"Writing to Acceptance: How Students Learn to Write The Medical School Cover Letter"

About the Author

Chloe Stiggelbout is a junior biology major and marine biology minor at the University of Washington. She plans on applying to medical school in 2014 with the ultimate goal of becoming a pediatrician. Along with her studies, Chloe competes as a long jump and triple jump athlete for the University of Washington track and field team.

Contents

Abstract and Introduction

Methodology

Data

Discussion

Implications and Final Thoughts

Works Cited

Data

The survey designed was sent out by email to the Student National Medical Association, which is the one of the largest, national, student-run organizations for people in the medical field. It consists of over 6,000 medical students, pre-med students, residents, and physicians. The sixteen responses received covered a wide range of respondents. The purpose of the survey was to get an unbiased sense of the methods and approaches to writing a medical school cover letter from people in different stages of their career. Respondents were also asked to copy and paste their cover letter into one of the boxes, which was reserved for a text analysis.

By asking the applicant’s GPA in the survey, the survey attempted to rule out the assumption that GPA was the sole factor in medical school acceptance. Many people believe that medical school acceptance is purely based on GPA and test scores. However, the responses received had a variety of GPAs (Mean = 3.77; Std Dev = .176). Twelve out of sixteen of the students had a 3.7 or greater, meaning that a full quarter of the respondents had a 3.69 or below. Of the sixteen people who responded, only two were rejected on their first try. One student who was rejected graduated with an undergraduate GPA of 3.4. This might suggest that GPA was the causal factor for rejection, but a different student was also rejected on his first attempt when he had an undergraduate GPA of 3.91.

Students approached the writing process of their cover letter in a variety of different ways and mixtures of techniques. Of the sixteen participants, seven responded to this question, “How did you learn to write your medical school cover letter?” (see Table 1 for response breakdown). However, one respondent’s answer was irrelevant to my research question, as he did not discuss the writing aspect of the application process.

Table 1. Catalog of Survey Question Responses

Where/how did you find what needed to be done to improve your personal statement?

Five total said they had others look over their letter, and the majority had multiple sources from different areas of expertise review their letter. Three people had family and friends look over their letter. Three people had mentors (favorite teachers and TAs) proofread their letter. Five students referred to someone in the medical field (physicians, medical students, and pre-health advisors). And two of the respondents asked an English teacher to proofread for them. All the respondents had multiple people look over their papers. Three students also used “How To” books that went over how to apply for medical school. These books included exercises to help them practice writing the genre, and included example essays for the students to read. A majority of the respondents used more than one method to write and improve their cover letters (see Table 2 for responses). 

Table 2. Example Survey Responses

Where/how did you find what needed to be done to improve your personal statement?

Defining the genre of the medical school cover letter is one of the most important parts of learning how to write in genres. One of the questions on the survey allowed for a text analysis of the medical school cover letter. The survey asked the participants to cut and paste their letter into the answer box; I received four letters to use for analysis. After analyzing each thoroughly, a code was developed through which the reoccurring themes could be counted (see table 3 for breakdown).

Table 3. Catalog of Text Analysis

In the medical school cover letters, every student inferred in their writing the skills that doctors need to exhibit, and presented them in a way that showed they were capable of those skills. Throughout the four letters, this was done nineteen times (Mean = 4.75 times/cover letter; Std Dev = 1.26). The applicants also talked about their motivation to apply for medical school. This was seen nine times throughout the letters (Mean = 2.5 times/cover letter; Std Dev = .58). The motivations included mostly interests in the science field and the desire to help people. The last major item that was coded for was how often the applicants spoke about the experience they have gained in the medical field. This was seen eight times throughout the cover letters (Mean = 2.25 times/cover letter; Std Dev = 1.71). This theme was emphasized more in some personal statements than others. For example, two people mentioned their experiences four times, while a different applicant didn’t talk about her experience at all. The most prominent element was discussion on what skills are present in thriving doctors, and how they plan to achieve them (see examples in table 4).

Table 4. Examples from text analysis

Inferred presence of the set of skills needed

The final question on the survey asked if any of the respondents were willing to meet for an interview. Eight out of the sixteen people replied with their contact information, and one person was chosen to interview.  For purposes of anonymity, she will be referred to here as Interviewee. The interviewee graduated from a liberal arts college in the Pacific Northwest with a GPA of 3.4. She is just now finishing up her first year in medical school at large state university in the Pacific Northwest. In 2009, she applied to eighteen to twenty medical schools across the nation. And after the interviews, she was waitlisted and ended up not getting in at any school. The following year, the interviewee applied to 27 schools (the state university in the Pacific Northwest and a large private university in the south being her top choices). She was accepted to both, and decided on the state university in the Pacific Northwest.

The first time the interviewee applied to medicals school, she started by reading How to Write a Medical School Cover Letter books. She said they were useful for brainstorming, but somewhat generic narrow topics. She replied, “I decided that wasn’t what I really wanted to do. So I ended up just kind of writing about what I wanted to do and how I envisioned my future as a doctor and like what I could contribute as a doctor.” Also, she received help for the Principal Investigator at the research lab she had been working at for about two years. Even with this help, she got waitlisted, and unfortunately was rejected. After her rejection, the interviewee said she met with an acceptance board member to discuss why she was not accepted and how she could improve her application. This acceptance board member, a physician, told her “her cover letter was a little vague, instead of her sounding really excited about medicine, it sounded like she was trying to please everybody… It sounded wishy-washy.” The interviewee said the acceptance board member told her to have a distinct goal. As she explains, “I was told not to write like I was excited about everything, 'cause everyone’s excited about everything. Choose one narrow thing and expand on that.”

After the meeting with the acceptance board member, the interviewee said she scrapped her entire cover letter and started anew. First, she went back to her Principal Investigator and passed on the advice she got from the acceptance board member during her exit interview. He recommended to her “you have so many accomplishments up to this point, talk about what you’ve done and what you’ve accomplished.” After getting advice to narrow down her topic, she said, “I wanted to work on family practice for underserved populations instead of saying that I was so interested in so many things.” The interviewee then had her pre-health advisor review her letter.

In the end, the interviewee stated that if she were going to give advice to someone that was going to apply to medical school that she would tell them: “You want to stand out, but you also want to look like someone that could be in medical school. I would say free write a whole bunch, and ask yourself why you want to be a doctor? So you know.”