volunteer activity and won an award from freshmen or sophomore year. Don't forget to use a space for awards, hobbies, and work experiences.

We have other strategies to increase the number of activities you have, like separating your honors / awards into multiple activities description. Feel free to contact us if you have questions or issues. 

AMCAS does not verify your hours. There is an honor system though. So, you should put the accurate number of hours you volunteered. Don't stress if it's 161 hours versus 162. Make your best and most accurate estimate of hours for each activity. 

Most pre-meds we've worked with or met through our Cracking Med School Admissions workshops typically underestimate their hours. Remember to include hours where you are planning. For example, students will write the numbers they are physically in lab, but they do not include all the hours they read literature or write publications!

Work experience is definitely important for you to list. 

The Work/Activities section is there for you to show off all of your skills. Holding down a job while doing well as a student, is a huge accomplishment that not everyone can handle. It also shows a well-rounded applicant who can move beyond the lab bench.

The most common mistakes we see applicants make are:

• Talk too much about the organization and not enough about what THEY did.
• Write too little. Some applicants only write 200 characters per activity.
• Forget their activities!

If you do not have 15 activities already, then yes, we recommend using 1 or 2 of the activities descriptions as hobbies. They oftentimes make students sound interesting.

However, if you are short on activities descriptions and you have 15 or more strong extracurricular experiences,  we do not advise you to add hobbies here. You can always write about your hobbies and interesting personality qualities in your secondary application essays. 

If you want more examples of AMCAS activities descriptions, download our AMCAS workbook !

Another trick for entering your activities is to group several different activities under one heading so that you are not wasting multiple spots.

For example, you can put all your works, poster presentations, or awards under one activity. 

Another popular activity that is grouped together is shadowing. In the shadowing example , the applicant groups all their shadowing experiences together. 

There are several ways to list your shadowing experiences on the AMCAS work and activities section. Here is what we see commonly among applicants:

• Write an activity description for each of your shadowing experiences. Since you have a lot of space, you can talk about what you learned, what type of doctor you want to be based on your observations of other physicians, and interesting patient cases.
• Group multiple or all your shadowing experiences in 1 AMCAS activities description. See the example above. 

Write down an individual who can vouch for you and can verify that you participated in that activity. Be sure to include the individual's contact information, such as an email address and phone number, even if it's an international number.

The only time we have heard medical school admissions committee members reach out to your AMCAS experience contacts is a) if they know the individual personally and want to ask about you (we hear this happens often with med school interviewers) and b) if the activity hours and information are egregiously extreme that they want to verify the accuracy of your application.

In general, medical school applications are an honor system. Medical school admissions committees do not want to waste time on figuring out whether your AMCAS application is accurate or not. 

Since the 2022-2023 application cycle, The AMCAS Work and Activities section has been updated to allow students to distinguish completed activities from anticipated activities. A completed activity is an activity that is finished, and its end date must be the current month or earlier. Keep in mind, the current month is the month and year your application is submitted. An anticipated activity is either a new activity or an activity that you are continuing past the month your application is submitted until August of the matriculating year.

This section can help you stand out as an applicant because you can show the admissions committee how you plan to grow while simultaneously applying to medical schools. Moreover, anticipated experiences can help the admissions committee gauge your interests and dedication through certain activities. It is important to note, however, you cannot list the following categories as an anticipated experience:

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• Teamwork Questions

How well do you work in a team – and do you understand the importance of teamwork? These interview questions are designed to find out!

Questions on Teamwork

• Learn how to give great teamwork examples
• Find out the mistakes you should avoid
• Practise common teamwork questions

Jump to Section

• Deciding on Medicine
• Work Experience
• Choosing a Medical School
• Personal Statement
• Interview Guide
• Background and Motivation For Medicine Questions
• Depth and Breadth of Interest Questions
• Knowledge of Medical School Questions
• Creativity and Imagination Questions
• Ethics Questions
• Empathy Questions

Personal Insight Questions

Work experience questions.

