Personal Statements... Words of advice

I thank everyone for submitting their personal statements. With their permission, I will try to publish snippets of statements every now and then to point out things I find interesting:

Example #1: ...I started out in college with health care in mind; I wanted to go into health care. When someone has a job in health care, their job is secure, and health care is always growing.

Response: Committees usually frown upon students who mention job security and/or financial success as part of their reason for attending pharmacy school. I discourage you from doing so as well. While your statement may be accurate (as I think this is), it is better left unsaid.


Example #2: I want to go into pharmacy because I am interested in the reactions, not medical diagnosis. One of my biggest decisions was taking nursing and organic chemistry together. I learn through nursing that it’s taking care of a patient, giving nursing diagnosis and scenario based questions, it had nothing to do with biology or chemistry. It had to do with what you are going to do in that situation, nursing can just make one up on the spot. I also do not want to be a doctor because in the hospital all the doctors and nurses don’t seem that happy.

Response: Oh boy, be careful here. I know plenty of unhappy pharmacists (as well as doctors, nurses, truck drivers, day laborers, etc). You may think that pharmacists are the happiest health care professionals and it is okay to say that, but refrain from making a broad stroke claim against another health profession. As an alternative, you might say, "The pharmacists I have interacted with seem to enjoy the profession and I hope to do the same."


I will post more soon. Thanks for the emails and special thanks to those who allow us to assist everyone by publishing small parts of their statements. To review previous blog posts regarding personal statements, search "personal statement" in the blog search above.