Good book to get you started on your essay, but the sample essays are not by the avg med school applicants

This book has a lot of good advice but all the sample essays are from people who got accepted to Harvard Medical School. I know most of us haven't volunteered in a 3rd world country or published research papers or saved someone's life, so it would have been nice to read some essays from a non-superhero applicant. Also a little variety as to what schools they were accepted to would have been nice. They were all Harvard and other Ivy League schools. It also sounds like the authors consider those to be the "top schools" but they may or may not be depending on whether you're talking about research or primary care. Bottom line: needs more variety of example essays. But overall it was a pretty useful guide.

Basically, this book tells you to write about yourself. It shows some good ways to transition into the varying aspects of the essay. But, the best thing about it is that it features a background summary of each applicant. It's easy to find the ones that are most similar to you. But again, it only helps for ideas.

The best lesson from this book is actually the step-by-step process described in the beginning. The essays are just there for you to get an idea of how unique you can get. By following their process and getting the most of what I have learned from my own life experiences, I ended up with a great essay - something that I am proud of submitting. How did I do it? Just read and completed all of their practical exercises. Otherwise, some of the essays are inspiring and they give you some ideas that may be relevant to your application. Don't listen to the post about this book being all for Ivies. I came from a state school and I still ended up interviewing at the very top schools. What gets past the admissions is your true character and sincere expression of why you want to be a doctor.

I found this book not as useful as it claims to be. The essays feature here are usually too unique to be used as "model essays". Most of these candiates are best of the best students with tons of great experiences or personal accounts. I still enjoy reading through many of these essays and the pointers the book provides. However DO NOT expect to use these essays as model for your personal statements. This is not what this book is for.