When to start my personal statement
How to Start Your Personal Statement to Get Your Reader's Attention
I'm David Sammartino editor-in-chief of
da editors improvers here to talk to you
about how to write an outstanding
personal statement today specifically I
want to talk about how to start your
personal statement there's nothing more
critical to the success of your personal
statement than the beginning it
establishes the tone the voice the style
and it seems that you're going to be
discussing in your personal statement
now it doesn't necessarily state all
those specifically but it lays the
foundation for those items in other
words it lays the foundation for your
attitude for your priorities and for who
you are as a candidate and the key to
this is the first sentence the first
sentence is what will serve as a
foundation for your personal statement
because everything your personal
statement will flow out of that first in
it the first sentence will leave it a
second second to the third etc so what
to avoid in the first sentence of the
personal statement do not use a quote do
not use a quote from somebody famous
like Nelson Mandela or George Washington
do not quote a professor or an attending
position do not quote anybody because a
quote at the beginning of our personal
statement indicates that you are
starting you're not starting at the
beginning of your story you're starting
somewhere else or you're taking the
focus away from what your personal
statement needs to be do not do it
the second thing to avoid which it can
be related is to avoid an overly
dramatic opening to your personal
statement or to avoid using flowery or
overly dramatic language in your
personal statement for example telling a
story that you're trying to embellish as
much as possible using add your adverbs
or adjectives if your story is worth
telling and if it's worth serving as the
beginning and foundation of your
personal statement then let the story
stand for itself but when you do so when
you start with a story make sure that
that story is relatable do not and I'm
not kidding do not start your personal
Cemal with how you survive a plane crash
now this comes from a personal statement
that I reviewed last year which is that
there was the candidate had actually
been in a plane crash and
survived the reason you don't want to do
that is because nobody can relate to
what it's like to be in a plane crash
and survive it's beyond relatable and
because it's beyond relatable it's
distracting once you've read that
somebody's has survived a plane crash
you can't think anything you can't think
any more about that person and so that's
a case where beginning the personal
statement in too strong of a manner is
going to throw your reader off not going
to engage the reader as much as you
would hope and I understand that
everybody wants to hook the reader or
start with a hook to the personal
statement but there is a sense in which
the hook can go too far so definitely
make sure that you avoid with that you
avoid that so if you're going to avoid
that if you're not going to start with a
quote if you're not going to start with
with an overly dramatic story or overly
dramatic language where do you start
well there's a rule of thumb that's
really easy to follow and I know that a
lot of people think about this rule of
thumb and they think well I'm not going
to do it because everybody else does it
well you don't have to reinvent the
wheel on this one if it works it works
and if it works for other people it can
also work for you just make it your own
and so what would that be first of all
don't think it doesn't matter why you
have an interest in the field or in a
career in the field that you're applying
for if you're applying for medicine or
internal medicine don't think it doesn't
matter why you're in you're interested
in that field and so think about where
did that interest come from and so
there's two ways of doing that first of
all taking the internal medicine as an
example when did you first become
interested in internal medicine well if
it was during your second year of
medical school that's probably not going
to serve well as the beginnings your
personal statement but if it was
something where it came in youth or came
from somewhere earlier on in your life
then it could serve well as as the
beginning of your personal statement and
I know there's some of you watching this
video and you're thinking well the
reason that I'm interested in internal
medicine is because my father is an
internist and I would go with them to
the
hospital to see his patients whatever
when growing up but everybody's family
member or parent isn't it is an
internist or a physician or that's the
reason that they want to go into it is
because of their parents I'm not going
to do it again don't reinvent the wheel
if that's your story then tell your
story if it was your parents then tell
it and tell it in a way that comes
across as your real story and so the
second is seeing that you can do with an
interest going back to my example of
being interested or learning you've
you're interested in internal medicine
and your second year medical school okay
maybe you don't want to start there but
think about what are the characteristics
that attracts you to internal medicine
you know what what is it that you find
unique about that field compared to
another field like family medicine or OB
gen or dermatology what have you and
think about where do those
characteristics come from or why is that
attractive you personally in other words
if you like solving problems and you
find that that internal medicine is a
perfect match of it now even though
that's a common reason for going into
internal medicine you have a way to make
that your own you could say for example
if this is true that when you were
growing up when you're five six seven
years old and your parents or family
members or friends would ask you what
you wanted for a Christmas present or a
birthday present you would always say
that you wanted a puzzle or you wanted
Legos because you love thinking about
problems and solving problems or you
wanted us to Doku book whatever that's a
way to make that story that would
otherwise be cliche your own and so
that's the main point of what I want to
present to you which is that whatever
your story is have confidence in it tell
your story don't bring in a quote where
your start talking about somebody else's
story or putting the focus on somebody
else keep the focus on you and that will
give you a great not only a great start
to your personal statement but an
engaging personal statement all the way
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