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The Residency Personal Statement (2023/2024): The Insider’s Guide (with Examples)

Residency Match Personal Statement

A physician and former residency program director explains how to write your residency personal statement to match in to your top-choice residency program in 2024.

Read example residency personal statements and suggested outlines..

Introduction

The residency personal statement allows residency program directors and associate directors the chance to get a sense of who you are and your commitment to your chosen specialty. 

As a former program director who understands how residency personal statements are reviewed, what “stands out,” and, most importantly, what will earn you interview invitations, the information below will help you write a residency personal statement to match!

It is imperative to make sure you get the most accurate guidance possible with regards to your residency personal statement content and optimal residency personal statement length (up to 5300 characters with spaces).

Want more personalized suggestions? Sign up for a FREE residency personal statement consultation .

Table of Contents

Goals for Writing Your 2024 Residency Personal Statement

Above all else, your residency personal statement offers the opportunity to show your interest in your chosen specialty when applying to residency to illustrate you are a good fit.

The more details you offer about why you are interested in the specialty and how your med school rotations, accomplishments and experiences have reinforced this interest, the stronger your personal statement will be, the more it will appeal to selection committees and the better you will do in the match process .

I encourage applicants to offer as much “evidence” as possible to “show” rather than “tell” what qualities, characteristics and interests they have. “Telling” a reader, for example, that you are compassionate and hard working means nothing. Instead, you must “show” that you embody these qualities based on your experiences in health care and the patients for whom you have cared.

The residency personal statement also offers the opportunity to write about who you are as a person to convey some details about your background, influences, and interests outside of your given specialty.

The Importance of a Balanced Residency Personal Statement

The key when writing your residency personal statement is to ensure that it is well-balanced so it appeals to a large group of people who might read your ERAS residency application.

However, it is important to understand that every program director and faculty member has his or her own idea of what he would like to read in a personal statement. As an applicant, you must go into this process understanding that you cannot please everyone, or a specific program, and your personal statement should therefore have the broadest appeal possible.

For example, some program directors would rather hear about your personal interests and curiosities and get to know who you are rather than have you focus on the specialty in which you are interested.

At MedEdits, we suggest taking a “middle of the road” approach; include some details about who you are but also focus on the specialty itself. In this way, you will make more traditional reviewers who want to hear about your interest in the specialty happy while also satisfying those who would rather learn about you as a person.

Above all, be authentic and true to yourself when writing your statement. This always leads to the best results! Read on to learn more about how to write a winning personal statement.

About MedEdits

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Residency Personal Statement Outline & Structure

Residency applicants often do well when given outlines or templates to follow, so, we will offer that, but, it is important to realize that many applicants deviate from these rigid rules. One very typical outline that serves applicants quite well in the residency admissions process is:

  • Compose a catchy introduction. Your intro can be related to your interest in the specialty to which you are applying, about a hobby or personal experience, or about your background. Regardless of the topic you choose, you want to tell a story and start with something that will interest your reader and engage him.
  • The next two to four paragraphs comprise the body of your personal statement. We encourage applicants to write about any significant experiences they have had related to their desired specialty and/or future goals. This would include information about rotations, electives, and sub internships related to the specialty, volunteer and research experiences and even significant outside interests.
  • Finally, you want to conclude your essay. In your conclusion, write about what you seek in a residency program, what you will bring to a residency program, and, if you have any idea of your future career goals, write about those as well. Your conclusion is also where you can tailor a personal statement to a specific geographic area of interest or type of program (rural, urban, community).

Residency Personal Statement Length & Residency Personal Statement Word Limit

Residency Personal Statement Length: Our recommendation is that your residency personal statement be between 4000 – 5300 characters with spaces or up to 900 words in length. 

The allowed ERAS residency personal statement length is 28,000 characters which equates to about five pages!

We have been hearing from more and more applicants that the personal statement should not exceed one page when typed in to the ERAS application . Because of this overwhelming trend, we are supporting this guidance unless you have extenuating circumstances that require your personal statement be longer.

Our recommendation is that your residency personal statement be a maximum of 5300 characters with spaces.

ERAS Residency Personal Statement Checklist

  • Ensure your personal statement flows well

The best personal statements are easy to read, don’t make the reader think too much, and make your path and interests seem logical. Rarely does a personal statement have a theme. Also try to have each paragraph transition to the next seamlessly. 

2. Your personal statement should be about you!

Your personal statement should be about you and no one else. Focus on your interests, your accomplishments and your path. This is your opportunity to be forthcoming about your achievements – by writing in detail about what you have done.

3. Be sure your personal statement clearly outlines your interest in the specialty.

Since the reader wants to be convinced of your understanding of, experience in, and curiosity about the specialty to which you are applying, be sure you highlight what you have done to explore your interest as well as your insights and observations about the specialty to show your understanding of it.

4. Make it human.

Again, your personal statement should be about you! The reader wants to know who you are, where you are from, what your interests are and who you are outside of medicine. Therefore, try to include those details about your background that are intriguing or important to you.

5. Express your interest in the specialty.

The reader fundamentally wants to know why you are pursuing the specialty. The more details you offer the more convincing you are about your commitment and your understanding of the specialty. Be sure to include details that might seem obvious. For example, in emergency medicine you must like acute care, but try to include more nuanced details about your interest, too. What do you enjoy about the diagnoses and pathologies involved? What do you value about the actual work you will do? What do you enjoy about the patients for whom you will care? How about the setting in which you will practice?

6. The start and evolution of your interest.

Readers want to know how and when you became interested in your specialty. Was this before medical school? During medical school? What have you done to pursue and nurture your interest in the specialty?

7. What you have done to learn more about the specialty.

You should explain what you have done to pursue your interest. What rotations have you done or have planned? What research, scholarly work or community service activities have you pursued to further your interest?

8. Where you see yourself in the future – if you know!

Without going into too much detail, write about the type of setting in which you see yourself in the future. Do you hope to also participate in research, teaching, public health work or community outreach as a part of your career? What are your future goals? Since many programs typically train a certain type of physician, it is important that your goals are aligned with the programs to which you are applying.

9. What do you bring to the specialty?

You should try to identify what you can bring to the program and the specialty to which you are applying as a whole. For example, are you applying to family medicine and have a distinct interest in public health? Are you applying for internal medicine and do you have demonstrated expertise in information technology and hope to improve electronic medical records? Do you have extensive research or teaching experience, and do you hope to continue to pursue these interests in the future? Have you developed a commitment to global health, and do you hope to continue making contributions abroad? Programs have a societal obligation to select residents who will make valuable contributions in the future, so the more ambitions you have the more desirable a candidate you will be.

10. What type of program you hope to join?

Do you hope to be part of a community or university-based program? What are you seeking in a residency program? Programs are looking for residents who will be the right “fit” so offering an idea of what you are seeking in a program will help them determine if your values and goals mesh with those of the program.

11. Who you are outside of the hospital?

Try to bring in some personal elements about who you are. You can do this in a few ways. If you have any outside interests or accomplishments that complement your interest in your specialty, such as extracurricular work, global work, teaching or volunteer efforts, write about them in detail, and, in doing so, show the reader a different dimension of your personality. Or, consider opening your statement by writing about an experience related to your hobbies or outside interests. Write about this in the form of an introductory vignette. I suggest taking this nontraditional approach only if you are a talented writer and can somehow relate your outside interest to the specialty you are pursuing, however. An interest in the arts can lend itself to dermatology, plastic surgery or ophthalmology, for example. Or, an interest in technology could relate to radiology .

12. Any personal challenges?

Also explain any obstacles you have overcome: Were you the first in your family to graduate from college? Were you an immigrant? Did you have limited financial resources and work through college? Many applicants tend to shy away from the very things that make them impressive because they are afraid of appearing to be looking for sympathy. As long as you explain how you have overcome adversity in a positive or creative way, your experience will be viewed as the tremendous accomplishment that it is. The personal statement should explain any unusual or distinctive aspects of your background.

  • Residency Match: How It Works & How To Get Matched

Common ERAS Residency Personal Statement Mistakes

Do not tell your entire life story or write a statement focused on your childhood or undergraduate career. 

Do not write about why you wanted to be a doctor. This is old news. From the reviewers perspective, you already are a doctor!

Do not write a personal statement focused on one hobby or begin with your birth. Some background information might be useful if it offers context to your choices and path, but your residency personal statement should be focused on the present and what you have done to pursue your interest in the specialty to which you are applying.

Do not preach. The reader understands what it means to practice his specialty and does not need you to tell him. Don’t write, for example: Internal medicine requires that a physician be knowledgeable, kind and compassionate. The reader wants to know about you!

Do not put down other specialties. You don’t need to convince anyone of your interest by writing something negative about other specialties. Doing so just makes you look bad. If you switched residencies or interests, you can explain what else you were seeking and what you found in the specialty of your choice that interests you.

Do not embellish. Program directors are pretty good at sniffing out inconsistencies and dishonesty. Always tell the truth and be honest and authentic. 

Do not plagiarize. While this seems obvious to most people, every year people copy personal statements they find online or hire companies that use stock phrases and statement to compose statements for applicants. Don’t do it!

Do not write about sensitive topics. Even if you were in a relationship that ended and resulted in a poor USMLE score , this is not a topic for a personal statement. In general, it is best to avoid discussing relationships, politics, ethical issues and religion.

Do not boast. Any hint of arrogance or self-righteousness may result in getting rejected. There is a fine line between confidence and self promotion. Some people make the mistake of over-selling themselves or writing about all of their fantastic qualities and characteristics. Rarely do readers view such personal statements favorably.

Do not write an overly creative piece. A residency personal statement should be professional. This work is equivalent to a job application. Don’t get too creative; stay focused.

Writing ERAS Residency Personal Statements For Multiple Specialties

An increasing number of applicants are applying to more than one specialty in medicine especially if the first choice specialty is very competitive. If you are applying to more than one specialty, even if there is disciplinary overlap between the two (for example family medicine and pediatrics ), we advise you write a distinct specialty for each. Remember that a physician who practices the specialty you hope to join will most likely be reviewing your statement. He or she will definitely be able to determine if the personal statement illustrates a true understanding of the specialty. If you try to recycle an entire personal statement or parts of a personal statement for two specialties, there is a high likelihood the personal statement will communicate that you aren’t sincerely interested in that specialty or that you don’t really understand what the specialty is about.

Writing About Red Flags in your ERAS Personal Statement

The personal statement is also the place to explain any red flags in your application, such as gaps in time or a leave of absence. When addressing any red flags, explain what happened succinctly. Be honest, don’t make excuses, and don’t dwell on the topic. Whenever possible, write about how you have matured or grown from the adversity or what you may have learned and how this benefits you.

If you have left a program or had a break in your medical education, you will also have the chance to explain this in your ERAS application . You should also write about this topic in your personal statement only if you have more to explain, however. 

If you have failed a Step exam or one course in medical school, this likely isn’t something to address in the personal statement. However, you should be prepared to discuss any failure during an interview. By the same token, it is best not to address one low grade or poor attending evaluation in your statement. 

Have you taken a circuitous path to medicine? If so you might address why you made these choices and what you found so interesting about medicine that was lacking in your former career.

Residency Personal Statement Example

Below are two great examples of residency personal statements that earned the applicants who wrote them numerous interviews and first choice matches. As you will see, these two applicants took very different approaches when writing the personal statement yet wrote equally persuasive and “successful” personal statements.

Residency Personal Statement Example, Analysis, and Outline: The Traditional Approach

The most common approach to the personal statement is what I will call the traditional approach, in which the applicant conveys her interest in the specialty, when that interest began and what she has done to pursue the particular specialty.

Suggested outline:

  • Introduction: Catchy Story
  • Paragraph 2: Background Information and how Interest Started
  • Paragraph 3: Write about what you did to explore your interest
  • Paragraph 4: Second paragraph about your experiences related to your specialty
  • Conclusion: Wrap it up. Write something about your future goals.