• MMI Interview Questions
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• NHS Hot Topics
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There is a strong chance you’ll be asked teamwork questions during your Medicine interview . That’s because these types of interview questions get under the skin of whether you can work well in a team. It’s your chance to show that you value teamwork and understand that a Doctor forms part of a team. Check out our teamwork tips for more advice.

The answer guides to these teamwork questions have been put together by medics who have successfully navigated interviews at top medical schools . They’re included in our Mastering the Medical School Interview Guide which you’ll get when you join a Medical School Interview Course . It’s over 220 pages long and has everything you need to ace your interview.

Give An Example Of A Time You Worked In A Team, And It Was Successful

Briefly set the scene: what type of team were you part of, what were you doing, what was the goal, and what was the outcome?

After this has been established, talk about your role. The interviewers want to find out what you contributed, so be specific. You need to say not just what you did, but how you did it.

For instance, if you contributed to smooth communication within the team, maybe it was because you set up a group chat, addressed each member directly and checked up on their individual progress, encouraging everyone to post their progress and keep each other in the loop.

Have a set example of a time you showed good teamwork. Ideally, it should include a resolution to also showcase your problem solving skills.

Conclude your answer by stating what you learned about the qualities of a successful team. This shows that you are reflective. You can go a step further by relating it to Medicine and how the learning points can be applied in the future, at medical school and beyond.

Common mistakes:

• Taking too long to describe the example. Everything you say should be relevant by either reflecting your individual good qualities or showing your understanding of the important factors of teamwork.
• Not focusing on the right things. Your gold Duke of Edinburgh award itself is less important than the skills/qualities you’ve learned that can translate to Medicine.

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Give An Example Of A Time You Worked In A Team And Failed

Again, start with the basics. Briefly set the scene: what type of team was it, what were you doing, what was the goal, and what was the outcome?

Then talk about your role specifically. Although the team did not reach its objective, the interviewers will want to find out what you contributed. There should still be some positives to take from it. Show that you are able to reflect, learn and improve.

Say what went wrong and why. Don’t be overly critical of teammates or shift all of the blame to other people.

Say what you would change next time in order to achieve a more desirable outcome. Translate these lessons into something applicable to your future as a medical student and a doctor.

• Being too self-deprecating. You need to show introspection, i.e. that you have learned from past mistakes and that you are confident of correcting them in future.
• Claiming that you did nothing wrong and it was someone else’s fault that the team failed. You need to be able to see the fault in others but also appreciate that the failure of a team is collective.

What Are The Attributes Of A Good Team Leader?

Think about this in advance. Draw on examples from those who have inspired you as a leader – whether they’re a teacher, a sports captain, or a Doctor you met on work experience.

When going through the traits that you feel make a great leader, bring them to life by saying why they are so important and using examples of times when you have personally shown, or at least seen, these traits in action.

Good leaders are effective communicators. They get across the objectives to team members in a clear way that gives people a sense of purpose. A good leader also reaches out to all members of the team individually to make sure they are motivated and show that they care about the progress of everyone. They are inclusive!

Organisation is essential, since managing a team requires being on top of exactly what needs to be done, when and by whom. Delegation is important. A strong leader knows their team members, understands what their strengths and weaknesses are, and is able to delegate fairly.

Ultimately, a strong leader takes responsibility. They will not place blame on their team in tough times.

Remember: use an example of a time when you were a team leader, or a time you witnessed good leadership in action, to make your answer stand out.

• Just listing qualities without reasons or examples. For every trait, make sure that you say why it is important and when you have seen/demonstrated it.
• Focusing too much on the individual leader. The sign of a good leader is actually the ability to maximise the output of their team.

What Are The Attributes Of A Good Team Member?

Again, you will need to think about this in advance so you can arm yourself not only with key traits but also with reasons and examples.

In advance of the interview, make a list of all the times you were a member of a team and consider the things you did well, as well as the things you could have done better.

It’s very important that a good team member can take guidance. This is also an essential trait of being a medical student. Think of times, perhaps from work experience , when you were given feedback and took it on board to improve your performance.

A good team member understands their role as part of a larger team. In Medicine, you will often be working in a team (like an MDT) which is, in turn, a small part of a much bigger team – the NHS. Show that you can work for the greater good and believe in doing so.

