Struggling with Personal Statement for EM

[Perfect Hair Day]

Aloha 🙂

I'm struggling with my PS for EM. When I take stock of what it is that draws me to EM, specific niche interests within EM, and some of my own personal circumstances that I think help me either stand out as an applicant or offer something to a program, I struggle to tie everything together.

For instance, I'm presenting my work (and hopefully publishing) on a Pedi EM case - but (1) this will be reflected in my ERAS and on my C.V., and (2) Pediatric EM is not very high on my fellowship wishlist, and (2a) I'm not so sure that it's appropriate to speculate about what fellowships I might ultimately want to pursue. At the risk of contradicting myself, it was during a pediatric ED service (part of my peds clerkship) that I first considered the prospect of EM as a career.

I know I like Trauma, I like the idea of being able to provide medical care anytime and any place (wilderness medicine, event medicine, tactical), but I am unsure if I will have an opportunity to do a wilderness medicine elective prior to submitting ERAS. Is it inappropriate to talk about my experience in the Trauma resuscitation unit during my surgery rotation?

I like teaching and I'm a mentor in my school's mentorship program - but I see my career unfolding in the community setting rather than in Academic Medicine. Will talking about these qualities be contradictory when applying to community EM programs?

I'm in a dual degree MD/MBA program, and I've been told I have the "entrepreneur gene"; it seems like money has always been labelled as this taboo thing that we're not supposed to talk about in medical school, but would programs be put-off if I include some discussion of why I pursued an MBA and how I intend to marry that skill set with my training in EM?

Thanks in advance to those who took the time to read this, bit lengthy, I think.

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[Trail Blazer]

Somebody once told me 90% of people spend too much time on their ps, 9% the right amount, and 1% too little time. Don't over think it, check your spelling and grammar, focus on getting good sloes. Y'all will be fine.

 

[bravotwozero]

You basically need to answer two questions on your PS. Why are you interested in EM? Why should they select you as a candidate?

If you can do that in a coherent manner, you'll be fine.


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[gman33]

Keep it short and sweet.
Reading 1000 of these things sucks.

I'm not a psycho.
Em is the best.
Give me an interview.

If I read that ps, I'd rank that person #1.
No interview needed.

 

[Perfect Hair Day]

Keep it short and sweet.
Reading 1000 of these things sucks.

I'm not a psycho.
Em is the best.
Give me an interview.

If I read that ps, I'd rank that person #1.
No interview needed.

For real though, I just wish I could write exactly that. "EM is the best, plain and simple."


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[Angry Birds]

Keep it short and sweet.
Reading 1000 of these things sucks.

I'm not a psycho.
Em is the best.
Give me an interview.

If I read that ps, I'd rank that person #1.
No interview needed.

That'd be awesome if someone did that. Except maybe we'd think that person really is a psycho for writing just that. lol

 

[p1acebo]

Keep it short and sweet.
Reading 1000 of these things sucks.

I'm not a psycho.
Em is the best.
Give me an interview.

If I read that ps, I'd rank that person #1.
No interview needed.

This.

Honestly, it is difficult to read the ones that are dense with no breaks in the paragraph. While people want to write something that stands out, you can definitely tell when someone is trying too hard (especially if the truth is exaggerated). Sometimes this can do more harm than good.

I would just keep it simple and easy to read, that's it. A personal statement often times won't make your application, but it has the potential to break it (or at least hurt it).


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[doggydog]

I read a lot of classmate's personal statements last year to help edit them. You would be suprised how terrible medical students are at writing. They are really bad at it. It was incredible how bad they were at it.

My personal statement came up at most of my interviews, so it is important.

Keep it simple. Write well. Don't try too hard.

 

[KinesiologyNerd]

If your like me and don't write good keep it short, edit 10000 times..... and write so poorly you're GF essential rewrites it for you.

 

[CajunMedic]

I've been on the struggle bus writing mine for a couple of months now. I think i've got "Why EM?" pretty well covered. I talk a little about my background and career goals. I probably need to address a little more about "Why Me?"

 

[enalli]

Sounds like you have some ingredients to start something decent.

For instance, I'm presenting my work (and hopefully publishing) on a Pedi EM case - but (1) this will be reflected in my ERAS and on my C.V., and (2) Pediatric EM is not very high on my fellowship wishlist, and (2a) I'm not so sure that it's appropriate to speculate about what fellowships I might ultimately want to pursue. At the risk of contradicting myself, it was during a pediatric ED service (part of my peds clerkship) that I first considered the prospect of EM as a career.