Below is an example of the traditional approach:

I looked into her eyes and saw terror. She knew the life of her unborn baby was in jeopardy. As tears streamed down her face, she looked to the attending physician. In desperation, she pleaded, “Please save our baby.” She and her husband had been trying to conceive for more than two years, and they knew this could be their only chance to have a healthy child. She went into labor at home and because of a horrible snowstorm was not able to reach the hospital for several hours. When she arrived in labor and delivery, she was crowning. But, the baby was having late decelerations. Because of the sweat on my attending’s forehead I knew the situation was serious. Yet we all tried to remain calm and to keep the patient and her husband calm as well. 

I entered medical school with an open mind as everyone suggested. Even as a first year medical student, however, I was fascinated with embryology. I entered my third year still unsure of what I would pursue. I knew I wanted a career that would be challenging and interesting. Because of my background in drawing and painting, I always loved working with my hands. Yet I also enjoyed working with people. Thankfully, my obstetrics and gynecology (ob/gyn) rotation was the first of my third year and I was immediately hooked.

I quickly sought out opportunities for research and became involved in a clinical study investigating the impact of a vegan diet on birth outcomes. I have always had an interest in wellness and nutrition, and this seemed like a perfect fit for me. My research is still in process, but through this experience I have learned how to analyze data, stay objective and critically evaluate the literature. So far, our findings suggest better than normal outcomes for babies born to vegan mothers. This reinforces my goal to educate my patients about the important of diet and nutrition, which I hope to make a part of my future practice. 

Early in my fourth year, I completed an elective rotation at Inner City Medical Center. There I cared for a diverse group of patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings. I realized how much I enjoy labor and delivery, but I also value the operative aspects of ob/gyn. I appreciate the importance of understanding the female anatomy so I can operate with precision.  I also value the diversity of practice in ob/gyn. Whether caring for a woman about to give birth, helping a woman newly diagnosed with breast cancer navigate her treatment options, or caring for a perimenopausal woman who is coping with symptoms of hormone fluctuations, I enjoy caring for patients with knowledge and compassion. The outpatient aspect of ob/gyn brings satisfaction as well. I look forward to building relationships with my patients, helping them to lead the healthiest lives possible. I have also realized how much I want to care for those who lack access to care. The work I have done at Medical School Free Clinic has helped me realize the gaps that exist in access to care and education. As a future practicing ob/gyn, I hope to work in such a setting at least on a part time basis.

On that snowy night, when we realized the baby was having difficulty being born because of shoulder dystocia, a simple maneuver eased the situation. The baby’s first cry brought such joy and relief to everyone in the room and, at that moment, I knew I had to be part of this specialty. I hope to join a program where I will have the clinical exposure that will give me the skills and experience to care for a wide range of patients. I do not yet know if I will subspecialize, and I will seek out mentors and experiences as a resident to make an informed decision. I would be honored to interview at your program and thank you for your consideration.

Why It’s Great

This is a great personal statement because it clearly conveys the applicant’s interest in, and understanding of, obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) and what the applicant has done to pursue that interest. Not only does this applicant have a long-standing interest in OB/GYN, but, she conveys that she has experienced the specialty in different settings and understands the diverse nature of the specialty. She also includes information about her hobbies and interests and writes about her exploration of OB/GYN outside of the clinical arena. An added bonus is that the applicant writes well and uses descriptive language making her statement interesting and fun to read.

Residency Personal Statement Example, Analysis, and Outline: The Outside Interests Approach

Many mentors advise applicants to tell the reader something about them that is unrelated to medicine or the specialty they are pursuing. This is a fine idea, but be sure your personal statement also includes some details about your interest in your specialty if you decide to move in this direction.

Suggested Outline:

  • Introduction: Write a Catchy Introduction. Be creative! Think outside the box.
  • Paragraph 2:Elaborate on your introduction offering more details
  • Paragraph 3: Write about your specialty choice and what appeals to you.
  • Paragraph 4: Write more about your explorations in medical school.
  • Concluding paragraph(s): Write about your future goals, the type of program you hope to join and consider looping back to your introduction.

Below is an example of the outside interests approach:

The landscape before me was lush and magical. We had been hiking for hours and had found a great spot to set up camp. As I was unloading my backpack and helping to pitch the tent, I saw a scene I knew I had to capture. I quickly grabbed my carefully packed Leica before the magnificent sunset disappeared. Trying to get the perfect exposure, I somehow managed to capture this image so accurately that it reflected the beauty of what was before us high in the mountains of Utah, so far away from the hustle and bustle of New York City where we attended medical school.

Throughout my life, I have pursued my interests and curiosities with focus and creativity. One of those interests is photography. Even as a small child, I wanted my own camera, and I started snapping interesting scenes and images at the age of 6. As I grew older, this hobby took on more significance. I took a college level course in photography as a high school student, worked as a photographer’s assistant and even considered a career in photography. Paralleling my interest, however, was a desire to travel and experience new places, foods, and cultures.

I have been fortunate to travel all over the world. Rather than stopping in a city or place for a couple of days and seeing the sights, I prefer to immerse myself in my surroundings, eating the food, meeting the people, and staying for as long as I can. My fluency in Spanish and Italian has made it easier to “fit in” naturally. My most recent trip to Costa Rica allowed me to visit sugar cane fields and rain forests. I also volunteered in a clinic that helps the most desperate citizens. Of course, because I never travel without my camera, I also captured the beauty of this country; those pictures can be found on my blog.

Surgery seemed like a natural choice for me. It is a very tactile and visual field that requires patience, attention to detail and creativity—just like photography. The operating room setting is invigorating. I love to be a member of a team, and in surgery team work is an essential part of practice. The ability to deal with anatomical variations also satisfies my creative side; I have always been fond of puzzles, and the field of surgery represents a real-world puzzle to me. I also appreciate the intensity of surgery and believe I have the personality and demeanor for the field. I have always enjoyed solving problems quickly, something the field of surgery requires. My rotations in surgery – in addition to my core surgery rotation I have done trauma and cardiothoracic surgery – have helped me to understand the tremendous opportunities and diversity of the field. I have heard some residents lament that the only reason they went into surgery is to operate. However, I really enjoy seeing patients postoperatively. It is only at that time that a surgeon can really appreciate the impact of his or her work.

Finally, my trip to Honduras with a surgical team from my hospital and medical school made me realize that I can make a great contribution globally in the field of surgery. There we saw patients who had no resources or access to care. The facilities in which we worked were bare-bones. Yet the impact we made was tremendous, given that this was a group of people who otherwise would have no surgical care. In this way, I hope to combine my interests in travel and surgery as a resident, if I have time, and certainly as a practicing physician. My ultimate goal is to use my training to help populations globally and domestically.

To gain the most clinical exposure possible, I hope to train in a busy urban hospital. I believe that such a setting will give me the operative experience I need to be able to navigate many situations in the future. Such a setting will also give me the outpatient experience to understand how to manage patients once the surgery is completed.

I look forward to the day when I can be snapping my camera intraoperatively, documenting what I am doing and seeking to help other surgeons. For some, such pictures may not represent the art of those pictures I take in the wilderness, but for me they reflect the beauty of surgery and the great opportunity to make a lasting impression on another human being’s life.

This is a really intriguing personal statement because the author writes about his outside interests in a compelling way that makes him instinctively likable. He then goes on to explain what he enjoys about surgery and what he has done to pursue that interest. As you can see, this applicant writes less about his specialty (surgery) than the applicant in statement #1 did, but, he still convinces the reader of his understanding of, and commitment to, surgery. In this statement, the reader gains a much broader understanding of who the applicant is as a person and what he likes to do in his free time.

Final Thoughts

Writing your residency personal statement should be about telling your story in your own voice and style. You want to highlight your interest in the specialty for which you are applying while also conveying some ideas about who you are as a person to keep your reader engaged in learning about you as a person.

Residency Personal Statement Consulting Services

MedEdits Medical Admissions offers comprehensive guidance and document review services for residency applicants to every specialty in medicine. With more than twenty years of experience in residency admissions and founded by a former residency admissions officer and physician, MedEdits understands what program directors want to read and can help you decide what aspects of your background to focus on in your residency personal statement to earn the most interviews possible.

Getting into a residency has never been more competitive. Let the experts at MedEdits help you with your ERAS personal statement. We’ve worked with more than 5,000 students and 94% have been matched to one of their top-choice programs.

Sample Residency Personal Statement Page 1

Sample Residency Personal Statements

Residency Personal Statement Example Page 2

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Residency personal statement: the ultimate guide.

how to write residency personal statement

Reviewed by:

Rohan Jotwani

Former Chief Resident in Anesthesiology, Weill Cornell Medicine, & Admissions Officer, Columbia University

Reviewed: 08/08/23

Are you planning on writing your personal statement for residency? We’ll cover everything you need to know about the process.

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The residency application personal statement is an essential part of applying to programs, but it can be intimidating. We get it. It can be challenging to write about yourself and your life experiences within 3,500 characters. We’ll cover everything you need to know about writing a powerful statement!

Get The Ultimate Guide on Writing an Unforgettable Personal Statement

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Importance of Your Personal Statement in a Residency Application

The importance of your personal statement in your application cannot be overstated. Yes, you have secured solid letters of recommendation from physicians and crushed your USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Examination) .

However, your personal statement is the one component of your application where you can make a case for yourself and leave a lasting impression on program directors. 

Think about it this way: program directors receive thousands of applications From aspiring medical residents and review thousands of standardized, quantitative factors like grades and test scores across the board. They also read thousands of essays and want to see something that will pique their interest. 

Your personal statement is an opportunity to show program directors specific qualities that make you stand out and shine . Program directors want to know the person behind the stellar numerical achievements. 

They want to know that you will thrive, reach your greatest potential in their program, and continue to have an exceptional career as a leader in healthcare.

importance of residency personal statement

Because of how competitive programs can be, your writing may very well be the tiebreaker that leads to your acceptance into a top program over another applicant. 

While a strong personal statement might not compensate for low exam scores, a weak one will definitely hurt an otherwise strong application.

Residency Personal Statement Outline

Knowing what you should include in your personal statement will help you get started. Your statement should include and reflect on a combination of the following:

  • What draws you to medicine/your specialty?
  • The desirable qualities, attributes, and skill sets make you well-suited to a  program and will help you succeed.
  • Your long-term plans as a practicing physician after you complete your program. This can include what you hope to accomplish in your residency and your preferred setting.
  • What attracts you to a particular program, and how would it make you a good fit?

Ultimately, program directors are looking for residents who are the best candidates and colleagues to work with and train. Combining the above suggestions will give program directors a good sense of what having you on their team would be like.

What to include in your residency personal statement

3 Tips to Help You Start Writing

Here are three tips to help you get started! 

1. Consider Why You’re Pursuing a Particular Residency

Before you start your application personal statement, you should be clear on why the specialty you’ve chosen is the right one for you . Program directors want to know that you have a realistic idea of what the specialty entails. 

If your writing fails to convey solid, meaningful reasons for pursuing the chosen specialty, you will likely not be invited for an interview. Don’t hurt your chances by sounding disinterested in the field or focusing on superficial aspects of the specialty, like high salaries and benefits.

UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine urges you to “remember that this is your chance to focus on your medical career objectives, i.e., what specialty you'd like to go into and what your ultimate goals might be.” 

2. Brainstorm 

To begin drafting your personal statement, brainstorm. Brainstorming allows you the freedom to be creative and informal. When brainstorming, you do not have to worry about grammar, spelling, or editing. You want to write down your ideas and get your creative juices flowing. 

After you have a body of ideas, you can work on weaving one or several elements into a strong, concise narrative. 

3. Ask Yourself Questions 

The following questions will help you get started brainstorming ideas for your personal statement:

  • What first drew you to the specialty? 
  • What are your greatest qualities, and how have you demonstrated these qualities? Focus on a few desirable qualities for a medical professional during specialization.
  • What is your greatest accomplishment?
  • Name an experience, clinical or otherwise, that significantly impacted you. Why was the experience meaningful, and how did it change you?
  • What obstacle, challenge, or failure did you overcome, and what did it teach you about adversity?
  • When did you know you wanted to pursue your chosen specialty?
  • What is your most meaningful extracurricular activity?
  • Who are your role models? What qualities do they possess that inspire you to be like them? How does this translate in your chosen field?
  • What medical cause do you care about the most, and what led you to care about it?