Dedication should be a given. This is also a chance to showcase a crucial quality. When working a week of nights, are you the one who pulls the team through or holds them back?

Another key to being able to work well with others is compromise. You can tie this to lots of other desirable traits, like empathy .

• Believing that being a team member is less desirable than being a leader. You need to be both, but it is important to note that as a medical student and starting out as a Junior Doctor, you will be part of a team more often than you will be leading one.
• Thinking that being told to do something differently is a sign of weakness. Use examples of times when you were told to do something differently, took it on board and really improved your performance as a result.

Are You A Leader Or A Follower?

You should answer that you are both – and this should be true!

To be a great medical student, you need to have leadership qualities but also be able to take instruction and contribute to the greater good.

Provide examples of times when you have been a leader and a follower to demonstrate this is true, offering an outline of the situation, the rationale and the ultimate outcome.

Leadership example: “I took a leadership role in my school’s Medical Society . Attendance was low and people were not inspired to come. So I looked into some exciting topics and group activities online, and worked with the teacher in charge to implement them. This led to numbers at society meetings doubling.”

Teamwork example: “When I was playing football for my school, there was one game when our captain asked me to play out of position in the second half so we could protect a narrow lead. I knew this would limit my personal impact in the game, but saw that the captain had the best interests of the team at heart. I played more defensively and we progressed to the final.”

• Insisting that you are a leader, thinking this shows more strength. It is excellent if you have leadership qualities, but you also need to be able to take instruction during your time at medical school and beyond.
• Not having leadership examples. Some people have lots of teamwork examples but are shy and don’t consider themselves leaders. Think about times when you really took initiative and motivated others.

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Is Teamwork Important In Medicine? Why?

This is a great opportunity to showcase all of the preparation and work experience that you have done during the application process. You can use examples from work experience, any relevant reading or research you have done, and even personal experiences as a patient or relative of a patient.

First of all, answer the first half of the question. Yes, teamwork is essential in Medicine because it is essential in delivering high-quality care.

Consider the following reasons why: Doctors specialise in a particular area, so the ability to work in a multi-disciplinary team is essential when dealing with patients who have multiple morbidities. Healthcare is not just delivered by Doctors – it is also delivered by nurses and Allied Health professionals . Teamwork increases the speed of intervention, which is particularly essential in trauma cases. Teamwork is also essential to the training and development of future staff.

Think about instances where a breakdown in teamwork has negatively affected an outcome. Has your reading discussed the importance of teamwork and collaboration? For instance, have you read the GMC’s Good Medical Practice ? (Hint: If not, do so!)

• Generalising by saying that teamwork is important, without giving any concrete or specific reasons why.
• Discussing reasons in the abstract and not using work experience, reading or personal examples to illustrate how teamwork manifests itself in the real world.

How Do You Resolve Conflict Within A Group?

Your answer for this type of question should be multifaceted, involving a short, generic answer explaining what you would do as well as a more specific, detailed anecdote and a summary.

One of the most important traits of a good team member is the ability to deal with conflicts quickly and sensibly, whilst not affecting the group dynamic or ability to complete the task.

An example of a personal anecdote: “During my Duke of Edinburgh Bronze, two members of my group thought that we needed to go in the opposite direction to the rest of the group.

Before the discussion escalated further, I thought it was important to get everyone together and hear what people had to say. We had a task to complete and it had to be done as a team. I knew we could deal with this ourselves as a group, so we looked at the map and decided, as a group, on the best route to take.”

After giving this anecdote, it may be worth mentioning any plan that you implemented to prevent conflict arising in the future and dealing with issues quickly. You don’t need to go into details of the argument, just give a brief overview and a summary of the resolution.

• Getting too specific about the minutiae of the conflict can lead to you losing the interviewer, and you may also lose valuable time.
• Not having an example ready. Examples of conflicts can be as big or small as you like. The key to answering this question well is about demonstrating that you can deal with any situation appropriately and seek assistance if necessary.

What Would You Do If You Were Working On A Group Project And Noticed Than One Member Of The Team Was Not Contributing?

