Tailoring a personal statement to a program - does this make a difference?

[AThousandCranes]

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my apologies if this question's been asked before, i did a search and nothing clear came up.

if any program directors or residents involved in the selection process are reading this and wanna comment ,that would be awesome. does tailoring your personal statement for a specific institution or program make a very significant difference, or does it look gimmicky?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

It depends.

If by personalize you mean:

"I'd love to train at Program XXX."

...then I'd say it's really pointless.

If by personalize you mean to write a whole paragraph, telling me how great I am, promising to wash my car every day, take call every night while stll conforming to all the duty hour rules, well that sounds OK.

Really, if you have a super-deep desire to go to a certain program, for very specific reasons (either a curricular issue, or location, etc), then I'd consider putting that in the PS. Otherwise, I think it matters little and isn't worth the work.