Personal Statement

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
GuP

GuP

Senior Member
Verified Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
719
Reaction score
1
Members don't see this ad.
I am having a real hard time writing my PS. Can anyone give comments on how to approach this daunting task? It would be cool to hear from people who have gotten comments that their PS was different - what did you guys write about?
 
depends on ur field. mine isnt known to be uptight, so i started mine with a short story describing something i saw in a clinical setting that demonstrates what i like about the field im going into.

then i address: why i want to go into the field (can throw in extracurriculars that support his) and why i have the skills to be good for it (using extracurriculars/experience to demonstrate this--ie i improved my abilities to blah blah blah at xyz activity).
 
I unfortunately lost my father during medical school. Through this I learned more about medicine than I would ever wish on anyone. I basically described how this affected me.

I think what struck PD's and interviewers was more of my honesty and passion through which I conveyed my experience. It wasn't really a "my dad died and now I am going to spend the rest of my life saving him or preventing others frmo experiencing the same thing". It was more that my experience on the other side of the bed has given me a very humanistiv perspective.

I really feel that my personal statement was key in helping me stand out and get interviews at some prestigious places. I would pour your heart into it.

I also had a few cohorts that really helped me pick apart each and every sentence making sure it was concise and expressive.
Good luck!
 
I can't recall the website off hand... I'm sure someone out there can help me remember it... Anyway, it gives PS examples for EVERY specialty good and bad, so you can get ideas. The best part is you can submit it for a donation dollar value of your choice and they will give you revision suggestions. I used the site and have gotten many compliments on my PS from interviewers (and i"m not the world's best writer). Can someone help me with the website??
 
CJamblooze said:
I unfortunately lost my father during medical school. Through this I learned more about medicine than I would ever wish on anyone. I basically described how this affected me.

I think what struck PD's and interviewers was more of my honesty and passion through which I conveyed my experience. It wasn't really a "my dad died and now I am going to spend the rest of my life saving him or preventing others frmo experiencing the same thing". It was more that my experience on the other side of the bed has given me a very humanistiv perspective.

I really feel that my personal statement was key in helping me stand out and get interviews at some prestigious places. I would pour your heart into it.

I also had a few cohorts that really helped me pick apart each and every sentence making sure it was concise and expressive.
Good luck!
Click to expand...


Sorry to hear about your dad.
 
TUCOMSam said:
I can't recall the website off hand... I'm sure someone out there can help me remember it... Anyway, it gives PS examples for EVERY specialty good and bad, so you can get ideas. The best part is you can submit it for a donation dollar value of your choice and they will give you revision suggestions. I used the site and have gotten many compliments on my PS from interviewers (and i"m not the world's best writer). Can someone help me with the website??
Click to expand...

www.medfools.com
 
who are you that you're writing a personal statement now? don't tell me that it's for next year.... that's just a little over eager.... 🙂
 
Agreed with above... probably early, but optho is competitive so who knows. The PS changes with each field, and I imagine for something like optho you have to come up with something substantitive of why you want to enter the field without mentioning good lifestyle/money. Try the optho specific forum and do google searches of sample PS. As a general rule be honest and stay the heck away from hackneyed cliche stories- not at all counting the above post, sincerely sorry about your father- but don't put the same drivel that they'll read 1000 times over unless you come up with a new way to say it.
 
There is a book by Jim Tysinger about writing resumes and personal statements for health care professionals. It helped me a good deal and I received compliments on "how literary" my PS was throughout the interview season. I started with the story of the first time I caught a baby (which isn't your typical I love ob story since it was a terrible outcome). His book has info on what they are looking for in each specialty.
Good luck.
 
I sweated & toiled over my personal statement. However, I've been told multiple times that, in the end, your personal statement can really only hurt you..it seldom will help you. I wanted to blow them away with my personal statement. I think I wrote a damn good one. But it has not come up one time in interviews and I believe it was probably "skimmed" a few times during this whole process..but that's probaby about it 😡 . If the rest of your application is solid..it's going to be LOR's and the interview that get you in. Just don't turn in a piece of paper that you wiped your butt with. Beyond that, my feeling is all personal statements are pretty worthless.
 
GuP said:
Is that tysinger book worth the purchase?
Click to expand...

Check in your school's library - that's where I got it. (But he's faculty at my school, so it may not be as accessible everywhere). It's probably the only time I would ever use it, but it gave me a place to start with and after reading enough of them - about 1/2 the book is examples of CVs and PSs - I felt okay with mine.
 
try to write about your 'a ha!' moment where you realized this is what rings true in your heart. also i would say write from your heart- this can be the only way things may not come out sounding hokey and trite. at least if you are asked about it during an interview, you can respond honestly and passionately...a lot of times they just want to know if you truly are impassioned by your specialty. also if you have done something(s) that sticks out in your life, even if not related to medicine, mention it. it will help them to remember you and separate u from one of the many. after all, they will have to work with you very closely for however many years optho is so they want to know that you would be a good colleague....:luck:
 
Although I can't tell you WHAT to write, I can tell you WHAT NOT to write.

