Writing experts say that your personal statement can be likened to a marketing strategy. You basically have to convince your readers that you have something good to offer and are definitely worth a try. But compared to copywriting, admission essays cannot be based solely on claims. You have to provide clear evidence of your skills and capabilities that will make you suitable to a medical career.
You can easily present facts and figures regarding your academic standing and accomplishments. But when using this style of evidence, your essay may seem like a mere summary of your TOR (transcript of records) and resume. You need to offer details that are not seen in your other application requirements. In which case, you can always use ethos and mythos as types of evidence in your essay.
What are ethos and mythos as types of evidence in an essay?
Ethos is all about building credibility in your admission essay. Readers should perceive you as competent and as someone who possess good character traits. Likeability is key to persuading the admissions panel that you’re one of the best candidates for med school.
Mythos, on the other hand, is about the beliefs and perceived values of your audience. When used as evidence for persuasive essay writing, you see yourself using metaphor, narratives, and sayings. This is a stylistic approach to stressing important points in your argument or discussion.
Benefits of using ethos and mythos
Why med school? Are you suited for the medical professional? Basically, these are the questions you need to answer in your personal statement medical school. You may have the heart-felt desire to help others or best intentions to become a doctor, but without stylish presentation of facts and arguments, you’ll have trouble getting this message across to your audience.
You can then use ethos and mythos to make your personal statement for med school more compelling and interesting. These types of evidence will best illustrate your suitability for a medical career. Rather than enumerating all your positive qualities, use personal experiences, thoughts, and inspirations to express yourself better.
Through your examples, your readers will know what type of person you are, if you are patient enough to get through med school or passionate about the profession.
How to effectively use ethos and mythos in your essay
Your admission essay should not sound like a term paper. It should feel like you’re directly speaking to your audience. A positive ethos can make you a favorable candidate. Focus on your positive qualities, but still be honest with your self-assessment.
Mythos as evidence is used to make your reader understand you better. You can use methaphors and analogies to best explain yourself and appeal to them. Through this technique, you must exhibit rhetorical control.
Writing a personal statement to get into the medical school of your choice is no easy task. As though it isn’t hard enough just writing an essay that meets the expectations of the admissions committee, you even have to come up with your own topic. For some medical school applicants, coming up with a topic for the personal statement is even harder than scoring well in the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). If you are having a hard time coming up with your topic, read on for some helpful information and quick tips on choosing the perfect topic for your medical school personal statement.
The topic as an integral element of your essay
Before you even start making an outline or your first draft, the first thing that you have to think about for your essay is the topic. Your topic is likely to dictate the theme, style, tone, and scope of the essay. Basically, this means that your choice of topic can make or break your personal statement. Keep in mind that your topic is probably the unifying factor for your essay, the topic is what will gel everything together and help keep your essay coherent. Not to say that you can only have a single main topic for your essay, but it’s important that all of the subtopics you write about are related in one way or another.
Tips in coming up with a topic
When you are trying to think of your topic for your essay, the most significant consideration is the aim of your essay. For your medical school personal statement, the main aim is to convince the admissions committee that you are a good candidate for their school. In other words, you are telling the admissions committee what makes you unique, why you have what it takes to make a good medical student, and what your aspirations are for your career in medicine. Focus on topics that highlight your personality, experience, character, education, accomplishments, and your passion for pursuing medicine. Try to reflect upon who you are, why you want to enter into medicine, and what drives you to succeed. As you evaluate yourself, your drive, and your goals, you may come upon the perfect topic for your essay.
Writing the perfect outline for the perfect topic
Once you have a good idea of what topic or topics you want to write about, it would be helpful to come up with an outline to guide you on your writing. Here are some guidelines as you draft your outline:
- Come up with a solid thesis statement that will be the focus of your essay.
- You may want to write notes along the margins of your outline to jot down your ideas and feelings, which can help when it comes to writing your essay.
- Try using a sentence outline, so that your ideas and topics are clear.
- Make sure that your outline flows well from one topic to the next to ensure that your personal statement will read well.
Ivy League medical schools are known to produce some of the biggest, most influential, and most important names in the field of medicine. Because of this, Ivy League schools are expected to keep up with their reputation by accepting only the most dedicated and promising applicants. In order to do this, the schools’ admissions panel goes through hundreds, if not thousands, of personal statements, each one unique in its own right. However, some personal statements reveal themselves to be more impressive than others. It is for this reason that writing your personal statement for an Ivy League medical school is of utmost importance. By reading the following guidelines below, you can be assured that writing your personal statement for an Ivy League school will come more easily than you expected.
What Ivy League schools look for in essays
When you write your personal statement for medical school, it is expected that you have already taken all of the required courses, as well as completed your volunteer work in the field, and have taken the MCAT. Because Ivy League schools expect only the best of the best, it is simply not enough to explain your desire to be accepted by writing something like, “I want to help people.” To be more precise, Ivy League schools want to hear why you would make an excellent doctor, as well as why your career will reflect well on their reputation. In other words, humanitarianism is not enough.
You need to state why you are a driven person, why you will study hard, why you have always wanted to be a part of their school and why you will make the school proud. What Ivy League schools look for in essays is a unique and very confident voice, one that will not only endure but actually enjoy the number of hours and life choices that will be given up to pursue this career to the fullest. A voice that shows any signs of uncertainty or disbelief in oneself will surely be ignored or rejected.
Writing techniques to employ
As surprising as it sounds in the field of medicine, creativity is the key to writing an excellent personal statement. With creativity, you can explain your goals, dreams, purposes, and direction in ways that will be solely unique to you. A good way to do this is by searching through your past and asking yourself what events or circumstances led to your desire to become an Ivy League medical graduate. Bear in mind that your readers already know your qualifications. They are already aware of your numbered list of experiences.
What you need to explain now are things that have happened to you (and only you), which now make yourself the best candidate. More precisely, try considering your conditions at home, as well as in your social circle. Have there been any events that struck you so deeply that you’ve decided to work as hard as possible to become the best doctor? Remember that interweaving the reasons for your desire and passion with the reasons for your unique individuality are the keys to explaining most clearly why you deserve to study in an Ivy League medical school.