Remember, brainstorming aims to put down everything you can remember with as much detail as possible without worrying about grammar, sentence structure, spelling, or revisions. 

The more details you explore while brainstorming, the easier it will be to extract and expand upon the stories you want to tell.

How to Write An Amazing Residency Application Personal Statement

Now that you have completed your preliminary brainstorming, let’s review how to write a personal statement. Later in this guide, we will review samples of other applicants’ personal statements and analyze what makes them successful.

How to write a med school personal statement

Start With A Catchy Introduction 

A captivating introduction pulls the reader in and makes them want to read to the end. Your introduction should lead with detail. Don’t rely on platitudes, clichés, and vague language . 

One way to accomplish this is to have an anecdote or two in mind that will be the central focus of your narrative. Then, introduce that anecdote while being aware of both brevity and detail. 

Focus on Things That Aren’t on Your CV

The personal statement should never regurgitate what’s already on your CV. Instead, focus on important aspects about you, your experiences, and your qualities that do not appear on your CV.

For example, if you have a hobby that demonstrates personal growth over time, tell a story about it and tie it together with your goals.

The Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine suggests that if you want to repeat accomplishments, ensure they’re “relevant to your personal/professional growth. You want the emphasis to encourage the reader to bring this up in the interview.” 

Talk About You and Your Desirable Qualities 

Program directors want to get to know you as an individual and what you would bring to their program. While this might seem like a no-brainer, it is important that your personal statement remains about you. 

Program directors often read narratives that include information about the program they already know and not enough information about the candidate. Shift your tone to reflect on what makes you desirable to the residency. 

When talking about your attributes, remember that quality is more important than quantity . Narrow your focus to one or two qualities, and work on incorporating them as part of your storytelling.

Make Use of Storytelling

Avoid generic and superficial declarative statements when you write about yourself and your desirable qualities. For example, don’t simply say, “I am empathetic and compassionate.” This is forgettable, and you will not stand out from all the other applicants. 

Instead, it is better and more memorable to show how you exhibited empathy and compassion by telling a story about a real event. Show, don’t tell. People will remember your name if you tell a great story.

Include What You Expect From a Residency Program 

Program directors want to know why you are pursuing their program and what you want to gain from the experience. Tie this in with nuanced details about what you have done to pursue your particular interests and how your interests will align with what the program offers. 

How will your interests and goals support their mission? What specific strengths will you add or hope to cultivate? Again, the focus should be on you and your expectations, not on over-explaining a program to its directors. 

Cite Strong Reasons to Choose a Particular Specialty

Clearly outline your interest in a particular specialty. Program directors want to know your understanding of and interest in a specialty. Highlight what you have done in your career to explore a specialty and detail some of your insights and observations. 

Perhaps you’ve researched the length of the residency and were swayed by it. Or you were intrigued by the nature of another one. The more details you can provide, the more persuasive you will be. 

For example, you might like acute care in emergency medicine but try to be more specific than that. What do you enjoy about the diagnoses and pathologies involved in emergency medicine? What do you enjoy about the patients in your care? What do you enjoy about the setting in which you will practice?

Include Your Personal and Professional Achievements 

Your achievements should demonstrate personal and professional growth over time. Your unique personal or professional achievement may not be listed on your CV. The personal statement is where you can delve into those exceptional and distinctive details about yourself that will set you apart from the crowd. 

Always uphold your credibility by being honest and authentic. People will pick up on subtle cues of inauthenticity. Remember, you don’t have to use your personal statement to convince someone of how perfect you are because perfection doesn’t exist. 

For example, if you achieve something with a group of colleagues, give credit where it’s due and don’t take the credit all for yourself. Remain true to who you are and the experiences you’ve had thus far. You don’t need to embellish or dramatize them to impress program directors. 

They’re looking for someone reliable, credible, and genuine.

Address Areas of Improvement on Your Application 

If anomalies are anywhere in your application, such as gap years or leaves of absence, address them with a brief explanation. You don’t need to dwell on areas that need improvement, and you shouldn’t provide long explanations or be defensive. 

It’s more important for your readers to see that you faced hardship but took steps to overcome it.

Deliver a Strong Closure

Lastly, end your statement with a punch. Don’t lose steam. Succinctly and naturally wrap up your story. You don’t want to end with a weak declarative statement like, “And that’s why I would be a great resident.” 

Instead, try to deliver a callback to your introduction and include the imagery and insights that bring everything together.

5 Things to Avoid in Your Personal Statement

There are certain things that you should avoid in your personal statement. As a rule of thumb, avoid topics and language that risk alienating your readers. Be aware of the following:

1. Acronyms and Jargon 

Avoid abbreviations, acronyms, and jargon. Don’t assume that your reader knows everything. Be courteous and spell everything out. According to The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), “If there’s a shorter, simpler, less pretentious way of putting it, use it.” 

2. Poor Writing Mechanics

Avoid informal, casual writing and poor sentence structure. Be professional and ensure your writing is free of grammatical and spelling errors. You don’t want programs to be distracted by errors while they read your story! 

3. Controversial Topics 

Avoid controversial topics like ethical issues, religion, and politics. You don’t want to make polarizing or offensive statements, so don’t cross the line. Even if the statements you make aren’t offensive, there’s no guarantee the person reviewing your application will agree with you. 

4. Rehashing Why You Want to Be a Doctor 

Avoid going into the origin story of why you wanted to become a doctor. You are not applying to medical school, so your personal statement should reflect deeper insights that support your professional and personal experiences. UCSF’s Office of Career & Professional Development offers this advice : 

“Presumably, new things have happened in the past four years that inform your decision to choose your specialty or career path, or that illustrate your dedication, leadership, and teaching skills, ability for empathy, etc.” Use these new experiences in your statement! 

5. Using Vague/Generic Language

Avoid vague and generic language. The most seasoned writers draw readers in with rich detail and nuance. Using descriptive language makes your statement easier to read and is much more likely to keep the reader’s attention. 

With these tips, you should be able to write your personal statement with ease.

Mistakes to avoid in a residency personal statement graphic

Get Professional Help Writing Your Residency Personal Statement

residents talking

Contrary to popular belief, writers don’t need to hole up in a dark room, slouch over a messy desk, hit a wall with writer’s block, and suffer in solitude. Ask for help! Even the world’s bestselling authors need editors. 

Your storytelling ability and writing skills will only improve when you receive editorial feedback from trusted professionals. Getting professional help on writing your narrative will get you closer to being accepted at your first-choice program.

Inspira Advantage is here for you. We are an admissions consulting firm with extensive experience helping candidates get accepted to their dream programs. An expert residency application consultant can ensure you get the support you need at every step while you write and edit your personal statement.

Residency Personal Statement Examples

​​Reading examples of residency personal essays that program directors consider effective is advantageous. Not only will you gain insight into how to structure your writing, but you will also learn why program directors and career advisors find certain personal statements more successful than others. 

We’ll review two good personal statement examples below. Please note that both have been anonymized to protect the authors’ privacy. 

Residency Personal Statement Example 1

Here is an ERAS sample personal statement: 

One of my most formative memories of medical school was a patient high-fiving me. A seemingly minute detail, that moment came as a culmination of spending hours with a neurologically devastated patient. At the young age of 40, he was unable to speak or even interact with any of the dozens of healthcare workers at his bedside every day. I felt helpless, yet compelled to spend my time talking and reading to him, and urging him to do simple things like turning his head. He suddenly dramatically improved, and it peaked when he gave me a high-five during rounds, after I had playfully asked for one every day for three weeks. In that moment, I felt elation that he was able to lift his arms and regain some ability and autonomy. Pride, in the healthcare system that I had chosen to be a part of. And surprise, that he had been hearing and processing my words all this time when he had given no indication of doing so. On that last day before transfer to a rehabilitation facility, he hung onto my arm and sobbed “thank you” while refusing to let go. I was so impacted by this patient because for such a long time, he was unable to communicate his wants and needs to the outside world. 

I believe medicine is the most fundamental form of equity and equality – ensuring someone’s health is the most elemental way to ensure justice for their being. As physicians, we are inherent agents of change, on both an individual and community level. I want to bring this to people all around the world – those desperately fighting just to survive and whose voices are not being heard. Global health is my calling – a consummation between my interest in humanity and my desire to heal historical traumas. This came as a lifelong dream after growing up on both the East Coast and Midwest, having been surrounded by large immigrant and refugee populations. My vested interest in global health has been reaffirmed through my experiences rotating at a children’s hospital in [city], Ghana, and taking trainings and courses aimed at decolonizing global health. Both in and out of my passion for global health came a natural attraction to med-peds. Both medicine and pediatrics have always drawn me in as they both afford me the opportunity to provide holistic care – fitting the puzzle pieces between physical, mental, and social health. Med-peds will also help me become the best trained and most adaptable physician for anyone, womb-to-tomb, in local and global medicine due to the vast fund of knowledge I will develop. 

One reason I best fit with med-peds is my adaptability and persistence. I have faced setbacks in my academic career, the biggest of which was after I failed a course during my second year and had to retake the semester. During a hiatus, I pursued independent sociology courses to expand my knowledge base. In the new semester, I developed new study techniques to truly learn medicine instead of just memorizing it. This experience helped me form a cycle of analyzing, changing, and re-examining the way I learn in different scenarios; I built on that methodology repeatedly as modes of learning changed, as evidenced by my step exam scores. I learned the value of reaching out, and I strived to become that person to lean on for my peers going through similar hardships. I am also proud that despite flaws in my test-taking acumen that I have worked on during my later years of medical school, I have always been able to readily apply my medical knowledge in the wards and clinics in a way that is reflected by my patient care. 

Furthermore, I see multiple sentiments of the med-peds community reflected in myself. Med-peds folk are mobilizers of change, always creating life-changing and systemic reforms – ideals to which I fiercely relate. I have done my best to embody the amplification of voices that I have seen so vigorously amongst my med-peds mentors both on an individual and community level. To that end, I have always prided myself on being a strong advocate for patients and acting as a loudspeaker for their voices. On a broad level, I started an organization early in my medical training called [organization name] which aims to alleviate food insecurity in [city], which has a complex racial history causing countless food deserts. I have been excited and proud to help [organization] partner up with local organizations and the student-run free clinic to expand access to nutritious foods. I learned to engage with religious and community leaders in [city] to build strong community relationships to sustain change. To address upstream causes, I am starting a voter registration drive for patients in my institution’s safety net med-peds clinic. These experiences taught me the strategy and logistics of organizing systemic changes and enlightened me to people’s powerful stories. 

I picture myself practicing a mix of both hospitalist medicine and primary care to adapt to any low-resource community. I want to establish continuity of care amongst those who need it most while also managing higher acuity situations. After rotating in Ghana, I hope to pursue a fellowship in global health after completing my residency. My first-hand experience exposed me to the unique conditions of disenfranchised nations that are not readily discussed in the US. I hope to utilize fellowship training to gain the critical knowledge and translational skills required to establish the greatest benefit. All in all, I am excited to use my experiences and skills to provide care to every type of patient, especially in low-resource settings. I am committed to amplifying the voices of the disenfranchised and helping navigate the difficult road towards better, more equitable healthcare. If, in the process, those voices come in the form of more high-fives, I would not complain.

Residency Personal Statement Example 2

Here is another example: 

It was not even the end of the first week of medical school, and I was fighting for my life — and the life of others. On September 19th 2017, Hurricane Maria hit and battered the Island of Dominica. I woke up the next day from a concussion after being thrown 20 feet in the air during the storm. This once lush island was reduced to brown sticks, live wires, and broken glass. I survived the storm, but the destructive aftermath was our new reality. 

During the evacuations and rescue missions, I solidified my purpose to become an Emergency Medicine physician. I joined the [EMS name], which was the only organized medical personnel available. One of my most inspiring experiences was the emergency medical evacuation of a six-month-old girl. This patient was an infant with untreated pneumonia. She came in with respiratory distress to our pop-up clinic at 1am. The child was assessed by the only physician on the island and her prognosis was poor, she was unlikely to survive the night. As a student, I realized that in these critical moments I want to be the first responder to aid and to make the best decisions for the patient. She needed to be on a ventilator, and we did not have the facilities or equipment to help the child, only the capacity to provide supplemental oxygen. With limited resources, we had to secure the airway if needed, and I was given the role to disinfect plastic tubing left on the ground. As we provided supportive care, we also organized the logistics of the medical evacuation – from security to cleaning a landing zone for the helicopter. As the helicopter finally arrived at 3am, the sign of relief was clouded by the debris inadvertently thrown towards us during the landing. Despite the difficulties, all team members were safe, and we were finally able to get the patient to a definitive center of care.  

