Personal Statement Advice from the experienced...

[hemoccult]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Let me preface this post by stating that I have spoken with numerous advisors/mentors, residents, medical students who have given me no real concrete advice regarding personal statements for residency applications. Clearly, by the very nature of the title "personal statement," it is intended to be personal and unique to each individual.

My question lies in the fact that I do not want to include superfluous information, or omit any necessary facts or explanations that would cause a program director to think less of the personal statement (...if they even read it at all ).

Is it puerile to include reasoning behind choosing surgery as a specialty even if it is not some life-altering or mind-blowing event that ultimately resulted in such a selection? Should you include the type of program you desire, your goals for training and future employment and/or fellowship if known? How about the length? Should it be "surgery H&P" style or should you go all out into the "internal medicine ask every question and consider every differential diagnosis until you find something better to do with your time" style?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, especially from the battle-tested veterans of the match. I know this is a busy time of year with the changing of the guards taking place, but any assistance would be excellent!

Thanks, and best of luck to the new class of interns.
As a fun parting quote from a recent pt interaction, "Do you have any medical problems such as HTN, ...?" "No, I don't have high blood pressure, I take medicine every day to take care of that."

Peace out.

 

[ArrogantSurgeon]

Basically from what I've been told is that your personal statement should be written as if you are talking directly to the PD and explaining why he/she should take you over other applicants. This does not mean rehashing your numbers (which they already know about even before reading your personal statement) or creating a "laundry list" of achievements that may already appears on your application. In other words, ask yourself the question "If I was a PD what would I be looking for in an applicant".

And the thing I've heard over and over is never make the personal statement all mushy and pandering to emotions...because most PDs will just go 🙄

It is definetly OK to discuss your intended fellowship in a subspecialty if you are thinking about one...especially if you've done research in med school related to that subspecialty.

Discussing future employment positions can help or hurt you depending on how you go about it. If you say that you want to practice surgery in some rural town, then that might not go over too well if you're applying to Mass General or other major academic programs. Likewise, if you say you want to be an academic surgeon doing cutting-edge research, then that won't go over too well if your applying to a small community program.

 

[Skylizard]

Originally posted by hemoccult
...I have spoken with numerous advisors/mentors, residents, medical students who have given me no real concrete advice regarding personal statements for residency applications...

One of the things my med-school did was have the Department of surgery/PD/faculty review & proofread the PS and give feedback on what they looked for and what they thought was missing or innappropriately present in my PS. Check with your department of surgery and see if they might be willing to provide a similar service.