Personal statement opinion

[Diablevert]

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Hi, I'm a french-canadian med student currently writing my personal statement. I'm applying to psychiatry in my own province, Quebec.

I'd like your honest opinion on something. I was voted the funniest person by my peers in my med school class and also back in the days in undergrad. Do you think it could have a place of any kind in a personal statement or it is unprofessional and irrelevant ? I personally think that having a good sense of humour and being appreciated by your colleagues mean something positive about your social skills and perosonality.

The mentality back here in French-Canada may be a little different, less formal maybe, but I don't think it makes a huge difference regarding my question and your input.

What do you think ?

Thank you for your answers and pardon my english which, believe it or not, I basically never use here in Quebec.

 

[splik]

As a comic genius myself, I cannot see how this has any relevance to your personal statement which should briefly articulate why you want to pursue a career in psychiatry, what you are looking for out of your training and possibly, what you see yourself doing in the future. If you won some sort of award for this it could go on your application.

Having a good sense of humor is important and you can bring this up in your interview or even tell a few jokes/stories. Even then you have to be careful, I certainly ended up saying somethings I shouldn't have in my interviews!

 

[peppy]

If I were you Id mention it in the context you did here, talking about how your sense of humor helps you connect with people (preferably with a clinically relevant example) but also be sure to make it clear you know when to be serious. I think that's the main concern: you don't want to give the impression you're too goofy or might make offensive jokes.
If you were applying to my program and I was reviewing your app, it would make me a little more likely to want to meet you since I look favorably on colleagues who can make things fun and amusing as long as they can be serious when the situation calls for it. At the interview I'm sure people will ask you to tell them a joke. 🙂 Just have to be careful not to go overboard with it or make any jokes that could be taken the wrong way. For me, this would neither seal the deal for an interview nor be a deal breaker though.

 

[twright]

Hi, I'm a french-canadian med student currently writing my personal statement. I'm applying to psychiatry in my own province, Quebec.

I'd like your honest opinion on something. I was voted the funniest person by my peers in my med school class and also back in the days in undergrad. Do you think it could have a place of any kind in a personal statement or it is unprofessional and irrelevant ? I personally think that having a good sense of humour and being appreciated by your colleagues mean something positive about your social skills and perosonality.

The mentality back here in French-Canada may be a little different, less formal maybe, but I don't think it makes a huge difference regarding my question and your input.

What do you think ?

Thank you for your answers and pardon my english which, believe it or not, I basically never use here in Quebec.

In your personal statement, you really need to accomplish only 2 things: (1) don't f*k it up, meaning don't make any typos, don't write anything unprofessional, don't write anything that shows poor judgment; and (2) tell me something, preferably memorable, that I can't figure out by looking at your CV, so that I am more inclined to be your advocate when it comes to rank time. Typically the latter might involve a personal story of some sort, such as one involving a patient, or your motivations for wanting to do psychiatry, etc.

With regards to your funniest person award, I don't think it is unprofessional.

But I do think that it is irrelevant, at best.

(And at worst, it falls under category #1 above, i.e., it shows that you think the award is more relevant than it actually is. At the program where I trained, I would give you 10:1 odds that any resident reviewer who read such a personal statement would go to the office next door and say "hey Claire, check this out. This applicant spent half the essay talking about how the funny woman award makes her suitable for our program. What the f*k? DNR for sure")

 

[Abider]

While I have the ear of the psychiatry humorist subcommunity: I have been wondering about the inverse question. Is there any way to get an accurate measure of the level of jokery going on at programs. Or is that more the luck of random assortment of your residency classmates.

Reason I ask is that some programs I'm interested in are very small. And I've noticed that when I can get a few laughs in on any given day I feel so much better. On my surgery team my buddy had me on the verge of tears, and the stress of surgical attendings and residents barking at us changed them into props for elaborate jokes. I had a great time despite the long hours and grouchy people. Now...my OB team is composed of humorless robots. And the days last forever.

So I began hoping my future psych class could at least help me get through the days of internship with a laugh or two. Not to the exclusion of good work of course, that goes without saying.

