If you're waiting until CASPA opens to start your personal statement, you're already behind.

This is my personal statement boot camp, and the first thing I'll tell you is to start early. Before April. Before the cycle opens. Good essays take drafts, and drafts take time you won't have in June.

Your personal statement has one job: explain why you want to be a PA and what actually led you here. Not why medicine is noble. Not a summary of your resume in paragraph form. Your reasons, your experiences, in your voice.

I walk through structure - how to open so someone keeps reading, how to close without a cliche, and how to make sure you're answering the prompt instead of the essay you wish they'd asked for.

And one hard truth: you're too close to your own writing. Everyone is. Get eyes on it from someone who reads these for a living.

What I cover:

• When to start and a realistic drafting timeline
• What the prompt is actually asking you
• Openings that work and openings I've read a thousand times
• Choosing which experiences make the cut
• Showing your reasoning instead of announcing it
• Editing, feedback, and knowing when it's done

Resources:

Free Personal Statement Worksheet: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-personal-statement-worksheet-download

Free Personal Statement Email Course: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-personal-statement-email-course

PA School Personal Statement Guide: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-school-personal-statement-guide

Pre-PA Essay Review: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-essay-review

Mentioned in this episode:

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In today's podcast, we're going to spend some time talking about personal statements.

Hopefully this is something you've at least started and are working on.

If you're applying this cycle or if you're applying in the future, we can start to think about it so you'll be more prepared when the time comes.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club Podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Foreign.

Hello friends, and welcome to the Pre PA Club Podcast.

I realized last week I didn't even do an intro.

So if you are new to the podcast, I'm Savannah Perry.

I'm a dermatology PA in Georgia, and I also run the PA Platform, which is a website that hopefully makes your process of becoming a PA a little bit easier.

That's our goal.

Today we're going to talk about personal statements.

This is such an important part of your application, and I think it can be tough to get started and it can feel very stressful not knowing what to put in your personal statement.

This was from a webinar we did a while back where we talked through content, what to include, how to get started, tools you can use, as well as how to edit and things like that.

So we'll jump into that in just a moment.

I want to remind you all that we do edit personal statements and experience details, supplemental essays, Covid essays, all of those things at the PA platform.

So that information is in the description and you can always use the code Future PA for a discount on that if that is a service that you are looking into.

Our turnaround time is around three to four days, and if you have any questions, you can always reach out on social media.

You can usually find me at the PA platform anywhere or email us at [email protected].

All right, let's jump into personal statements.

Here we go.

Oh, man, I can't even keep up, y' all from everywhere.

California, Tennessee, Texas, Nashville.

I'm in Georgia.

So if you don't know who I am and you're kind of like, how did I end up here?

Why am I here?

I'm Savannah.

I am a dermatology PA in Georgia, and I started a website almost eight years ago now called the PA Platform.

In another life, I would be a college advisor and help people get into PA school.

That's kind of what I wanted to do if I didn't get in.

And so that's my way of doing that now through the PA platform and just helping you guys.

I love editing essays.

I love doing mock interviews and talking about the interview process and trying to shed some light on this very complicated, you know, journey that we're all on.

We always use the word journey, but it is a lot.

It is there.

I thought it would become easier.

I thought things would become more streamlined and that has not happened.

If anything, it is more complex now.

One thing that has not changed is the fact that you have to write a personal statement to apply to PA school.

So there is an essay involved that is your chance to explain to a school why you want to be a PA and why you're choosing this.

So I have a presentation we're going to go through and I uploaded it, so hopefully that works.

If not, I'll pull up a different way, but we're going to go through that tonight.

If you've joined me in webinars in the past, you'll know that I like these to be very informative, very straightforward, hopefully get some really good information from them that you can take and have actions that we do.

So I have a little bit of homework for you after we get through the presentation and then of course we will save some time for pictures when the world questions.

Sorry guys.

My.

My husband's a doctor and he's been working all week so I've been taking care of our four year old and yeah, it's been fun but my brain is a little bit of a mush.

So getting back on track, we will get into questions.

So if you have questions, put them in the chat.

Michelle's also going to be trying to answer those as we go.

There is the Q and A portion part of it that you can kind of try to put questions in there or just put them in the chat.

If we don't get to your questions, you can always email us, of course.

A little bit of kind of logistics.

I see a few people saying like the connection or the video or the audio is freezing.

If you're having connection issues, check your wi fi, check your connection.

We found that Google Chrome does best as far as browsers.

So if you're on something else like Safari or what else is there now?

Internet Explorer.

Try switching to a different browser and that may help you out with getting connected.

There's also you can refresh at the top, go out, come back in and usually that helps too.

This is recorded.

So this is being recorded right now.

After this session, I think it goes out 24 hours later or 12 hours.

So sometime tomorrow it's.

You'll get an email with the replay link so that you can watch it anytime.

I've fixed it.

If you've watched webinars in the past, you used to not be able to fast forward and rewind, and now you can.

So you should be able to go through it and be good.

Thank you, Chelsea.

I wash my hair for you guys.

Like we washed our hair today and that's like a once a week things.

I appreciate you noticing.

And then I'm in my little utility room turned office.

But yeah, so this is.

This should be fun.

I don't want this to stress anybody out.

The good news is it is February while we're at the end, but you still have time.

And that's the thing with the personal statement.

You have essentially two months to work on your personal statement and get it written and get your essay done so that when CASPA opens for the application cycle in April, you are good to go.

Like you feel ready.

You can just copy and paste your essay in without feeling stressed about that part of the application.

So that's why we're talking about this now, so that you can go through all the steps.

You can brainstorm, edit, draft.

Well, I said backwards.

Brainstorm, draft, edit, get help editing.

Do whatever you need to do to feel ready to go.

So, yeah, so we'll go through everything tonight.

Y' all ready to jump in?

Let me see if there's any other things I missed.

Oh, our next webinar will be on March 5, and that will be a live personal statement editing.

So today we're going through logistics, basics, writing, editing, that kind of stuff.

Next time we will go through personal statements.

So if you've never seen us do that, it's.

You can submit your essay, it may or may not be chosen, will change anything that is identifying in it, or you can do that ahead of time also.

And then we'll still change it and we will show you kind of the editing process.

We go through, what we're looking for in an essay, what we are changing, recommending, looking for as far as content.

So that should be fun.

And so that'll be on March 5th at 8 o'.

Clock.

And we'll put the link for you to sign up for that in the chat also.