Medical students are often required to work in groups for the purpose of PBL (at certain medical schools) or for other tasks, e.g. to produce a piece of work such as an academic poster.

This means that teamwork is very important, and your answer should demonstrate that you have the ability to work well with others, possess teamworking skills and can resolve issues effectively.

Where possible, it is important for students to be able to deal with problems within a team independently, without having to involve a member of staff. You might mention speaking to a tutor as an option if the team was unable to resolve the issue, but this would probably not be your first resort.

It’s important for all members of a team to contribute, so simply having other students make up for the lack of contributions on one person’s part is not a good solution to the problem described in this scenario.

Explain how you would approach the individual in question. As you don’t know why they are failing to contribute, you might want to do this sensitively and without being confrontational, showcasing good communication skills.

There is a number of reasons why a team member might struggle with a group project such as personal issues, confusion about their role, or reluctance to ask questions in a group setting.

Suggest how you might encourage the team member to start contributing more. For example, holding a group meeting to clarify each person’s role and give people an opportunity to ask questions, or providing some constructive feedback on what they have been doing so far.

• Saying that you would go directly to a member of staff. Although this might be an option as a last resort, it is important for students to try and resolve issues like this amongst themselves when possible.
• Coming across as overly confrontational in your answer. Empathy is an important quality for medical students/Doctors and you should consider why the student might be having trouble with the project. You should also want to avoid generating friction within your team as this would further disrupt your work.

Why Is It Important For A Team Leader To Be Able To Allocate Tasks?

This question is an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the role of a leader and the importance of drawing on the strengths of each team member. You may want to use a personal example of when you acted as a leader and had to allocate tasks to others.

A good leader is essential for the success of a team and it is up to them to ensure that each team member is contributing effectively.

While it may be tempting to want to deal with tasks personally, it is important for a leader to allocate work to others in order to make the most of each team member’s unique skill set.

It’s also important for a leader to be aware of their limits and to know when it is in the team’s best interest to trust in someone else’s opinions/abilities. For example, another team member might have the experience or expertise required for a specific task.

An effective team leader can also navigate within their team dynamics and resolve conflicts or issues as they arise.

Give an example of a time when you took on a leadership role and explain how you chose to divide work amongst your team. If you failed to allocate roles well, reflect on the impact this had on your team’s outcomes and what you learned from the experience.

You may want to relate your answer back to Medicine. MDTs are made up of individuals from different healthcare professions who work together for the purpose of improving patient care. These teams are a perfect example of why allocation is so important, because each member has their own specialism and should take on a leading role when the team is focusing on an issue related to their area of expertise.

• Failing to take into account the skills of different team members. Simply splitting work equally across a group is not the most effective use of human resources. More can be achieved when people are given tasks that are appropriate for their unique skill set.
• Not giving a personal example. Although this is not technically required for a question like this, it is recommended. Interviewers will appreciate you giving an example of how you dealt with allocating tasks as a leader and reflecting on why your approach was or wasn’t successful.

You Are The Team Leader For A Fundraising Project, And While Totalling Up The Donations, You Find £20 Is Missing. You Suspect That One Of Your Team Members Has Been Keeping Some Of The Money To Themselves. What Do You Do?

This is a hypothetical scenario which tests your ability to handle difficult situations as a team leader, and it can be approached in a few ways.

As with most of these questions, there is no right or wrong answer – the interviewer just wants to understand your train of thought. Therefore, when you give an answer, explain why you would approach it in that way.

Talk to the whole group stating the fact that there is £20 missing. Then, ask if anyone knows what happened to it, and offer them the option to talk to you privately about this if they wish. This method gives the person a chance to admit to what they have done, and also saves them the embarrassment of making it known to the whole group.

If you know who might be guilty of keeping the £20, you could talk to them separately, away from a group setting. Explain the negative consequences this has on the charity, as well as the reputation of the group.

No matter which method you choose, it is always better to give the team member a chance to admit to what they have done, as they might have lost the £20 instead of stealing it.

