Watch what you write! In this blog series, we’ll examine the 5 fatal flaws that you should avoid when writing your med school application essays. In this post, we’ll discuss how to avoid using cliches in your personal statement.
Don’t hide your lucid answers to essay questions behind meaningless verbiage and abused clichés.
Take a look at this:
“When I was shadowing a physician, I wanted to exceed patient expectations and let them know that I was taking their health to the next level, so first and foremost by thinking outside the box, I helped draw conclusions across multiple disciplines and immersed myself in the healthcare administrative vertical as well. When I was focused on the administrative element in the hospital office space, I would spend a ton of time building and updating scalable systems, from knowledge management to invoicing and payroll.”
What? Yikes! It looks like this guy used his grand thesaurus of buzzwords and crammed as much jargon into his short paragraph as possible. Write directly and clearly so people can understand you. Can the buzz! Perhaps a translation would be:
“When I was shadowing a physician, I wanted to impress our patients with outstanding performance. I personally and creatively drew from my experience on the hospital floor and as an administrative assistant to improve some administrative tasks, ensuring that all systems from personnel to invoicing supported the hospital staff.”
For more on what real writers (and readers) think of the latest in vapid jargon, please see: Dangerous Clichés to Avoid.
Avoid Fatal Flaw #3: Write pointed and direct answers to the questions. Can the buzz!
Now you that you know what NOT to do, it’s time to focus on what you SHOULD do to submit the absolute best medical school applications possible. Work one-on-one with a pro to create an application that will get you ACCEPTED.
Related Resources:
• How to Create Successful Secondary Applications, a free webinar
• 10 Tips for Better Essay Writing
• Application Essay Tip: The Devil is in the Details