You could use that sentiment to start off; something that gets across the point "I wasn't thinking of EM and it came out of nowhere and was amazing"

I know I like Trauma, I like the idea of being able to provide medical care anytime and any place (wilderness medicine, event medicine, tactical), but I am unsure if I will have an opportunity to do a wilderness medicine elective prior to submitting ERAS. Is it inappropriate to talk about my experience in the Trauma resuscitation unit during my surgery rotation?

Great, it sounds like you were drawn to the elements of EM during your other rotations.

I like teaching and I'm a mentor in my school's mentorship program - but I see my career unfolding in the community setting rather than in Academic Medicine. Will talking about these qualities be contradictory when applying to community EM programs?

The people at that program wouldn't have bothered to go through the trouble of setting up a residency if they didn't like teaching.

I'm in a dual degree MD/MBA program, and I've been told I have the "entrepreneur gene"; it seems like money has always been labelled as this taboo thing that we're not supposed to talk about in medical school, but would programs be put-off if I include some discussion of why I pursued an MBA and how I intend to marry that skill set with my training in EM?

Thanks in advance to those who took the time to read this, bit lengthy, I think.

So you have developed your organizational and management skills -- guess what department constantly needs to evaluate and improve the way it delivers care? That's right: all of them! (But for the purposes of your personal statement, you can pretend that the ED is this special snowflake).

Just start by throwing all this on a page, move it around, see what sticks, and you should have the beginning of something. The beginning is usually the hardest.

Make sure to write with a normal voice (no plethora of bombastic locutions--you don't get bonus points for writing big words).

 

[Angry Birds]

If your like me and don't write good keep it short, edit 10000 times..... and write so poorly you're GF essential rewrites it for you.

You prove your point quite beautifully. haha

 

[gamerEMdoc]

Will it help you to know no one really cares about it? When you read hundreds of them every year, they all sound the same. A personal statement has never changed my opinion of a candidate, one way or the other, with the exception of ones that are littered with mistakes like they dictated it through siri showing they didnt even take the time to proof read.

90% of personal statements say some version of the exact same thing. 5% are kind of unique and memorable, and the other 5% are terrible (way too short, way too long, or tons of mistakes). Just dont write something terrible and you'll be fine.

I promise no matter what you write, I've read worse. Hopefully that takes off some of the pressure.

 

[Status Sciaticus]

How important is it to add the "what i look for in a residency?" or "where I see myself in 10 years?"
Advisors told me to add that, but it seems like shooting myself in the foot if I describe an ideal residency but reviewing programs do not have those things? As for the 10 year plan.... LOL. Does "treating patients" count?

 

[Restart13]

I think I wrote the most cliche PS there is and it was fine as far as I know. My only goal in writing one was to not write a "bad" one. I don't think it was ever brought up once.

 

[rkmoto121]

When people say to keep the PS short or to one page, do they mean one page double spaced? Like how many words should we shoot for? 200? 300? 500?

 

[gamerEMdoc]

When people say to keep the PS short or to one page, do they mean one page double spaced? Like how many words should we shoot for? 200? 300? 500?

If I remember correctly, I thought ERAS had a word counter to make it one page. Single spaced. Its been 11 years since I was on that side of things though, so hopefully someone else can chime in there.

 

[gamerEMdoc]

How important is it to add the "what i look for in a residency?" or "where I see myself in 10 years?"
Advisors told me to add that, but it seems like shooting myself in the foot if I describe an ideal residency but reviewing programs do not have those things? As for the 10 year plan.... LOL. Does "treating patients" count?

Two strategies, you could keep it generic or not put in a statement about what you are looking for, or if you want to be more specific, upload more than one statement. Send "university em statemement" to the university programs, and "community em statement" to community em programs". Then take the "backup Fp statement" and delete it, so you go into the match fearless.

 

[Venko]

Everyone reviews PS differently.

For me, I look there to figure out who you are behind the numbers. As a reviewer, I prefer not to read statements that tell me what EM is, or list their characteristics. I would much rather hear stories about you exemplifying those characteristics etc.

My personal statement would read something like....

After school most days I played basketball with my neighbor Ryan. Although his driveway sloped and the faint smell of manure from the nearby farms was slightly stronger there, his basketball hoop was more forgiving than mine. Aside from imagining that I would get to play in the National Basketball Association, a dream long dashed by genetics and talent, I imagined being a physician. Thankfully, I can expect this dream to come true very shortly; now I imagine my life after medical school all of the time, and if the NBA won't draft me, I am destined to be an emergency physician.