And it'll be in that replay email as well, so you can sign up also free also.

Just kind of.

We really wanted to dive into a lot of personal statement stuff.

We are planning our Webinars for this upcoming kind of season.

So if there's something you want to see or you think would be helpful, let us know.

We're gonna plan on some Casper stuff.

We may.

We can do more live edits.

Thinking about doing, like, a supplemental and experience details one, because that's a little different than personal statements.

Also thinking about doing kind of a general, like, keeping track and how we want to keep up with experience and GPA and, like, figuring out, like, am I competitive?

Is my application where it needs to be and ways to look at that.

I don't know what to call that.

It's a little more wordy.

And then, of course, interview stuff we will get into, but not until a little bit later.

That'll probably be later in the summer once interview invites start rolling out.

So we're going to start with personal statements and application stuff, get into caspa, more application stuff, and then interviews.

Cool.

All right, So I'm seeing some stuff in the question A, so we'll get to that.

And then, of course, Michelle's kind of keeping up with that for us also.

Cool.

Let's see if my presentation works.

And I've put.

If y' all don't know about this, if you're like, I really need help with my personal statement, I do have, um, the personal statement guide.

Is that backwards for y'?

All?

It's backwards for me.

Um, and this book goes through a lot of what we're going to talk about in the much more detail.

And it has, I think, at least 10 example essays that people submitted that I go through and kind of talk about what's done well, what's not.

So if you need more help with that, this may be helpful for you.

It's on Amazon.

I only have a few left, so if you want.

The discount doesn't work on Amazon, so if you want to get those from me, me and my daughter ship them out to you.

I don't know what that was.

Something just my daughter dropped a book anyway.

But if you want one of these, I put the link in there and that'll be in your email, too, or if you have questions about it.

So I think we're good to go.

Start.

Okay.

Personal statements 101.

I've kind of mixed up slides from, like, different stuff and added new slides.

There's a lot in here.

I try to cover everything, but I don't know if I covered everything.

Oh, and I forgot we were gonna do a giveaway because we thought that would be fun.

And so for our personal statement Giveaway.

If you are watching this live, or I guess if you're watching a replay, we'll do it for, you know, a couple days or whatever.

We may just give away a lot.

Who knows?

Go ahead and tag us in your stories and we will give away some personal statement guides.

I always want to say interview guys, but personal statement guides.

So tag us there, and we will see you in the messages and give some books away.

So we thought that would be fun.

Cool.

So personal statements.

Here we go.

So what part.

And this is just a question for you guys, like, what part of your personal statement, this whole process, like, what part of it is the most difficult for you?

And I'll give you all a second to answer.

It takes.

Y' all are about 15 seconds behind me, so.

So it takes me a minute to see your responses, but I want to see kind of what you're struggling with, why you're here, why you signed up for this, and why you feel like this is something you need help with.

So starting.

Okay.

A lot.

The whole thing.

Yes.

Being concise.

Okay.

Intro.

Not knowing what to say.

Wanting to stand out, not be boring.

The pressure.

Okay.

These are great.

The topic.

Okay.

Good to.

Great.

I like that.

Okay.

Writing structure.

What story to tell.

Not sounding cheesy.

Being a reapplicant.

Cool.

Yeah.

Putting it all together.

Great.

So a lot of y' all feel the same about this and kind of the same stuff.

So these are the things that I kind of brainstormed, that I hear a lot.

So getting started, of course, you know, how do I.

How do I start?

I'm looking at this blank piece of paper, and I have to put my whole life into it.

And this is like my one shot.

How do I do it?

Okay, so getting started.

Am I on the right track?

Like, am I doing this right?

Is this the what they want?

Like, I don't know.

Not having enough space.

So I saw some of that, like, being concise and being effective.

Efficient.

Yeah.

What should I change to being a reapplicant?

What do you need to do differently?

Who can help you with it?

Yeah.

So who can read it for you?

Who should, who shouldn't?

That kind of thing.

What kind of opinions do you want?

And then did I include the right stuff?

So I think somebody else said something about that.

Like, am I, like, adding what they want?

Adding what needs to be in there?

Okay, cool.

Yeah.

So we're all on the same page.

Like, this is not easy writing.

I think for some people comes a little bit easier.

For some people, it's Definitely much more of a struggle, and that is completely normal.

So we, you know, it's okay if this isn't easy for you, if this isn't fun for you, if this is stressful.

That's okay.

We're going to talk about some ways to try to make it a little easier and take away some of that pressure that you're feeling about this.

All right?

So I've said it before, and I say this actually all the time, but your essay is very important.

Your essay is going to be what gets you an interview.

Once you have the stats, the classes, the grades, the experience, everything that the schools have asked you to check off, your essay is your chance to show who you are as a person and have them go, oh, wow, this person seems like somebody we would want in our class.

Let's interview them.

And then that interview is what will get you accepted into their program and get a spot.

So all that to say, this is very important.

The essay is.

Is an extremely important part of your application that you don't want to take lightly.

You guys are all here, so I know you're not taking it lightly.

And you're more prepared than maybe some of your peers who will wait until the last minute to try to write their essay, and you'll be like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe anybody would wait till the last minute.

I will tell you, it happens every year.

We will have people who will email me, like, September 30th and say, hey, can you edit my essay by midnight?

I need to turn it in tomorrow.

I.

You know, this is this deadline, and so, you know, it happens.

So you guys are doing good already because y' all are prepared.

You.

You are, you know, doing well.

And yes, I got a private question.

But, yes, this is recorded, so you can watch it whenever.

So the first thing I want you to think about when you are starting your essay and feeling lost and not sure what to do is go to the prompt.

What are they asking you to write about?

So the prompt is usually.

It can be a variation of this, but something along the lines of, please explain why you are interested in being a physician assistant.

Why do you want to be a P.A.

Okay, so that.

That is what it's asking you.

Very straightforward.

I think in the past, it's also said things like, explain your motivations for becoming a PA or something like that.

So that is what this essay specifically wants you to explain.

So if you get lost in this process, you get stuck.

You're not sure what to do, not sure where to go.

Next you're editing and you feel like you have, you know, double what you need.

Go back to the prompt.

And when I'm editing, I write that so much like I will put in there so many times.

Go back to the prompt.

It does this story, does this example, does this whatever, just content, whatever you're talking about, does this relate to the prompt of why you want to be a pa?

Does this.

Is this part of your journey?