Lastly, if you have time, mention that (if the money could not be recovered) you would approach the charity to explain that £20 has gone missing and that as the leader, you will try to raise that money again for the charity as soon as possible to keep your promise.

• Being accusatory. There is a possibility that the money was lost, and no one actually stole it. Accusing any of your team members would ruin the relationship and trust between you and your team.

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Innovations in Teamwork for Health Care

Don’t leave teaming up to chance. Create better teamwork through science.

In this course, experts from Harvard Business School and the T.H. Chan School of Public Health teach learners to implement a strategy for organizational teamwork in health care.

What You'll Learn

Health care is a team effort. From the front desk administrators to the nurses, doctors, insurers, and even the patients and their families, there are many people involved in an individual’s care. To deliver quality care in today’s fast-paced environment, practitioners and caregivers must go beyond medical problem-solving and rely on effective collaboration and communication skills.

While other businesses may organize around a functional area or project, allowing team members to learn each other's working styles and strengths over time, health care workers often find themselves in ad hoc scenarios, coordinating with near-strangers on life and death situations. As a leader, how do you encourage trust and meet shared goals when teams are formed quickly? How do you strengthen flexibility and collaboration even as team membership and structures fluctuate across departments? 

In Innovations in Teamwork for Health Care, leaders in the field of organizational behavior and teamwork, Amy Edmondson, Professor at Harvard Business School, and Michaela Kerrissey, Assistant Professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, share their latest research and present their concept of "teaming" as it relates to the health care and life science industries.

In this course, you will explore the complexities of collaboration in dynamic cross-functional teams and its impact on quality of care. You will examine the theory of teaming – where individuals join together to lend their expertise – to appreciate what enables effective teamwork and why teamwork fails; articulate the importance of psychological safety and a joint problem-solving orientation; understand the particular needs of time-limited teams; and rethink the role of hierarchy and leadership in the context of teaming.

You’ll hear firsthand from experts with experience inside and outside the health care industry, from CEO and President of the Cleveland Clinic, Tomislav Mihaljevic, to Andres Sougarret, the engineer who led the miraculous rescue of 33 Chilean miners in 2011. 

Ultimately, this course provides you with the tools needed to implement effective teaming strategies for patient-centered care and provides your organization with a framework to empower robust communication, improve efficiency, and elevate patient safety.

The course will be delivered via  HBS Online’s course platform  and immerse learners in real-world examples from experts at industry-leading organizations. By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Explore the science of teamwork, focusing on the psychological and sociological aspects of teaming, collaboration, and defining effective outcomes.
• Understand the complexity of building trust in ad hoc teams, including how to define purpose, build trust, and navigate interpersonal risks to reach common goals.
• Apply communication strategies that encourage psychological safety and create a safe space for all to contribute.
• Understand the value in adopting a model of joint problem-solving for patient care.
• Identify the distinct needs of time-limited project teams and how to incorporate effective and transparent feedback loops.
• Ensure accountability and identify leaders, breaking down hierarchy and encouraging the right person to step up at the right time.
• Implement a PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, and Act) framework for your organization.

Continuing Education Credits

In support of improving patient care, Harvard Medical School is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education.

The Harvard Medical School designates this enduring material for a maximum of 20 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. Harvard Medical School is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

This activity is approved for 20.00 contact hours. Contact hours are awarded commensurate with participation and completion of the online evaluation and attendance attestation. We suggest claiming your hours within 30 days of the activity date, after this time, the attendance attestation will still be required to claim your hours. 

Groups of 10 or more receive Amy Edmondson's latest book!

A free, hard copy of right kind of wrong: the science of failing well for each participant. .

Your Instructors

Amy C. Edmondson  is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society. She has pioneered the concept of psychological safety for over 20 years and was recognized in 2021 as #1 on the Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers. 

She is the author of Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy (2012), The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth (2018), and Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well (2023).

Michaela Kerrissey  is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She conducts research on how teams and organizations innovate, integrate, and perform, with a focus on health care.   Dr. Kerrissey has authored over 30 publications on these topics and has won numerous best-paper awards, such as from the Academy of Management. She designed the Management Science for a New Era course at Harvard’s School of Public Health. In 2023, she was listed on Thinkers50 Radar, a global listing of top management thinkers.

