My advice for writing residency personal statements

[PerioDont]

With the application process coming up quickly, I just wanted to share some brief thoughts on writing your personal statements. This is the process I used, and I found it to be very helpful. I had many interviewers comment on how great my PS was.

Brain dump daily. This should involve roughly 20 minutes of closed-eyes typing. Your eyes may or may not actually be closed depending on your preference (I actually close mine), but the concept is that you're not reading what you type. You're just typing and not worrying about what it says or making it right. It's just raw thoughts for you to look at later.

Topics should include:
-who am I: things about your upbringing/culture/family that have made you who you are
-work style/learning style -short term and long term goals: personally and professionally
-any notable personal struggles you've worked through and their life lessons
-strengths and weaknesses of yours
-things you've learned from particular mentors that were turning points in your life
-how was dental school: what did you learn? What did you like? What didn't you like?
-Why are you applying to what you're applying for?
-How does the thing you're applying for fit into your short term and long term goals?
-What do you know about the field you're applying for?
-What kind of person is ideally suited for that? Is this you or is there a reason why you'll be successful even if you don't fit the mold? These all fit the broad category of "Who are you and why are you writing this essay."

Each day pick a handful of the above topics and brain dump. Each day new dated document, no looking at the old ones. Then after about a week or 10 days, literally print all of them. Physically cut each paragraph out and put them in a big pile in front of you on an empty floor. Mix them all up. Then pick up a paragraph and read it. Start a pile with the general category into which that paragraph falls. After a while you'll find some general themes that keep popping up. Put those paragraphs together. Then you'll find you have all this content for each of these themes and you can staple or tape those raw paragraphs together and have them in front of you as you write your "Who am I" paragraph for your actual first draft, the one where you get to look at the screen and make nice sentences with flow and structure. Repeat for all other meaningful themes you want to draft out.

The process from first brain dump to first reasonable draft is at least 10 days, but usually 2 weeks. The first draft is usually more than double the appropriate length. You'll have things in it that are important to you, but you haven't figured out how to say succinctly or whether you need to actually include an explanation or just a tonal coloring of the rest of your essay. Over the 2 weeks that follow that, it should be condensing things into tighter packages and by about a month in, you'll have a reasonable draft that looks very little like your first draft.

That's my brief thoughts on the whole process of drafting a PS! I know it is a lengthy and somewhat stressful process. happy to answer any questions about the application process as well.

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[easylaro]

TL; DR

 

[Ortho-ftd]

That's amazing!
Thanks for sharing

 

[Ivy.ch]

Excellent post @PerioDont , one more piece of advice to applicants...

SHOW them your personality, DON’T TELL them. Don’t say you’re hard working or fun or dedicated or special. Write a story and make those traits obvious. This is not a persuasive essay. Make it a unique story. A quirky job or a weird sport or something like that. It should be something no one else can say. I wrote about my 7 years in a unique job because I knew no one else applying would have that experience. A friend of mine wrote about being a freelance makeup artist. Another wrote about being the singer in a rock band. Another wrote about his relationship living with Nona and the Italian-American community. After reading them, you got a hint about their personality - they never had to write “my time as a freelancer meant I had to be time efficient” or “my ncaa career required dedication”. Yuck, no ones wants to read banalities like that. A good statement will SHOW them those things without needing to TELL them.

 

[PerioDont]

Excellent post @PerioDont , one more piece of advice to applicants...

SHOW them your personality, DON’T TELL them. Don’t say you’re hard working or fun or dedicated or special. Write a story and make those traits obvious. This is not a persuasive essay. Make it a unique story. A quirky job or a weird sport or something like that. It should be something no one else can say. I wrote about my 7 years in a unique job because I knew no one else applying would have that experience. A friend of mine wrote about being a freelance makeup artist. Another wrote about being the singer in a rock band. Another wrote about his relationship living with Nona and the Italian-American community. After reading them, you got a hint about their personality - they never had to write “my time as a freelancer meant I had to be time efficient” or “my ncaa career required dedication”. Yuck, no ones wants to read banalities like that. A good statement will SHOW them those things without needing to TELL them.

Great point! after reviewing dozens of statements, this is probably the single most blatant error I see.

Stories are necessary in 100% of personal statements.

 

[Blueshirts]

10/10 advice on this thread

 

[setdoc7]

Two comments. Although strengths and weaknesses are common interview questions, I would not put forth too much in the weakness area on a written statement, as it may be read by several reviewers and cannot be taken back. As for personal struggles, again I would not go too far into this. The purpose of the PS is to present yourself in the best light possible, as it is the first introduction of your application to those who will eventually decide if you should be interviewed.
Here are some points you may want to emphasize:
Conscientiousness: deemed in many psych studies as the front runner in predicting success
Openness: Willing to embrace new concepts and ideas
Agreeableness: speaks for itself

If you are applying for post grad specialty, mention of interest in board certification is almost required.

There are lots of other things, but this is a start. Writing an anecdotal story of how you helped a patient is not necessary. That's our job.

 

[PerioDont]

Two comments. Although strengths and weaknesses are common interview questions, I would not put forth too much in the weakness area on a written statement, as it may be read by several reviewers and cannot be taken back. As for personal struggles, again I would not go too far into this. The purpose of the PS is to present yourself in the best light possible, as it is the first introduction of your application to those who will eventually decide if you should be interviewed.
Here are some points you may want to emphasize:
Conscientiousness: deemed in many psych studies as the front runner in predicting success
Openness: Willing to embrace new concepts and ideas
Agreeableness: speaks for itself

If you are applying for post grad specialty, mention of interest in board certification is almost required.

There are lots of other things, but this is a start. Writing an anecdotal story of how you helped a patient is not necessary. That's our job.

Interesting. I never heard mentioned board certification in my PS though I am planning to get board certified. I guess I thought the program just assumed most people would want to be.

Why do you think it is important to specifically highlight?

I also agree - when I put strengths/weaknesses, it should be showing how you overcame a weakness if you mention it and the same for any personal struggles. should be stories of how you overcame then and what you learned from it.

I think that anecdotes are important, but agree it doesn't have to necessarily be of a patient.

 

[setdoc7]

Board certification as a goal is not for everyone, but may be very important to a PD who wants to show off their resident's high in service scores at national meetings to other PD's. If your PD is a board examiner, it is also clearly important to them.
You missed my point about weaknesses and struggles. Delete them. Focus on strengths. PD's want to admit stars. Diminishing your glow diminishes your chances. As with all things in life, the PD is thinking "Why take any chances?'.

 

[nade0016]

Please, please, please do not make them more than one page! From a PD perspective I stop reading after 1 page nearly very time. Have a hook to keep my interest and tell me who you are.

 

[cmjacks5]

Please, please, please do not make them more than one page! From a PD perspective I stop reading after 1 page nearly very time. Have a hook to keep my interest and tell me who you are.

This!!!!! Say it again lol..