personal statement

In the quest for the perfect application, the golden rule is simple: be unapologetically you. Our latest Passport Admissions blog post delves into the power of authenticity and how it can transform your application from forgettable to front-and-center. Discover Ryan Kelly’s take on why impressing yourself is the first step to wowing admissions committees. Ready to shine in your true colors?

Is your personal statement a masterpiece in the making or ready for the grand reveal? Discover the Michelangelo approach to essay writing with Passport Admissions. We’ll guide you through the questions that determine whether to add another stroke or to drop the brush. Your opus awaits—find out if it’s time to take a bow.

Clichés—those well-worn phrases—are like old friends. But in the world of college admissions, they’ve become invisible. So, how can you make your story stand out? Discover how to transform clichés into captivating narratives that resonate with admissions committees.

Unlock the secrets to a standout personal statement! Discover the pitfalls to avoid when crafting your application. Dive into depth, connect childhood experiences, and reveal your unique journey. Don’t miss our expert tips—it’s not just what you say, but how you say it that matters.

Explore the potential of AI in crafting personal statements in our latest piece, "Should You Use AI to Write Your Personal Statement, Pt. 3". We're experimenting with AI's capability to answer the crucial question, "Why choose your career path?" Through trials and insights, we uncover how AI might serve as a useful tool in articulating your ambitions, despite its flaws. Discover the practical takeaways from our exploration and see how AI could offer a structured starting point for your personal statement. A must-read for students seeking a creative edge.

Uncover how to see yourself as admissions officers do with our enlightening guide. Embark on a journey of self-discovery, blending quirky insights with actionable steps for genuine self-awareness. Perfect for aspiring students and seekers of personal growth, this piece promises to not just polish your application but also pave the path to true success. Dive in to transform your perception and your future.

To write a great personal statement hook, you need to be counterintuitive, contrarian, and morally ambiguous. These qualities will make your hook stand out and captivate the admissions committees. In this article, we’ll teach you how to use these strategies with examples from medical school applicants. We’ll also give you tips on how to avoid mistakes and find your own voice. Writing a killer hook is hard, but rewarding. Keep reading to learn how.

Do you struggle with finding the perfect opening line for your Personal Statement? Do you want to know how to avoid the most common mistakes that make your hook boring or cliché? In this article, we will share with you some tips and examples on how to generate expert ideas for your hook that will grab the reader’s attention and showcase your personality. Whether you have an unusual background, a meaningful impact, a strong passion, or something else, we will help you find the best way to connect your story to your future goals. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to write a hook that will make your Personal Statement stand out from the crowd!

Writing a personal statement is a daunting task for many students, especially when it comes to crafting a catchy hook or introduction. In this article, Ryan Kelly explores how AI can assist students with this challenge, using ChatGPT as an example. The strengths and weaknesses of AI in generating hooks are evaluated, and tips and best practices are provided for using AI as a tool, not a replacement, for human creativity and editing. The article is part of a series that examines AI’s usefulness in different stages of the personal statement process. There’s even a ChatGPT prompt you can use for writing your own hook!

Writing a personal statement for medical school can be challenging, but can AI help? In this article series, Ryan Kelly, a professional admissions essay consultant, explores the potential of ChatGPT, an AI writing tool, to assist in the writing process. In Part 1, he reviews ChatGPT’s performance in organizing and generating ideas for a personal statement and provides some suggestions on how to make the most of AI.

You’ve probably heard some unwritten rules about what college students should or shouldn’t do to be successful. But what if I told you that following these rules could actually hurt your chances of getting into your dream job or graduate school? In this blog post, I’ll reveal 5 rules that every college student should break, based on my 11+ years of experience helping people get into college and graduate school. These rules will help you create your own path, showcase your strengths, and have more fun along the way.

Standing out in your personal statement is no easy feat, but we have four brainstorming questions and examples that will inspire you to find your hook! This article will help you be memorable, set a positive tone, illustrate your impact, and convey your driving principles and core identities in your medical school personal statement.

