1. Medical and Dental School Personal Statement Information Session

5. What do you know ?

6. How have you tested yourself ?

7. What are you capable of ?

9. Use with caution, if at all.

10. No way to know whether those applicants were admitted because of or in spite of personal statements.

12. Challenges and hurdles

13. Mentors

15. Character and integrity

16. Self-discipline

17. Judgment

18. Compassion and empathy

19. Communication skills

20. Concern for others

21. Intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm

22. Motivation and persistence

23. Reliability and dependability

24. Resilience

25. Accountability

26. Leadership skills

28. Relate your goals to your activities.

29. Choose what you want to demonstrate to the admissions committees.

30. Emphasize what isn’t already obvious in your application.

31. Not necessarily unique experiences but your own thoughts and insights

33. Positive language

34. Be concise and specific

35. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation

36. Logical order and conclusion

37. Write about more than inspiration

39. Don’t dwell on suffering instead of describing personal growth and wisdom

40. Avoid controversial religious and political statements

41. Don’t write so much about your mentors that you don’t have space for yourself

43. Complete the picture of who you are

44. Questions vary

48. More space

49. Not just for hardships and obstacles

50. Opportunity to write about important experiences from high school years and earlier

52. Plan to spend a lot of time

53. Revise, Revise, Revise

54. Get feedback from people who know you

55. UWC - Undergraduate Writing Centerhttp://uwc.utexas.edu/ “The Elements of Style”- William Strunk, Jr. http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html