Personal statement - advice, dos and dont's

Started by nope80
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nope80

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Advice specific to cardiology? Do's and don'ts?

I've written many personal statements in the past and am finding this to be the most challenging for multiple reasons. Anyone else in the same boat?
 
There is nothing I love more than seeing people get worked up over their missives not being answered in <24 hours.

To answer your question though, no, my personal statement for fellowship was super easy. It was basically the same as the one I wrote for residency without all the touchy-feely, "I love people and want to help them" IM bulls**t I was obliged to use in the first one.
 
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How do people feel about using stories that inspired them to go into their field, as an intro for example. Is that too touchy feely for fellowship? Should I cut that out and just get straight to the point in a somewhat dry and conservative way?
 
nope80 said:
How do people feel about using stories that inspired them to go into their field, as an intro for example. Is that too touchy feely for fellowship? Should I cut that out and just get straight to the point in a somewhat dry and conservative way?
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It's dull and hackneyed...but about 85% of people applying for fellowship will do the same thing, so go for it. (The other 15% don't speak English very well so it's hard to say what they're getting at in their PS.)
 
nope80 said:
Advice specific to cardiology? Do's and don'ts?

I've written many personal statements in the past and am finding this to be the most challenging for multiple reasons. Anyone else in the same boat?
Click to expand...

I have been reviewing applications for 2 years now.. i use it as a document that I usually scan in 20 seconds or so. It gives me a rough idea what you wish to do in cardiology (knowing that plans change for most people, and I understand). As long as you are able to write without glaring grammatical errors, and don't come across as a psychopath you will be fine. And please don't write >3-4 paragraphs, and no cheesy quotes like "A journey of a thousand miles.. " or how you felt when you held a heart for the first time in pathology class.

We dont use the personal statement to decide position on rank list (unless you cant write). However we do use their stated interest in cardiology to make our final rank list. For example we dont want to rank all imagers or all EP in our top 10 in a year.
 
Thanks for all the great advice. I think I want to just do general cards-is it ok to just write that?? I may wanna do echo in the future but I really don't know. Is it better to say one or the other even if I'm not sure?
 
nope80 said:
Thanks for all the great advice. I think I want to just do general cards-is it ok to just write that?? I may wanna do echo in the future but I really don't know. Is it better to say one or the other even if I'm not sure?
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It's fair to say that you are currently considering echo, but you're still open. It's understood that, given the broader exposure during training, many fellows will change their sub-sub interests.
 
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