Real World Case Studies

Affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.

Tomislav Mihaljevic, MD

Learn from the President and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic about how to implement joint problem solving in complex care organizations.

Maya Rupert

Hear from a top political strategist and campaign manager about how she leads within a teaming structure.

Trishan Panch, MD, MPH

Learn from Harvard faculty and founder of Wellframe about the importance of team learning.

Available Discounts and Benefits for Groups and Individuals

Experience Harvard Online by utilizing our wide variety of discount programs for individuals and groups. 

Past participant discounts.

Learners who have enrolled in at least one qualifying Harvard Online program hosted on the HBS Online platform are eligible to receive a 30% discount on this course, regardless of completion or certificate status in the first purchased program. Past Participant Discounts are automatically applied to the Program Fee upon time of payment.  Learn more here .

Learners who have earned a verified certificate for a HarvardX course hosted on the  edX platform  are eligible to receive a 30% discount on this course using a discount code. Discounts are not available after you've submitted payment, so if you think you are eligible for a discount on a registration, please check your email for a code or contact us .

Nonprofit, Government, Military, and Education Discounts

For this course we offer a 30% discount for learners who work in the nonprofit, government, military, or education fields. 

Eligibility is determined by a prospective learner’s email address, ending in .org, .gov, .mil, or .edu. Interested learners can apply below for the discount and, if eligible, will receive a promo code to enter when completing payment information to enroll in a Harvard Online program. Click here to apply for these discounts.

Gather your team to experience Innovations in Teamwork for Health Care and other Harvard Online courses to enjoy the benefits of learning together: 

• Single invoicing for groups of 10 or more
• Tiered discounts and pricing available with up to 50% off
• Growth reports on your team's progress
• Flexible course and partnership plans 

Learn more and enroll your team ! 

Course Syllabus

Learning requirements: There are no prerequisites required to enroll in this course. In order to earn a Certificate of Completion from Harvard Online and Harvard Business School Online, participants must thoughtfully complete all 5 modules, including satisfactory completion of the associated assignments, by stated deadlines.

Download Full Syllabus

• Study the Mining Accident Rescue and Cleveland Clinic cases.
• Understand the concept of teaming and how it can be applied to the health care industry.
• Brainstorm how to organize with a team to rescue 33 trapped miners.
• Analyze the problems solved and new challenges created by organizational structures that were implemented to facilitate teamwork at the Cleveland Clinic.
• Outline and analyze an individualized teaming breakdown for your organization. 
• Study the NASA and Google cases on psychological safety.
• Collaborate with team members and leadership to create a space of psychological safety. 
• Identify the indicators of psychological safety in a group. Analyze data from Project Aristotle’s study of teams at Google.
• Consider how past experiences can affect current feelings of psychological safety.
• Study the Cleveland Clinic ,  Boehringer Ingelheim , and  Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center cases.
• Implement a joint problem-solving orientation in which team members view problems as shared and solutions as requiring collaboration.
• Match different types of diversity in the workplace with the interpersonal boundaries that they imply.
• Articulate what you bring to a team and what you might need from others.
• Walk down the ladder of inference to get to the root of a problem.
• Study the  Virginia Mason Medical Center and  Institute for Healthcare Improvement cases.
• Cultivate an organization where team learning is valued and mobilized for improved performance.  
• Identify different kinds of work on the process knowledge spectrum.
• Brainstorm how a nursing team could learn from an accidental morphine overdose.
• Study the cases of Julio Castro's Presidential Campaign and Wellframe . 
• Practice leadership skills that include coaching, enabling, and ensuring that the right voices are present or represented within the team structure. 
• Build a leadership workshop for your team using the concepts addressed in this course.
• Practice asking meaningful questions as a way to encourage input and express authentic humility.
• Learn the difference between confirmatory and exploratory responses.

Earn Your Certificate

Enroll today in this course.

Still Have Questions?

What are the learning requirements? How do I list my certificate on my resume? Learn the answers to these and more in our FAQs.

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