Ophtho personal statement reviewers...

[Eye-eye]

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For those ophthalmologists who review personal statements for their program: what are you looking to see in a personal statement? The general advice I hear is to include why you're interested in the specialty and why you'd be good at it. Any cliches to avoid on the former, or things that would make you think an applicant has a good handle on what the specialty is about? Any attributes that would make a candidate especially good for ophtho that you would want highlighted? On that one I'm mostly thinking about my sterotypes of ophthalmologists - good with their hands, eye for detail, visual people (no pun intended), etc, but would be very appreciative of an ophthalmologist's perspective.

I've also heard of people putting in a short final paragraph with hobbies/outside interests to show that you're a normal person and give the interviewer fodder for the interview. Not sure how I feel about it, especially as I feel like it would be very out of place in most personal statements. Advice very much appreciated!

Thank you!

 

[TheLesPaul]

None of them really stick out unless it is in a bad way, e.g., misspelling ophthalmology.

 

[Newyawk]

Nobody brought my PS up once. I doubt they even read it in any meaningful way.

 

[idkididk]

The format I went with was intro, how I got interested in it via work experience, how I continued to pursue ophtho in med school, hobby #1, hobby #2, conclusion. I made sure to tie my hobbies into desirable skills a resident would have. n=1 but my hobbies and ophtho-related work experience got brought up a bunch during interviews

 

[Eye-eye]

Thank you! This should definitely help when trying to write my PS.

 

[Fascia Lata]

I think what annoys me the most is the statement: ophthalmology combines both medicine and surgery. Come on. Sounds so cliche. We all know that ophthalmology is in many respects a specialty that will detach you from medicine (I am aware of the exceptions)

 

[Doc320]

I think what annoys me the most is the statement: ophthalmology combines both medicine and surgery. Come on. Sounds so cliche. We all know that ophthalmology is in many respects a specialty that will detach you from medicine (I am aware of the exceptions)

Ophthalmology is increasingly becoming like internal medicine and like a cream puff. Unlike surgery, quite a few programs have one chief resident, not a chief resident year. On the other hand, general surgery programs have the final year where all the residents are chief residents. Ophthalmology is also getting rid of the transitional year. With the transitional year, it was possible to do a year of internal medicine or a year of general surgery. General surgery, depending on the program, is potentially better.

Actually, if I could design my own internship year, I would lean heavily towards general surgery but certainly not exclusively. Perhaps a month of SICU, 2 months of general surgery, month of ENT, month of burn surgery, month of dermatology, month of radiology, month of ER. month of rheumatology, three months of ophthalmology.