So one thing I talk about in the personal statement guide, and this is important for interviews, too, is when you're spending time starting your essay and kind of reflecting because you've done a lot to get to this point.

It's not like you woke up yesterday and decided you wanted to apply to PA school.

You've done a lot.

And so when you're looking back on that, think about the pivotal moments.

So what moments happened that pushed you either towards the PA profession or away from it, or towards medicine or away from it?

Those kind of forks in the road.

I'm pretty.

I'm kind of visual.

The forks in the road that stand out as the moments where you said, huh, am I going to keep pursuing this, or am I going to do something else?

And those are the moments that you want to highlight in your essay to show your reader and help them to understand as well.

Okay.

All right.

So a question that comes up a lot about personal statements is, do I need a theme?

What should my theme of my personal statement be?

You do not need a theme.

The theme has been given to you, you in the prompt.

That prompt is why you want to be a pa.

So we're not really asking you to come up with a connection to a sport you played or how being a PA connects to a hobby you have.

You don't need any.

I've read essays in the past that have, like, recurring phrases, which is interesting.

They'll kind of use a phrase, like, at the end of each paragraph.

Those things honestly just end up being distracting.

And don't add anything to the essay.

You don't have a ton of space in your essay to waste on anything that does not show why you want to be a PA and support that.

So you have to stay on track.

You have to be concise.

And so in that case, like, don't worry about trying to come up with a theme.

You really don't need one.

All right, so the logistics of your essay here are the things you need to know about your personal statement before you start writing it.

Your essay needs to be.

Or it can be up to 5,000 characters, including spaces.

That is usually about a page and a paragraph, single spaced.

The majority of people will use most of this space to fully answer the prompt.

Your personal statement will be entered directly into caspa, but this is not where you should save it.

You need to save it elsewhere.

Whether that's a Google Doc, a Google Drive, somewhere that you know that it won't get deleted.

I'm going to talk about some resources.

There's one called Mapped, which is a free resource that helps you track your exposure, experience and track.

You can like make little notes about it to pull into your personal statement.

So that is a great resource that you can also write your personal statement in, but you want to save it elsewhere.

The personal statement jumping ahead does not roll over between cycles.

So your essay, if you entered into CASPA right now and you're not applying until the cycle that opens in April, everything will be deleted.

So we don't save it in caspa, we save it elsewhere.

And then you don't need any type of special characters.

And then tabs also don't transfer.

So when you're writing your essay, you just put a double enter in between paragraphs because you won't be able to do a tab.

I highly recommend using that double enter strategy and not just having a block of text.

It makes it really, really hard to read for your admissions person if it's just this huge block of text.

So if you put a double enter, it breaks it up a little bit so that we know which paragraph is which.

Does Caspa open April 27?

I haven't seen where they've announced this year checked.

But hey, that's usually.

It's usually around the last week of April.

Okay, getting started.

So this brings us to something that it sounds like people have a lot of difficulty with.

And I think you just have to break it down into.

So Now I've seen April 28th.

I don't know.

Michelle, can you fact check that and see if they have announced and Casper opens for the next cycle?

It's one of.

It's around there.

Okay, so getting started, how do you get started on your essay?

So there are a few things I think doing ahead of time and planning out a time for are going to be most helpful.

So brainstorming, so thinking about what you want to include and what's going to show who you are and what your story is.

We'll talk about ways to do this in a minute.

But just kind of what content do you think you want to include?

Just because you put on your list now doesn't mean it actually has to be in your essay.

And.

And keep in mind that you're going to have supplemental applications also, and essays that you'll have to also have some information and content for, so you'll be able to use some of this in those, too.

So it's a good effort.

And you want to keep these notes somewhere.

Like, don't throw them out when you're done with your essay, because you'll probably find another purpose for those.

All right, so it looks like April 27th, we're official.

That's.

Well, we have a little over two months, so you're good.

All right, so then when you're kind of starting to brainstorm, think about the stories and experiences that are personal to you.

That will be the best examples of what you are bringing to the program and the profession.

And these will be experiences with patients, with other providers, with working with the healthcare team.

So something from your patient care, from your volunteering, from your academics.

This is, you know, your whole experience to get here.

Which specific stories stand out to you?

And we'll talk about how to use stories a little bit more.

And then I think just taking some time to reflect this process can get really exhausting, and really, I think you can get kind of jaded in it a little bit when you just feel like there's so much and you've done so much, and if you're still in classes and working and, you know, it just is easy to get overwhelmed by all of it.

So take some time to really reflect and.

And think back.

Like, what has brought me to this point?

What.

What things have happened that have been encouraging to me or discouraging to me that have made me want to pursue this more?

They're still fighting for when it opens, but Michelle says April 27th, so I'm gonna go with that for now.

All right, so how can we do this?

So these seem straightforward, but I think just thinking about different ways to write.

I enjoy writing.

I've always kind of been like a journaling person, so I would like to journal and just kind of write things out by hand.

Once I got to PA school, I couldn't do notes and study guides like that anymore, so I went to typing.

And then, of course, when I started writing, you know, the PA School Interview guide or the PA School Personal statement Guide, which both took me three years, by the way.

They each took me three years.

So no worries if your essay takes you a little while, but you don't have three years.

You know, I found different methods helped me to get some of that information out and move forward in the process.

So, of course you can do pen and paper.

I think a big part of this is getting rid of distractions.

So no phone, no social media, no tv, no music.

Like, just really need to be focused when you're doing this.

So pen and paper.

Typing.

Just kind of going for it.

Typing.

I want you to realize that what you start your essay as.

Whatever you start your intro with, start your essay as does not have to be how it ends up.

Most likely, it won't be your.

You may come up with your intro after you've written your whole essay, and you may move stuff around.

A lot of times when I'm editing, I. I recommend moving stuff around.

It is best and easiest to read if your essay goes in chronological order.

So if you can keep it in order, as a reader, it makes my life a lot better.

Especially when you're reading a lot of essays.

And that's another thing to keep in mind is that your admissions person, whoever gets your application on their desk, they are reading a lot of essays.

Okay, so Michelle says it is April 28th.

I'm so confused where these dates are coming from.

But we'll.

We'll confirm.

Guys.

It's either probably the 27th or 28th, but.

Yeah.

So I think if you can just kind of start rolling with ideas, you can organize them later.

You can just take, like, notes and outlines, like bullets, journal.

Like, it doesn't have to be your final thing.

Like, you can just kind of write out little points and then expand on them later.

And then what I really like is actually dictating.

There's a voice recorder on your app and.

