Can I put this in my personal statement?

I am passionate about medicine and that it is the perfect career for me."

I think that's fine, as long as you mention that you've always had an interest in the subject

strengthen my love for medicine

Don't word it quite like that. Go more for:

"My medical work experience exceeded my already high expectations and served to confirm beyond doubt that I am passionate about medicine and that it is the perfect career for me."

I hate to burst your bubble but there's no such thing as a "perfect career". Medicine, like many other things, is just a job which has it's good bits and not so good bits.

Oh I know this, but that's the type of stuff they want to hear. They don't want disillusionment to have set in before you even get there! Obviously they want you to say the stuff about being able to handle the long hours and academic challenge etc but it's good to say you tick all the boxes and that you're passionate. After all, if you're cynical before you even get there then uni will likely break you and you'll either drop out or hate it by the time you graduate.

From a young age, medicine has been my passion. Ever since I received a medical playset at the age of 5, I have been fascinated by medicine, and my work experience has created further passion and fascination for the subject. I also have a Duke of Edinburgh award.

You'd be surprised with what they "want to hear". Whilst I fully agree with you that you don't want to (even if you are) come off too cynical in an interview...there's a fine line between disillusionment and realism.

In my own personal experience I found that giving the perhaps brutally honest response/view counts for more than sugar coating the "they'll like this" response every poor sod in the wating room will regurgitatate in one form or another. My w/e in many ways put me off medicine and I used this as a talking point in my own interviews.

I agree with what you've posted but there's a lot to be said for giving that "different" answer.

I hate to burst your bubble but there's no such thing as a "perfect career". Medicine, like many other things, is just a job which has it's good bits and not so good bits.



I really doubt any applicant has always had an interest in medicine. Can a 16 year old teenager have a realistic appreciation of what a career in medicine entails before even scraping the surface with w/e?

Different, yes, but there's also a fine line between realism and arrogance. You don't want to look like you know everything and that you've got the medic life sussed. Similarly being too doom and gloom makes you look like you want to be a martyr. The majority go down the soppy passionate route because it's basically playing it safe- it's oh so easy to give the wrong impression when the admissions panels have thousands of applications to churn through and massive numbers of rejections to find one way or another.

Don't word it quite like that. Go more for:

"My medical work experience exceeded my already high expectations and served to confirm beyond doubt that I am passionate about medicine and that it is the perfect career for me."

Of course you won't have the medic life sussed but hopefully the w/e and volunteering should have given you a fuller appreciation of what medicine involves - I rarely hear appicants discussing the piles of paperwork ect. Whether or not you appear arrogants depends on how you express your views in the interview. I personally acknowledged the "doom and gloom" as you put it then backed it up with a healthy dose of the rose tinted glasses appicant cheer

My point is that many applicants don't realise is the sheer number of people that are interviewed/reviewed. Being slightly "different" and giving a non-standard answer will hopefully make you memorable for the right reasons rather than being one amongst the sea of soppy passionate namby pambies who'll get binned at the end of the day.

I don't really like cheesiness in personal statements, so I'd rearrange it to what Chiko said. And whilst it does say "perfect career", it says "for me", hence it doesn't mean it's all around perfect. I said something about it being the perfect career for me, but justified through the personal statement why I thought it was the "perfect career" and showed that I knew there may be set-backs and not-so-perfect realities, but I was ready to face them. I'd say, include your awareness of these things in your personal statement, but avoid sounding cynical.