 

[twright]

While I have the ear of the psychiatry humorist subcommunity: I have been wondering about the inverse question. Is there any way to get an accurate measure of the level of jokery going on at programs. Or is that more the luck of random assortment of your residency classmates.

Reason I ask is that some programs I'm interested in are very small. And I've noticed that when I can get a few laughs in on any given day I feel so much better. On my surgery team my buddy had me on the verge of tears, and the stress of surgical attendings and residents barking at us changed them into props for elaborate jokes. I had a great time despite the long hours and grouchy people. Now...my OB team is composed of humorless robots. And the days last forever.

So I began hoping my future psych class could at least help me get through the days of internship with a laugh or two. Not to the exclusion of good work of course, that goes without saying.

It really is the luck of the draw in terms of who ends up matching with you in your class.

But what you can do is try to get a sense for the residents in the program as a whole, and this is probably your next best estimate. Go to the interview day, talk to residents, go to the pre- or post-interview day dinner or happy hour and knock back a few beers, etc.

And if you are trying to figure out how to ensure a good experience while you are on your medicine & neuro rotations, well, that pretty much has zero to do with the psychiatry residency program and everything to do with the medicine & neuro programs. You can try to adjust your preferences for the medicine & neuro training (e.g., "the medicine residents at Program XYZ are a bunch of humorless goons, so I think I will rank them #5"), but personally I think picking the right psychiatry training program is hard enough without also injecting that into the mix.

 

[st2205]

Even then you have to be careful, I certainly ended up saying somethings I shouldn't have in my interviews!

Do share...

 

[psychattending]

Hi, I'm a french-canadian med student currently writing my personal statement. I'm applying to psychiatry in my own province, Quebec.

I'd like your honest opinion on something. I was voted the funniest person by my peers in my med school class and also back in the days in undergrad. Do you think it could have a place of any kind in a personal statement or it is unprofessional and irrelevant ? I personally think that having a good sense of humour and being appreciated by your colleagues mean something positive about your social skills and perosonality.

The mentality back here in French-Canada may be a little different, less formal maybe, but I don't think it makes a huge difference regarding my question and your input.

What do you think ?

Thank you for your answers and pardon my english which, believe it or not, I basically never use here in Quebec.

As long as it makes sense in the context of explaining who you are and why you want to be a psychiatrist it should be fine.

 

[Abider]

It really is the luck of the draw in terms of who ends up matching with you in your class.

But what you can do is try to get a sense for the residents in the program as a whole, and this is probably your next best estimate. Go to the interview day, talk to residents, go to the pre- or post-interview day dinner or happy hour and knock back a few beers, etc.

And if you are trying to figure out how to ensure a good experience while you are on your medicine & neuro rotations, well, that pretty much has zero to do with the psychiatry residency program and everything to do with the medicine & neuro programs. You can try to adjust your preferences for the medicine & neuro training (e.g., "the medicine residents at Program XYZ are a bunch of humorless goons, so I think I will rank them #5"), but personally I think picking the right psychiatry training program is hard enough without also injecting that into the mix.

Yeah. Thanks. It's a low level criteria. But if like programs. Part of my gut level criteria is if I think I would like hanging out with these people. The same as it would be for them, I would think. The quickest way to inform my intuition on this is if people can laugh together.

 

[notdeadyet]

I'd like your honest opinion on something. I was voted the funniest person by my peers in my med school class and also back in the days in undergrad. Do you think it could have a place of any kind in a personal statement or it is unprofessional and irrelevant ? I personally think that having a good sense of humour and being appreciated by your colleagues mean something positive about your social skills and perosonality.

To be honest, mentioning you were voted funniest in your class in your personal statement (either in conjunction with or absence of a funny personal statement) would probably give me more of an Axis II whiff than the feeling of "Wow, I'd love to work with this ham!"

Thank you for your answers and pardon my english which, believe it or not, I basically never use here in Quebec.

Another reason to take care if you're trying to make jokes in your PS. Big risk in trying to be funny in a non-native tongue.

 

[Diablevert]

Thanks