Or on your phone usually.

And there's an app called Otter that's free up to a certain amount of minutes or something.

And it is a great option for making sure that.

Or for trying dictation.

Let's see.

Michelle sent me a picture to confirm.

That's not this cycle.

I don't think they've announced it yet, but somebody knows.

We're not even talking about Casper, but it's fine.

All right, but, yeah, dictating, I think, can help where you just talk and you may feel dumb doing it, but if you just kind of are telling your story or using some interview question prompts, you can get a lot of information out, and then again, you can organize it later.

Okay, so let's get into some content here.

When we are looking at.

Yeah, until.

Okay, so until it is on the cast, the website, I would not trust anything.

They will update it.

It will be around that time.

At this point, it does not matter.

Looking at.

So a lot of times it is a Friday.

So looking at it, I think it most likely will be April 28th would be my guess.

But it could be the 27th.

Again, like, it's not your matter.

You're not going to submit that day anyway, and it's probably going to crash, so no big deal.

Also, 28th, I'll be at a Taylor Swift concert, so I will not be thinking about Casper.

Sorry.

I need it to open on the 27th so I can help you all.

Because 28th, I'm out.

Okay.

Anyway, I'll have to research this more.

Usually they do a big, like, presentation on it, and then we go from there.

Let's get back on track with personal statements.

So these are the content points that I'm looking for when I'm editing an essay.

I do want an introduction.

And we'll talk about what that needs to include, what it can't conclude, can't include, whatever.

Cody, is that 13th for Taylor Swift?

Because I will be there on the 14th.

Also.

This is so bad.

Okay, we're getting off track.

I could talk about.

I could do a whole presentation on Taylor Swift and conspiracy theories, but we're not going to do that.

But I'm going to Tampa on the 14th with my husband and child, and I'm going with friends on the 28th.

It's so bad.

So let me know how it is.

And then our other friend Emily is going to the opening show.

Can you believe it?

I don't get excited about many things, but Taylor Swift is one of them.

And applying to PA School, but more.

But more Taylor Swift.

Okay.

Anyway.

And I just love concerts.

Going back to content.

We're just gonna start over.

Start the whole thing over.

Anyway, we're gonna try to stick to around an hour, so.

Yeah, we usually try to stay to an hour.

Sometimes I go over a little bit, especially with questions.

So I think we're doing pretty good.

Yeah, we're like halfway through the presentation, doing good.

All right.

So content wise, I do want to see an intro and I want to see a conclusion.

That is a huge thing that a lot of people leave out of their essay.

They just kind of stop and don't have any.

Any conclusion there.

So I do want to see some type of conclusion.

Just bringing everything together.

And then the questions I'm looking for.

Why medicine?

What brought you to this field.

Why pa?

Which usually includes kind of how you found out about the profession, what was appealing to you about it, what kind of made you want to pursue it.

I'm looking to see that you fully understand what a PA is so that you are showing that you have a good understanding about the profession, what PAs do, what they look like when they're working with patients, with other members of the healthcare team.

I'm looking for some explanation of your experience and how that has kind of made you a better candidate.

And then also academics.

That's another thing that people leave out a lot.

They don't talk about their academic success.

And I think that that's a big mistake because you're applying for a spot as a PA student, not yet as a pa.

So as your reader, I want to know that you are ready for school and that you feel confident in your academic abilities to take on what you're getting yourself into.

So I do like to see some discussion.

It doesn't have to be a lot about academics, stories and examples.

We'll talk about why not other options.

Sometimes this will be relevant to you and sometimes it won't.

If you were on a different path and switch directions, you can explain that that's okay.

These schools know that you didn't necessarily wake up in kindergarten and say you want to be a PA unless you're like my 4 year old who has been exposed, exposed to me and my job and she comes to work with me and she sees what I do.

You know, if you ask her, she'll say she wants to be a pa. She doesn't really understand what that means.

But most of us, when we're little say we want to be a nurse or a doctor because that's what we are familiar with.

So when you look at studies, even now, most people don't decide they want to pursue the PA profession until their last two years of college or after college.

So it is perfectly reasonable that you thought you were going to do something else until you found the PA profession.

I just need to know that once you made that switch, it is now what you are fully confident that you want to do.

So totally fine to have other thoughts you want to do, but of what you want to do but ultimately, like I need to know how you got here.

Red flags.

I put that in parentheses.

I don't those just mean like you may or may not have that.

It the only time I'll talk about when you need to include red flags because you may or may not need to address those A conclusion, like we said, and then no typos.

We just want it to be very polished.

There's no reason for it not to be unless you're rushing.

And so if we're taking enough time, we want to make sure that that essay is as kind of clean as it can be just to, again, have no distractions for your reader.

Okay, so I mentioned stories and examples a lot.

And so the question is why?

And there are a few reasons.

But in general, when we talk about stories and we're talking about all these different essays that people are reading, stories are going to be more personal, more relatable, more believable, and more memorable.

So a story.

And I think if you think about your own personal life, you'll realize this.

Like, if you've met someone and they told you a story about something, you probably remember that more than, you know, somebody just told you a fact.

So you want these stories to be things that will stand out.

And this goes for interviews as well, and help whoever you're trying to connect with, you know, feel a little bit closer to you through whatever you're sharing.

So what that does not mean is that we're being dramatic, that we're using fake stories, that we're taking our stories and stretching them, or that you need to include every single detail in your stories.

So let's expand on this.

A lot of people feel that they need an aha moment.

I saw that mentioned in the chat a few times.

Or this, like, huge, dramatic thing that happened to them.

And you don't.

Some of the best essays I've read.

There are two that still stand out in my mind as the best essays I've ever read.

And neither of them had anything dramatic.

They just strictly told their story in a way that flowed very nicely and talked about their experiences thoroughly.

They used good examples.

It was in chronological order.

It was easy to follow.

It was passionate.

At the end of that essay, both of those, I felt like that person.

Like, I agreed with them, that they were made for this profession and that this was 100% what they wanted to do and that they felt confident about that.

I felt confident about that.

These were both essays that were submitted to our editing service.

Like, submitted for editing.

And both of them, I read and I sent them back, and I was like, I don't have any major revisions.

Like, these essays are fantastic.

Maybe a couple, like, small little wording things.

But overall, they were so on point.

And usually my essays have a lot of red, but these were just so good, and they weren't dramatic.

So that's just, you know, if you feel like you don't have that, just don't.

Don't feel like you.