To work in medicine, one must be able to function in a team. This event gave me first-hand experience of coordination of care. I was a part of this team for the little girl and learned the importance of delegating tasks, cooperation among members, and having defined goals. Moreover, I was tested to perform under pressure and think clearly. I have been able to translate these skills as I have moved forward with my education, always considering my responsibilities within a team in order to provide the best care. We found out that the little girl survived, and I could not help but feel relieved that our efforts were successful. At times, there is not always the end result that is hoped for however, it is important to persevere and act for the benefit of the patient. These challenges faced during the hurricane also reaffirmed my desire to address the needs of the population during emergency situations. I was exposed to making quick, yet thoughtful decisions in order to produce the best plan of action. These attributes are integral for patient care in the emergency room and I hope to continue to develop these skills as an emergency medicine physician.  

As my medical school journey continued, I experienced another challenge – completing my studies on a boat. We had no internet and there was limited space. I learned to cohabitate with four students in a 20 square foot living arrangement. We were docked at [country] during the night, but the school was at sea for four months during the days and we as a school were then displaced to various locations to complete our preclinical studies including [multiple cities]. The difficulties unfortunately continued, with the pandemic occurring at the start of my clinical rotations. The adversities of my limited learning environment did affect my academic performance and impeded me from participating in research opportunities. I struggled with trying to reset my foundational knowledge and had to repeat my third semester. Unfortunately, I shared similar setbacks in my USMLE step 1. I knew that my results did not reflect my abilities to become a clinician. I adapted and made appropriate changes in order to better my scores. I worked on expanding my medical knowledge by attending workshops, study groups, and taking extra time after class to talk to my professors in order to better understand the more complicated concepts. As a result, my clinical acumen improved. I strengthened my time management skills allowing me to study more efficiently, which proved successful as I bettered my Step 2 scores. I have learned how to study well despite distractions and this will be of benefit to me as a future physician.  

I did not have the conventional education as others, however the experiences that I encountered molded me into the individual I am today. My desire to help others brought me to the Ukrainian refugee camps as they faced a desperate humanitarian crisis during the war. I was drawn to volunteer this summer in [city] and joined the [organization name] to provide medical services to displaced civilians I wanted to improve people’s well-being through community healthcare services, medical care, and mental support. Having had my own experiences with disaster and crisis, I provided much needed empathy for those people who sensed that they have lost control of their livelihood. Being able to provide support and healthcare to this disenfranchised group of people was extremely gratifying. I continue to expand on my medical knowledge through my involvement in relief efforts and through my clinical education. I have learned to manage the external stressors of my environment, along with my academic deficiencies, by refocusing my efforts into robust translational skills. It is an important facet in my practice to take care of the welfare of the individual. Emergency Medicine would enable me to do so, providing a solid foundation to continue involvement in public health affairs and ability to impactfully respond to relief efforts. 

Medicine is a universal language that transcends borders, cultures, and languages. To know that someone is there to help you in your time of need, you do not have to understand the language they are speaking to feel that impact. Emergency medicine truly has no borders. The “ER” is a centralized area of care. However, as an emergency medicine physician, I will be able to apply my knowledge outside the walls of the hospital to the rest of the world. I want to be that healing hand, to help as many lives as I can – whether it be in global health or in my surrounding community. With Emergency Medicine, I can achieve that and protect those who need help the most. I hope to continue to pursue opportunities for community aid and patient advocacy as an effective first line of care. I want to not only be able to identify life-threatening conditions, but have the capacity to treat patients and provide access to the appropriate avenues for their continued care. I will always strive to be someone who runs towards people in need, never away. 

More Sample Residency Statements

Looking for more personal statement samples that worked? These medical schools also have examples: 

  • University of California – San Francisco 
  • University of Alabama School of Medicine 
  • University of Nevada School of Medicine 

You can view these statements to better understand the tone and format programs look for.

If you still have questions about writing your personal statement, check out these frequently asked questions. 

1. Is It Better to Cover All My Relevant Experiences, or Should I Discuss a Few in Particular?

When in doubt, quality over quantity. You should always aim to focus on one or two themes and include a few experiences in particular. Never sacrifice depth and detail just to accommodate quantity. If you write about all your relevant experiences, their significance will get lost in trying to compete for attention in a limited space. 

It looks better to hone in on key experiences and provide depth, self-reflection, and nuance. Your CV should list all your relevant experiences, not your essay.

2. Do I Have to Write a Personal Statement for Every Residency Program I Apply to?

No, you should not write a different personal statement for every program you apply to, but you should write one for every specialty. For example, prepare one for family medicine and one for emergency medicine. 

You do not have to completely rewrite personal statements for each specialty—you can use elements that will work across the board, like introductory or concluding sentences. Use your best judgment of what will work as a template, then tailor your personal statement for every specialty. 

3. I’m Applying to Multiple Specialties. Is There a Limit on the Number of Personal Statements I Can Upload?

No, there is no limit to the number of personal statements you can upload. Your writing should be tailored for the specific specialty.

4. How Long Should a Residency Personal Statement Be?

The length of your personal statement can vary depending on the specific requirements of the program or institution to which you are applying. However, as a general guideline, most programs recommend that essays be approximately one page long.

Typically, a one-page personal statement consists of around 750 to 850 words. Your writing should be concise, focused, and well-structured to effectively communicate your experiences, motivations, and qualifications.

Final Thoughts

Writing a residency application personal statement is stressful, but our step-by-step guide will make the process much easier as you navigate your application timeline . Now go forth and match into the residency program of your dreams. We believe in you.

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how to write residency personal statement

how to write residency personal statement

How to Write a Great Residency Personal Statement – 4 Easy Steps

  • July 2, 2020

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Applying for residency  can be challenging. Besides scoring an impressive GPA and performing well in your clinical rotations, you need to write a great personal statement for your residency application. Whether you are a third-year medical student or about to finish your medical school journey, many students find personal statement one of the most challenging components of their residency application.

If done right, your residency personal statement can increase your chances of getting a perfect residency match. Your residency personal statement provides you with an opportunity to show the residency director why you have chosen this medical specialty. You can make the most of your personal statement by showing your skills, qualities, and experience which will make you the best candidate for the job.

Here are some important things that you should keep in mind while preparing your personal statement that will surely help you match your dream residency program.

Reason for Choosing the Specialty

It is no surprise that the personal statement is your big opportunity to articulate who you are and why you want to pursue a career in this specific  medical specialty . You can set yourself apart from hundreds of other residency applicants by highlighting your accomplishments, interesting life experiences, and motivations for pursuing this medical specialty. It will help decide program directors whether you are a good fit for their hospital and do you have an in-depth understanding of the specialty of your interest.

Whether you want to become a surgeon, radiologist, pathologist, hematologist, or want to devote your life to any other branch of medicine. Clearly explain you have chosen the specific field based on something you find very interesting  during your medical school journey . Mention the relevant experience you had during clinical rotations and how you became interested in this specialty. Make sure your personal statement helps the residency program director understand what has led you to this medical specialty.

Highlight Your Personal Qualities

When it comes to writing your residency personal statement, it is important to focus on your personal qualities and skills. Show the selectors that you have the skills and qualities to succeed in this residency program you are aiming to enroll in. Explain to them what qualities you have and which skills you honed during clinical rotations, which make this specialty a perfect fit for your personality and career goals.

You may choose to relate your skills, such as problem-solving, critical thinking, communication skills that are relevant to your candidacy for the position. For instance, a meticulous candidate can become a perfect fit for a pathology residency program. Students with outstanding manual ability can be the right fit for the general surgery residency program. A student with excellent problem-solving skills can ensure success as a pathologist. By relating your talents and expertise to your chosen specialty, you can prove to the selection committee that you can succeed in this residency.

Your Goals and Future Plans

You will most likely send this personal statement to a large number of facilities. So, it is important to write about your future goals and career plans. Give the program director an idea of what you are planning to do after completing your residency. Show the committee how you will use the medical knowledge and clinical skills that you will gain during the residency for the benefit of patients. Whether you are planning to contribute your efforts in research, thinking of joining a medical school or working as a faculty member, or working as a volunteer in underserved regions. Tell your future plans in your residency personal statement and explain your vision for your career as a doctor.

Highlight any Gaps in Your Medical Education

Many applicants believe that highlighting their weaknesses, educational gaps, or evaluations that were less than satisfactory can break their chances of getting the desired residency program. However, it is not exactly the case. You should address your weaknesses in your personal statement. For example, if you failed an exam, tell the director what has happened and why didn’t you get satisfactory marks in the particular course. What you have learned by repeating the course, and now you know the best learning strategies and can better prepare for exams. Explain to them which skills you polished and what you have learned from your mistakes.

Final Thoughts

The residency program director is interested in the candidate behind the grades. You can communicate your motivations, career goals, ambitions, and personality through your residency personal statement. Invest your time, effort, and energy in crafting a stellar personal statement for your residency application. It can give you a leg up in the pool of applicants a residency program receives. So, keep these important steps in mind while preparing your residency personal statement and show the committee that you have the real potential to become a competent resident and an excellent physician.

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How to write the perfect residency personal statement

You already wrote a personal statement that got you into medical school. Here's how to write the perfect personal statement to land your dream residency!

David Flick, MD

Writing a personal statement for your residency application can be difficult. Not only is it a long process, but it also requires a good deal of introspection and thoughtfulness. You already know that you can write a great personal statement because you had to write one to get accepted into medical school. The question is, can you create a fresh narrative that is just as compelling as your previous one? My recommendation is to focus on the basics and build your story from there. In this article, we will review how to achieve an appropriate length, cohesive structure, and dynamic style in a personal statement.

Know the length of your residency personal statement

ERAS has a limit of 28,000 characters for the personal statement, which is about five pages! Considering that admissions officers have to read the demographics, transcripts, Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) , experiences section, personal statement, and letters of recommendation for every ERAS residency application, it is highly recommended that your essay comes nowhere near that 28,000-character limit. The goal of your personal statement is to convey your message concisely. With that in mind as you're writing your personal statement, one-and-a-quarter pages is the sweet spot.

Determine your personal statement structure

Now that you know how long the personal statement for your residency application should be, we need to discuss how to develop your essay. First, create an outline with a standard 4–5 paragraph structure. Within that outline, logically organize your content. There are many methods of organization to choose from, such as thematically or chronologically. However, it is important that your entire essay connects to a major theme. While it may seem daunting, breaking the essay into bite-sized, manageable pieces will make the process easier.

Each personal statement has three main components: the introduction, several body paragraphs, and a conclusion. While creating your outline, consider the purpose of each section below.

Get started with an introduction

The introduction serves as a way to engage a reader while stating the main message of your essay. Hook the reader with a story or anecdote that directly relates to what you will discuss. A long story is not needed here, and you certainly do not want to become lost in it, so provide just enough context to interest the reader and maintain the message. Have that hook lead into your introduction of a theme.

Build your body paragraphs

The body paragraphs enable you to explore and expand on the theme of your essay. You can talk about personal traits, professional skills, and life experiences. Be sure to include detailed examples. Also, this section is about proving that you will be a good doctor in your chosen field, so tailor your content accordingly.

Write a conclusion to wrap it up

The conclusion should summarize all of your information and create a strong finish. This does not mean that you can simply state, “For the reasons above, I believe I will make an excellent internist.” Show the reader that you are passionate, idealistic, and enthusiastic. Consider this revision of the preceding concluding sentence: “The practice of internal medicine is centered on improving the lives of adult patients, while also orchestrating and managing their complex care. In this field, the true challenge is to tailor these needs to the individual’s unique life story in order to maximize health. To me, this is the art of internal medicine.” With a statement like this, your conclusion is more personal and demonstrates passion for your future career.