95+% of personal statements (in IM, which is my field), fall into the following categories:

1. Why I want to do IM -- usually either for longitudinal patient care, complex patient management, or puzzle solving.
2. My own / family member's / friend's medical illness
3. Let me rehash my CV for you -- first I was the kindergartener of the year, then....
4. What I'm looking for in a program.

In addition, virtually 100% of PS's talk about a patient, even though it really has nothing to do with the PS in the first place. Apparently it has become dogma that your PS has to have a case in it, a quote, or both.

There is nothing wrong with these PS's. They just get boring to read, and don't stand out. I would suggest that you consider writing about something different. Write about something you love to do. Write about something non medical. Tell me something about yourself that's not in your application.

To be fair, this may not be great advice for the more conservative specialties.
 
aProgDirector said:
Although I can't tell you WHAT to write, I can tell you WHAT NOT to write.

95+% of personal statements (in IM, which is my field), fall into the following categories:

1. Why I want to do IM -- usually either for longitudinal patient care, complex patient management, or puzzle solving.
2. My own / family member's / friend's medical illness
3. Let me rehash my CV for you -- first I was the kindergartener of the year, then....
4. What I'm looking for in a program.

In addition, virtually 100% of PS's talk about a patient, even though it really has nothing to do with the PS in the first place. Apparently it has become dogma that your PS has to have a case in it, a quote, or both.

There is nothing wrong with these PS's. They just get boring to read, and don't stand out. I would suggest that you consider writing about something different. Write about something you love to do. Write about something non medical. Tell me something about yourself that's not in your application.

To be fair, this may not be great advice for the more conservative specialties.
Click to expand...

I'm a ways off yet from this step, but:

Sooo, its not a bad idea to not discuss medicine? Is there another place in the application to bring this up? PDs are not necessarily expecting or wanting "Why I Want This Specialty: an Essay by a Med Student"? I'm sure those do get boring! You mentioned that this might not be a good idea for all specialties. How can you decide if it is ok to take this approach?

Oh yeah, I was wondering: are program directors themselves physicians? What is their general background?

Thanks!
 
aProgDirector said:
Although I can't tell you WHAT to write, I can tell you WHAT NOT to write.

95+% of personal statements (in IM, which is my field), fall into the following categories:

1. Why I want to do IM -- usually either for longitudinal patient care, complex patient management, or puzzle solving.
2. My own / family member's / friend's medical illness
3. Let me rehash my CV for you -- first I was the kindergartener of the year, then....
4. What I'm looking for in a program.

In addition, virtually 100% of PS's talk about a patient, even though it really has nothing to do with the PS in the first place. Apparently it has become dogma that your PS has to have a case in it, a quote, or both.

There is nothing wrong with these PS's. They just get boring to read, and don't stand out. I would suggest that you consider writing about something different. Write about something you love to do. Write about something non medical. Tell me something about yourself that's not in your application.

To be fair, this may not be great advice for the more conservative specialties.
Click to expand...


Sorry Sith Lord... I have to disagree with you.... You may be experienced and bored to death but to be honest... there are many evil Sith Lords out there (I am not claiming you are not evil!) and they are looking for many reasons to reject someone, including a PS that doesnt fall within the standard 4 catagories you listed.... Better safe than sorry...

But...

I like the idea of going crazy with PS... I think I would do it to one or two programs i didnt care about just to see their reaction... who knows... maybe it will work on them.... but otherwise.. this is a life career breaking decision and risking it with a out of normal PS is dangerous by my assessment (other adrenaline junkies or people with insane USMLE scores may find it okay to do it...)
 
I applied to general surgery, one of the more "conservative" fields--not sure where ophtho falls into this. I was advised over and over by surgeons NOT to include a quote, story, or any of the other drivel that the PD above listed; in fact not one surgeon said to include anything "creative" like that. I was also advised that the shorter the better: a long statement is going to make someone who has already read 100's of these's eyes glaze over. A short PS is going to capture their eyes off the bat and make them more likely to read it rather than skim over it.