You have to come up with something because you don't.

I did not have a dramatic story.

You can read my personal statement.

I think it was pretty decent.

There's some things I would change, but it.

It's on the blog.

I can't share those essays.

I didn't ask them, you know, about that.

I just told them their essays were great.

But if you read my essay, I. I didn't have anything dramatic, really.

Just.

I grew up going to doctor's office visits with my sister who had a bunch of medical stuff going on.

And then I found the PA profession.

Felt like it was a good fit.

Talked about that, but it was nothing crazy that happened.

And so I think that's totally fine if you don't have that throughout your whole application process.

Just don't.

Don't fake anything.

Don't stretch it.

Honestly, like, because we read a lot of stuff, whatever, we can usually tell if something just, like, isn't genuine.

Like, it just comes off a little weird.

Especially in interviews, too, if you're kind of like, faking or changing or stretching something.

So just be very honest.

Like, be yourself.

It's totally fine.

You don't have to try to be anything you're not.

And then I say every single detail.

It can be a little difficult with stories to stay on topic, but the main point when you're using stories and examples is to make sure you are the main character.

So even if you're talking about a patient, I don't need to learn more about Frank or Joe.

I don't need to learn about how Joe is in the army and was in Vietnam and his wife passed away from cancer and he has five grandchildren, and now his leg is broken, so he's in the hospital, and he had to get five pins, but one of them's out of place and it really hurts.

And I don't.

Like, that's cool, but I don't need to know all that.

I need to know what you're doing for Joe and what your role in that was.

So you want to keep the details as concise and straightforward and quick as possible and get to what your role in that story is.

So we have a couple examples that I just threw together.

These are not.

These.

These need polishing.

They're not fantastic.

I just kind of, like, made them up real quick to give examples.

So when we are doing this, we're thinking about showing instead of telling.

And that is something throughout your whole essay and your experience details and your supplementals that you want to be doing is showing versus telling.

So here's an example of telling.

And if you're, like, on a phone or something, I'll read this so you can get an idea and let me know kind of your thoughts about this in the chat.

Okay.

My time at the hospital was enjoyable, and I learned about interacting with patients.

As a CNA each day, I was responsible for making sure patients were taken to a phys.

To physical therapy appointments at the right time and completing activities of daily living.

We talked about their time in the hospital and how they were improving with the care of the healthcare team.

What do we think?

Good, Bad, Terrible.

Great.

I'll wait.

Wonder how I can mark questions.

Thanks, guys.

Y' all are very honest.

Bland, boring, robotic.

Sounds good.

Okay.

Not a fan.

Good.

Lacks info about applicant.

Vague, boring.

Not very personal.

Okay, Chelsea, you're on track.

Isn't this a reiteration of that activities section?

100%.

And this is what I read in essays all day long.

We are not reiterating your.

Your application, your resume.

We are expanding on it and giving better examples.

Okay.

Did not show how she directly impacted patients.

Correct.

Not enough description.

It's, like, very general.

Doesn't.

It doesn't highlight how this was impactful, but it does show that they were interacting with patients.

Okay, so it's like.

It's okay.

It's just not like, is your reader gonna remember this?

No, they're.

They're not.

Yeah.

So not.

Not memorable at all.

Okay.

Okay.

So let's go to another example.

And again, I threw these together really quick and made them up.

So they're not that great, but we can make them better with some editing.

Let me know what y' all think about this one.

So this is an example of more showing.

So this is kind of like same experience, same setting, and then I already forgot.

Great.

All right.

As a CNA at the hospital, I often meet interesting patients at various points in their recovery.

Mr. J stands out, as he seemed especially bitter when I would transport him to daily physical therapy.

My attempts at small talk were met with no response until I brought up college football and found a common ground.

I learned how a simple connection can establish a relationship and lead to a patient opening up.

So tell me what you think about this one.

And again, these are varying.

They could be better.

I don't even want to tell you that.

I, like, read these at, like, 750.

Those.

I kind of, like, done it.

And Then I forgot.

So.

Better.

Memorable.

Okay.

Surface.

I could.

I think this could be better, too, but it's more.

It's.

It's more of a showing.

It's showing you an example.

I think it could be related.

You know, in a real essay, we'd expand more on how this connects to that person wanting to be a pa, how maybe they felt limited in that role and feel like being a PA would help them to do better.

So, yeah, I mean, it needs.

It needs some work still.

But this is more of, like, how we want to show.

Like, this shows their compassion.

This shows their.

Like, instead of just saying, like, yeah, I talk to patients.

Like, it shows how, you know, I was.

I was trying to talk to this patient.

They didn't want to talk to me.

And then, you know, I had to keep trying to, like, figure out how I could get this patient to connect with me, whatever.

So this is where you think about your patients that stand out to you.

And, you know, being a derm pa, I think of specific ones.

Some of these, like, grumpy old men are my favorite patients who I just, you know, continually, I'm trying to win over.

I'm like, oh, man, I'm trying to help you so much, and your skin's doing so much better, and you're just so grumpy.

And, like, I'm just gonna keep.

Keep working until we, like, find something that makes you, you know, more pleasant.

So, yes, I think just thinking about what stands out to you in your patient care, whatever, journey, volunteering, that you can relate to the PA profession.

All right.

Okay, here we go.

So let's get into some red flags.

What could those be?

And there are some other random ones that.

These are the ones I see people talking about.

The most low grades, gpa, rough semester or year, a lack of experience in some area, limited PA exposure, or a reapplicant without any changes to their application, no improvements, nothing different.

So here is kind of the thought behind this, and we'll go through it in a second.

You can have other things that you think might be a red flag.

In general, we don't necessarily want to bring up a red flag or talk about something negatively, if that makes sense.

It doesn't.

Okay, let me explain.

So I see this a lot with experience, where people would put in their essay a statement that says, I know I don't have much shadowing experience, but blah, blah, blah, or, I don't.

I know I don't have a lot of patient care experience, but.

So we don't want to do that, like, you don't need to.

You don't need to say that.

If you feel that you have enough to apply, then we want to focus on what you do have.

If you go and read my personal statement, I only had 250 patient care hours when I applied, and I still talked about them, but I didn't talk about how I barely had any.

I just talked about what I did have.

So that's kind of the approach we want to take, is focusing on the positives versus emphasizing the negatives.

So sometimes people say, like, what is a competitive gpa?

To me, if you meet the minimum requirements, then you have a competitive gpa.

Yes.

So I agree with you, Naomi.

