Personal Statement

[demspawn]

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Hello to everyone

Any good advice regarding personal statements?
Any good ideas as far as 1st and last paregraph?
Any templates?

THank you.

D

 

[mdkurt]

I think the trap most applicants fall into is using their entire personal statement to prove why or how much they love ophthalmology. Maybe give a brief statement regarding why you got interested, but the personal statement is a chance for the programs to know you as a person. Describe your interests, what you do for fun, your family, pets, interesting trips you've taken, etc. If programs read your personal statement at all, it's to get a feel for whether or not they can work with you for three years.

 

[blackwell]

The CAS has a section for hobbies and interests. Do you think it would be repetitive to include that stuff in your personal statement?

Is anyone else out there feeling a bit overwhelmed? With SFmatch and ERAS
wanting different things. Oy.

 

[Jaded Soul]

Is anyone else out there feeling a bit overwhelmed? With SFmatch and ERAS wanting different things. Oy.

I didn't notice that ERAS wanted anything different from CAS. Between my CAS application and my CV, I had everything I needed for ERAS without writing anything new. The only thing I changed was a few sentences of my personal statement talking about what I was looking for in a PGY-1 program.

 

[n_a_t]

'first aid for the match,' 2nd edition, has excellent examples of personal statements, they also break them up by specialty. i don't know if a more recent edition exists.