Here is a basic format I found helpful:
Paragraph 1: why you want to do XYZ specialty (Literally, the first sentence in my PS is "My interest in surgery developed.....no story, nothing. Also, if you are coming to medicine from a previous career, absolutely address that here)
Paragraph 2: why you will be a good XYZ resident (skills, experience, etc.)
Paragraph 3: what are you looking for in a residency program
Paragraph 4: where do you see your career going (academics, sub-specialty, etc.)
A very short paragraph summing everything up at the end if ok. Sit down and individually answer these four questions, then try to put it together in a cohesive, brief statement.

I kept it to one page, and for one program I had to limit my PS to 500 words, so I had to cut it a little more for that one. It was straightforward, honest, not flashy, not tearjerking. However, I got A LOT of compliments on it throughout the interview process. At practically every program I could see that at least one interviewer had underlined or highlighted something in my PS. (Which I was really surprised about...I honestly, like a previous poster said, though the PS didn't matter)

More than one interviewer (who liked my PS) told me that they read the PS not to garner what it says, but to gauge how good of a writer the applicant is. Does it flow or does it jump around? Grammer? Spelling? Will this person be able to write a grant, case report, journal article in the future? Will this person be able to put together a good lecture and be a good teacher?

Hope this helps!
 
My personal statement was for FM and I started it with a patient story and then went on to talk about what in the story illustrated why I would be a good FM doctor. I then went on to say what I was looking for in a residency program.

My personal statement got a lot of compliments. I think ths anecdote is key, it grabs attention, and when it reads like a story it is a lot less painful to read.

If it's just a resume', then it's just boring. That's my opinion.
 
aProgDirector said:
Although I can't tell you WHAT to write, I can tell you WHAT NOT to write.

95+% of personal statements (in IM, which is my field), fall into the following categories:

1. Why I want to do IM -- usually either for longitudinal patient care, complex patient management, or puzzle solving.
2. My own / family member's / friend's medical illness
3. Let me rehash my CV for you -- first I was the kindergartener of the year, then....
4. What I'm looking for in a program.

In addition, virtually 100% of PS's talk about a patient, even though it really has nothing to do with the PS in the first place. Apparently it has become dogma that your PS has to have a case in it, a quote, or both.

There is nothing wrong with these PS's. They just get boring to read, and don't stand out. I would suggest that you consider writing about something different. Write about something you love to do. Write about something non medical. Tell me something about yourself that's not in your application.

To be fair, this may not be great advice for the more conservative specialties.
Click to expand...

This is the route I took almost exactly. I couldn't really think of an exciting patient story, and I didn't think anyone in my specialty would care to begin with. I talked about a hobby of mine that made me stand out from the 100's of other applicants and how, in a crazy way, it perfectly related to the field of my choice. Got TONS of comments from interviewers about the PS that were all positive. So I agree with the Sith Lord and say it doesn't have to be all about medicine. I did mention some of the points he says to avoid, but they were the serious minority of my PS. Come up with an interesting theme and go with it. I can't believe that a PS gets anyone a residency, and I dare say that most would even remember them come ROL time.
 
Thanks for all the advice guys.

Duckie - if you don't mind sharing, what hobby did you tie to medicine?
 
what we really need to do is share our personal statements so everyone else can benefit. this is THE perfect place to share those. we need to get the SDN site administrators to set up a sticky with individualized specialty links so we can all post our personal statements and maybe even write a little about the comments we received on the interview trail. what do you all think?
 
As a third year FM resident, I tell students to artculate what they think their job is as a physician. For instance, in general terms, if you think your job is to fix people and get them 100% better, then some fields, like Family Med or Psychaitry, maybe are not for you, and coversely you would be a good fit for others, like perhaps surgical specialties. To me, this would be useful info for a PD, and can be accomplished without rehashing the cliches pointed out earlier.

And when you start getting burned out, its nice to be able to go back to your personal statement and remind yourself what you are actually trying to accomplish. I often do have to remind myself, for instance, that I don't think its my job to get every diabetics A1c value less than 7 or every alcohol abuser away from the bottle, rather its my job to give them the tools and information necessary to help them help themselves.
 
dc2md said:
what we really need to do is share our personal statements so everyone else can benefit. this is THE perfect place to share those. we need to get the SDN site administrators to set up a sticky with individualized specialty links so we can all post our personal statements and maybe even write a little about the comments we received on the interview trail. what do you all think?
Click to expand...

If you post your personal statement, someone else may thinks it sounds good and use parts of it in their own personal statement. If discovered, you may both be removed from ERAS for plagiarism, as it would be hard to prove whom copied whom.

So, overall, I would not suggest this. Get advice from your friends, mentors, and people you trust.
 
I was just like you with my personal statement - worrying about it months longer than I needed to. When it came down to it and I got into "get things done" mode, it only took me a month to write, revise, and have a final product that wouldn't embarrass me if it was brought up for discussion.

