Medical School Essays That Made a Difference

by The Princeton Review

The inside word on medical school admissions.

Gaining admission to a top medical school requires more than "just" a stellar MCAT score and an excellent GPA. You'll also need to nail your personal statement. In this book, you’ll find the help you need to do just

• 45 real essays from future doctors, along with each applicant’s MCAT scores, GPA, and admissions profile
• An overview of med school admissions and financial aid, including a breakdown of the “anatomy” of the application
• Interviews with admissions officers who have read thousands of application essays

This fifth edition of  Medical School Essays That Made a Difference  includes a pplication essays from students who enrolled at the following
Cornell University, Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College
Georgetown University, School of Medicine
Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine
New York University, NYU School of Medicine
Temple University, School of Medicine
Tulane University, School of Medicine
University of Virginia, School of Medicine
University of Wisconsin—Madison, School of Medicine and Public Health
Yale University, School of Medicine

Genres: Health Care

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

The Princeton Review is an education services company providing tutoring, test preparation and admission resources for students. It was founded in 1981. and since that time has worked with over 400 million students.

Reviews

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know that every Princeton Review guide has its fair share of typos, but it’s really difficult to take a book about essay composition seriously when it is as rife with errors as this one was (particularly when the most poorly edited chapter appears to be the one discussing grammar and punctuation).
The sample essays are helpful for getting an idea of the themes other applicants have chosen to cover, and it is interesting to look over their stats (MCAT and GPA) and personal statements and then to review which schools they applied to, what the schools’ admissions decisions were, and where the applicants ended up matriculating. However, the beginning of the chapter featuring the sample personal statements contains a disclaimer in which Princeton Review asserts that they are not responsible for the editing of the essays; in order to provide readers with an accurate picture of the admissions process, all personal statements are printed exactly as they were received by the schools’ admissions committees. This would be all well and good, except that the rest of the book is so poorly edited, how am I to trust that all the errors evident in the essays were actually made by the students who wrote them? This book was interesting, but I would take it with a very large grain of salt.

[Mae]

Good resource for those planning to write the MCAT or applying for American medical schools. It is full of tips on writing the MCAT, and includes promotions for other books in The Princeton Review series. Also contains advice on grammar and punctuation, which is ironic since the essays were published without any edits from the publisher (so you may catch a few errors here or there). The submitted AMCAS statements/secondary essays are a good inspiration for people writing motivation letters or personal statements - it does not necessarily have to be for medical school, which is the beauty of such a book.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Describes the application process in great detail. Shows 40 profiles of applicants, including demographics, GPA, MCAT score, personal statement, secondary essays, where they applied and where they were accepted, waitlisted and denied. Very helpful!

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful read. More critiques by admissions experts would have been good.