Medical School Archives - Page 3 of 4

How to Write About Blemishes in Your Personal Statement

At Gurufi, we help applicants of all backgrounds write powerful and compelling personal statements, but if I had to pick our specialty, it would be helping people with blemishes on their record. Maybe you had a bad first year in college; maybe you got arrested when you were 19; maybe you founded a company right out of college that went bankrupt and lost your investors a ton of money. We’ve seen it all. In nearly every case, we’re dealing with people who stumbled, got up, and rebuilt their lives informed -and even powered by- the lessons they learned from their mistakes.

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Don’t let academic or professional setbacks derail your MBA application! Here’w how to address these concerns in your personal statement. #MBA

♬ original sound – Gurufi

As you look to build your personal statement or write about a blemish in your past, here are five tips to follow:

Be sincere: When discussing flaws in your history in your personal statement, it’s crucial to be sincere and upfront. Don’t speak in vague terms or euphemisms. Being direct, clear, and frank can demonstrate maturity and self-awareness and assist you in giving the reader a more accurate and genuine picture of who you are.

Consider the lessons you’ve learned: When writing about previous transgressions, take into account the lessons you’ve learned and how they’ve helped you become a better person. This might show that you’re able to grow from your mistakes and make progress. A good rule of thumb is that you should look for a 2:1 ratio (lesson learn to describing the mistake) when talking about missteps.

Don’t concentrate on the bad: While it’s vital to acknowledge and talk about previous mistakes, you should try to avoid focusing on the bad parts of the event. Instead, concentrate on the advantages of your development and progress. Make it clear how / why you’re a better person. If you can, provide an example of an instance where you faced a similar challenge and crushed it.

Give particular instances: Give specific examples to support your views and to assist explain the lessons you’ve learnt from prior mistakes. This can enhance your writing’s vividness and interest, as well as assist the reader remember your personal statement longer.

Keep it short: It’s always a good idea to eliminate unnecessary text, but it’s 10x important to keep this section lean and direct. Be succinct and to the point while writing about flaws in your history. Stay away from delving into too much detail or focusing on the unpleasant parts of the encounter. Instead, concentrate on your main points and leave it at that.

For more help with your personal statement, check us out at Gurufi.com. Our personal statement editors and consultants have decades of experience helping clients get into top Masters and Ph.D. programs in STEM, humanities, fine arts, and social sciences. Our specialty is helping you craft compelling personal statements that move the needle in your admissions process! For questions, shoot us an email at service@gurufi.com. Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

How to Avoid “Frankenstein Essays”

Within 20 seconds of reading a draft personal statement, I can tell whether the author has a clear sense of what they want to say or whether they’ve spent far too much time asking for advice, deep-diving into forums, or otherwise overthinking it. These “Frankenstein essays” are a misfit mishmash of parts because the author tries to cover every base and make sure they provide something for everyone.

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When a #personalstatement stops being a reflection of *your* voice and life, and instead tries to do too much, it becomes a “Frankenstein essay.

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When it comes to personal statements, you’re much better off writing a few things well than saying a lot of things briefly or poorly. As such, it is important to be judicious about where you seek advice. A strong personal statement represents you and your accomplishments and if focused on your future. It’s clear and simple, and not meandering and complicated.

Yes, when drafting a personal statement, it’s important to have an open mind and be prepared to take constructive criticism. Choosing wisely where to seek guidance for your personal statement will significantly improve the caliber and efficacy of your essay. Consult professionals, academics, peers, internet resources, family members, and friends for help, but also trust your gut and be loyal to who you are. Don’t forget that your personal statement should reflect your unique personality, so don’t be scared to experiment and be original. And, with EVERY piece of advice, make sure that the final decision is yours.

You Can Get Into Your Dream School Despite a Few Blemishes

We all mistakes because we’re all human. In my 16 years of working with clients and helping them get into top business schools, one of the most common things I’ve witnessed is accomplished and smart people who write off their chances at admission into a top school because they had a blemish or two on their CV. Perhaps they got a D- in Anthropology 101 in their freshman year, maybe they had early career struggles… whatever the cause, they use these missteps to psyche themselves out and convince themselves to believe that their applications are doomed to failure. This just isn’t true.

Today, I recorded this brief video to explain in broad strokes how to approach the challenge of an imperfect application. In coming days, I’ll expand on it in detail. There is hope, and if you’re thoughtful about your application, you can confront, contextualize, and overcome imperfections in your application. Of course, if you’re unsure about how, contact us at Gurufi; we’ve got years of experience helping people get into their dream programs! (there’s a reason our clients love us!)

@gurufi_admissions

Don’t let academic or professional setbacks derail your MBA application! Here’w how to address these concerns in your personal statement. #MBA

♬ original sound – Gurufi

How to Write About Blemishes, Setbacks, and Failures in Your Personal Statements

After collaborating with hundreds of business school applicants over the past 15 years, one thing that I have learned is that there are many paths to an MBA. Often, these paths are bumpy, circuitous, or unconventional. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of talking to a group of applicants on GMATClub’s YouTube Live broadcast, and I decided to focus that talk on how to overcome blemishes or even big problems in your application.

