Residency Personal Statement

[Foot_Girl]

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What should I include in my personal statement? Should it be purely about my growth and qualities about myself, my interests in podiatry, or should I include accomplishments and academics sprinkled in? Should I keep it between 1-2 pages? What's the hallmark of a good personal statement? Thanks in advance!

 

[Sweatshirt]

Just keep it simple, don't overthink it. I edited my podiatry school personal statement and made it slightly more applicable to residency/future practice. 1 page is fine. Whoever reads it will likely just read over it once and forget about it instantly. Your personal statement won't get you a residency spot, but it can negatively affect you if you have bad grammar, incohesive thoughts, or talk about too much non podiatry things

 

[heybrother]

The above is good. My PD unfortunately sometimes used the statement as a way to toss applicants if he felt they were looking for something we didn't offer or if he felt our hospital or community wouldn't give the person what they needed.

I've literally watched a program director throw away an application for:

-Discussing social justice or an interest in serving underserved, diverse populations
-Describing their favorite hobby as touring museums. In the words of my director - "We don't have any museums here, this person would be unhappy, toss it"
-And, my personal favorite, loving wound care. ("our focus is reconstructive surgery")

 

[Retrograde_Nail]

The above is good. My PD unfortunately sometimes used the statement as a way to toss applicants if he felt they were looking for something we didn't offer or if he felt our hospital or community wouldn't give the person what they needed.

I've literally watched a program director throw away an application for:

-Discussing social justice or an interest in serving underserved, diverse populations
-Describing their favorite hobby as touring museums. In the words of my director - "We don't have any museums here, this person would be unhappy, toss it"
-And, my personal favorite, loving wound care. ("our focus is reconstructive surgery")

What is hilarious is that all these "surgical programs" will produce podiatrists who end up doing wound care in some form just to put food on the table. Isn't it ironic...don't you think?

 

[Robin-jay]

The above is good. My PD unfortunately sometimes used the statement as a way to toss applicants if he felt they were looking for something we didn't offer or if he felt our hospital or community wouldn't give the person what they needed.

I've literally watched a program director throw away an application for:

-Discussing social justice or an interest in serving underserved, diverse populations
-Describing their favorite hobby as touring museums. In the words of my director - "We don't have any museums here, this person would be unhappy, toss it"
-And, my personal favorite, loving wound care. ("our focus is reconstructive surgery")

Some PD's sound too immature.