By following a structure, your personal statement becomes a little more manageable. If you still find the process difficult, start by developing one component at a time. After you define your structure and create a working draft, you can focus on your voice and writing style.

Find your voice and rhythm with dynamic writing

Dynamic writing is all about finding your voice and rhythm. Here are some ways to evaluate and improve your writing:

● Read your writing out loud. If you find yourself stumbling over certain areas, or are confused, then those are the areas that most likely need editing. You can also have a friend or family member read your essay out loud to you. It may help you to catch more areas to edit.

● Look out for repetitive patterns in your writing. This can be easily fixed by varying your sentence structure and the length of your sentences.

● Avoid hyphens, semicolons, and ellipses. They are rarely appropriate in formal writing and can indicate that a change in sentence structure is needed.

● Avoid quotations if you can. Using other people’s words in your essay takes away from your own voice.

Use precise language and vocabulary

The goal of writing is to communicate. Whether it’s for a casual, academic, or professional audience, your vocabulary should be clear and simple. Avoid “flowery” language entirely. This is not the time to practice your use of a thesaurus. Nor does this mean that your language should be bland or redundant. In fact, you should vary your language. If you find yourself overusing certain words, then rephrase the sentence or change the structure. Additionally, be sure to use a formal style when writing your personal statement. Formal prose includes avoiding the use of contractions as well as using direct communication and an active voice, among other attributes. Following these recommendations will make the reading experience better.

Start writing your personal statement!

Hopefully, this article has pointed you in the right direction and given you the tools you need to start writing your personal statement. If you still need help writing your personal statement for your ERAS application , preparing for your residency interview, or you do not know how to get started on your application, MedSchoolCoach can help.

Writing the Perfect Residency Personal Statement

If you’re in your third year of medical school, it’s time to sharpen your personal statement writing skills again for the ERAS application .

The good news is you already wrote a great one that got you accepted into medical school ! Now, you’ll need to dig deep and channel the same creative spirit that was there about 3 years ago. 

Many applicants are looking for a special formula for writing a personal statement . But here’s the truth: There’s no secret formula. A fantastic residency personal statement includes well-written storytelling detailing your experiences as a medical student and why you’re an excellent fit for the residencies you’re applying to.

In this article, we’ll talk about inspiration, length, structure, and dynamic writing. Let’s dive in.

What is the ERAS personal statement, and why do you need to write one?

Your residency personal statement is similar to your medical school personal statement in that it’s your chance to directly make a case for yourself . Residency program directors use these essays to get to know you beyond your CV. They can only learn so much about you from your medical education history.

Most of the information program directors use to determine if you’re a good fit is quantitative —  GPAs, USMLE scores, etc. Odds are, these numbers will be fairly similar across the board. 

What sets you apart from other applicants will be qualitative — your personal experiences and career goals, whether you’re hard-working or a team player.

What should you include in your residency personal statement ?

In your residency personal statement , include your experiences and interests that have driven your ambition to mature as a medical professional.

Take time to think about what qualities you’d expect in an exemplary physician. Then, create a list of topics reflecting these qualities from your background.  

Create a list of ideas of what to write from these prompts:

  • Memorable or “a-ha” moments during medical school (including specific rotations ) that changed the way you think about medicine.
  • Volunteering or non-profit work.
  • Your greatest skills and qualities and how you use them when practicing medicine.
  • Specific instances of when you used strong teamwork skills.
  • A personal anecdote that isn’t included on a resume, like an elective that led to an unexpected encounter with a patient that you won’t forget.
  • Professors, mentors , family, friends, or anyone else that has inspired your path.
  • Your goals in your future career.
  • Reasons you are drawn to your specialty.
  • Meaningful experiences in medical school or extracurriculars .
  • Your most commendable achievements.

Why did you choose your specialty?

When you explain why you chose a specialty, discuss the reasons why you enjoy that specialty and how your strengths will apply to your future career. 

Make your answer heartfelt and honest. If your only reasons are money and the lifestyle, your chances of an interview with the program directors will plummet.

Answer these questions while brainstorming :

  • What appeals to you about this specialty?
  • Did past experiences or clinicals influence your decision for this program?
  • What do you believe are the most important qualities for a physician in this specialty? How have you begun to cultivate these qualities in yourself?
  • Are there future goals you want to achieve in this specialty?
  • Have you done any research related to this field or the advancement of this specialty?

How long should a personal statement be for residency?

The personal statement essay section on ERAS allows for 28,000 characters (about 5 pages). 

Our advice? Don’t max out your character count.

Program directors must read the demographics, transcripts, MSPE, experiences section, personal statement , and letters of recommendation before making a decision. That’s a lot of reading.

Your goal is to make your point concisely — writing about a page plus a paragraph is the sweet spot.

Personal Statement Structure

Many applicants don’t know where to start, so we suggest breaking the essay into bite-sized pieces. Use a standard 4-5 paragraph structure. This way, you’ve got small, manageable goals.

Write your residency personal statement using:

  • An introduction paragraph.
  • 2-3 paragraphs to expand on your theme.
  • A conclusion paragraph to tie it all together.

Introduction

Draw the reader in with a story or anecdote, and introduce a theme. A narrative voice works well here to engage the reader and get them interested. 

Don’t tell an extensive story; provide just enough to provide context and introduce a theme.

Body Paragraphs (2-3)

Explore and expand on the central theme of your personal statement . You can talk about the traits or life experiences that will make you good at family medicine , dermatology , or whatever specialty you’re pursuing. 

Ensure you’re being specific to the specialty — you don’t need to prove you’ll be a good doctor so much as a good doctor in the field you’re applying to .

Wrap everything up and end with a “bang.” The conclusion should serve to bring all your points together in one place. When I say end with a “bang,” I mean to finish strong . 

Stating: “For the reasons above, I believe I will make an excellent internist, ” doesn’t leave the reader with much.

Try something a bit more passionate, idealistic, and enthusiastic. Here’s an example:

“ Internal medicine is centered around improving lives, orchestrating, and managing complex patient care . To me, the true challenge is in the art of internal medicine — to tailor to patients’ needs to maximize their health and improve their overall quality of life.”

With this approach to the structure of your personal statement , the essay becomes more manageable. You can set yourself mini-assignments by just developing one component at a time. Complete one portion each week, and you’ll be done by the end of the month!

Should a residency personal statement have a title? 

There is no hard and fast rule about whether a residency personal statement should have a title. Ultimately, the decision about whether or not to include a title in your personal statement is up to you.

Consider these factors when deciding whether or not to include a title:

  • A good title can serve as a headline for the reader, making your essay stand out before they even start reading. 
  • A good title can make your statement stand out and help it to be more memorable.
  • On the other hand, a poorly chosen or overly generic title could actually detract from your personal statement.

Most residency programs do not require, or even want, a title for personal statements. Be sure to check the program’s guidelines before including one.

If you do choose to include a title, make sure it is relevant, concise, and impactful. Avoid overly generic or cliche titles, and focus on conveying the main message or theme of your personal statement. 

It is less common to have a title, so if you do it right, you may stand out from the crowd.

How To Make Your Personal Statement Stand Out

Take time to brush up on your writing skills to make your personal statement stand out . 

These skills may not have been your focus in the last few years, but concisely expressing your dedication to the specialty will retain a program director ’s attention. 

Oh, and always remember to proofread and check your grammar! If you specifically prompt ChatGPT to “review your personal statement for grammar and punctuation only,” it does a pretty good job. 

Just be sure not to have AI write your personal statement, as it doesn’t know your stories, and can’t convey your sentiment, tone, or emotion.

Language and Vocabulary

The simpler, the better. Hand your essay to a friend or family member to proofread. If they have to stop and look up any word, it’s probably the wrong word choice. Maybe it’s the perfect word for the sentence, but anything that distracts the reader from the content is a problem.

Avoid the following:

  • Contractions. Contractions are informal language. They aren’t appropriate for applications or professional writing.
  • “Really” as in “I really learned a lot.” Try the word “truly” instead. It sounds more sincere.
  • “Really” or “very” as in “it was a really/very great experience.” Here, “really” is a qualifier that holds the place of a better word choice; e.g., Really great = fantastic, wonderful, exquisite; Very important = paramount, momentous, critical.

Simple sentence structure is usually the best. Follow these rules:

  • Avoid quotations if you can. This is your essay, and it should focus on what you have to say, not someone else. There may be exceptions to this rule (like a statement a professor made that changed the course of your medical career), but these are rare.
  • Punctuate correctly. Misplaced commas or a missing period can distract a reader from your content. If grammar isn’t your strong suit, have a friend (or a spellchecker like Grammarly) check your essay for errors.

Avoid Clichés

Saying you want to go into pediatrics because you love kids might be true, but it’s also a given. Everyone going into healthcare is interested in helping people. 

This is your opportunity to make it more personal. Talk about the life experiences that have uniquely informed your career path and what makes you different from every other med student trying to get a residency interview . 

Don’t Make It Too Complicated

Be simple, straight to the point, and authentic. 

Aim for clear wording that communicates your central theme. If you talk about your professional future and goals, they should be realistic and carefully considered. Your goal is to leave program directors with a strong impression of your character and maturity. 

Try Dynamic Writing

Dynamic writing is all about feel and rhythm. Even good content written poorly can come out flat. Here are some cues to evaluate and improve your writing:

  • Read your writing out loud. Do you have to catch your breath in the middle of a sentence? If so, the sentence is too long and needs some additional punctuation, editing, or to be split up.
  • Vary your sentence structure and/or the length of the sentences. When you’re reading, do you feel like there is a repetitive rhythm? This usually results from too many short sentences stacked on top of each other.

Be Prepared To Revise Your Statement

You’ve done this part before. Once the bulk of your statement is done, have someone else read it, then start revising. The great thing about the revision process is that you don’t have to write the first draft perfectly. 

If you can afford it, consider working with a professional team for help with the residency application process , including personal statement editing.

Our friends at MedSchoolCoach can help you with personal statement editing. 

Should you write multiple ERAS personal statements ?

Write a residency personal statement relevant to each specialty you apply to, each with a clearly stated goal.

While it’s a good idea to write a personal statement for every specialty you apply to, you don’t have to write one for each specific program . Maybe you have research experience in a few different specialties and aren’t sure where you’ll get residency training .

A blanket personal statement to cover all specialties is bland at best and, at worst, a red flag . Your interest in becoming an OB/GYN should be informed by different experiences than your interest in anesthesiology or plastic surgery .

Anyone who reads your personal statement should have all the relevant information for integrating you into their program. Don’t overshare experiences or learnings from irrelevant rotations , classes, or experiences.

Let’s say you send your personal statement to a program director for a radiology residency program . If he reads that you’re torn between radiology and emergency medicine , is he more likely to accept you, or an applicant who seems all-in for his program’s specialty?

Ready to write? Get your residency personal statement prepared!

It’s time to knock out that first paragraph ! We have given you the structure and tools to write a personal statement that reflects your strengths. Remember, there’s no formula for the perfect personal statement , but there are tried and true methods for strong writing.

Schedule a free consultation with MedSchoolCoach to see how we can help you increase your chances of matching into the residency of your choice. 

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Writing a Personal Statement for Residency Application

Personal statements are an essential, required part of applying to residency. Residency programs screen thousands of applications every cycle and read many hundreds of these statements in the process. You should aim to write an interesting statement that showcases your personality as well as your achievements. Perhaps most importantly, you will need to skillfully articulate the reasons for your interest in family medicine and the particular program you're applying to.

How to Write a Great Personal Statement

A great personal statement sets itself apart from a good personal statement in several ways.

  • First, it includes a level of specificity that shows your motivations and interests are authentic. For example, when conveying why you want to match into family medicine, show awareness of the exciting developments in the specialty, or describe your experience with or knowledge of topics like population health management, care coordination, and the social determinants of health.
  • Feel free to highlight items in your CV if they help remind your reader of the experiences you’ve had that prepared you for the position. This is your opportunity to expand upon activities that are just listed in the CV but deserve to be described so your reader can appreciate the breadth and depth of your involvement in them. It should not be another comprehensive list of your activities, but rather should refer to activities that are listed in detail on the CV.
  • The personal statement is also an appropriate place to address anything that may be ambiguous on your CV. In particular, you should address any nontraditional path you’ve taken through medical school, such as time off or an altered curricular journey. It is better to address these than to leave a program wondering. If you write about academic or personal challenges that you faced during medical school, make a positive impression by focusing on what you've learned from those experiences and how they brought you to where you are now. 