Midway through, a funny thing happened! My kids escaped from the playroom and decided to investigate what Dada was doing… several times! Like many of you, all of us at Gurufi.com have had to adjust our lives to the realities of COVID-19. Our office in Portland closed because of local restrictions, so we’re all working remotely from home. As my kids ran in (repeatedly) to see what was going on, it occurred to me that this was an excellent lesson for the kinds of challenges we face in life: randomness intervenes, complications arise, family situations suddenly require our attention.

I hope you’ll check out this presentation because it gives some handy advice for how you can account for setbacks, blemishes, and disasters in your life within the context of your Personal Statement. We also touch on how to write a powerful “biggest failure” essay that some schools ask for. The TLDR is:

• You shouldn’t run from your mistakes if it’s something that the admissions committee will know. You need to provide the frame for how they view this.

• “If you can’t fix it, feature it.” For big mistakes, think about how you can contextualize the setback within the broader scope of your life and career in a way that depicts it, not as a failure, but as the first act in a story of success.

• Admissions committees understand that people aren’t perfect. Find ways to make them see you holistically.

If you have questions for Brian, send him a line at service@gurufi.com.

For help with your Personal Statement or other admissions writing, check us out at Gurufi.com! We have a fantastic group of experienced editors and consultants ready to make your application shine!

Part 1 of Our “Interview With a Doctor” Series.

In our “Interview With a Doctor” series, we talk to doctors about their journey to medicine, medical school admissions, what they wished they had known when they started this process, and what they see as the rewards and challenges of being a doctor. Today is Part 1 of our interview with Dr. Aloysius Fobi, who is a board-certified emergency medicine physician, professor of medicine at Oregon Health Science University, and attending physician at Randall Children’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon.

If you have questions about medical school admissions, please check us out at Gurufi.com or email us directly at service@gurufi.com. The editors and consultants at Gurufi have helped hundreds of motivated aspiring physicians get into their dream medical schools. We hope that you can be the next one!

Advice from Doctors on Medical School Admissions & Life As a Doctor

As part of our ongoing series on medical school admissions, life as a doctor, and the challenges of life in medicine, today we interview Dr. Aloysius Fobi, MD and Dr. Rachel Pilliod, MD. Dr. Fobi is a board-certified Emergency Medicine physician and professor of Emergency Medicine at Oregon Health Sciences University. Dr. Pilliod is a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist and ObGyn who trained at Massachusetts General Hospital / Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, and currently is an attending physician at Oregon Health Sciences University.
Today, they talk about persistence in the medical school process, how to differentiate yourself from other qualified doctors, and what committing to medicine means on a practical level.

If you need help with your medical school applications, please check us out at FourthWrite.com/medical or email us at info@fourthwrite.com

Tips for Medical School Secondary Essays

For med school applicants, writing your AMCAS Personal Statement can be hell. You spend weeks perfecting every sentence. Then… secondaries come. Maybe even dozens of them. It can feel overwhelming. Here are some tips for how to think about this process.

Tips for Getting a STRONG Letter of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation are a vital part of your application, but people often don’t treat the process like it! Even though your recommender is doing the writer, you still have real work to do in order to make sure that it is a strong letter that advances your candidacy. Here are some hints and insights on letters of rec.

A Great Breakdown of the Medical School Admissions Process

This is a really useful overview. I’d recommend anyone applying print this out and upload its details into their calendars!

From Scribe to MD: Use Journaling to Mine Your Experiences for Medical School Applications

When I work with scribes on their personal statements to medical school, the thing I encounter over and over is that, despite their many relevant and often amazing experiences, they have no clue what to write about in their personal statements. Importantly, it’s not that they struggle to choose from among so many great options, it’s that they feel like they don’t have a single story that’s compelling and interesting enough to make for a powerful personal statement.

When this happens, I’ll direct our conversation back to the days before they began scribing, ask them to talk about their first few days, and then slowly go through all of their experiences. What happens is that there’s often this, “oh yeah, I DID do that, didn’t I!??” moment where they start to recall all of the interesting cases they were a part of and, more importantly, gain a sense of just how much they’ve learned, changed, and grown since they began scribing. These are all components of an effective personal statement.

Though we do offer essay revision services and broader medical school application writing consultation, we are committed to providing thoughtful and effective resources for people who might not have the means to pay for what we offer. With that in mind, we’ve spent the past several months speaking with scribes, successful MD applicants we’ve helped, doctors, and people who have worked in medical school admissions to put together a guide that will help you transform your experiences as a medical scribe into a powerful personal statement (and secondaries, etc.) that position you effectively for medical school.

We elected to make this in the form of a journal so that you can begin the process now, even if you’re a year (or even two years) away from applying. The most important thing is that you should start as early as possible, when your memories are fresh, and you can lay down markers that track changes in your understanding, ideas, ambitions, self-perception, competence, and confidence.

We urge you to download this free document, share it with friends if you’d like, and use it regularly so that when it comes time to write your personal statement, you’ll have a wealth of information, moments, accomplishments, and insights to call upon.