I know you will undoubtedly have access to my grades, activities, and other transcript data points. What you won't see though is that all of my successes have been built off failures and hard work and meticulous planning. After failing my first year of medical school, I spent time following each of the people int he top 10% of my class to see what they did to succeed. I was surprised to learn that their methods were very similar to each other.........on and on.

Be yourself, do this the way you feel represents you.

Good luck,
Venk

 

[Venko]

How important is it to add the "what i look for in a residency?" or "where I see myself in 10 years?"
Advisors told me to add that, but it seems like shooting myself in the foot if I describe an ideal residency but reviewing programs do not have those things? As for the 10 year plan.... LOL. Does "treating patients" count?

Of course the following is just my opinion, and everyone has one of those so...

I wouldn't add a what I look for in a residency unless there is something unique. "To be well trained..." "to become the greatest resusctitationist," etc doesnt tell me why we should believe we are a better match for you than another program. However, if you said, I am looking for a place that is near children's hospital of Minnesota because my niece is undergoing chemotherapy there...well that is very very different.

Where I see myself in hte future is useful if you have a very specific and very formed vision. If you don't, I would much rather know that too. For example, we had a person who had worked with NASA prior to residency and hoped very much to become a NASA physician scientist. This was helpful to know. Saying I hope to be a teaching physician, etc isn't so specialized that we need to be planning special opportunities for you.

Basically, if you imagine that you are lined up in a room with all of the other applicants and in front of all the EM residencies lined up facing you (like the old boy girl dances when we are kids) and someone asks you to give a statement on your behalf...you'll only say things that are unique to you. If you say, I'm John, I want to be an EM doc because I want to help people, I want to train at a residency that will teach me exceptionally well, and I hope to treat patients down the road. These are all givens in that environment. Its much more helpful to say, I'm John, I am from rural Massachussetts and the son of a teacher and a carpenter and the middle child of three. I love camping. I have been camping in each of the states that border my hometown and hope to camp in each of the fifty states in my life. When I fall in love with something I dive head first as you can see. I believe I am going to love emergency medicine and can't wait to see if I'm right. Who knows, maybe I'll try and practice in each of the fifty states?

Do you see the difference? Its really unlikely that any other applicant would talk about camping and Massachusetts. Say things that are true about yourself that are memorable and show us who you are as a person.

 

[BJJVP]

Look up your medical school personal statement. Then substitute some things.

For example, "While volunteering in the hospital, I found that I was drawn to helping people when they are ill," suddenly becomes, "during my EM rotation, I was excited by the training, anticipation, & competence required to manage difficult airways."

 

[Birdstrike]

Aloha 🙂

I'm struggling with my PS for EM. When I take stock of what it is that draws me to EM, specific niche interests within EM, and some of my own personal circumstances that I think help me either stand out as an applicant or offer something to a program, I struggle to tie everything together.

For instance, I'm presenting my work (and hopefully publishing) on a Pedi EM case - but (1) this will be reflected in my ERAS and on my C.V., and (2) Pediatric EM is not very high on my fellowship wishlist, and (2a) I'm not so sure that it's appropriate to speculate about what fellowships I might ultimately want to pursue. At the risk of contradicting myself, it was during a pediatric ED service (part of my peds clerkship) that I first considered the prospect of EM as a career.

I know I like Trauma, I like the idea of being able to provide medical care anytime and any place (wilderness medicine, event medicine, tactical), but I am unsure if I will have an opportunity to do a wilderness medicine elective prior to submitting ERAS. Is it inappropriate to talk about my experience in the Trauma resuscitation unit during my surgery rotation?

I like teaching and I'm a mentor in my school's mentorship program - but I see my career unfolding in the community setting rather than in Academic Medicine. Will talking about these qualities be contradictory when applying to community EM programs?

I'm in a dual degree MD/MBA program, and I've been told I have the "entrepreneur gene"; it seems like money has always been labelled as this taboo thing that we're not supposed to talk about in medical school, but would programs be put-off if I include some discussion of why I pursued an MBA and how I intend to marry that skill set with my training in EM?

Thanks in advance to those who took the time to read this, bit lengthy, I think.

Just write it. No one really cares about most of these unless you have crappy grammar, a bunch of typos, or sound like a jerk.

Just.
Write.
It.



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