Yeah.

So it shows that you are not the best applicant.

You compared to others.

If you are making your downfalls prevalent.

Yeah.

So, like, why would.

Why would you do that?

You know, let them figure that out.

Looking at your application.

But if they get to your essay, they probably already looked at everything and they feel like you're qualified.

So why would you tell them otherwise?

You know, at that point, just positives.

And then what's it considered a low grade?

I would say C or lower.

But again, this is gonna be relative.

So here are my thoughts on kind of if.

If this, then that.

So if XYZ would prevent you from getting an interview, it needs to be addressed in your personal statement.

If you got one C in organic chemistry, it probably does not need to be addressed in your personal statement.

If you got one C and you retook the class and you did fine, it definitely doesn't need to be addressed in your personal statement.

If you had a semester that you withdrew from every class, that probably needs to be explained.

That's a little bit of, like, a gap.

If you had a really rough semester with grades, that probably needs to be explained.

Like, a whole semester was bad.

The whole year was bad.

And so this is where.

This is a lot of grade.

So somebody says, like, how bad or detrimental is it if you have a course grade or two below a B?

If there's no black and white here, we have to look at your application as a whole.

We've got to look at where you're applying.

And that's why, if you're in the Facebook group, the Prepa Club Facebook group, we really aren't posting a lot of stats posts because you can't say, based on somebody's stats if they're a good applicant or if they're going to get in, because you also need to know where they're applying.

And there's just a lot more that goes into it, more so than just looking straight at stats.

So, you know, we're looking at grades and kind of figuring out in comparison to the rest of your application.

Again, if there's something that you feel would hold you back from getting an interview, that's what you need to explain.

If whatever it is is addressed elsewhere on your application, it does not have to be included in your personal statement.

So there are opportunities to explain, like, misdemeanors, academic prob.

And that kind of stuff.

So if you've already filled that out and talked about it, you don't have to put in your personal statement also.

And then if whatever it is is not directly related to you becoming a pa, you don't have to put in your personal statement.

You can include it in supplementals if needed.

So, like, if you got a C in trying to think what, like, random classes I took History of Rock and roll, I would not address that anywhere on your application unless it specifically says, like, tell me about a C you got, or, like, tell me about any grades lower than a C. You know, you really don't have to address that.

So I knew this would bring up a lot of questions.

Covid.

So in the past few years, there has been a separate Covid essay where you can address anything there.

We will not know if there's going to be a Covid essay until CASPA reopens, so that if there is a Covid essay, you don't need to address it in your personal statement because you'll have a dedicated space to address that.

So, yeah, so the whole, like, what if I failed a class?

What if I did this?

What about a W?

It's really going to depend on what your application looks like as a whole.

So, like, we really can't say, like, yes or no unless we're looking at everything.

And then do you have to mention gap years?

Not necessarily.

But usually you're.

You probably, like, have grown from those or learned something that you would want to address.

Yeah.

So Covet essay.

We would definitely cover during, like, a supplemental session, because it's like a whole different thing.

But I probably won't do that until we know if it's going to be on there.

And we have a blog post, I think, on the COVID essay specifically.

So if you look up, like, the PA platform, Covid, you'll find that.

All right, so how are we going to address these discrepancies?

So, yeah, if you left another PA program, you definitely need to address that and explain what happened.

That would be a pretty big red flag.

So we're not going to make excuses.

You know, it.

You may, you may, whatever.

Whenever was going on, you may have had a lot happening that you could use as excuses or they really were the cause.

You may have had a terrible professor who was the cause.

But we have to think about this from the fact of, like, somebody's reading your essay who's, like an academic person, you're going into an academic program.

So we don't want to make any excuses.

We want to clearly and succinctly explain the situation.

And most importantly, if you are addressing a red flag in your personal statement, we want to show improvement and the action you took from that to make sure that it is clear that this will not be an issue in PA school.

That's the main thing that we want to show.

So here's an example again that I threw together for you guys.

Okay?

So while I enjoyed my, this is about a low grade semester.

While I enjoyed my time in college, I also struggled at first to find a balance in studying and self care.

This resulted in multiple Cs.

During my freshman year, I felt disappointed and resolved to focus all of my efforts on finding more effective study methods.

I examined my priorities and started making time to meet with professors during office hours.

So I truly gained an understanding of the material and my upward trend and overall competitive GPA reflect these actions.

I now feel confident in my ability to use these same techniques during PA school.

I see lots of issues with that that I would love to fix had I, you know, if I was editing it.

But you get the point.

Like, you get the idea here.

I see a lot of people stressed out in the chat.

We're gonna talk about some actions that I want y' all to take before our next webinar so that you can start kind of working on things.

All right, so, yeah, so what do we think about that?

Do we.

I mean, do you understand?

Yeah, it could be more concise.

That's the thing.

Like, it's way too wordy and that's bothering me, to be perfectly honest.

But I can't do anything about that right now.

But I agree, too wordy could be more concise.

But it's okay.

It's all right.

Okay, so let's talk about reapplying a little bit.

So if you are reapplying, do you need to completely rewrite your essay?

That is the main question I get.

Like, do I have to redo this whole thing?

No, you do not need to redo the whole entire Thing you can.

And this is again like a gray area.

So if you got interviews, that means that your application was where I need to be and they probably liked your personal statement.

So that's.

If you got interviews and got waitlisted, didn't get in, you may want to, you know, just revise it a little bit.

That means your essay was pretty good.

If you did not get interviews, this is a little bit more difficult because the question is, did they ever even read your essay?

Which you still want to change it.

Like it looks lazy to just resubmit the same essay and a lot of places will compare between cycles.

So we don't want to just do that or.

So did they read it?

Or was your essay the reason you didn't get interviews?

And it needs changes.

So those are things to consider.

I use a metaphor sometimes of like thinking about baking a cake.

Like if you bake a cake and it comes out not that great, like it's too dry or too sweet or not sweet enough, would you use that same recipe again?

No.

You would change it some.

And so you kind of want to think about your personal statement the same way.

So, like, if you submit and you don't get the result you want, we need to tweak that a little bit.

So your ypa, your main reasons probably won't change significantly, but what will change is hopefully you've shown some improvements, some growth, something different from the previous cycle that you can highlight.

And then this last point was one that I did not edit, so my bad, you can ignore that one.

But as far as reapplying again, so you don't have to completely change it, but I do want to see how you improved and what changed in between cycles.

You can change out your stories, change out your examples.

