The personal statement allows you to demonstrate the thinking, strengths and values that are the foundation of your choice of a medical career and make you a strong candidate. When someone finishes reading your statement, that person should sense that you have the potential to be a great clinician and want to talk to you more about your experiences and career plans.
AMCAS limits the statement to 5,300 characters, including spaces.
Graduate & Professional School Advising at Career Services offers Personal Statement presentations in the spring to help you get started and go over the basics.
Before drafting your essay, review:
- AAMC’s Advisor Corner: Crafting Your Personal Statement
- 7 Tips for Writing Your AMCAS Personal Comments Essay
- Tough Love for Your Personal Statement: Advice from a Medical School Dean
- Advice on Writing an Effective Personal Statement for Medical/Dental School
- Overcoming Common Pre-Health Personal Statement Obstacles with Journaling
After completing a draft of your essay:
- Read it one last time to proofread, check for word choice, and assess the tone.
- Submit your draft in into the documents section of your Handshake profile by clicking on your name.
- Schedule a “Pre-Health Personal Statement Review” video appointment with your advisor via the “Appointments” section of Handshake.
Important Notes:
- This appointment will be held over Handshake Video. Please connect with your advisor via the “Join Video Appointment” button within your appointment details page. It is YOUR responsibility to initiate a call at the time of your appointment. Your advisor will NOT initiate contact with you.
- Each applicant is allowed a maximum of two reviews of their personal statement by a Pre-Health Advisor.
- The last day to submit your draft and schedule an appointment is May 20. These appointments will be available until the end of May.
- If a draft is not received before you schedule an appointment, your personal statement review request will be declined.
- These reviews cannot be rescheduled but if you need to cancel your appointment, the cancelled appointment will count as one review.
- To maximize the quality of our feedback and your opportunity to write an effective essay, we will not “proofread” or “edit” your draft — we will provide you with a focused reader response to assist you with your revision process.