One thing that helped me alot was finding someone on here that seemed to have similar interests, and PMing that person about critiquing eachother's statements. This was good, because I didn't know her and she didn't know me, so the situation of reading eachother's statements was similar to a faculty member who doesn't know us reading our statement and forming an impression - except in this circumstance, I got to ask what that impression was, what they felt was missing, as well as ways to make the essay flow better. It worked out great, and we both were happy with our PSs when they were finished, and both received lots of compliments on them at our interviews.

My PS talked about why I chose Family Medicine, why I think I'll be a good family medicine doc, my future practice goals, and what I am looking for in a residency.

It also talked about toads and Taco Bell. I had alot of people greet me by saying that they thought my personal statement was funny and they were looking forward to meeting me. Maybe they say things like that to everybody, but it made me a little more relaxed on a stressful day.

I did not include a case, mostly because it didn't fit with the theme, and because I have been out for two years and didn't want to give a lead for the interview to turn into a "Let's pimp Doc Oc" session.

Just try not to shoot yourself in the foot with it and you'll be fine 🙂
 
Doc Oc said:
One thing that helped me alot was finding someone on here that seemed to have similar interests, and PMing that person about critiquing eachother's statements. This was good, because I didn't know her and she didn't know me, so the situation of reading eachother's statements was similar to a faculty member who doesn't know us reading our statement and forming an impression - except in this circumstance, I got to ask what that impression was, what they felt was missing, as well as ways to make the essay flow better. It worked out great, and we both were happy with our PSs when they were finished, and both received lots of compliments on them at our interviews.
Click to expand...

That's right, girlfriend! And we both matched our #1, I might add....😉

(I still think yours was better, though!)

It's not just a matter of having a lot of people read it--choose people who are either at the other end of what you want or trying to attain it as well (unless you are vying for the same spot,then they might give you bad advice on purpose! :scared: ).
 
Anyone know where neurology sits on the spectrum of conservative/non-conservative for appreciating creative personal statements?
 
This may be a silly question, but...

How do you write a statement that addresses all the programs you are interested in applying to? Many of the programs I am interested want information specifically addressing why you are interested in their program.

Do people 'hedge their bets' and write generic statements? Or do applicants write two; a generic PS and a separate one for the program?

Thanks. 🙂
 
Most write generic PS...it would be a bit ridiculous to write 30 different PS.

Some might write a few tailored to specific programs but those tend to be in the case of applying to two different specialties rather than programs.
 
The other option is to write a generic statement - but then tailor a few lines to programs you are very interested in. ie I love your program because of this unique characteristic which fits so well with my interests... Just be VERY careful that you've assigned your PS correctly. I only did this for a couple programs though.
 
Shalom77 said:
The other option is to write a generic statement - but then tailor a few lines to programs you are very interested in. ie I love your program because of this unique characteristic which fits so well with my interests... Just be VERY careful that you've assigned your PS correctly. I only did this for a couple programs though.
Click to expand...

We can do this? Send different PS to different programs? Without consequences?


Thanks.
 
Find an nice attendin gin your field, perhaps one that wrote you a letter ofrec. ask if he/she would be willing to read and comment on a few of your drafts.

My attending/editor basically told me to throw away my first draft and he was right. In fact everythng he said in regards to PS was dead on. He pointed me to an autobigrahical essay by Steve Martin teh comedian in the New Yorker and said "this is how you shouldl write a PS statement" and from there everything clicked.
 
minstral said:
Find an nice attendin gin your field, perhaps one that wrote you a letter ofrec. ask if he/she would be willing to read and comment on a few of your drafts.

My attending/editor basically told me to throw away my first draft and he was right. In fact everythng he said in regards to PS was dead on. He pointed me to an autobigrahical essay by Steve Martin teh comedian in the New Yorker and said "this is how you shouldl write a PS statement" and from there everything clicked.
Click to expand...
Do you remember the name of that article? I'd be interested in taking a look at it.
 
It was the october edition on The New Yorker around Halloween and had a jack-o-lantern on it. dont recall the exact date.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

BuildingMyOwnLuck
Can Programs See That a Personal Statement was Updated After Certification but Before They're Sent Out?
Replies
1
Views
1K
NotAProgDirector
NotAProgDirector
L
ERAS Personal Statement 1-Page Rule
Replies
2
Views
2K
GoSpursGo
GoSpursGo
A
Edited personal statement - what notification do PDs see?
Replies
1
Views
1K
GoSpursGo
GoSpursGo
D
Found a typo in my personal statement and corrected it within one hour of the personal statements being available to programs. How will this affect me
Replies
5
Views
4K
gutonc
gutonc
B
Personal statement editing in ERAS
Replies
3
Views
8K
mvenus929
mvenus929
Top