You may have better ones that fit better than the last time you applied.

And that's totally fine to incorporate.

All right, let's talk resources.

So we talked about the Personal statement Guide.

That's a book.

We have a two week email series.

So for everyone who's like, I don't know how to get started, I can't even, you know, I don't even know what to do.

The email series, it's free.

It gives you an email every day that gives you like a 10 to 15 minute exercise.

You can break it up if you want to, more than that to make it longer, but if you do it each day, by the end of that email series, you'll have a pretty good draft to work from.

And so that may be helpful to you and Then we talk about the guide.

If you're ever in doubt, just Google the PA platform personal statement.

And we have blog posts and videos and podcasts and things that may be inspiring to you.

We have some free brainstorming worksheets on the website that walk you through some prompts and questions.

Michelle, put the email series in the chat and then it'll be in your email that you get after the session as well.

Well, we have an application checklist and a personal statement checklist that kind of walks you through.

I think you get that email to you when you sign up for the email course and that'll help.

And then when we talk about editing, this is like the little kind of like, thought of, like, we don't want too many cooks in the kitchen.

Like, we don't want everybody reading your essay necessarily.

We want like a few trusted people, so that may be friends and family.

Like, my mom has always been my editor of things, and so I always have her read my stuff.

If you have people in, like, your pre PA clubs that can help, use your university resources.

If you have a writing center or like TAS or something.

Yeah, that's.

Is that is the right link for the personal statement email course, I think.

Yeah.

Or here, here's the more, like, direct one.

I don't know why that one's not like, direct.

You just have to click on the image to get it.

But use your university resources.

Make the most of those.

Grammarly is a great resource to just.

Just kind of do word check and all that.

And then we edit and we're happy to edit.

I love editing.

We have a team of PA coaches.

Everyone is practicing PAs, but we all edit on the same premise of editing for content, grammar and flow to make sure that your essay is where it needs to be.

You do want someone familiar with the PA profession to edit your essay.

I think that's really important.

Just to make sure you're on track.

I see a lot of, you know, that's another red flag, is just not showing a good understanding of the profession.

And so it can be helpful to have someone, a mentor, somebody from our team edit your essay so you're getting good unbiased feedback Sometimes also our friends and family will be too kind to us and we need a little outside help.

Oh, man, I hit my hour.

I have to do like a whole, like Q and A session or something.

All right, so these are things I want you to do.

If you are ready to start your essay, here's what we're going to do.

I want you to block some time on your calendar that you will specifically work on your personal statement.

It can be the same time every day.

It can be different times, whatever, But I want you to block some time.

And Michelle, put the link to the editing in there and I'll be in your email to you.

Our turnaround time is like three to four days.

We also edit supplemental applications, experience details and Covid essays.

So need help with that?

Let us know.

So block some time and then just start with one session, like 15 minutes to just start thinking about your essay.

Just, you know, try one of those methods.

Pen and paper typing, making notes, outlining, dictating, like something just to start.

And then you can always change what you're doing, but that'll get you kind of thinking about stuff.

And then go back and kind of check those questions, check that content, see if you've kind of addressed everything.

If not, do some more brainstorming and then go ahead and start thinking about who you're going to ask for help.

We're, you know, in the 2ish month countdown now, so you do want to make sure you're staying on track with all of that.

So, all right, we'll take some questions.

How do I get rid of this slide?

Cool.

How are you feeling?

I feel like people are feeling overwhelmed.

My bad, Sorry.

But hopefully also some good information.

See, okay, I'm trying to look at questions.

Where do they go?

All right, I'm gonna stay on track with personal statement questions.

I'll post like an Instagram question box for just general stuff very soon and try to cover, you know, other stuff.

And we'll have our other webinars too.

Okay.

Oh, lots of questions.

How do you stand out?

I feel like my stories are kind of boring.

Everyone feels that way.

And if you're telling your story, it's going to be unique.

That's where I say, like the essays I've read that stand out that I think are so good are not ones that have anything crazy.

They just are very passionate about what they're doing and the steps they're taking.

So I think that is, you know, just write it and then you can personalize it with your stories.

But don't feel like you are not worthy or anything.

Oh, that is a good question.

So the term physician assistant.

Right now there are, you know, the AAPA has approved the name change to Physician Associate.

As of right now, we are still using physician assistant until either every state that you're applying to or every program you are applying to have adopted Physician Associate.

So, for example, Yale uses physician associates, so if you're applying to them only, you could use that.

But otherwise you want to stick to physician assistant.

You will write out physician assistant the first time.

It's easier to see, like we'll look at when we do live editing, but you'll write physician assistant out the first time and then put it in parentheses with pa. And then you can use PA abbreviation throughout the rest of your essay.

Oh, wow.

Lots of questions.

Is it important to mention physician assistant relatively early on in the essay?

Yes.

I expect to see physician assistant enter mentioned at least in the first 1/3 of the essay.

Yes.

If you have a strong GPA, can you mention in your personal statement, or is that not necessary since it's in the application already?

If you have a strong gpa, flaunt that.

Talk about it.

Mention it.

Yes, for sure.

This is your chance to brag on yourself.

It feels weird.

We don't like to do it, but 100% you have to.

So if you have a good GPA, talk about it.

The person who reads your personal statement might not be the same person who looked at your application.

These applications, when you are done, are like 25 to 35 pages long.

They're super long.

So that person reading your essay may not be scrolling back through your application to look at your gpa.

They might just be reading your essay.

And so they're only going to know what you're telling them.

So don't assume that they have read through your entire application or that they even have it to refer back to while reading your essay.

Yes, all of this is recorded 100%.

Okay, good one.

Can you share tips on how to.

Okay, how do we talk about the PA profession without downplaying other professions in healthcare?

This is a great question that comes up a lot because people will say, I had this bad experience with a doctor, and then I had a great experience with a pa, and that's what made me want to be a pa. How can I talk about that?

That should I, you know, or.

Or I'll just read essays that say that essentially, in medicine, it is very important not to throw each other under the bus.

We want to be very respectful of our colleagues, even if we don't always agree with how they practice.

That being said, you will have great PAs, great doctors, and terrible PAs, and terrible doctors.

It happens.

Or maybe there's just not a personality fit or somebody was having a bad day.

Like, we don't know.

But it happens in every single profession.

So the fact that you had a bad experience with one Profession does not necessarily mean that every experience with a different profession will be a positive one.

So you just can't make those generalizations.