You may choose to relate significant personal experiences, but do so only if they are relevant to your candidacy for the position.

Sharpen Your Writing Skills 

The importance of good writing in a personal statement cannot be overemphasized. Unfortunately, not only are good writing skills allowed to deteriorate during medical school, but in some sense, they also are deliberately undermined in the interest of learning to write concise histories and physicals. For the moment, forget everything you know about writing histories and physicals. While preparing your personal statement:

  • Avoid abbreviations.
  • Avoid repetitive sentence structure.
  • Avoid using jargon. If there is a shorter, simpler, less pretentious way of putting it, use it.
  • Don't assume your reader knows the acronyms you use. As a courtesy, spell everything out.
  • Use a dictionary and spell check. 
  • Use a thesaurus. Variety in the written language can add interest, but don't get carried away.
  • Write in complete sentences.

If you need a crash course in good writing, read  The Elements of Style ,  Fourth Edition  by Strunk and White. If you have friends or relatives with writing or editing skills, enlist their help. Student organizations at your school may host personal statement clinics, or your school may offer review services. Many student, medical, and specialty societies, local and national, may offer personal statement reviews or workshops.

Even if you're a great writer and feel confident about your application, you should ask trusted advisors, mentors, and friends to critique your personal statement (and your CV! ). They can help you make your statement as flawless as possible by giving you feedback about areas that might have been unclear or things that should be added.

Don't cross the line

Your personal statement should remain an original composition, even as you seek input and advice. Retain your voice as you refine your writing and don't ever plagiarize. Be aware of other ethical lines you shouldn't cross as well, for example, don't use vague references that would allow for the reader to misinterpret the nature of your experience, and don't take full credit for a project if others worked on it with you.

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Ten Steps for Writing an Exceptional Personal Statement

Danielle jones.

All authors are with Emory University School of Medicine

Danielle Jones, MD, is Associate Professor of Medicine, Associate Section Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine Grady Section, and Associate Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency

J. Richard Pittman, Jr

J. Richard Pittman Jr, MD, is Associate Professor of Medicine, and Program Director, Fourth Year Internal Medicine Sub-Internship

Kimberly D. Manning

Kimberly D. Manning, MD, FACP, FAAP, is Professor of Medicine, and Associate Vice Chair, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Department of Medicine

The personal statement is an important requirement for residency and fellowship applications that many applicants find daunting. Beyond the cognitive challenge of writing an essay, time limitations for busy senior residents on clinical rotations present added pressure. Objective measures such as scores and evaluations paint only a partial picture of clinical and academic performance, leaving gaps in a candidate's full portrait. 1 , 2 Applicants, seemingly similar on paper, may have striking differences in experiences and distances traveled that would not be captured without a personal narrative. 2 , 3 We recommend, therefore, reframing personal statements as the way to best highlight applicants' greatest strengths and accomplishments. A well-written personal statement may be the tipping point for a residency or fellowship interview invitation, 4 , 5 which is particularly important given the heightened competition for slots due to increased participation on virtual platforms. Data show that 74% to 78% of residency programs use personal statements in their interview selection process, and 48% to 54% use them in the final rank. 6 , 7 With our combined 50 years of experience as clerkship and residency program directors (PDs) we value the personal statement and strongly encourage our trainees to seize the opportunity to feature themselves in their words.

Our residency and medical school leadership roles position us to edit and review numerous resident and student personal statements annually. This collective experience has helped us identify patterns of struggle for trainees: trouble starting, difficulty organizing a cogent narrative, losing the “personal” in the statement, and failing to display unique or notable attributes. While a bland personal statement may not hurt an applicant, it is a missed opportunity. 4 , 8 We also have distinguished helpful personal statement elements that allow PDs to establish candidates' “fit” with their desired residency or fellowship. A recent study supports that PDs find unique applicant information from personal statements helpful to determine fit. 4 Personal statement information also helps programs curate individualized interview days (eg, pair interviewers, guide conversations, highlight desirable curricula). Through our work with learners, we developed the structured approach presented here ( Figure 1 ). Applicants can use our approach to minimize typical struggles and efficiently craft personal statements that help them stand out. Busy residents, particularly, have minimal time to complete fellowship applications. We acknowledge there is no gold standard or objective measures for effective personal statement preparation. 9 Our approach, however, combined with a practical tool ( Figure 2 ), has streamlined the process for many of our mentees. Moreover, faculty advisors and program leaders, already challenged by time constraints, can use this tool to enhance their coaching and save time, effort, and cognitive energy.

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Structured Approach to Writing a Personal Statement

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Ten Steps for Writing an Exceptional Personal Statement: Digital Tool

Note: Use the QR code to download the digital tool and follow the 10 steps highlighted in Figure 1.

Given word count and space limitations, deciding what to include in a personal statement can be challenging. An initial brainstorm helps applicants recall personal attributes and experiences that best underscore key strengths (Step 1). 10 Writing explicit self-affirmations is challenging, so we recommend pairing with a near peer who may offer insight. Useful prompts include:

  • ▪ What 3 words best encapsulate me?
  • ▪ What accomplishments make me proud?
  • ▪ What should every program know about me?

Reflecting on these questions (Step 2) helps elucidate the foundations of the narrative, 10 including strengths, accomplishments, and unique elements to be included. Additionally, the preparation steps help uncover the “thread” that connects the story sequentially. While not all agree that personal or patient stories are necessary, they are commonly included. 5 One genre analysis showed that 97% of applicants to residency programs in internal medicine, family medicine, and surgery used an opening that included either a personal narrative (66%) and/or a decision to enter medicine (54%) or the specialty of choice (72%). 9 Radiology PDs ranked personal attributes as the second most important component in personal statements behind choice of specialty. 9 Further, a descriptive study of anesthesia applicants' personal statements ranked those that included elements such as discussion of a family's or friend's illness or a patient case as more original. 3 We feel that personal and patient stories often provide an interesting hook to engage readers, as well as a mechanism to highlight (1) personal characteristics, (2) journey to and/or enthusiasm for desired discipline, and (3) professional growth, all without giving the impression of being boastful. Sketching these Step 2 fundamentals prepares applicants to begin writing with intention.

Writing and Structuring

Once key elements are identified, the next steps assist with the actual writing. Utilizing information gleaned from the “Preparing” steps, start with a freewriting exercise (Step 3), an unrestricted association of ideas aimed at answering, “What experiences have cultivated my strong interest in pursuing [______]?” At this stage, ignore spelling and grammar. Just write, even if the product is the roughest, rough draft imaginable. 10 Setting a timer for 10 to 15 minutes establishes a less intimidating window to start. Freewriting generates the essential initial content that typically will require multiple revisions. 10

Next, we recommend structuring the freewriting content into suggested paragraphs (Step 4), using the following framework to configure the first draft:

  • ▪ Introductory paragraph: A compelling story, experience, or something that introduces the applicant and makes the reader want to know more (the hook). If related to a patient or other person, it should underscore the writer's qualities.
  • ▪ Paragraph 2: Essential details that a program must know about the applicant and their proudest accomplishments.
  • ▪ Paragraph(s) 3-4: Specific strengths related to the specialty of choice and leadership experiences.
  • ▪ Closing paragraph: What the applicant values in a training program and what they believe they can contribute.

Evaluate what has been written and ensure that, after the engaging hook, the body incorporates the best pieces identified during the preparation steps (Step 5). A final paragraph affords ample space for a solid conclusion to the thread. Occasionally the narrative flows better with separate strengths and leadership paragraphs for a total of 5, but we strongly recommend the final statement not exceed 1 single-spaced page to reduce cognitive load on the reader.

This part of the process involves revising the piece into a final polished personal statement. Before an early draft is shared with others, it should be evaluated for several important factors by returning to the initial questions and then asking (Step 6):

“Does this personal statement…”

  • Amplify my strengths, highlight my proudest accomplishments, and emphasize what a program must know about me?
  • Have a logical flow?
  • Accurately attribute content and avoid plagiarism?
  • Use proper grammar and avoid slang or profanity?

While not as challenging as the other steps, optimization takes time. 10 At this stage, “resting” the draft for 1 week minimum (Step 7) puts a helpful distance between the writer and their work before returning, reading, and editing. 10 Writers can edit their own work to a point, but they often benefit by enlisting a trusted peer or advisor for critiques. Hearing their draft read aloud by a peer or advisor allows the applicant to evaluate the work from another perspective while noting how well it meets the criteria from the tool (provided as online supplementary data).

A virtual or in-person meeting between applicant and mentor ultimately saves time and advances the writer to a final product more quickly than an email exchange. Sending the personal statement in advance helps facilitate the meeting. Invite the advisor to candidly comment on the tool's criteria to yield the most useful feedback (Step 8). When done effectively, edits can be made in real time with the mentor's input.

We bring closure to the process by focusing on spelling and grammar checks (Step 9). Clarity, conciseness, and the use of proper English were rated as extremely important by PDs. 3 , 9 Grammatical errors distract readers, highlight inattention to detail, and detract from the personal statement. 3 , 9 Once more, we recommend resting the draft before calling it final (Step 10). If the piece required starting over or significant rewriting based on feedback received, we also suggest seeking additional feedback on this draft, ideally from someone in the desired residency or fellowship discipline. If only minor edits (eg, flow, language) were incorporated, the personal statement can be considered complete at this time.

Writing a personal statement represents a unique opportunity for residency and fellowship applicants to amplify their ERAS application beyond the confines of its objective components. 3 Using this stepwise approach encourages each personal statement to be truly personal and streamlines the process for applicants and reviewers alike. All stakeholders benefit: applicants, regardless of their scores and academic metrics, can arm themselves with powerful means for self-advocacy; PDs gain a clearer idea of individual applicants, allowing them to augment the selection process and curate the individual interview day; and faculty mentors can offer concrete direction to every mentee seeking their help.

residency personal statement

Residency Personal Statement [Ultimate Guide]

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There’s no doubt that a strong application for a residency program will open new doors and bring in a lot of opportunities for you. Aside from your shiny USMLE or COMLEX scores and your GPA in medical school, residency program directors look for a specific reason to accept you – and a residency personal statement is what they need.

In this post, we’re going to shed some light on your residency personal statement – enabling you to learn how to write a phenomenal personal statement that will land you an interview so you can match into the specialty you desire!

Table Of Contents

What Is A Residency Personal Statement?

what is a residency personal statement

A residency personal statement is one of the requirements when applying to residency programs. This is a formal letter that you get to write and personalize yourself to further showcase your strengths as an individual and as a potential resident of the specialty you desire to match into.

It is a medium that enables you to improve your residency application by going beyond what’s written in your CV and letting the program directors see why you’re perfect for their residency.

How Important Is The Personal Statement For Residency?

how important is the personal statement for residency

The National Residency Matching Program’s (NRMP) Director Survey shows a chart on the percentage of programs citing each factor and mean importance rating for each factor in selecting applicants to interview.

Here are the top 10 cited factors that residency program directors consider when choosing which applicants will pass to the succeeding stages of the application process.

residency personal statement (1)

Figure 1. Top 10 Factors Residency Program Directors Consider When Selecting Qualified Applicants

As we can derive from the figure above, residency program directors prioritize USMLE Step 1 /COMLEX Level 1 scores, letters of recommendation , Medical Student Performance Evaluation, USMLE Step 2 CK /COMLEX Level 2 scores, and residency personal statements come in at fifth place with a 78% citing factor and an average rating of 3.7.

Residency program directors will always put those numbers in your residency application on top of their list of priorities. If there’s anything I learned about mathematics is that numbers are universal. Your scores are what it is and there’s no other way of trying to understand it.

No matter what kind of student you were in medical school, how you treat your colleagues, or your attitude towards work and rotations – the first thing people will ask you is how much you have scored on your Step 1.

However, residency program directors are not just interested in these numbers alone. Otherwise, letters of recommendation and residency personal statements wouldn’t even be in the top 5 factors in selecting applicants for residency programs.

