4 Cliches to Avoid in Your Medical School Personal Statement

Most people agree that the medical school personal statement is one of the most involved parts of the application process. Figuring out what to include and exclude can require a great deal of deliberation. Every personal statement should address important questions like why you want to be a physician and what qualities you would bring to the medical profession.

However, beyond just presenting these ideas, it is important to do so in a way that does not sound cliche. Here are four common discussion points that can make a medical school essay sound generic and less interesting:

-- Innate passion for medicine.

-- Regular doctor visits.

-- Patient anecdote introduction.

-- The premed who saved a patient's life.

[Read: Avoid Common Mistakes on the Medical School Personal Statement.]

Innate passion for medicine. Too often, applicants argue in their personal statement that they were passionate about medicine for as long as they could remember. Some applicants try to bolster this argument by talking about how they would play doctor in kindergarten or watch medical television shows even when they were in grade school.

Such arguments are grounded in the premise that an applicant should be accepted to medical school because he or she wanted to become a medical doctor for a very long time. They also evade the key questions of why and how you became interested in the medical profession.

Having had an innate interest in medicine since childhood is not considered a strength by medical school admissions committees. It does not matter if you became interested in medicine when you were seven or when you were a sophomore in college. What matters more is to delineate clearly what set of experiences drew you to medicine and to demonstrate that recent experiences affirmed that passion.

[Read: 5 Medical School Personal Statement Writing Pitfalls.]

Regular doctor visits. Another common cliche that applicants use in their medical school application is talking about visits to the doctor for routine medical care as the driver of their interest in medicine. They mention how this interest was piqued as a child or teenager when they went in for immunizations, suffered a bout of the flu or sprained an ankle.

These narratives may be true but they will not help to distinguish your essay from other applicants, as many use these types of stories to talk about the evolution of their interest in medicine.

That being said, if an applicant has dealt with a serious medical condition, which has affected him or her for a very long period of time, it is not cliche to reflect on this experience. Such applicants should provide detail into how their struggle with illness gave them insight into the medical profession, increased their awareness about health care and drew them to medicine.

Patient anecdote introduction. We recently read a personal statement that started with, "Mr. X was a 73-year-old man admitted with shortness of breath." Other similar ones we have seen start with a suspenseful account such as, "Ms. Y's blood pressure was rapidly dropping and I knew something had to be done soon."

Such anecdotes do little to grab the reader's attention at the outset of your personal statement. In particular, essays that start with a thrilling patient case do not make for a very interesting hook. Remember, the people reading your essays are medical doctors with years of experience. They have likely seen many more interesting cases than any you have witnessed in your short time as a premedical student.

Do not use patient encounters at the beginning of your essay to add an element of suspense. Instead use them in the body of your essay to reflect on how your interactions with patients or exposure to medical care drew you to the profession.

[Read: 4 Points to Include in Every Medical School Personal Statement.]

The premed who saved a patient's life. We have read too many essays where the applicant implies that through a heroic action, he or she took a measure to save a patient's life. One applicant recently wrote that she noticed an abnormal rhythm on a cardiac monitor on a volunteer shift and alerted the attending physician, helping the patient get "lifesaving" treatment in time.

Even if this story is true, it comes across as a forced effort to say that you possess more clinical skill than would be expected of premed students. It also undermines your humility, which is among the most important characteristics in a medical school applicant.

Instead of highlighting your clinical abilities, talk about how your clinical exposure helped you improve your communication skills, your motivation to pursue medicine and your understanding of the field.

Avoiding some of the common cliches may seem difficult as it requires extensive reflection. However, by taking the time to think about novel ways to present ideas you will help your essay stand out. Consider that admissions officers read hundreds of essays each application cycle. By avoiding trite statements, you will make your essay more memorable and increase your chances of being noticed.