The Premed Playbook: Guide to the Medical School Personal Statement

by Ryan Gray

The Premed Playbook: Guide to the Medical School Personal Statement helps guide students in crafting their stories for the medical school Admission Committees. It's not only a collection of essays from students who got into top schools, but is a showcase of essays that started badly and were honed to tell great stories. Ryan Gray, MD shares the stories of students who likely didn’t have a shot, but ultimately succeed, in part because of the advice laid out in The Premed Playbook: Guide to the Medical School Personal Statement. They had to fight their way into medical school—and told a great story to do it.

Genres: Medicine, Self Help, Medical, Writing, Nonfiction

269 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 19, 2018

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Dr. Ryan Gray is a former United States Air Force Flight Surgeon who found a passion for helping premed students on their journey to medical school. Best known for his podcasts, which have been downloaded over 3,000,000 times, Dr. Gray has interviewed numerous Admissions Committee members and deans of admissions for medical schools. Through The Premed Years podcast and the Medical School Headquarters, Dr. Gray has helped thousands of students gain the confidence they require to successfully navigate the premed path. Dr. Gray lives outside of Boulder, CO with his wife Allison, who is a Neurologist, and their daughter Hannah.

Check out all of Dr. Gray's podcasts at Meded Media (http://www.mededmedia.com)

Reviews

[Rawad Basma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insightful but I feel like this would be good advice for people even if they aren’t applying to med school. Hopefully this proves useful enough after applications are over…

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

just realized never gave due credit to king dr. gray

[Ktreezy]

will give this book 5 stars once I get into med school. I’ll keep you updated. 🤧

[Lucianne Rivera · Rating 5 out of 5]

literally the only way I was able to write my personal statement 10/10

[Susanna]

Gotta add it to the list

[Asiah · Rating 5 out of 5]

super informative and will def be referring to this book over the next few months as I continue crafting my statement 😊

[Harris Bolus · Rating 4 out of 5]

We’ll have to wait and see if this book is really good or not. The advice usually makes sense, and there are some points I really appreciate hearing, while other parts can be too vague to be useful.

One point I like a lot: don’t sell yourself. Or at least, don’t explicitly sell yourself. Statements about skills you learned or traits you honed, or most other self-evaluations, now seem unhelpful or even seriously detrimental. Let the adcoms make that judgement. An exception is with quantifiable achievements, which are good because they speak for themselves.

In the same vein, let medical school teach you what you need to know - you don’t need to show that you’ve already learned A&P before getting in.

I don’t fully understand his points about reflection and takeaways, and your “why” for becoming a doctor. For instance, one example essay in the book has a sentence that reads “no matter the patient, civilian or military, I want to contribute to their fight as a physician.” Now to me, this sentence reduces to “As a doctor, I want to help everyone,” which isn’t very meaningful. To the author, however, this sentence was a “strong takeaway” that shows reflection and helps us understand why the student wants to be a doctor. It’s going to be hard for me to include strong takeaways in my own writing if I don’t understand what he means by them or why they’re good.

[marsha prock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is a specific book I would recommend for every writer or teacher of writing. Yes, I know it is directed at a short writing assignment aimed at medical school applicants, but it has far-reaching ramifications. As I watch all social media it occurs to me, after many years of writing for money and teachinag public and university courses in writing, all points are now being made in much shorter more concise word formation. Yep. I still buy novels by the page. If you don't have over 350 pages on any topic, I'm unlikely to bother, but my students aren't being judged on ability to evolve setting, characterization, and achieve a climax that leads to a satisfying resolution. If med schools don't bother with more than two pages of writing to choose students for just the gratification of an interview, the rest of society should pay attention at what makes people pay attention. Ryan Gray gives a great deal of specifics about being personal, but not too personal. He addresses catching the reader's attention with a specific goal in mind even better. It may just be a starting point for a Master's Thesis paper, but learning to journal, pull out specific individual memories, and then transfer them to short writing that catches a very jaundiced (pun intended, med students) eye, then the rest of us have something to gain by giving this a read.

[Yesi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d highly recommend this book to anyone applying to medical school. It was highly informative and truly broke down the writing process and helped me understand how to SHOW (not tell) medical schools that studying medicine is what I want to do. It gave PLENTY of examples to showcase the difference between what a “good, ok, and bad” personal statement looked like and had tons of great advice. Without a doubt, this book helped me to write a personal statement that I was proud of and felt confident sending to schools.

[Matthew Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to know how to write a personal statement, then this book is for you. This book starts out walking you through the personal statement content and then ends by showing you a plethora of other's personal statements from the first draft to the final draft.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great book for any pre-med in the process of writing their personal statement. The advice is very clear and succinct, and Dr. Gray includes a lot of good examples at the end of the book.

[Mad Stork · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this one and the one for Interviews. Both pretty helpful for a general overview. I would say the most helpful aspects for both are the examples and feedback at the end.

[Ayumi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Be careful with the digital version. My Ipad wouldn't let me flip the page when my tears covered the screen.

[Andriah Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helped me get into PA school

[Erica Olfson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean not the most ~interesting~ book in the world, but it was helpful & Im glad I took the time to read it!

[Ashton Bush · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super helpful for pre-meds in writing an effective and captivating personal statement and included LOTS of examples.

[mallory · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fine book for personal statement tips. Amazing book for examples, before and after edits. Will keep coming back to this after every draft of my PS.

[Pragati M]

will rate this book after i’ve gotten in to medical school haha

[William Chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful for my personal statement

[Andrew Song · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful and practical advice about applying to medical school.

[Jailyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

iykyk—I feel like I have a better idea of what to write about and how. I’d recommend to anyone who is spinninggg out about their med school PS lol

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing! Really helped me get a new perspective on how to write the personal statement.

[kelsy müller 🇩🇪+🇮🇪 · Rating 3 out of 5]

i’m not sure why i read this.. i want to go into either teaching or law.. 🫤

[Dan Xia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. The advice that Dr. Gray gives all makes sense, although at times his comments were a little vague. The most helpful part by far was reading each sample and what went well/badly for each applicant's personal statements. I'll definitely be using a lot of these tips in my own writing.

[Blake Bruneman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would recommend this book to anyone applying to medical school. In his guide, Dr. Gray brusquely instructs how to write a memorable personal statement that sets you apart from the countless other applicants who more likely than not have a similar path to medicine as you. From connecting with the admissions committees to including red flags, this walks you through every stage of the writing process until you are ready to submit.

As a reapplicant, I struggled with writer's block trying to figure out how to revise my personal statement and other essays when I had already spent months perfecting them in the previous application cycle. However, this book pointed out areas for improvement in my writing by highlighting exactly what I should and shouldn't be focusing on. It's a quick read and you'll find plenty of inspiration through other students' first and final drafts that are provided. I will add that Dr. Gray is pretty blunt about how your personal statement should look, but don't let his rigidity discourage you because at the end of the day, this is your story. It's truly a game of luck and subjectivity with whoever ends up reading your application.

Best of luck future docs!

Some notes that stuck out to me:
-Show, don't tell
-Activate the reader's senses
-Negativity is a quick application killer