Getting Personal – How To Write A Personal Statement for Residency
Your personal statement will let residency committee members and program directors know your reasons and qualifications for pursuing a specialty. This is your chance to explain how you came to love pediatrics or surgery, and why you can’t live without it. You also want to show that you will THRIVE in the US and how you are well trained to practice and learn as a resident in a US hospital.
Your job is NOT to explain why you became attracted to the field of medicine in general or to say that you love helping people. You need to really “sell” your best qualities to the residency committees so they will feel the need to interview you.
This task is often the most difficult job of the IMG since English may not be your first language. No matter what you do, make sure you have a few people read thru your essay for basic grammar and spelling errors. Do not be sloppy. Program directors will notice errors and wonder how your daily progress notes in patient charts will be if an essay which you had numerous hours to prepare is riddled with errors.
What Format Should My Essay Be?
The essay is not intended to be a letter directed to the residency committee. We generally discourage addressing the reader in person during the letter. (“I really appreciate the time you have taken to review my application and I look forward to meeting you.”) This is not intended to be a letter. This is a statement you are making to show your intangible qualities. Your entire essay should be about one page in length. Do not make your essay too long. Residency committee members will spend less then 2 minutes reading your masterpiece and they WILL *sigh* in exhaustion when they see your essay is 2 pages long!
Your essay should include elements on why you want to pursue a specialty field, what drove you to this, why you’ll be good in that field, your experiences, your career goals, and any other relevant background material.
Do mention the reason why you have selected your specialty field
Do talk about your clinical abilities, and experience
Do explain why you will be an outstanding resident in the US
Do share your reasons for wanting to train in the US
Do highlight achievements in the field (briefly explaining research)
Do explain why training in your country is similar to US residency or medical school training
Do take time to share how any existing clinical experience you have at home will benefit you as a resident in the US
Do tell us how your training is comparable to US medical training.
Do share what you have been doing related to healthcare since graduation (if you have already graduated)
Do explain WHY you want to become a resident in the US.
If you are a US Citizen who trained outside the US, then DO explain why you did not go to a US medical school. Talk about the adventures of training outside the US, the learning opportunities, etc… It is not impressive to say that you did not get accepted to med school in the US, so therefore in order to show your drive and desire to be a doctor you went to school anywhere you were accepted.
Also, be sure you highlight the fact (if it’s true in your case) that you completed your US rotations at the same US hospitals that US medical students are trained at.
Do NOT copy even ONE line of a personal statement you found on the internet. You will be caught and it’s going to be embarrassing for you, not to mention a huge waste of your time when you do not match due to a stupid mistake and error in judgement on your part.
Do NOT try to write ONE personal statement and recycle most of it for use in applying to multiple specialties. Each one should be at least 60% unique to that specialty.
Do NOT explain why you wanted to become a doctor. It’s just not relevant. You need to explain WHY you love your chosen medical specialty and why you’ll be great at it. Why you became a doctor is stuff for a pre-med essay.
Do NOT talk about how you followed your mother, father, grandfather around the clinic or hospital. It’s boring.
Do NOT tell the reader how difficult it was for you to enter and complete medical school. We’ve all done it. It’s not extraordinary, it’s just an expectation.
Do NOT say that other people have commented on how great you are. They should say that in their own words in a letter of recommendation.
Do NOT say that you learned to “deal” with patients. Makes it sound like a chore to take care of patients.
Do NOT use the word “learnt.” In US English, use “learned”
Do NOT talk about how wonderful or famous your medical school or hospital was. If the reader has not heard of your school, it makes NO difference if you tell them in your essay.
Do NOT tell us about the time you were sick or your relative was sick.
Do NOT say you want to come to America to make money, become famous, or gain respect of others.
Do NOT simply give a chronology of your medical training.
Do NOT talk about religious or social persecution, or political views from your home country. Your residency directors simply do not care about this. They want to know about YOU.
There are a few essay patterns that you should definitely avoid. Here are some of the most common introductions that we read year after year…
“I have been fascinated with medicine since I was a young child following daddy around the village, taking care of sick people. I loved how people treated him with respect. As a baby I loved to read medical texts. When I was 12 I took the All-Home-Country medical exam and scored first out of 12 million people in my province. I gained entry to the Never Heard Of University in Home Country, the most esteemed and famous hospital in the land…”
“I first became interested in medicine when I had to see my grandmother suffer with diabetes. I helped her measure her blood glucose levels, and since then I wanted to become a doctor.”
“After medical school, I was required to spend 2 years in a village. I loved helping all the underserved and poor people, and even spent all my free time helping the villagers, teaching them how to clean their water.”
“My father was the most famous and respected doctor in all of Home Country. I wanted gain the respect of others and help people just like him.”
