Psych Residency Personal Statement

[psychphan]

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I wrote my personal statement a few weeks ago, and have been in the process of trying to cut it down to 1 page ever since. Using the ERAS margins/font, I went from over a page and a half to a page and approximately 5 lines. I've heard from a lot of people who have said keep the PS to 1 page, no ifs and or buts about it. I've also heard from some people that it doesn't really matter, particularly in psych, if the PS is longer as long as it is concise and to the point. So I wanted opinions from those who have been through the process, and/or people who currently are the ones reading incoming personal statements. Is it worth cutting out something I deem important and that helps the flow of the paper just to get it to under 1 page? Thanks in advance for the advice.

PS-I know this is talked about in other general forums but I was hoping for advice from those involved in Psych specifically.

 

[psychattending]

For me 1 page vs 1 page and 5 lines is no different. I would not worry about it.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

If you interest me in the first half, I'll read to the end anyway.
OTOH...

 

[jamesearlejones]

Mine was about the same length as yours when I applied to residency and it didn't cause me any problems.

 

[psychgeek1]

I don't think 1 page and 1 page 5 lines make a difference. Just have to make it interesting

 

[digitlnoize]

Would anyone (*cough* OPD *cough*) be willing to read mine and give me some feedback? If so, PM me your email and I'll send it over this weekend.

 

[psychphan]

Thanks for the response everyone.

I messaged you Digitl.

 

[psychphan]

So on the advice of a colleague, who said I didn't list enough specific examples, I added a short story about an interaction I had. I now have two versions of my PS; 1 thats just over a page without the specific pt story, and 1 that includes it and is almost but no quiet a 1.5 pages. Any thoughts on which one to submit?

 

[carlosc1dbz]

I wrote my personal statement a few weeks ago, and have been in the process of trying to cut it down to 1 page ever since. Using the ERAS margins/font, I went from over a page and a half to a page and approximately 5 lines. I've heard from a lot of people who have said keep the PS to 1 page, no ifs and or buts about it. I've also heard from some people that it doesn't really matter, particularly in psych, if the PS is longer as long as it is concise and to the point. So I wanted opinions from those who have been through the process, and/or people who currently are the ones reading incoming personal statements. Is it worth cutting out something I deem important and that helps the flow of the paper just to get it to under 1 page? Thanks in advance for the advice.

PS-I know this is talked about in other general forums but I was hoping for advice from those involved in Psych specifically.

Hello, I am also writing my personal statement. I have a one page personal statement. I need to get into a SoCal program for family reasons, so do you guys think that I should include a paragraph about my connection to SoCal. That could send me over the one page limit I set for myself. I am out of state and have been hearing it is kida hard to get into the programs there. Any input?

 

[carlosc1dbz]

So on the advice of a colleague, who said I didn't list enough specific examples, I added a short story about an interaction I had. I now have two versions of my PS; 1 thats just over a page without the specific pt story, and 1 that includes it and is almost but no quiet a 1.5 pages. Any thoughts on which one to submit?

I had some people tell me to include examples of patient interaction, and other tell me that including examples of patient interactions make the personal statement seem "too dramatized," and supposedly some PD dont like that. This is kinda scary. Let us know what you decide. I am still on the ropes on which version of my personal statement to include. I have 2 aswell. Good luck.

 

[pingouin]

I had some people tell me to include examples of patient interaction, and other tell me that including examples of patient interactions make the personal statement seem "too dramatized," and supposedly some PD dont like that. This is kinda scary. Let us know what you decide. I am still on the ropes on which version of my personal statement to include. I have 2 aswell. Good luck.

I didn't cite a specific patient interaction, rather went with some specific themes about what I enjoyed throughout my inpatient and outpatient experiences, and how I felt those things made psychiatry unique and a good fit for me. Mine's about 3/4 of a page. Obviously I can't tell you (yet) how that's worked out for me, but I've gotten positive feedback from my advisors about it.

 

[digitlnoize]

I had some people tell me to include examples of patient interaction, and other tell me that including examples of patient interactions make the personal statement seem "too dramatized," and supposedly some PD dont like that. This is kinda scary. Let us know what you decide. I am still on the ropes on which version of my personal statement to include. I have 2 aswell. Good luck.

