Writing a personal statement
The personal statement is an opportunity for you to share qualitative information with potential interviewers. It should aim to address: - Your story - Your interest in the speciality - What you are looking for in a residency program - MD/PhD specific: how you view your training path as an asset to this residency program - MD/PhD specific: how you will leverage your training into your career aspirations
The reader will be looking for the following:
- Are you an effective written communicator?
- Are you genuinely interested in this residency program?
- What makes you unique?
- Can your goals fit in with what the program can support and help you to thrive?
What should you include?
- Anecdotes that reveal relevance to your clinical interests
- Why you have chosen this residency
- Your career goals
- Special skills and qualifications - should include your research and how you think it is relevant (either related or if not obvious, how this training will offer you a unique perspective in the field)
- If you want to - personal information about your background, identity, other challenges that you want to highlight
- Any reasons that reviewers might be concerned? Extended leaves or academic challenges? You may use this opportunity to explain the context
General tips
- Include some story that makes it person
- It should sound like you
- Ideally it would weave in three major elements: who you are, what you’ve done, and where you think you are going (for MD/PhD applicants, the career aspirations are particularly important to include)
- End with an upbeat and forward thinking message that ideally ties into themes you’ve described, link your conclusion back to your introduction
- Be brief - aim for 1 page
- Get lots of feedback from all different types of people (family, friends, mentors)
- Expect to make many revisions
Don’t:
- Include typos
- Use cliches
- Plagiarize
Personal Statement Perspective of a Residency Program Director:
“As the director of an internal medicine residency program, I read hundreds of personal statements every year. I know many program directors who find them irrelevant at best, and I confess I can't blame them.. . .
. . . . I hate them all. Not the candidates, but their personal statements. Because there's really very little that's personal about them. The major thing they've told me about themselves is that they are very much like 90% of the other candidates for my program. . . . I want to hear from the candidate who appreciates the fibers of alpaca wool, the benefits of painting with oils rather than acrylics, the one who won the world clogging championships at the age of 12, or the one who worked hard at becoming a varsity football player but ended up handing out towels on the bench. . . These are the ones that demonstrate a feature that is still key to being a doctor: humanity. How else are we to know about this side of our candidates if not for their personal statements? ” -T McNamee. Ann Int Med. 2012;157(9):675