Tips on writing your Personal Statement

[oregonbigc]

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Good luck 4th years.

Residency essays must answer three questions:

1. Why are you interested in the field of your choice?
2. What are you looking for in a residency program?
3. How the field aligns with your professional goals?

Most of the content of your statement should address your clinical development during clerkships. This essay is intended to convey concrete, useful information
in a concise and memorable manner. The creativity so valued in the MSPS is secondary to providing substantive answers to the above questions.

It is always better to show rather than to tell. A specific relevant incident is far more effective than a catalog of assertions.

An essay must begin with a strong and memorable statement or incident. If it does not, the reader may quickly lose interest.

A residency essay should not be a prose version of your resume. The person reading the essay will have your academic record and other materials available, so it is important not to repeat information that exists elsewhere, unless you are using it to make a very specific point not evident from the record itself.

Moreover, the essay should not include information that you could not talk about at length in an interview nor should it include anything that is exaggerated or that may be contradicted by other materials in your application, including letters of reference.

Other tips:
Use active writing tense rather than past.
Use Buzzwords that catch readers eye, but don't overuse.
A paragraph should never begin with “I.”

 

[Mobius1985]

I hadn't considered that there might be more essay writing in my future, so I appreciate the heads up that gives me a few years to prepare. I hope they sticky this post so I can find it easily when I need it. Thanks, OP.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Residency essays must answer three questions:

1. Why are you interested in the field of your choice?
2. What are you looking for in a residency program?
3. How the field aligns with your professional goals?

IMHO this is not true. This is what everyone THINKS they need to write about in their PS. I'll bet it says this in Iserson's or whatever people are reading now. It's completely ridiculous. Think about it -- are your reasons going to be any different from everyone else's? Not really.

I'd suggest the following advice: It's called a "Personal Statement". Write about something personal. It can be almost anything. It doesn't even have to be about medicine. Write about something you enjoy, something that tells me something about yourself that I don't see in the rest of your application.

 

[sikegeek]

The other thing to keep in mind is that I don't think half of the people even READ the PS, or at least they do it so superficially that it doesn't stick.

Some interviewers came right out and told me they hadn't read it, that the packet just landed on their desk that morning. Or, something that I made a point to devote time to in the PS, they asked me about and when I answered it, they sounded like they'd never heard it before. Maybe they just read so many that they all run together.

So I would recommend writing something creative, but something that's not way out there in left field.

Good luck!

 

[Hurricane]

When I was applying, I asked the program director at my med school's psych program about the personal statement. He said to "write about what make you you...how you got here" Which sounded kinda hokey, but I thought about it for a few days, and then when I started writing the PS just flowed. I actually got compliments on it during my interviews, which suggested that people at least skimmed it. But this is psychiatry, we're we're into touchy-feely things like personal statements 😉 But I think this would hold for other specialities too.

Now that I'm on the admissions committee at my residency program, I see why he said that. Those are by far the most interesting personal statements, and they help you remember the applicant later on. (Oh yeah, he's the one from X who wrote about Y.) He also said that he hated the ones that start off with a difficult patient that only you, the medical student, are able to figure out or connect with. I agree with him on that too.

 

[Doowai]

The other thing to keep in mind is that I don't think half of the people even READ the PS, or at least they do it so superficially that it doesn't stick.

Some interviewers came right out and told me they hadn't read it, that the packet just landed on their desk that morning. Or, something that I made a point to devote time to in the PS, they asked me about and when I answered it, they sounded like they'd never heard it before. Maybe they just read so many that they all run together.

So I would recommend writing something creative, but something that's not way out there in left field.

Good luck!

I received strong positive comments on my personal statement at every interview I went to (10 interviews). Almost every interviewer said roughly the same thing ; your personal statement really caught my interest, it was really long but really interesting..... then they would ask me a question about something I wrote.

What they asked me was different from interviewer to interviewer - some asked me about my experiences working as an extra in movies or TV shows, some asked me about my martial arts experience, some asked me about competing in triathalons or swimming, some commented on the analogy I used as an introduction to express what I feel a good FP doctor is, some asked about my recent school teaching experience.

I knew my PS was going to be reeeeaaaalllllll long (2 pages) and I knew most would moan at first glance. So at the top I put an outline of the PS - that way the reader would have an idea how long a certain idea would stretch, and if they were interested in certain sections/paragraphs they could skip ahead. I just felt that an outline would help reduce their feelings of "how long is this going to last?".

The outline looked like this:
1) "analogy I used showing what I felt the ideal FP doctor is like"
2) My education
a) ACGME/AOA affiliated facilities
b) Extensive hands-on clinical experience
3) Why I am a good choice
a) Love for Family Medicine
b) Hard worker
c) Very high energy, strong, great health
d) Dependable, reliable - even with food poisoning
e) Self starter with extreme high initiative
f) Willing to make sacrifices


As you can see I included alot of personal information : winning a state swim championship in 2007, completing a triathalon in 2007 - but I included this for a specific purpose : to show them that even though I am 46 I am strong and healthy. I included that I had worked as an extra on a TV show, sometimes filming a 12 hour shift from 6 PM to 6 AM, after already working a full shift as a public school teacher the same day - I did this to show them that I could and was willing to work roughly 24 hours non-stop. I used personal stories to tell them something about myself I wanted them to know : Yes I am old, I am 46, but I am strong, healthy, and can work long hours. I wanted to show them I was a self-starter and informed them how I took it upon myself to voluntarily write a 2-6 page evidence-based research paper with references on relevant topics almost every week during 2 years of clinical rotations which I submitted to my preceptors. I brought 4 or 5 copies of these papers with me, which I gave to the PD's I interviewed with. I also wrote how I attended lunchtime CME seminars every month at teaching hospitals locally since graduating, as well as attending longer 2 day seminars that were offered, and had completed externships. I felt this was important since I am 2 years post grad and I wanted to show how I was trying to keep my knowledge current. Because I am FMG/IMG I felt it was important to show all of my clinical hours were done in United States teaching hospitals and I listed hands-on procedures I had actually done, to show I did not do observorships.

I used my PS to sell myself. I imagined what a PD would want to know - here is a 46 year old IMG, 2 years post grad - what would they want to know in order to feel okay about offering me a position. If you are 25, and an AMG, with excellent board scores - then obviously you have to do less selling. In a 1/2 page PS you might be able to sell yourself as an excellent candidate. But I do think its okay to make it personal (hobbies etc) as long as its relevant to the qualities and characteristics a program might be looking for.

 

[RTrain]

I'm glad that PS worked for you, Doowai, but I would also caution against a long personal statement unless you are going for psych or maybe FP. All signs point to concise and spare - one page max - as the way to go for most fields. That was the toughest part of the exercise for me. There may be a dozen points you want to highlight about yourself, but you just can't make them all. You really have to choose what is most vital, what you really think a program must read in order to make them want to meet you in person.

I got some indispensable advice that I think resulted in a great personal statement for residency, then again for fellowship this year. That is, do not write to answer any imagined question. Instead, before writing a single sentence of your statement, come up with a list of 3 or 4 words or phrases that describe a person successfully training and practicing in your chosen field (e.g. "resourceful," "adaptable," "compassionate," or whatever). Then think of anecdotes relating to your experiences that you believe embody each of those qualities, and concisely tell those stories, each in a short paragraph. Do not say, "I am an adaptable person, as shown by this anecdote." Just tell the story, and trust your reader to gain an understanding of why you are a good fit for your field of choice. At least for me (and to be fair, I am a strong writer at baseline), this generated a PS that was more readable, more of an essay than an advertisement. Your mileage may vary.