See, chances are, the applicants you’ll be competing with would have the similar USMLE or COMLEX scores as you. Everyone is competent enough to be accepted – so how is this going to pan out?

The residency personal statement serves as the tiebreaker for such situations. Your scores as yours to keep but your residency personal statement sets you apart from the rest – helping them remember your residency application as something to consider.

This is the opportunity offered to you to voice out your goals and motivations why you’re diving into the specialty that you are applying for. Doing so will help the directors determine for themselves if you’re applying to become the future physician that they’re exactly looking for and not just because you need something to pay the bills for.

What Do You Write In A Residency Personal Statement?

what do you write in a residency personal statement

Your residency personal statement should embody who you are as an individual and as an applicant.

While letters of recommendation provide qualitative information about an applicant from the eyes of the people around him, residency personal statements solely come from the words of the applicant.

Thus, it is a language understood only by the applicants and the program directors where they could know more about your personality and strengths and decide whether you would fit the environment and standards of their residency program.

Of course, for your residency personal statement to achieve its full capabilities – you must be able to write a coherent letter which includes some aspects that program directors expect to see.

You could ask for residents you know if you could have a glimpse of their residency personal statements for you to have an idea where you should start. There are also a ton of examples all over the Internet which I’ll be providing you later on.

Here are some of the common things to be written in a residency personal statement. Make sure that your residency personal statement answers the questions below. These are also a great place to start if you feel lost and have no idea what to write.

Motivations Behind Career and Specialty Choice

  • What has drawn you to pursue this specialty among others?
  • What are the instances in your life and in all your years of medical school that piqued your interest in this specialty?
  • How and what led you to decide that medicine is what you want to pursue as a career?
  • What medical cause do you feel should be addressed by you?

Qualities or Skills To Help You As A Resident

  • What are your strengths that other applicants don’t have?
  • How are your skills and qualities going to help you succeed as a medical practitioner?
  • Could the residency directors expect more from you?
  • Are you capable of learning and improving?
  • How do you think these will enable you to excel in this specialty?

Plans For The Long Term

  • What do you expect from this specialty in the long run?
  • What do you hope to accomplish besides paying the bills and making the world a better place to live in for patients?
  • Are you planning to become a partner or stay as employed?
  • How do you see your career in this specialty progressing, 20 years in time?

Personal Attributes Relevant To Your Specialty

  • If you’re applying for a pediatrics residency program, are you easily approachable by kids and their parents?
  • Are you empathetic towards women and have respect for their decisions?
  • Do you have the leadership skills that a surgeon needs?
  • What are the instances wherein you have strongly demonstrated your personal attributes to a clinical setting?

Accomplishments You’re Proud Of

  • Are there any extracurricular activities that are meaningful to you?
  • What are the accomplishments you feel most proud of? If these are already mentioned in your CV but you feel like this one certain accomplishment is kind of ambiguous and worth expanding on, then go ahead.

How Long Should A Residency Personal Statement Be?

As tempting it may be to tell your whole story on how you have decided to become a physician, don’t be that kind of applicant. Keep your residency personal statement at about just 3500 characters or 500 words. Make sure that you don’t go over 1 page.

You just want to promote your strengths, qualities, and skills at a personal level since your USMLE or COMLEX scores don’t really provide an insight as to what kind of person you are and how you approach your work. That’s all there is to it.

What Makes A Great Residency Personal Statement?

what makes a great personal statement for residency

A Unique Take Behind Your Medical Journey

Every aspiring medical practitioner has a story to tell. Think of a unique story coming from a very particular point in your life that had led you to realize that you want to pursue a career in the field of medicine.

The introduction should tell the story of the exact moment of your transition to be an aspiring physician . If you are one of the applicants who was dead set on a particular specialty before experiencing rotations and had a change of heart as you were going through with it – explain why and how you felt in this transition.

It’s important for you to write everything in detail . Writing the introduction with detail delivers the story vividly and clearly to the reader of your residency personal statement. Make them feel like they were with you on that day.

You want this story to be powerful but not too emotional, substantial but brief, specific but not too revealing, and something that only you can write . Make it memorable and something to remember. Give the program directors a chance to ask more about you on the day of the interview.

Personalizing Personal Statements

Everyone’s journey in the field of medicine is personal . A residency personal statement is not a place for enumerating every single achievement in your life and selling yourself like hot pancakes.

Your CV, USMLE or COMLEX scores, and letters of recommendation , are already enough quantitative and qualitative information to determine your competency.

A residency personal statement is one of the requirements for residency programs because they want to be able to connect with you on a personal level. They want to understand you as a person and as a potential resident.

Also, because they need something to talk about in your interview.

You must be able to describe how medicine is integral to you as an individual . How has it become something that can describe you as who you are, without wearing that white coat and a stethoscope wrapped around your neck?

Describe how your personality, interests, and the course of your life relate to the specialty you want to match into. Connect the dots from personal to professional.

An Unexpected Turn of Events

As a fan of movies, I fancy characters who display change and growth throughout the story. There’s nothing more boring than a one-trick pony kind of character. A movie with a character like that is not worth watching. Never watching it again for the rest of my life.

You could think of these residency program directors as an audience of the story of your medical journey. Provide them with a timeline that exemplary showcases why and how your points of view, opinions, and perspectives of yourself have changed throughout your journey before and during medical school.

Did you also have failures that had dramatically impacted the course of your life? Don’t be insecure about these failures and use them to your advantage. Sometimes your failures could even be seen as strengths.

Failures are a part of the things that make you who you are now. Program directors would most likely be interested in how you have overcome these failures and how you have used it as a pedestal to become wiser and stronger as a person and as a medical practitioner.

The Kind of Doctor You Want to Become

Do you picture yourself as a doctor who only cares about the politics inside the hospital? Do you see yourself as the kind of doctor who prioritizes the health and safety of your patients and staff above everything else? Are you going to be a doctor for yourself or the patients?

Promoting the current version of yourself in your residency personal statement gives the program directors an image of how you’re going to approach your work as a resident. However, you must also give them a visualization of the kind of doctor you want to be in the long run . This gives them something to look forward to.

What Should You Not Write In A Residency Personal Statement

what should you not write in a residency personal statement

Avoid Being Dramatic

You need to keep the tone of your statement to be as formal as possible even if you’re talking about yourself. You may be a bit carried away which could push you into writing a statement that’s kind of dramatic in a sense.

In other words – don’t make your residency personal statement a screenplay for a medical drama . You want to hook your reader by providing them interesting substances, not by adding too much flare. Keep your choice of words formal but personal, as well.

No Need For Rehashing

Don’t try to reiterate what’s already on your CV. Doing so is only a waste of paper, ink, and you’re only throwing this opportunity into the trash. You’re not helping anyone else . This is only acceptable if certain things seem ambiguous but deserves to be discussed more.

Don’t Be Too Declarative

Many applicants feel the need to advocate themselves in a sense that they deserve to be accepted to the residency program they are applying for. While I appreciate the confidence and credit the applicant gives himself – this is not unique. Anyone can write something like that.

Remember, your residency personal statement should be something that could only be written by you, no one else.

You Don’t Have To Promote The Specialty

What’s a promotion of the specialty doing in your personal statement? Program directors know what they’re doing and for what cause. Don’t waste your time and some paper on promoting the specialty you are applying for.

While I understand that applicants do this because they feel like they should come off as knowledgeable in the field, program directors are confident that you know plentiful enough about the specialty. Otherwise, why are you even writing that residency personal statement in the first place?

Don’t promote the specialty. Instead, promote yourself.

Residency Personal Statement Examples

residency personal statement examples

Below are some exemplary samples of residency personal statements that bring out the personality, strengths, and qualities of the applicant that sufficiently and efficiently provides an image as to why he is a perfect fit for the program.

For An Anesthesiology Residency Program Applicant

“Growing up the first-born daughter of a hard-working Saskatchewan cattle farmer and hairdresser, medicine was never a consideration. In a small town, I could easily see how too much free time got many of my peers in trouble. From grade 8-12 I devoted myself to sports, playing high school, club and provincial beach volleyball, weeknights, and weekends year-round. Despite my small stature and lack of innate abilities, with determination and persistence, I overcame these obstacles. At the end of my grade 11 year, I received an athletic scholarship and chose to pursue business administration and athletics.

After the first six months, it became apparent that I was not going to attain my full potential in education at [university name}. Despite my parent’s reservations, I left and enrolled at a [university name] for the next semester. This university was much more challenging as I was now balancing my educational and financial responsibilities by working evenings and weekends managing several part-time jobs. With little direction as to what degree I wanted to pursue, I happened to enroll in anatomy and physiology. This was the first time I became excited about my prospects and began actively considering a career in medicine.

The first time I applied to medicine, I was rejected. Despite my initial devastation, in hindsight, it was a great opportunity for me to reflect on my motivations for medicine and work as a laboratory technician at a potash mine in my hometown. I gained additional life experience, spent time with my family, and was able to help financially support my husband’s pursuit of education after he had so selflessly supported me for many years.

My first exposure to anesthesia was in my first year of medical school with [Dr. name here] as my mentor in clinical reasoning. I was again, intrigued by the anatomy and physiology with the interlacing of pharmacology. I remained open to all specialties, however, after summer early exposures, research, and clerkship it became clear to me that anesthesia is where I felt the most fulfilled and motivated.

In a way, anesthesia was reminiscent of the competitive volleyball I had played years prior. I was again a part of a team in the operating room with a common goal. Similarly, our countless years of education and practice had brought us together to achieve it. In volleyball, my role was the setter, which to many is considered a lackluster position as we rarely attack the ball and score points with power. However, as a setter, my role is to set the pace, strategize, and dictate the game from my team’s perspective. There is a long sequence of crucial events before a “kill” in volleyball and I strategized my teammate’s individual strengths in both offense and defense to win. Anesthesia gives me the same opportunities to strategize anesthetics, balance individual patient’s comorbidities and anatomy all while maintaining a calm demeanor and level head through unexpected circumstances. In volleyball, I never shied away from tense games or difficult situations, instead I trusted in my own abilities and training despite uncharted territory. Lastly, I didn’t need to actually score the point in order to understand my role and contributions to my team.

As an athlete, I understand the importance of practice and repetition which allows us to fail, but most importantly, to learn. I believe that the curriculum at this program will provide me with a well-respected education, which strongly reflects my learning style. I also admire the mandatory communication block in the curriculum because I believe an emphasis on clear and concise communication, is essential as an anesthetist.

Throughout the course of the next 5-10 years, I anticipate that both my husband and I will complete the next chapter in our educational pursuits. We both agree that [program name here] has the potential to nurture the next chapter in both our private and professional lives if given the opportunity.”

For A Dermatology Residency Program Applicant

“So many disconnected pieces, yet no clear starting point.” I think as I stare at the 1,000 puzzle pieces in front of me. I instantly rewire my brain to consider all of them but also how they fit in the big picture. Working for hours on puzzles with my terminally ill grandfather taught me there is something mesmerizing about simultaneously losing and centering yourself in a disarray of colors and shapes. Dermatology is a jigsaw puzzle in which the pieces sit in front of our eyes, waiting to be assembled into a diagnosis. Solving this intricate puzzle, which encompasses a wide variety of intriguing diseases, fascinated me early in my medical career.

During my first contact with patients as a research assistant at [name of center], I developed a genuine interest in this specialty. Witnessing the effects of severe and refractory dermatological diseases on their quality of life sparked my empathy and a desire to strengthen my knowledge in order to help them. This empathy grew over the course of my rotations, as I observed the distress brought on by a melanoma diagnosis, the debilitating pruritus associated with atopic dermatitis, and the emotional scars left by acne.

Driven by this experience, I founded the [name of race] with my devoted and inspiring team. Together, we raised close to $18,000, which was donated to the [name of society] for the advancement of malignant melanoma research and prevention strategies. This project allowed me to serve as a leader and a strong team player. I was also granted the hands-on opportunity to take concrete steps towards promoting prevention and advocating for patient health – competencies that will serve me as a devoted dermatologist.

