You Are Not Cheating

In the business of ghostwriting, time and again - let's face it - more often than not, clients feel guilty about using a service to get help in writing, be it a resume, statement of purpose, or application responses. To date, I have aided almost 500, mostly, international medical graduates, students of many nations, get into the universities and or medical residency programs of their choice. And it is perfectly legal. Let me tell you a brief story: Hilary Clinton was on Larry King Live, toting her new New York Times Bestselling book. Larry asked her, "Did you get any help writing your book?", to which Clinton responded, "I got a lot of help." No one batted an eye. Where is the difference? On a legal level, if you apply to a university, you obviously have not been accepted yet. If you have not been accepted yet, then you cannot be in violation of any of their codes. Getting online writing help is not a crime. What is more, I feel very strongly about international graduates coming to the U.S., especially international medical graduates. Many of these people are highly-skilled doctors, nurses, dentists, social workers and more in their own countries. When they come to the U.S., they have to basically go back to school again. The first hurdle: string 300 to 600 words together in a statement of purpose. This is not testing their medical skills, it is an exercise, one that I find to be unfair. What I do is level the playing field for them, help them get into the programs of their choice. And why? These people are passionate about their work, about selflessly helping others. And this is from experience: most - almost 100% - international students feel more strongly about giving back to their communities than U.S. applicants. This is why I do it. For them. For their communities. I'm not a doctor, and I never will be. These are good people, who need a helping hand to get to where they need and should be. I help them get there.

Medical Residency - Presidential Advice!

Presidential Advice for Medical Residency Applicants:

The President of the NRMP took time from his busy schedule to give you his unique insights into what makes a good personal statement for Medical Residency applicants:

Arthur Maron M.D. was President of the NRMP from 1998-99. Please note his words:

“A good personal statement will not guarantee a residency, but a poor one will certainly lose the position.”

1) Grammar, typos, spelling mistakes or instances of obvious stylistic awkwardness are fatal. The MUA staff does not have time to correct your grammar; get several proof readers.

2 Limit is 1 page: training directors read hundreds of statements. Be concise. (We realize that the statement is ultimately put into a format generated by ERAS and not uploaded as a Microsoft word document; however, the document should be one page with normal formatting in Microsoft Word, such as size twelve (12) Times New Roman font.)

3) The first paragraph should clearly focus on your choice of a residency in a medical specialty. It is recommended that you do not use detailed case examples in this particular paragraph, nor open with questions or quotes.

4) Do be confident and dedicated, but also humble and sincere. Definitely make your statement personalized so that it avoids appearing like a “boiler plate,” or generic statement.

5) The statement should reflect your in-depth knowledge of the medical specialty- its philosophy of patient care, the knowledge base and skills needed, contemporary issues and innovations in the specialty, etc.

6) Do talk about your core and elective clerkships- any unusual procedures, presentations or research projects- especially those that relate to your choice of a residency.

7) Do not write the same general statement that you wrote to get into medical school. Example: “Since I was a child I wanted to be a doctor,” “My grandfather was my role model,” “I excelled in sciences so therefore I decided to become a doctor,” etc.

8) Do not tell your life story; it’s on your C.V. Your prior career is not the focus, even if it was in the medical field.

Quite possibly the best help available online: MyStatementofPurpose