Personal Statements
A statement of purpose, or personal statement, is a brief and focused essay about your career or research goals, and is required for applicants to all graduate medical schools - Note the 2 words in bold? The SOP should be personally written by you about yourself. Who better would know about you?
Plagiarism
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A recent study by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School found that about 5% of personal statements to a single program is plagiarized.
The study also concludes the problem is more prevalent among international graduates and is common across all programs. Factors like non-U.S. citizenship; medical school location outside the United States and Canada; lack of research experience, volunteer experience or publications; previous residency or fellowship; low United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 score; and lack of membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, resulted in plagiarism. The study also went on to add even meritorious grads had used plagiarized essays.
Researchers used specialized software to compare the application essays with a database of published works, web pages and previously submitted essays. The computer results showed that 5.2% of essays matched other content sufficiently to be defined as plagiarized.
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Consequences
Beware! more and more graduate schools (management, medical, engineering, et all) are collaborating to deal with the problem of plagiarism. The consequences can be severe and highly increases a candidates chance of being rejected forever not just in one program but for any residency in US.
If you are using a third party to write your essay or 'borrowing' ideas of a friend - be warned. For all candidates our recommendation is to never give your personal statement to anyone.You might call us paranoid we call it being wise.
Also Read
B school takes stern action
Study: Medical Residency Applicants and Plagiarism - WSJ
Some people will fudge the truth to become ophthalmologists - Los Angeles Times