So my advice in those situations is to not necessarily call out the negative that you had with somebody else, but focus on the positive you had.

So being able to say, instead of like, this doctor dismissed my concerns and misdiagnosed me with whatever, and the PA listened and did so.

Great, skip the first part and just say, you know, after many appointments with so many different providers, I finally found Jessica, who was a PA and who really got to the bottom of what was going on.

Like, just focus on the positive without emphasizing that negative.

If you submit an essay to be edited for the webinar, when will you know if you chose our essay?

During the webinar?

So we actually don't get any contact information.

Like, they're completely submitted anonymously.

So we don't have a way to contact you if we, we'll talk about it during the live editing.

But if we edit your essay during it and you, you know, want us to send, we'll send that to you.

You just have to email us and we'll get it to you.

But yeah, we actually don't have any, like, contact or identifying information for those essays.

Physician assistant does not have to be capitalized.

Let's see, mainly in Q and A right now.

Okay, so this is a good one.

If the red flag or gap is due to something very serious, such as domestic violence or severely impacting family tragedy, should you be honest and mention those reasons or, or come up with ways to explain without mentioning this, you, it is up to you, your level of comfort with how vulnerable you are and how much you share.

I have read essays that do this very well and again, just kind of like state very shortly what happened.

Like, without going into tons of detail.

I've also read.

Read essays that go into a little bit too much detail surrounding kind of extenuating circumstances.

So there is a fine line there of figuring out how to address things.

But it.

You can state what happened without giving every detail and, and make it clear that was going on.

One thing that is interesting in essays that happens some, a good bit actually, is when people kind of like skirt around medical things.

So that's what's interesting.

So they'll like allude to something medical going on or something that happened to them or whatever, or a family member, but they don't really state what it is.

And I will tell you, as somebody medical reading that essay, I assume the worst.

Like, I just start assuming all these things.

So you have to keep in mind that your audience is medical.

And so you do have to give, if you're talking about something medicine based, enough information for your reader.

Like, keep in mind who your audience is.

If you're writing it for an English paper, you probably wouldn't have to do that.

But the people you're writing to have a medical education.

And so you do want to give enough detail so that they can follow and kind of know what you're talking about.

Because you may be talking about like bad headaches and I think you're talking about a brain tumor and we're just on completely different pages.

But I'm going to make assumptions unless you tell me what was going on.

Let's see.

So the same thing with mental health.

It's up to you how much you.

You share and how you do that.

But again, like we're not yet.

There's a fine line of over sharing and not making excuses versus just stating what happened.

And again, like the main thing should be showing kind of how you are coping what you found and helps you that you feel you'll take with you into PA school.

How can I address a bad grade?

A D in Organic Chemistry 2.

That was not a requirement for PA programs, but I repeated the course and improved.

I would not address that in your essay.

I would.

If that's your only kind of bad grade, I would not address that.

I would.

You could.

Supplementals may ask you just to address it, but I wouldn't bring it up yourself.

When should we have our personal statements ready?

Completely edited, reviewed, feedback considered.

You should have your essay ready by the time CASPA opens.

This should not be something you're working on after the application is open.

This should be something that you have good to go.

You can copy paste.

This should not hold you back from meeting a deadline or delay your application getting in.

Because most schools do rolling admissions.

Getting your application in early is important.

Early Mid May.

June.

Early June.

We're good.

But your essay should not be what holds you up from getting that in.

All right.

Should military experience be addressed in your personal statement?

Sure.

That's great.

Learn.

I'm sure you learn tons.

Leadership, lots of experience.

Yeah, I think that's a great thing to emphasize.

Covid.

I would still keep all Covid.

Talk to the COVID essay.

Okay, so this is one that's hard to answer when writing an introduction and aiming for the hook.

Is it okay to start out of chronological order and then get back on track by discussing how I was first drawn to Medicine, or is that too confusing?

I've seen this done well and I've seen it done poorly.

It depends on how you can incorporate it and how you can flow.

It can be done very well if there is a significant, like, story or something.

But in general, I would say the majority of essays I edit, I do end up recommending, like, hey, just start with how you got into medicine and then get to that story later in your essay.

So if you're asking more about, like, how do you explain what a PA does?

How do you come up with your definition?

If you work with MDs, how do you explain you want to be a page that is going to come from usually your shadowing experience?

That's part of why shadowing is important.

Working with PAs is part of that also.

But again, we're wanting to show instead of tell, so you can tell me all day long that you research the profession and it's great, but it's not the same as actually seeing how a PA interacts with patients and doctors and nurses and everyone that they work with.

So you really need that direct observation.

This is also different than virtual shadowing, because virtual shadowing, you're really not seeing that firsthand either.

So you want to be looking for those opportunities where you can actually observe a PA working and doing everything that they do so that you do have that good understanding of the roles and responsibilities that a PA can have.

Have.

Let's see.

Answer some of them.

Trying to scroll down.

I don't feel like I have a strong story I can include in the personal statement.

What can I focus on?

If there was not a specific event that influenced my decision to be a pa, I'd encourage you again to read my essay and, and even read some of the personal statement guide.

This is common and you don't have to have a specific, you know, thing that made you choose it.

It can be something that happened progressively.

Your stories may be more patients that stand out to you, things that during patient care or volunteering that you feel give you the drive to keep going and wanting to do more and wanting to help those patients more.

Yeah.

All right, let's take one more question and then I'm going to take note of these and I will be answering more of them.

We also have a YouTube channel, and I'm going to be answering, like, short questions there.

So I'll take a lot of these and just, like, answer them.

If you're not subscribed there, that's a good place to be.

Is there a good number of stories or experiences to include.

There's not a set number.

So every essay is going to look different.

There's not a template for it, not anything set.

So you can really, you know, I want it to flow, and it should be more than one example.

I have read essays that try to use, like, the same story or example throughout, and you do need more than one, but there's not a set number.

All right, hopefully this was helpful.

It sounds like maybe it was, but be on the lookout for that replay.

And then I hope to see a lot of y' all at the live personal statement editing, where we'll get into and actually, like, see a lot of this in action.

And hopefully, you know, I'm with you.

We'll be.

We'll be together throughout this process, unless Caspa opens on April 28, and then I'm gonna take a break that day.

But, no, I'm just kidding.

So if y' all have any questions, let me know.

We'll be posting lots of question boxes on Instagram, lots of tips on tick tock and YouTube, so you can find us anywhere.

All right, bye, guys.

I gotta work tomorrow, so gotta go.