Residency supplemental essays - what are you supposed to say in them?

[SphereGlobe]

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At least in ophthalmology, many programs are asking for supplemental essays, typically a paragraph about why you foresee yourself attending the program.

Don't these all get repetitive after a while as applicants boast about the same things that are on the school websites? What distinguishes a good supplemental essay from a boring, or unremarkable one?

For medical schools, I spent secondaries talking a lot about myself and my accomplishments, and how these fit with the mission of the school. Fitting all this into one short paragraph for residency supplementals seems like a tall order. But if I spend the supplemental talking mostly about the school, I feel that my response becomes a regurgitation of the website.

 

[gutonc]

What distinguishes you is that you fill it out. It's yet another stupid screening tool. Just put some BS about how great that program is and move on.

 

[AdmiralChz]

It's a roadblock, often set up as a screen to see which applicants are serious about their application. Makes it easier to make tough decisions on interviews (you don't fill it out, no interview), but I doubt they are read too terribly closely.

That being said, smaller residencies like Optho have the luxury of more selectiveness in their interviews, so they may look more at the entire application including the supplemental, PS and things like that over large IM/Peds programs who can more easily interview based off of cutoffs. Just a thought.