So now that you've learned about your intro paragraph, let's think about the meat and potatoes of your personal statement: your body paragraphs!

Remember all those experiences that you brainstormed a couple of lessons ago in this course? Here is the chance where you really get to put them to use!

Typically, personal statements have 2 or 3 body paragraphs. Each body paragraph should include a single experience, activity, or topic. So for example, if you have 3 experiences that you feel are very relevant to your journey to medicine, you would want to have three body paragraphs.

As I mentioned in the intro paragraph lesson, the most important part of each paragraph is the portion where you explain how the activity/experience is related to your journey to medicine. The biggest mistake that I've seen students make is taking the time to share an experience, but not making it clear why it is actually relevant. Having an essay that shares about different patients that you worked with or different exposures you have had to medicine does not meet the goal of your personal statement by itself.

Connecting your experiences back to "why medicine" is so important that I have a separate lesson all about this! Stay tuned.