10 Tips for Writing Your Medicine Personal Statement

Your personal statement, especially for medical school, has the potential to make a strong, positive impact on the admissions committee. It is the one chance for you to add your personal voice to your application. It definitely requires careful thought and endless rewriting. Here’s how you can write a compelling medicine personal statement to get the interview offers you want.

1. Make it examples-driven

Show, don’t tell. Simply telling the admissions officers of your personal qualities (compassion, leadership, team spirit etc) isn’t convincing in the slightest. You have to incorporate actual experiences—from the activities you’ve undertaken to the achievements you’ve attained. It is these examples that will serve as “evidence” to prove your point.

2. Stay focused and eliminate excess

With a strict word limit, your personal statement cannot be your whole life story. You have to be extremely selective and include only the most impactful and meaningful experiences and achievements. Ideally, they should represent you and your drive to study medicine. Some activities can be omitted entirely. Remember, there is usually a section in the application form for you to fill in your extracurricular activities and/or a page to submit your portfolio, CIP and CCA records. Do not attempt to “cram” everything into your personal statement, as that would strip your essay of focus and clarity.

3. Favour reflection over description

Besides the fact that you have a word limit to work around, descriptions (what you did) show little in comparison to reflections (what you learnt). Your personal statement should show your insights and motivations. Therefore, for each “example” that you bring in, seek to bring out its significance i.e. what you learnt or gained from it. This could be, for instance, reaffirming your passion to study medicine, rekindling your respect for healthcare professionals, rediscovering your dedication to serving others, and so on.

4. Keep in mind the selection criteria

Familiarise yourself with the desired qualities of a doctor. This is likely what the medical schools are looking out for when screening potential candidates. Try to angle your personal statement to include these qualities and criteria. A list of key qualities is given in the Singapore Medicine Personal Statement Guide (screenshot below):

List of key qualities that medical schools are looking for in potential candidates — Source: How to Write Your Medicine Personal Statement (Singapore): The Complete Guide

Here is an insightful line highlighted from the NUS Medicine admissions website:

How does the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine conduct its admissions process? Screenshot with highlight of attributes of a good doctor — Source: MBBS Admission FAQ – NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

Oxford Medicine’s selection criteria is another a good reference:

List of Selection Criteria from the Oxford Medicine website — Source: University of Oxford, Medical Sciences Division

5. Steer clear of clichés

Wanting to help people and having a passion for science may be your genuine motivations, but they are overused. Moreover, such statements are way too generic. Be specific and bring in your personal experiences. What is unique about your story? What sets you apart from the other candidates?

6. Avoid verbose language

Many experts advocate the use of simple and concise language in writing personal statements—for good reason. Ostentatious expressions convolute rather than enhance your essay. Good writing is not prefaced on using “big” words; the key is to use felicitous vocabulary without going overboard. Instead of searching the thesaurus for words that no one ever uses, vary your sentence structure to make your writing less banal.

7. Ensure perfect grammar and clear structure

It goes without saying that proofreading must be done to ensure perfect language. As for structure, ensure that your essay flows coherently and logically. While there is no fixed format, if you’re uncertain, a trusty framework to fall back on is the 5-point essay format. Your first paragraph is the introduction with a “hook” to catch the reader’s attention, followed by three body paragraphs that each convey a main point, and lastly a concluding paragraph to summarise and restate the central theme (which, in this case, could be “why I want to do medicine”).

8. Start early and refine continually

Generally, the advice would be to start on your personal statement as early as possible. Try to give yourself at least a month before the deadline. This is so that you have ample time to write, set it aside, and review it countless times. Be prepared to keep chipping away at it and even to make big changes; some people have written 20 iterations before settling on their final essay. For local (Singapore) medicine applications, you can start thinking about your personal statement as soon as your A Levels end. Usually people start writing in January the next year. Some may start when A Level results are released (late February), which will give you about two weeks before the application deadline (mid-March).

9. Seek a second opinion

Getting someone to read through your personal statement can definitely help to pinpoint areas you may have overlooked. This could be both in terms of the language (grammatical errors, writing style, structure etc) and content (what you have chosen to include, how you have presented it). This is another benefit of starting early—so that you have time for others to give their feedback as well.

10. Make the most of what you have

It doesn’t matter what experiences you have; it matters how you write about them. You may not have been Student Council president or team captain, organised two overseas CIP trips, or shadowed at three different hospitals. Your portfolio may not seem extraordinary. Indeed, you may feel “inferior” compared to your schoolmate, who has taken up multiple leadership positions, spearheaded his own CIP project, and has prestigious accolades under his belt.

No matter what activities and achievements are listed on your portfolio, you can derive meaning from them. A seemingly ordinary experience can be made momentous—it all depends on how you choose to present it.

As a simple example: You have never organised your own CIP project, nor had any medical work experience. But you have volunteered weekly at a nursing home for two years. Highlight your long-term commitment to service and your innate compassion when interacting with the elderly. Your proactiveness in guiding new volunteers shows initiative and leadership. Seeing the debilitating ailments afflicting the elderly—both physical and cognitive decline—have galvanised you to read and think more deeply on issues of mortality and end-of-life care.

I believe that if you are applying to medicine, you have an undying passion. You are here for a reason. That is your original and unique “why”. Try to infuse that into your personal statement. Let your passion radiate through.