Welcome to Admissions Mondays, a new video series where Passport Admissions President and Co-Founder of the HEAL Clinical Education Network, Rob Humbracht, answers weekly questions from our viewers and subscribers.‍ Today’s question (submitted by “Jordan”): How do you determine when/if it is appropriate to disclose delicate information (i.e., mental health issues, trauma, recovery from addiction, etc.) in response to primary and secondary application prompts?

Writing about your virtual shadowing seems like a difficult task. Due to the passive nature of shadowing, it’s already tricky to write about it compellingly, and the virtual format only makes this more challenging. But it can definitely be done, especially if you’ve gone out of your way to find optimal virtual shadowing and taken steps to get the most out of the experiences. We’re here to answer all your questions about writing about your virtual shadowing experiences, including some do’s and don’ts and an example for you to emulate. If you follow this advice, you’ll be able to show medical schools the value of your virtual shadowing experience in a memorable, convincing narrative!

5 Tips for Writing About Coronavirus in Your Personal Statement

Do's and Don'ts for Writing About Coronavirus in Your Personal Statement

The 6 biggest med school application timeline mistakes

Looking for a comprehensive index of all required essay prompts for the AMCAS, AACOMAS, and TMDSAS applications? Look no further. Personal statements, short essays, experience descriptions - it’s all covered here.

Last week, we looked at how to research med schools properly in order to help improve your chances of getting in. To recap, med schools only want to accept you if you would choose their medical school, even if you’re accepted to another school on your list.

I decided to pursue medicine because of the enlightenment attained on my five-month backpacking yoga meditation in the Himalayas. While the idea of patient care is nice, the enlightenment of medicine is far more intriguing

68 medical schools. That's the record number (for us at Passport Admissions, at least) of schools that one of our students applied to. If you had to guess, do you think that student got in?

The personal statement is a cruel beast - but what kind of beast?

Our first Facebook Live event answered questions about applying to medical school, with a special emphasis on writing your personal statement. Do you have questions you want answered live? Email your medical school admissions questions to our Head Advisor, Rob Humbracht, for our next Facebook Live event. All questions welcome.

People tend to view their strengths and weaknesses as unchangeable - certain superpowers or fatal flaws that are hardwired into their genes and personality.

Few things are as intimidating as a blank screen. What should I say? Where do I begin?That’s the reason I'm doing this 21-day writing challenge in the first place: to thwart the perfectionism, excuses, and other BS that prevent me from writing on a regular basis.

You've heard us stress the importance of good writing in your medical school application, and being a good writer, just like staying in shape, takes training and practice.

“No one can go back and make a brand new start, but anyone can start from the present and make a brand new ending.”

Most people know the writing adage, “show, don’t tell.” Whether you’re writing a novel or a medical school personal statement, this approach is a tried-and-true way of getting your message across.

Last week, we revealed the five most overused sentences in medical school personal statements. This week we’re going a little deeper, down to the level of individual words.In our experience, these 10 words and phrases are often beaten to death in pre-med essays. Use them sparingly, if at all.

If you want to stand out from the pack, then you should avoid the common cliches of pre-med writers.They’re not necessarily bad ideas; in fact, most cliches make perfect sense. Of course you want to help people. Of course your time in the hospital inspired you. It’s precisely because they make perfect sense that they’re cliche: most pre-meds express the same exact thing. Over time, these sentiments have lost their power through overuse.

Like grammar, punctuation helps to ensure clarity in your writing. It’s also a bit like dressing up for an interview--it’s part of your presentation and professionalism, a way to show the reader that you care about how your message is conveyed.

Many would call it a stretch to compare poor grammar to “envy,” “wrath,” “greed,” or any one of the seven deadly sins. It’s true that grammatical errors could result from a writer succumbing to “pride” or “sloth,” but more likely, it’s just ignorance.