All of these may have happened to you, or may be true, but have no bearing on YOU, the residency applicant! You need to tell your program director why YOU will be the great resident, not how great your daddy is.
Tips for a Strong Essay:
You need to market yourself to residency programs
Residency programs receive hundreds of applications each year for a very limited number of positions. You need to explain why they should want you as a part of their program. You need to effectively tell programs what your specialty choice is, and why you chose that field. Don’t make it a big secret that you reveal at the end of your personal statement. Make sure from the very beginning it is crystal clear which field you are applying in. Topics you should definitely discuss are: how you came to your decision to enter specialty X, and your medical school experience (this may be included in your discussion about specialty choice, research experience, outside interests, any time not spent in school, qualities you are looking for in a residency program, and any career goals you have at this point i.e., where do you see yourself in the future?) In describing your specialty choice, avoid statements like, “ever since I saw my cat give birth when I was nine years old, I wanted to be an obstetrician.” Such statements are simply not convincing and will seem superficial to people reading your letter. As far as research, if your specialty choice is not heavily research driven, do not spend too much space describing in excruciating detail every aspect of the research you have conducted. Use the space to introduce the research. During the interview you may be asked to explain your research in more detail. Every program wants to know what you are like as a person, so a description of your extra curricular interests and hobbies may be included. This need not be a large portion of your personal statement. Often, two or three sentences are enough to give readers a sense of your well-rounded personality. Be sure to explain, or at least mention any time you spent outside of academia performing research, working, traveling, etc.
Probably the topic that is most often neglected in the personal statement is what you are looking for in a program. The programs know exactly what kind of candidates they are looking for, and you should remember the program is called the “match” exactly because it hopes to match applicants and programs together in a way such that both parties get what they want. The process is not only about having programs select you; it’s also about you selecting the programs you are interested in. If you are looking for an academic program, a program with research opportunities, or a community based program, go ahead and share this in your personal statement. Again, remember that you can make changes to the personal statement that you submit to particular residency programs.
Programs are interested in what you intend to do with their residency training. They want to know if you are interested in fellowships (although they know you may change your mind later), pursing research, or getting a job in academia.
The personal statement is not a narrative version of your CV
Programs receive a version of your CV from ERAS or on paper. Avoid wasting valuable personal statement real estate by rehashing your CV. Also, you need not mention your USMLE scores, course grades, etc. unless you feel a strong need to do so.
The personal statement may be your chance to explain any areas of potential concern on your academic record
If you experienced circumstances that have adversely affected your academic or clinical performance, the personal statement can give you a chance to explain in your own words what happened to you. However, use this chance carefully, as it potentially draws more attention to perceived flaws in your application.
Don’t get cute
Avoid personal statements that are too out of the ordinary. Not everyone likes creativity. Remember that your application needs to be professional from start to finish. Personal statements written in the form of an admission history and physical, story, newspaper article, or other “creative” methods are unnecessary and can probably hurt more than they help. For every reader that may be entertained by these formats, there may be five that feel it unprofessional and inappropriate.
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The MedEdits Guide to Medical School Admissions: Practical Advice for Applicants and their Parents by Jessica Freedman M.D. |
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Cracking Med School Admissions: Trusted Advice from Students Who’ve Been There by Ms. Rachel Elise Rizal |
Editing your personal statement is key
The personal statement must be grammatically flawless. Any typographical error, spelling mistake, misplaced comma, or run-on sentence will appear unprofessional to program directors. As a resident, you will be expected to write admission history and physical exam reports and daily progress notes. Residency programs may wonder what kind of notes you will write on the wards given limited time if your personal statement, which you had weeks, even months to perfect, contains mistakes.
Remember that all this information should fit on one typewritten page. There is not a lot of space to waste, so each sentence should be very carefully crafted and should serve a purpose. Each sentence needs to be essential. When it comes to editing, sometimes the most difficult part comes to shortening the personal statement. Ask yourself if each sentence is absolutely needed.
Get people to read and re-read your personal statement
Often it becomes difficult to edit work that you have written yourself. Small mistakes can be easily overlooked by the author. Ask your peers, residents, faculty, and residency advisors to read your personal statement. Be open to criticism, as often an extra opinion can bring major improvements to a personal statement. If you can find a faculty member at your institution who has experience in reading residency personal statements, ask for help. Most of all make sure the grammar is correct!
Don’t get so caught up in writing your personal statement that you neglect other aspects of the application
The entire application process is all about timing and organization. Do not spend so much time writing your personal statement that you neglect other areas of your application, such as asking for letters of recommendation. While it is true that the personal statement is important, remember to keep the entire process in perspective and don’t kill yourself over writing it.