I included on patient story, but it really illustrates my point well...everyone I've shown it to has liked it... :/

 

[billypilgrim37]

Just remember that the people reading these things are reading tons of applications and really just want to get a sense of you but still get home to see their kids before they go to bed or their dogs before they throw up in their cages. I've never read an entire personal statement. By the middle of the page, I get if you can write English, whether you're sentimental or trite, whether you're obnoxious, or whether you seem like a benign person I wouldn't mind having as a colleague. The vast majority of people are much closer to that last category than any of the others. I read the first paragraph, scan through the middle, and see what you have at the end. Sometimes I scan slower than others. It mostly just confirms my first impression from your picture, your CV (the thing I care the most about), your med school, and your Step scores.

(And to calm the storm on the last one, I generally see Step scores and think "you might fail Step 3," "you did good enough," "you did better than good enough," or "it goes that high?" Whichever number is bigger of step 1 and step 2, I generally figure that's the best indicator of how good you are at taking tests and figure the other one was just a lousy day. If your Step scores aren't consistent with the rest of your application, I ignore them all together. Like the applicant I had last year with stunning clinical and research track record and great clinical evals at a lousy med school with a bad step score--I still thought she was awesome and gave her a strong A. And a 242 hasn't kept me from thinking somebody was a total *****.)

The most important rule of being an applicant: Primum non douchere. Don't be a douche bag. If you can handle that, 90% of the rest is based on whatever else you've been doing, where you've been doing it, and what you want to do in the future.

 

[digitlnoize]

your CV (the thing I care the most about)

What do you look for in a good CV? I feel like mine is generally unimpressive. I have a family, I had a life and career before medical school, I was VP of a club, and volunteered for a couple of things, but generally I am pretty lame, aside from a wicked strong interest in psychiatry and solid, but average grades.

It's obviously too late to do anything about this now, but I'm just curious...what types of things make you think, "This CV is pretty awesome?"

The most important rule of being an applicant: Primum non douchere. Don't be a douche bag.

I totally should have taken latin. Best advice I've ever read on SDN, I think! 👍

 

[psychphan]

I had some people tell me to include examples of patient interaction, and other tell me that including examples of patient interactions make the personal statement seem "too dramatized," and supposedly some PD dont like that. This is kinda scary. Let us know what you decide. I am still on the ropes on which version of my personal statement to include. I have 2 aswell. Good luck.

I decided to go with my original one, no specific pt interactions (which I felt personally sounded kinda cheesy, even though it was a legit story about my first truly psychotic person which I found very interesting and will probably never forget, still sounded cheesy) which comes in just over 1 page (about half a paragraph, 7 extra lines) with the ERAS formatting.

 

[billypilgrim37]

What do you look for in a good CV? I feel like mine is generally unimpressive. I have a family, I had a life and career before medical school, I was VP of a club, and volunteered for a couple of things, but generally I am pretty lame, aside from a wicked strong interest in psychiatry and solid, but average grades.

It's obviously too late to do anything about this now, but I'm just curious...what types of things make you think, "This CV is pretty awesome?"

I totally should have taken latin. Best advice I've ever read on SDN, I think! 👍

If the CV just shows that the person has been thoughtful and interested in SOMETHING, that's basically what I'm getting at. For somebody who had a past life like you, I would be SHOCKED if there wasn't SOMETHING on there that would be pretty neat and interesting in a way that would make me think you'd be an interesting colleague with a valuable perspective. I just want some sense that psychiatry didn't come out of nowhere. For people that are older than 26 when they're graduating med school, it's probably not the hardest sell. Being involved with the arts, education, etc. There just has to be something that can get us going in an interview so you have an opportunity to just show that if I had to call you at 9PM when you were on call to go check on one of my patients because I just found out about an acute issue, that you would be able to be thoughtful, attentive, and creative in your ability to handle it.

I preface this all (well, I guess it's not a preface anymore...) that this is my personal approach to interviewing people. I'm sure there are people who are very different in their opinion. I'm also interviewing as a fellow resident, so my focus on collegiality and just being someone I could get along with (not somebody I have to like a ton or have a lot in common with, but somebody who I could share a patient list with under an attending and not need DBT by the end of the rotation) might be a bit inflated.