Writing A Personal Statement For Veterinary Medicine

Start writing your personal statement early as many people will get through a huge number of drafts before they are happy with their PS. This is the general format for a PS and some good advice (you don't have to use this format, just make sure you include all the sections).

Your introduction needs to be both original and interesting to the reader. Don't overuse words such as passion, and other clichés. The admissions department want to know why vet med interests you now, although you can state that this is a lifelong ambition. You can explain here what attracted you to study this subject. Do try to make this part 'grab' the reader. The admissions tutors will have read plenty of personal statements that say the same thing over and over, make yours stand out! As a general introduction, most people mention why vet at the start with a combination of scientific interest, animal welfare and perhaps other motives or influences that make veterinary medicine their sole career.

The most important thing here is not to mention names of places you've been to. It wastes valuable word space! So instead of 'I went to The Mill Equine Veterinary Centre', say 'I went to an equine veterinary centre'. This is likely to be the biggest section of your PS. You need to make sure that you can talk at length about everything mentioned in your PS. Don't mention an operation you observed, then not know anything about it! Don't make this a list, its better you mention a few ops you witnessed and be able to talk about them than reel off a lot of ops but be able to talk about none of them. Throughout this section, you should be reflecting on how this has helped you reflect on the life as a vet.

Here you can also mention any skills you learnt that are important for a vet to have, ie - whilst spending a week lambing, I relished working under pressure in a fast paced environment - an essential skill for any vet to have. Same with team work etc. Remember to expand on why these skills would be important for a veterinary surgeon and link back at each possible time. Should be around 70% of your whole personal statement as a rough guideline, and should include a mix of veterinary work, farm work, and horses/kennels and other. Farm work is an essential to mention in the personal statement alongside veterinary work experience.

Here, write about being a peer mentor, a prefect, head boy/girl. Remember to always relate this to your application. Don't just say I am head girl at my school, thats a waste of words, you need to say what skills you have learnt and how that has helped you in your ambition to become a vet. Say what you do and what you have learnt from the experience. As mentioned in the medicine guide, don't use lots of examples of one thing, you only need to show you can handle responsibility once, talk about other skills too - there are many you can use (working under pressure, responsibility, managing time, empathy), and again try to be original but don't include something you can't back up!

In this section you need to tell the admissions department what you do in your spare time. Remember it has to relate to your application. You may enjoy going to the cinema but what does that actually bring to your personal statement? This paragraph is very important. It shows the reader that you can balance an academic life with extracurricular activities. If you mention a hobby that doesn't relate to veterinary medicine, don't try to relate it. It'll be obvious to the reader your clutching at straws. Its up to you if you want to relate everything to vet medicine. Some things will have an obvious link so your wasting words explaining everything.

If you have any gap years plans, mention them and what you hope to learn from them.

Sum your application up in a few lines. Again try to avoid clichés. Don't introduce anything new, and sound confident.

You can talk about A Levels your doing and how some aspects of your courses relate to your chosen career. Don't go into to much detail, the admissions team will know what's taught on most courses. Try not to mention about the type of vet you want to be - keep an open mind. If you want to be an equine vet but you haven't applied to Liverpool, admissions may question whether you know enough about which uni's have an interest in what. You could also talk about a specific book you've read and if you've done an extended project.

Punctuation 1. Capital letters

Capital letters should only be used when a proper noun is being used. Countless numbers of people tend to capitalise the following words: medicine, chemistry, biology, doctor, hospital, general practice. The words are correct as written there. Exceptions to this do exist if you write the word as a proper noun. For example, if I were to write 'I am applying for the Medicine A100 course,' then capitalising the 'M' would be correct. Similarly, if I were writing 'I worked at Central Manchester University Hospital for a period of three weeks,' then it would be correct to use capital letters. At least half of all statements make a mistake with incorrectly capitalised words.

Something which should always be capitalised is 'I'. It is correct to say 'I am twenty years old and I like to play the piano.' It is not a very common mistake, but it has been seen.

2. Commas

It is rare to see the perfect use of commas throughout a personal statement. More often than not, commas are completely missed out from sentences. Most commonly, this occurs after a clause such as 'During my hospital work experience, I learnt about empathy.' More than three quarters of all statements will miss out the comma after the first clause. A comma would therefore also be needed here: 'In September, I played a football tournament.' A final example where commas are often missed out is when coordinate clauses are used. 'Medicine, in my opinion, is the perfect career choice for me.' Similarly: 'I like the rewarding nature of medicine, but I am not too fond of the hard work.'

3. Semicolons

Used invariably incorrectly or not used at all.

The semicolon has many uses. Its main use is to separate items of lists or series'. For example: 'I observed several departments: I watched surgery in Orthopaedics; learnt about ECGs in Cardiology; was taught about Diabetes in Endocrinology and viewed a CT scan in Radiology.'

It can also be used between independent clauses which are related. 'I went to A&E; it was really busy.'

It is also used to link clauses and semi clauses. 'It is most common on wards 6 and 9; however, it is not restricted.'

If you are not sure whether to use a semicolon or not, alter your sentence so that you don't have a need to.

4. Colons

As semicolons, colons are usually used incorrectly or not used at all.

The colon is most commonly used to introduce a list. 'I went to three wards: ward 4, ward 9 and ward 14.'

It is also commonly used when one sentence is linked to its preceding sentence via consequence or effect. For example: 'I had a wonderful romantic dinner last night, but I awoke with a stomach pain: It must have been dodgy food.' Similarly, it can be used in apposition: 'I couldn't get up for hospital: I was still hungover.'

5. Apostrophes

This is something that really annoys me. First, when not to use them. If you are turning something into a plural, there is no need to use an apostrophe. For example: GCSEs, GPs, PSs.

Having read an endless number of personal statements, the most common apostrophe mistake concerns the word patient.

patients - this is the plural of patient i.e. There are many patients in this waiting room.

patient's dignity - this is the dignity of one patient i.e. I was concerned about the patient's dignity during the PR exam.

patients' views - the views of many patients i.e. The patients' views regarding Dr X were very positive.

patience - this is a totally different word i.e. That man has been waiting for 5 hours! I'm amazed by his patience.

Grammar (There is a really good internet tool to check your grammar for you: http://ed.grammarly.com/editor/view/?f=1) 1. Spelling

It takes no longer than a couple of minutes to check your spelling. Paste your personal statement into Microsoft Word and do a spell check or use an online tool such as http://www.spellcheck.net/. There's nothing worse than starting your paragraph with 'Medecine is the perfect career choice for me.'

2. Using apostrophes to shorten words

Don't use 'don't' in a personal statement (ironic, huh?). Always use the full word. Mustn't should be written as must not and can't as cannot. The same applies for I'm which becomes I am. Don't even consider using I'd, which could stand for 'I had,' 'I did,' 'I would' or 'I could.' These are self-explanatory but are very common mistakes in around 20% of statements.

3. There, their and they're

Really common mistake made in under a quarter of statements.

There is a word which aims to indicate a location or an expletive word which can be used to start sentences. For example: 'There are seven consultants on the ward.' 'It is over there near the table.'

Their is a word used to indicate possession. For example: 'It is their box of chocolates.'

They're is the short form of 'they are.' So in a sentence it may be used as such: 'They're over there. Look, they're both really busy.'

4. Its and it's

Its is a possessive form of it. Use it when something belongs to another object i.e. 'The cat licked its paw.'

It's is a short form of 'it is.' So for example: 'It's cold in the hospital today.'

5. Using also, furthermore, however and therefore

Essentially, try not to use the word also. Especially, if every other sentence is starting with it. It is a waste of characters and becomes repetitive.

Clichés