Brainstorming for Your Personal Statement: Key Questions to Consider

Writing a personal statement can feel like a daunting task! Many students open up a blank document and immediately feel stumped about how to get started. We sat down with Jim Hohenbary, Associate Director of the University Honors Program, to discuss some helpful questions and ideas for you to consider as you get started on your personal statement. Jim has a background in creative writing and is a published author. He also worked with nationally competitive scholarship candidates from 2000 to 2022, which afforded him the opportunity to read and reflect upon a wide range of personal statements.

What is the purpose of the personal statement?

The personal statement takes admissions committees beyond the experiences and metrics on your application to learn more about who you are as a person and why you are pursuing the profession. In essence, your personal statement should explain why you want to pursue your particular health profession and why you are a great candidate for admission.

Hohenbary recommends thinking of your personal statement more like a date than a job interview, “Introduce yourself in a way that would make them like you, not just convince them that you can get through medical school. You want to make them excited about bringing you in as part of their incoming class.”

Think about this question: “If I was on a date and someone asked me why I want to go to medical/PT/Dentistry/etc. school, what would I tell them?” In reality, your personal statement is more professional than a date, but considering this question can help you think about how to allow admissions committees to get to know you better.

What steps should you take to prepare before you begin writing out your personal statement?

1. “Take time to familiarize yourself with everything that’s going to be requested for the application so you know where the personal statement fits into the broader set of things you are going to be asked.”

Is your application going to require you to answer supplemental questions, write additional essays, or describe your experiences? If so, think about how you might “divvy up the things you want to tell them. Maybe one of your stories belongs in one of the one-off questions rather than the personal statement.”

2. Update your resume. Then ask yourself: “Which of these experiences would I want to pull a story from or unpack? What on my resume deserves more explanation because it shows why I am interested in this health profession? What is not on my resume that is an important part of what has shaped my experience?” (e.g., personal/life experiences)

What questions can you reflect on to help come up with ideas to discuss in your personal statement?

• When did you first become interested in this health profession? What kind of experiences did you have that helped affirm this was the right direction? Tell a specific story from that experience.
• For the things you have on your resume, what are one or two specific moments that stuck out to you from those experiences? What did you learn from those moments?
• What would you want a healthcare professional in this field to be good at? What skills do you have strengths in and what story could you tell to illustrate how you have displayed that strength?
• What are specific examples of how you have displayed the pre-health competencies in your life?
• There are a lot of jobs that could allow you to help people. Why do you want to help people in this specific way (as a doctor, optometrist, physical therapist, etc.)?

Why is it important to include specific examples in your personal statement?

Hohenbary described two major reasons why it is important to include specific examples from your life experience in your personal statement:

1. People like stories. “People have told stories ever since language was invented. Stories allow admissions committees to imagine seeing you acting in your world, and it makes them feel like they have met you.”

Remember: “the value of the story is in your reaction to the event and what you learned from it. You only need to give the reader enough information to understand your response to the event.”

2. Providing evidence. Going back to the date analogy—if you are on a date with someone and they tell you they are funny, but they have not said anything funny yet, are you going to believe them? Of course not! They need to provide evidence of their humor for you to believe it’s true.

This idea is similar in your personal statement. If you say in your personal statement that you are an empathetic listener, but give no specific examples of a time when you empathetically listened to a patient, peer, etc. and what the outcome was for the recipient of your empathetic listening, why should the admissions committee believe your statement is true?

In addition, Hohenbary recommends describing a few personal experiences in your essay rather than trying to make the overall narrative hang on only one experience. With only one experience, admissions committees may not get a three-dimensional view of who you are.

To get started on brainstorming some potential stories you could include in your personal statement, we encourage you to come up with a specific example of a time when you displayed each of the pre-health competencies (AAMC), then select stories for your personal statement that contribute to the narrative of why you are pursuing the profession and why you are an excellent candidate.

We know the process of writing your personal statement can feel intimidating—use the above tips to help you get started and expect to work on several drafts of your personal statement before submitting a final draft. Hohenbary compared writing a personal statement to the work of script writers: “If you’ve ever watched a documentary about the making of a movie, the script goes through rewrite after rewrite, and those are professional script writers!” If you need help brainstorming or want someone to review one of your personal statement drafts, schedule an appointment with your pre-health advisor via Navigate.

 

**Special thanks to Jim Hohenbary, Associate Director of the University Honors Program, for contributing to this blog.