Personal Statement

The Personal Statement

因为几乎所有的卫生专业学校都需要一份个人陈述, AMCAS个人陈述中的信息通常是相关的, 唯一的区别是规定的长度和焦点.

A. Importance

这可能是你要写的最重要的一页，所以它值得你付出最大的努力. 因为无论是卫生专业学校还是各地的申请者都明白这一点, 期望是你的陈述没有错误，写得很好. Not only should you run it through a spell checker, 但你应该让委员会成员或其他你尊敬的人批评你的文章，找出语法错误, spelling (not caught by a spell checker), ambiguities, etc., as well as overall impact.

B. Length

AMCAS仅提供大约5300个字符或一整页的空间. 您不必用完所有的空间，但您几乎肯定会想要使用其中的大部分空间.

C. Purpose

1. To present (and sell) yourself.
2. To demonstrate your communication skills.
3. To serve as a basis for your interview.
4. To show motivation.
5. 展示你对医学职业的理解.
6. To explain any irregularities in your academic record.

D. Basic Types

个人陈述通常分为三种基本类型，但可以包含不止一种元素. Whichever approach you take, develop a “game” plan.

1. 内省——这是最好的，也是最难写的. In it, 你要展示你对成为一名优秀医科学生和一名优秀医生所需要的素质的理解，并评估你认为自己是如何达到这些要求的.
2. 个人履历——说明你是如何对医学产生兴趣的，以及你为从事这一职业做了哪些准备, both curricularly and cocurricularly. Inevitably, personal statements have some biographical elements, 但如果与内省方法相结合，这些方法会更强大. Biographical material can be presented chronologically, which is the easiest approach, or topically, which may be more effective.
3. 鼓舞人心——这是一种“成为一名医生并拯救世界不是很好吗”的方法. 它基本上是naïve，因此，实际上可能对你弊大于利.

E. Dos

1. 尽快写一份草稿，这样，如有必要，我们可以指引你走向正确的方向. 如果超过一页，不要担心，因为额外的材料可能对委员会有用, can easily be deleted during editing, and might be of use later in preparing your secondaries. 写一个大纲，然后，只有这样，才能更好地组织你的思想.
2. If you have writer’s block, free write; that is, 尽可能快地用铅笔写下你脑海中出现的所有可能相关的想法. If you can’t find exactly the right word to use, leave a space. Do not worry about spelling, punctuation, repetitiveness, or anything that will slow you down, but make it legible enough so that you can read it. 再看一遍，挑出值得保存的部分，然后写一个大纲(如上E1所示)。. Rewrite.
3. Be concise. 不要用不同的语言一遍又一遍地重复同一件事，以为这样可以强调重点. It just makes your statement boring, and you lose your readers, 他们中的大多数人只有几分钟的时间来处理您的整个应用程序. If you don’t get their interest and sustain it, you lose. You must resist the temptation to pad; one way to find out whether you are successful is to delete parts and ask yourself whether you have lost any meaning.
4. Be truthful and do not exaggerate. Leave out anything that is intrinsically not believable. What you say must ring true as well as be true. If you get caught in a lie or are seen to be exaggerating, you destroy yourself, and, just remember, you are not there during initial screening to explain yourself. 不要夸大你对你所从事的任何研究项目的贡献. 你不需要知道研究的一切，只需要知道你参与的部分.
5. 让它变得有趣，尤其是开头和结尾，但不要让它看起来很做作.
6. Establish your identity and write in the first person. 你可能会对你身上的一些东西感到惊讶，医学院可能会觉得你令人印象深刻，或者至少很有趣.
7. Elaborate on activities, medically related or otherwise, that provide insight into your character and personality. 试着把你的兴趣或活动写进去，这样可以引导面试进入你能发挥所长的领域.
8. Be self-confident but not arrogant.

F. Don’ts

1. Don’t get too cutesy. Your reader is unknown to you, and you may offend.
2. Don’t use jargon. It will just make the reader uncomfortable or feel inadequate. Remember the reader may be a clinician, a basic scientist, an administrator, or a medical student, and what may be common knowledge to one may be obscure to others.
3. Don’t bring up topics that might prove embarrassing to you, such as anything to do with your plans to raise a family, your health, sex life, 家庭内部的情绪或其他健康问题(除非这些问题与你服药的动机非常相关), casual experimentation with alcohol or other drugs, any minor troubles that you’ve gotten into as a teenager, etc.
4. 不要表现出偏见，无论是宗教的还是种族的等等.
5. 不要花很多时间告诉读者你作为急救医生的经历对医学有多少了解, lifeguard, hospital volunteer, etc. It’s enough to just let them know that you have had these, and the place to do this is in your list of activities.
6. 不要写一篇关于如何成为一名好医生的文章(你的听众已经知道这一点)，也不要说教.
7. 除非在写作的最后阶段，否则不要求助于词典, 因为试图避免重复常常导致错误的用法. 确保你知道这些词的意思，包括它们的内涵.