Perfecting the Personal Statement

Personal statements are often the most difficult part of the VMCAS process. You have to impress a lot of people in a very short piece of writing. I was lucky, because I was an English major, so I was fairly comfortable in writing my personal statements. I will post my own personal statement below, if you need an example. In addition, here are my tips for writing your perfect personal statement:

1. Start Early.
I cannot stress this enough. It is way too easy for you to focus on other areas of your application, and then before you know it, there's a week left until VMCAS closes and the panic sets in. Start your personal statements before you even put your grades in. Having at least a rough draft will help reduce the stress of the application, and being able to take a break to revise is a Godsend when you are exhausted from entering four years of coursework.

2. Revise, Revise, Revise.
Do NOT EVER submit your first draft of your statement. Read it over and over, several times a week. Ask yourself, does this flow well? Does it answer the question at hand? Does it show my capabilities in the best way possible? One technique I used when I was teaching my students about writing was to free write. In this method, you pretty much word-vomit everything you can think of onto the paper or computer, without thinking about grammar or spelling. This will help you have all of your thoughts down. Then, take a highlighter and mark the most important things that you want to mention in your statement. Finally, piece it together and you have a statement!

3. Narrow your Focus
This might be the hardest part of the entire process. There are a million things you want to tell the admissions committee, but you are limited on space, so it is crucial that you discuss only the most important things. Focus on a specific moment in your experience, or a lesson that you learned. Having one focused idea that is clearly stated and put into a well-written essay is better than listing every accomplishment you have achieved.

4. Get Feedback
Have as many people as possible read your essay. Go to your colleges' writing center, have your professors, parents, friends, siblings, mentors,EVERYONE read through your essay. Make sure that they have the objectives as well, so they will know what is expected in the personal statement. It can be embarrassing to have others read your work, but it is important to make sure that you are putting the best example of yourself forward, and who better than the people who know you best to read your work?

5. Proofread
This is pretty much a restatement of #2, but that shows how incredibly important proper revision is in the writing process. Another trick I taught my students was to read the paper aloud. This will often help you catch errors in your grammar, because your eyes will move slower as you read aloud. Go slowly and make sure you have proper spelling and grammar throughout your paper. You don't want the admissions committee to focus on your improper use of affect/effect rather than your experience saving a life.

Those are my top tips for writing the personal statement, and, as promised, here is my first rough draft of my personal statement.
Most  girls find bugs disgusting and shy away from these creepy creatures. I was not that child. With the exception of June bugs, which are still my worst fear, I found insects to be fascinating. I remember when my mother would weed the flower gardens, I would lift up the large stones she had used as a border and see what gross things I could find underneath. I was never afraid to remove ticks or leeches when we went camping or swimming, and I loved to watch the worms emerge from the soil during thunderstorms. My interest in the disgusting grew as I became more interested in other animals and the creatures that could harm them. When our Labrador was diagnosed with Lyme disease, I began learning more about ticks, and consequently, the bacteria and parasites that inhabit them. I had always been intrigued with the medical field, and considered becoming a medical examiner or death investigator when I grew older. I even completed my high school health project on how a body decomposes following death.  My real passion for animal parasites flourished during the summer of 2011, when I discovered a colony of feral cats living in an abandoned building in my town. I began trapping the colony residents, sterilizing and releasing the adults, and taming the kittens and adopting them out through the Animal Humane Society, where I was a volunteer. My project became known as Feral to Sterile, and I gained public support through a fundraising page. My hands-on experience with parasites began when I noticed all of the kittens had worms, and several kittens had cuterebras, botfly larva, living in their skin. Dr. Jessica Dinham, whom I was shadowing with weekly, showed me how to remove the maggots, and treat the worms with medication. In our endeavor together, we encountered maggots, roundworms, fleas, ticks, and an especially stubborn tapeworm, that took weeks to kill.  During this time, I decided that I wanted to learn as much as I could about parasites, bacteria, and fungi. I took a Microbiology class, and aced it. I also enjoyed watching Monsters Inside Me, a television show about people who have battled parasitic infections. I had been working in a pharmacy for several years, and knew several anti-parasitic drugs, but never encountered patients who needed them. After being hired at Unity Hospital, I began learning more about infectious disease, and I became more interested in public health. The pharmacists I work with are wonderful with explaining various drugs and treatments, and I am allowed to have hands-on learning with identifying the drugs necessary to treat a variety of diseases, including an occasional worm. In addition, shadowing with Dr. Dinham at the veterinary clinic has been a great experience that has strengthened my clinical skills. As part of my Animal Biology course, I completed a research project outlining the trend in Lyme disease diagnoses within the patients at the veterinary clinic. This project allowed me to graph the increase in Lyme diagnosis, and develop an educational pamphlet for owners to encourage parasite prevention. Because of my experience in dealing with human patients with serious illness, I know that studying parasitology or infectious disease would be an ideal balance of working with animals, which are my passion, and people, whom I have grown to really enjoy working with during my time working in pharmacies.  With a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine, in a clinic or hospital I will be able to diagnose and prescribe medications and treatments for ill animals, and work with the owners to educate and develop better prevention protocols for potential infections.  As a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, my goals would either be to work in a lab or research facility, in order to develop new treatments, or to work in a specialty area of an animal hospital, or potentially with the Center for Disease Control to manage potential outbreaks of infections. It is important to recognize the overlap of infectious disease between animals and humans, and working within public health presents opportunity to improve the health of animals and humans. With my background in teaching, which I had done for two years prior to deciding to apply to vet school, I have acquired communication skills that will be vital to working with pet owners. In addition, I hope to eventually return to teaching within a veterinary program when I am older so that I may pass on my knowledge to the future of veterinary science. Furthermore, my experience in working with animals that have had parasitic infections has prepared me for the less-than-pretty side of veterinary medicine. The field of veterinary medicine requires a strong heart, an open mind, and a high degree of professionalism. All of these things I have developed under the supervision of skilled veterinarians and pharmacists, and I hope to continue to develop these skills as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.