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I was recently consulted through EssaySensei to help a high school student with her application for a prestigious undergraduate program. Her mother saw the progress we had made since her first draft and was really impressed:
Hi Josh, I love this essay. It turned out so good. I couldn't be happier. Thank you thank you! Do you have any tricks my younger daughter could learn?
Residency applications
As I write this blog post, I am in the midst of completing my own applications for residency programs. Residency is the next step after medical school and involves additional training to become a specific type of doctor. For example, a family physician requires two extra years of residency training and a general surgeon requires six.
Similar to the process of applying to medical school, we need to write personal statements, C.V.s, and obtain reference letters from physicians and supervisors who have worked with us. And like medical school, we again have to apply to residency programs at various universities. This means that we need to tailor parts of our application to the different schools we are applying to. Suffice to say, it is a lot of work and brings back memories of applying to medical school. (Subtext: you will be jumping through hoops for the rest of your life.)
Over the last week, I have been working hard to write my personal statement. I need to write a convincing letter about why I want to pursue Family Medicine, how my experiences prepare me for residency, and why I am a good fit for each of these universities.
Fortunately, I developed my theme and structure relatively quickly, and I did not have too much trouble writing my first draft. I don't want to make essay writing sound easy, because it's not. But at the same time, it's not a mountain for me. Clearly, there must be skills or knowledge I could impart to help others with the essay writing process.
So what tips could I provide to this mother's daughter?
There is no substitute for experience
As I reflected on the mother's question, I realized how difficult it was. There are so many things I do when revising essays that I can't always explain. Why I choose a certain word here or alter a phrase there.
There are some things that I just know are better to do in an essay. It just sounds better to me. I can't rationalize it.
Why does this happen? What is different about me from the applicants seeking my help?
The only thing I could really think of was that the amount of experience I had writing essays and applications is huge. More than anyone I know.
I wrote my first program application in Grade 9. Ten years later and I am still writing applications. In high school, I would write applications for any single program, award or scholarship that I was eligible for. In fact, probably all the application writing I did in Grades 9 to 11 really helped me succeed at writing the really important scholarship applications in Grade 12.
In total, this amounted to tens of thousands of words. It would probably be more of a shock if I spent that many hours writing and didn't get really good at it.
More proof that experience matters
Like I said before, I wrote a ton of applications in high school, particularly in Grade 12. However, my activity dropped during undergrad – I just didn't have any applications to write.
Three years went by before I had to write another application – this time it was for medical school. The biggest essay I had to write was 1,000 words for the University of Toronto.
I found the process really hard. I spent hours stuck on writing the first few sentences. Eventually I wrote a whole first draft. And then I deleted the whole thing because I absolutely hated it.
Why was I having so much trouble? Looking back on it, I think my hibernation away from writing is what hurt me. Any skill becomes rusty if you don't use it. In the same way, being out of the game so long meant I had to re-learn some of the skills I used to have.
The fortunate thing about experience is that having it means the skill is still there deep inside – you just need to retrieve it through practice. Kind of like getting back on a bike after many years.
In any case, my point is that had I continued to use that skill during undergrad, I would probably have written a satisfactory medical school essay on my very first try.
No magical tips can replace hard work
I apologize if you read this article looking for some magical tips to become great at essay writing. There are some important essay writing concepts that it helps to know, and I have written many articles on those kinds of things.
But the truth with any important skill is that it takes hours upon hours of practice to get good at it. Essay writing is no different.
The post How to Become Great at Writing Essays appeared first on MedHopeful.com.