When pre-meds start writing their application essays, they often lack these intangible qualities that will make them stand out. Sure, you’ve gotten good grades in your science classes, amassed hundreds of volunteer hours, and earned a good MCAT score. But the act of making yourself come to life on paper, to write a personal essay, will feel as foreign to pre-meds as binge drinking and slacking off.

Most pre-meds struggling to write their personal statements are worried about two things: They feel like they don’t stand out and they feel like their essays are cliche

Have you ever saved someone from drowning? What about rescuing a baby from a burning building? How about a cat stuck in a tree? Anything? Alright, so you didn’t save anyone. But surely you could, right? Especially with your tri-cultural background and fluency in six languages! No? Not even close? Not a problem. We’ll just fall back on your experience as a classically trained flautist? Or your brief stint as a circus acrobat? What’s that? I have the wrong file?

Since the dawn of time, there have been many different cultures and societies with various beliefs on medicine.

Many pre-meds have feelings of trepidation when they sit down at the keyboard. Some openly claim to be “bad writers,” while others simply struggle to meet their own high standards.

Ernest Hemingway once famously claimed, “the first draft of anything is sh*t.” And if you run your own first drafts through the Hemingway App, you’re bound to agree with him.According to its website, the Hemingway App is designed to “make your writing bold and clear.” But what does that mean?

Who wouldn’t want to go to medical school at UCLA? Top-ranked, exceptional match list, nearby beaches (not that you’ll have time to frequent them during medical school). There’s a reason UCLA gets nearly 10,000 applicants each year.

Most of the time, the secondary process feels endlessly redundant. Reiterating your volunteering and work experiences. Listing your honors and awards. Writing yet another buzzword essay about diversity or leadership.But sometimes a school will throw you a curveball, and if you’ve been lulled into complacency, it can be tough to nail such a tricky pitch. But never fear. The Savvy Pre-Med is here to coach you back into hitting form.

We must first acknowledge just how hard it is to be a doctor these days. Why is it so hard? Most doctors are burned out. Pressure is increasing to see more patients in less time (undermining the patient-physician relationship). Many doctors (and many pre-meds) are perfectionists who refuse to admit mistakes but inevitably make them anyway. Add to that a huge debt load from medical school and precious little time with family and friends, and it’s easy to see why doctors want out of their profession.

our page isn’t blank any more, but you may not be very happy with what you’ve written. Basically, your room isn’t guest-ready just yet – it doesn’t look the way you really want it to and the way you may have imagined it in your head. Most likely, your essay is also too long (5300 characters goes by quickly). You’re going to have to move stuff around and probably get rid of some beloved knick knacks and potentially even an armchair or two.

The next step for your medical school personal statement is to decide what stories you want to tell and where. You may want to start by writing out some of your stories or at least make a quick sketch of your most memorable moments. What are the best stories for your Personal Statement? What would be good for your "Most Meaningfuls?" To me, this process is like purchasing furniture for an empty room. You know the types of chairs and lamps that you like and that represent your own style, but sometimes you don’t know exactly where you’re going to put them.

Since you’re a pre-med and are most likely dying for some tangible steps for getting started on your personal statement for medical school, let’s move on to some pre-writing tips.

The Resume Rehash. Admissions officers have read this type of essay all the time. It happens so often that it’s one of the biggest personal statement cliches. The way it goes is something like this: the applicant says why medicine but feels she needs to cram every single activity since she turned 18 into the 5300 characters. She touches upon so many experiences that she doesn’t take the time to elaborate well on any of them.

A recent episode of the Tim Ferriss Show featured Chris Sacca, possibly the most famous venture capitalist right now (he was recently featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine).

A fantastic - and honest - talk by a Mount Sinai Admissions Officer at the UC Davis Pre-Health Conference in October aimed squarely at the personal statement and how to write it. Using an in-depth approach of looking at a successful applicant over all of the phases of the application process, the Mount Sinai admissions officer analyzed what applicants must do to get in.