Reviewed by:
Former Admissions Committee Member, Hofstra-Northwell School of Medicine
Reviewed: 4/25/24
Students often overlook the importance of a good conclusion in a medical school personal statement. To learn more about how you should and shouldn’t conclude your medical school personal statement, read on!
So, you’ve written the bulk of your personal statement and are ready to write your conclusion. Since it's your last paragraph, you might think you don’t need to put as much effort into it and can use it to simply summarize the points you’ve made in your body paragraphs.
However, you should spend equal effort on your conclusion and use it to expand on or share more relevant information. Your conclusion is the last part of your statement the admissions committee will read, so it should leave a lasting impression!
To help you write a solid conclusion, this guide will go over how to end a medical school personal statement and what to avoid writing about.
There are several ways you can end a personal statement to ensure it’s interesting throughout.
A great way to end your statement is to write about your future medical plans.
This way, your personal statement will flow in chronological order: first, you’ll mention your past inspirations that led you on the medical path; then, you’ll discuss your undergraduate work and volunteer experience that solidified your passion; and finally, you’ll share your aspirations to use this passion to continue to help others.
You should be as specific as possible when mentioning your future goals. Simply stating you want to save as many lives as possible is too vague to be memorable. Think about the types of populations you want to work with and where. Perhaps you want to work with underserved communities or in a rural hospital.
Whatever your plans may be, you can end your statement explaining them and how the school you’re applying to can help you reach these goals.
The majority of students spend their personal statements explaining the experiences that influenced them to pursue medicine. Once you’ve discussed why you chose medicine, you can close your statement by describing what you’ve learned medicine is and what your own philosophy as a physician will be.
If you had several experiences that opened your eyes to the varying social determinants that change the way healthcare is provided to certain populations, you could use your conclusion to argue you believe medicine needs improvement to be more equitable and free of bias!
Don’t be afraid to highlight gaps in the medical system. As the new generation of practitioners, you’re expected to improve the field and fill in these gaps.
Your attitudes towards medicine may have changed over the last few years. Perhaps you went into your undergrad with a limited and naive perspective on medicine that was changed after you gained some experience in the field.
Humility and self-awareness are important traits for physicians to have. By explaining how you improved and grew, you’re letting the admissions committee know you are entering medical school as a more knowledgeable applicant who understands the field of medicine requires lifelong learning!
Your medical school personal statement shouldn’t only focus on how the school you’re applying to can advance your career and provide you with the right opportunities and resources to reach all of your goals. The committee will also want to know how you can contribute to their school’s community and uphold their values.
Do your research and learn what your desired med school’s principles are. Figure out any major projects they’ve contributed to and mention these in your statement. Prove your values align with the schools’ and how you plan on helping them achieve their goals.
Now that you know how to conclude a medical school personal statement, it’s equally important to know how not to conclude it. Avoid ending your personal statement with:
Even if you feel there are famous words that perfectly highlight your dedication or perseverance, it’s better to keep the motivational quotes in the drafts. It’s likely the committee has seen these quotes hundreds of times, and quite frankly, they offer little evidence of your motivation.
Using your own words to describe how passionate you are about medicine is much more genuine!
Don’t end your statement by simply recapping what you’ve discussed. The committee has already read it and doesn’t need you to summarize it for them.
You have limited space to impress the committee so use it wisely! Instead of summarizing what they’ve previously read, talk about what your next steps are or what you’ve learned from the experiences you’ve shared.
On the same note, you want to ensure you don’t introduce a new experience of yours that requires further explanation. There shouldn’t be any cliffhangers at the end of your personal statement, and the committee shouldn’t be left wondering what happens next.
As hard as it is to narrow down the content of your personal statement, you shouldn’t force new information into the conclusion unless it can be thoroughly explained.
In this guide, we’ve given you tips on how to end a medical school personal statement and the mistakes you should avoid in your conclusion. For any remaining questions, you can find your answers below!
The best ways to conclude your medical school personal statement are by:
Your medical school personal statement conclusion should ideally be the shortest paragraph in your statement. Since the majority of personal statements are around 500–750 words long, you should aim for your conclusion to only be 100–175 words long.
You should avoid including quotations, details you’ve already shared, and new information that requires further explanation in your conclusion.
Yes! Every part of your medical school personal statement is important, including your conclusion. The admissions committee should be intrigued right until your last word, so it’s essential you spend an adequate amount of time working on your conclusion to impress the judges.
No, you shouldn’t waste the limited space you have summarizing your personal statement. Use your conclusion to share additional information that can further prove your dedication to medicine.
While writing your personal statement can be daunting, knowing what to avoid and include in your conclusion can make the process less stressful. Ensure you end your personal statement off strong, so the admissions committee is captivated by your writing and eager to meet you!
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