Student Osteopathic Medical Association – Personal ...



Personal Statement Development Worksheet # 1

Experiences that have impacted me significantly…

Objective: The purpose of this worksheet is to assist you in identifying and reflecting upon experiences that have significantly impacted you throughout your medical training. Consider volunteer experiences, clinical rotations, specific physicians worked with, memorable/interesting patients, leadership experiences, life experiences, etc. The more thorough you document these experiences the more “meat” you will have for your personal statement later! Not all of the questions below need an answer as it depends on the type of experience you are recording.

Experience: _________________________________________________________

What day did this happen?

What was my role at the time?

Why did I decide to participate in this particular activity? What were my feelings about the activity before I participated? What were my feelings afterward?

Describe the setting. (As descriptively as possible; this will help paint a picture later.)

Who else was involved or around? Consider getting their contact info for later use.

Was there a particular person who impacted me significantly at this experience? Who? What about him/her made such an impact on me? Was it a positive or negative impact?

Did this particular experience motivate me to enter a certain specialty? Did it deter me from doing so? What specifically about this experience steered me one way or the other about a specialty?

Why do I feel this is such a significant event in my life?

What if anything, would I change about this experience? Why and how would I change it?

Do I intend to do this again? Why or why not?

Personal Statement Development Worksheet #2

Defining my Specialty

Objective: The purpose of this worksheet is to help you identify specifically why you are interested in practicing a particular field of medicine. It is designed for use throughout medical school, even in your first year!!! If you are interested in more than one specialty, that is fine. Make copies of this as needed, and add to it as you discover more reasons why you are leaning toward a certain specialty.

Specialty:____________________ Specialty:_____________________

When did I first consider it? When did I first consider it?

What drew my attention to it? What drew my attention to it?

What do I like about this specialty? What do I like about this specialty?

What do I dislike about this specialty? What are What do I dislike about this specialty? What are my concerns? my concerns?

Do I know any physicians who currently practice Do I know any physicians who currently practice this specialty? Who? What is his/her contact info? this specialty? Who? What is his/her contact info?

Do I know any other students who are interested Do I know any other students who are interested in it? Who? What is his/her contact info? in it? Who? What is his/her contact info?

Do I have any particular clinical or extracurricular Do I have any particular clinical/extracurricular experiences that relate to this specialty? If so what experiences that relate to this specialty? If so what are they? How did they impact my decision? are they? How did they impact my decision?

Personal Statement Development Worksheet # 3

Why I am Special?

Objective: The purpose of this worksheet to identify your strengths. Take a few minutes to brainstorm what you believe are some of your best personality traits and most impressive accomplishments. BE HONEST with yourself when you do this! DO NOT write things down you THINK people want to hear. You may be surprised at your own uniqueness!

My Best Personality Traits My Most Impressive Accomplishments

______________________

Personal Statement Development Worksheet # 4

What GME Programs want in a resident?

Objective: The purpose of this worksheet is for you to brainstorm the qualities you believe graduate medical education programs are looking for in a resident. Remember residents are employees! You may want to take into consideration particular specialties that interest you; for instance, surgery residency programs may place more emphasis on hand coordination then, say, family medicine.

What GME Programs Want What GME Programs Want

Specialty: Specialty:

______________________

Personal Statement Development Worksheet # 5

How do I measure up???

Objective: The purpose of this worksheet is to compare your brainstorming from sheets #3 and #4. Look over them and circle any personality traits/impressive accomplishments that match up (even if very generally) with what you think GME programs look for. Do they correspond? If so, that is wonderful!!! Record the “matches” on this sheet. If you have several, then you can determine your favorites. You’ve found what you need to emphasize in your personal statement (and what you need to prioritize on your CV)!

Items that “Match up” from #3 and #4 My favorites of the “Matched” Items:

______________________

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Student Osteopathic Medical Association – Personal Statement Worksheets

2008

SOMA - Personal Statement Development Worksheet

Page 1

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