As a result of my scientific rigors and dedication, I have had the opportunity to publish my work on inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and speak at international conferences. I recently submitted a case study to the [name of journal] and an abstract to next year’s [ name of conference]. I hope to further my contribution to the advancement of dermatology both scientifically and academically. Besides my interest in skin malignancy, I am also very passionate about immunodermatology, skin manifestations of IBD, and vascular anomalies, to name a few. Committed to a lifelong learning experience, I strive to expand my knowledge through academic research. My constant desire to improve, in addition to an insatiable curiosity, was valued during my rotations regardless of the specialty.

During my residency, I look forward to being challenged and surrounded by new ideas and perspectives. I wish to pursue my training in [name of city]’s multicultural epicenter, where I will be exposed to a wide range of unique cases. [Name of school]’s prestige for research and mentorship is second to none. During my elective at the [name of hospital], your commitment to patient care, your dedication to knowledge, and your pedagogical approach instilled a sense of belonging in me. It is with you that I hope to set the final puzzle pieces of my medical training into place.”

For A Family Medicine Residency Program Applicant

“My first exposure to Family Medicine occurred during my time as a Medical Officer working in a small clinic in Nigeria in fulfillment of the [name of service]. There, I recognized that a career in this specialty would offer me the opportunity to not only experience the aspects I cherished most about other specialties, but fulfill my personal interests in advancing community health.

My many encounters with patients during my days in the clinic reaffirmed my view of Primary care physicians as being on the frontline of diagnosis and preventive medicine. There was the middle-aged diabetic patient who had first presented to the emergency with diabetic ketoacidosis, the hypertensive man whose initial complaint of a persistent headache prompted the discovery of his soaring blood pressure, and the adolescent with a family history of allergies who was diagnosed with asthma. These encounters highlighted that as the first point of contact, the general practitioner is not only responsible for diagnosis, but often in ensuring patients are set on the path of healthy habits to prevent disease complications. This unique opportunity to significantly advance the well-being of a patient, and by extension, the community renewed my interest in the field.

An especially appealing feature of Family Medicine is that it provides an opportunity for patient care without limitations of age, sex, disease, or organ system. From treating colds and routine checkups to referral for suspected malignancy, I enjoyed that every day in the clinic was a learning experience and no day was routine. In addition, having a diverse population of patients and cases requires an abundance of clinical knowledge and I cherish the chance to learn and expand my skills every day.

I also value that an essential part of Primary care is in the enduring relationships the practitioners develop with patients. I recall several moments during my clinical experiences when I recognized that some of the bonds formed during ongoing patient interactions had evolved into lasting friendships. Being a practice of continual care, I appreciate that this specialty provides many opportunities to follow patients through different stages of their lives ensuring a deepening of relationship and compliance with care. I was inspired during my clinical rotation here in the United States when I saw how my preceptorís long-term relationships with patients enabled their compliance and often extended to different generations within one family.

Ultimately, I am confident that my experiences have prepared me for a career in this specialty. An agreeable, attentive, and compassionate nature has aided me in gaining trust as well as building meaningful interpersonal relationships which are crucial components of this field. Furthermore, my interaction with an extensive array of patients during my clinical and volunteer experiences has equipped me with the ability to communicate and relate to patients across different age groups and backgrounds. In addition, I enjoy working to coordinate patient care with colleagues and other specialties and value that the wellness of the patient is a result of hard work, dedication, and teamwork.

Thus, I hope to find a residency program dedicated to providing in-depth clinical training with a diverse patient population and an emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention through patient education and community service. Moreover, I look forward to being part of a program that will encourage my pursuit of intellectual development and advancement to enable my transition into a well-rounded, competent, and skilled physician committed to serving people with needs in all areas of medicine. With a career in this specialty, I know that every day will bring a new opportunity to influence health behaviors, and while there will be challenges, fulfilling them will always be satisfying.”

For A Surgery Residency Program Applicant

“I was six years old when my father read to me the first chapter of “How Things Work.” The first chapter covered doors and specifically, the mechanics in a doorknob. What lay hidden and confined in the door panel was this complex system that produced a simple action. I credit this experience as the onset of my scientific curiosity and eventually my passion for complex systems found in medicine. Intensivists vigilantly maintain homeostasis within the human body, a complex system in and of itself, a concept I recognize as personally fascinating and enticing. I find myself especially drawn to the field of critical care and intensive care medicine. My dreams to become an intensivist would be highly complimented by a residency in surgery.

In critical care, each patient in the ICU is usually in a general state of shock. From the initial state of shock, the patient can be further complicated with comorbidities and chronic diseases that may require further intensive medical intervention so that they may recover from a recent surgery or traumatic event. This dynamic nature of the ICU is not available in every unit of the hospital and the high level of acuity does not suit everyone. I, however, enjoy the high energy of the enthralling, engaging, and exciting environment offered by the ICU. I am personally energized and awakened by managing patients with surgically-altered physiology coupled with comorbidities. There is an overwhelming satisfaction when a patient following a bilateral lung transplant gets up from his bed and walks through the unit after days of being bedridden, or the moment we can discontinue the lines we had the patient on and finally talk to them after two weeks of intubation and sedation. Being in the ICU also encompasses the emotional seesaw of going from a successful patient case to a room in which a family has just decided that comfort care is the best way to proceed, which gives me chills just to type and verbalize.

The work of an intensivist is not only limited to the patient, but also the emotional well-being of the patient’s family as well. My involvement in the ICU has taught me that sometimes it is necessary to talk to a patient’s family, to explain to them simply that the postoperative expectations that they had had, may not be met. Communication is key in this field, both with the patients and the physicians of the OR. Communication prevents perioperative complications, establishes a willingness to follow directions, and relays professionalism. It is important for an intensivist to have an excellent understanding of surgical procedures, so that they may explain to the patient what to expect as well as ease the nerves of the patient preoperatively. A surgical residency would facilitate this understanding and undoubtedly prove to be useful in my future training.

Studying medicine in Europe has taught me volumes about myself, how driven, motivated, and open-minded I can be. To move so far away from home and yet be so familiar with the language, I feel blessed to be able to say that I’ve had a high level of exposure to diversity in my life. The mentality in [insert country name here] is if you don’t see the doctor, you are not sick. This common thought has to lead to an outstanding environment to study medicine and to see end-stage, textbook presentations of various pathologies and their management. Studying medicine in two languages has in itself taught me that medicine is a language and that the way a patient presents, conveys themselves, and the findings of the physical examination, all represent the syntax of the diagnosis. This awareness has reminded me that patient care, relief of patient suffering and illness, transcends the grammatical rules of the patient’s native tongue. My clinical experience in [insert country here] will aid me in providing thoughtful care to my future patients.

All things considered, I am ready to leave my home for the last four years and come back to the United States, to enter the next stage of my life and career. I am ready to work harder than ever, to prove myself to my future residency program and most importantly, learn so that I may be a suitable candidate for a future fellowship program in critical care. My experiences abroad have constantly pushed me to new horizons and encouraged responsibilities that I don’t believe I would otherwise have. I’ve developed a new level of human connection through my work in the ICU, the OR, and my travels throughout Europe. These experiences will aid me in working with a diverse patient population and a diverse team of physicians. I hope [the program name here] can give me the variety and the background in surgery that I will need to succeed.”

_______________________________________________________

All residency personal statement examples shown in this article are provided by Bemo Academic Consulting. Check it out for more samples for different specialties.

We also give credit to Shemmassian Academic Consulting , Thalamus , and Peterson’s as they have served as sources in writing this article on residency personal statements.

P.S. Did you know that you can seek assistance from AI in crafting your personal statement? Check out this article: 5 Crazy Ways AI Can Improve Your Life As A Med Student

I hope this article has provided you useful insights on how to write your residency personal statement that would leave an impression on the residency program directors. Go ahead – jot down your thoughts, pour every ounce of your writing skills, and land that interview spot!

If you have enjoyed this post, check out some of our other blog posts!

  • Medical School Personal Statement Examples And Tips
  • Medical School Zanki: Should You Use It?
  • 25 Questions For Medical School Interviewers You Should Ask
  • PA vs MD: Which Should You Pursue?
  • How Much Do Residents Make?
  • Best Pre-Med Majors For Med School [Full Guide]
  • What Is A Transitional Year Residency?
  • How To Prepare Yourself For Residency [Step-By-Step]
  • How To Write A Thank You Note After A Residency Interview
  • ERAS Photo Requirements And Tips

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how to write residency personal statement

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Match Application Blog

How to write a good personal statement for your residency application examples of residency personal statements.

how to write residency personal statement

I hope you enjoy reading this blog post.

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The personal statement 📝 is the part of the residency MATCH ® application in which I find the most mistakes. Many applicants do not even realize there are problems in their personal statement because the process of self-evaluation requires significant skill and insight. Furthermore, most applicants do not have access to high-quality personal statements to which they can compare their work. Therefore, I am writing this blog to help you navigate the personal statement writing process and provide you with templates of what a good personal statement should look like.

If you need help with your personal statement editing, please reach out to us on this page .

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What should you say in your personal statement 📝 ?  

1-why are you interested in the specialty 🩺.

You should try to convince the reader why you are interested in the specialty to which you are applying. Avoid cliché templates that you see online, and make sure that your interest in the specialty is as personal as possible by incorporating your experiences learning about it and what elements of this specialty most appeal to you. Think deeply about the reasons and the stories that pushed you to pursue this specialty before you start writing, and then you can put these experiences into words. 

Bad example : I am interested in internal medicine because of the long-term relationships with patients, diversity of pathologies, and intellectual challenges.

Good example : My interest in internal medicine started during my first month of clinical rotations. Seeing the diversity of patient presentations and the application of evidence-based medical knowledge in solving patients’ problems is what really drew me to the field.

As you can see from the ‘good’ example, rather than listing boilerplate characteristics of internal medicine that anyone can find online, I attempt to link my interest in the field to personal experiences.

2-Why you 👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️? 

Why are you a unique applicant and why you should be selected among hundreds of other applicants? 

You must be careful to not seem arrogant, but also do not be shy discussing what makes you stand out. Avoid cliché self-descriptions such as ‘hard worker,’ ‘team player,’ or ‘passionate caregiver.’ Instead, replace these with unique experiences that demonstrate your defining personal qualities in action.

Bad example : I am a hard worker, and I always did my best to succeed and overcome hardships.

Good example : Growing-up in a low-resourced country and having to work two jobs to provide living for my family while in medical school, giving up was never an option. I always thrived in challenging situations, guided by both my diligent work ethic and a spirit of unrelenting optimism in the face of setbacks. My life experiences have imbued me with resilience and perseverance, qualities that will no doubt benefit me in residency.

As you can see here, I did not say that the applicant is a ‘hard worker.’ From the story, you can easily conclude that they have the resilience and perseverance required to overcome the challenges of residency.

3-What are you looking for in a program 🏥?

This part is not a ‘must’ like the previous two. However, including what type of programs you are looking for can help program directors to gauge whether you are a good fit. When discussing this point, you can emphasize factors such as good clinical training, research, camaraderie among the residents and the faculty, or any other important program elements you are seeking.

Since ERAS allows you to submit multiple personal statements for different programs, you can tailor these personal statements based on the programs to which you are applying. For example, if you are applying for programs that focus on research or to those that value clinical excellence, you can write two personal statements that reflect these respective emphases.

Additionally, if you are applying for two specialties, you can write two personal statements (one for each specialty).

Good example : I am looking for a program that offers me the clinical training to become a competent internal medicine physician in addition to providing me with the acumen to conduct pioneering research.

how to write residency personal statement

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4-Career goals 🎯

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Your long-term career goals are another important piece of information to include in your personal statement. Read about the programs to which you are applying to ensure that your professional goals align with their educational philosophy and outcomes. If you are interested in conducting cutting-edge research during your residency, then it may not be a good idea to apply for a program with no research infrastructure or research output.

Examples of career goals include practicing in an academic setting, being involved in resident and medical student education, conducting research studies, or performing clinical duties in a large academic center or a low resource hospital (or some combination or variation of these). Again, try to understand the programs that you are applying to so they align with your career goals.

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5-hobbies and interests  .

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The hobbies and interest section is another optional part to include in your personal statement where you list the activities outside of medicine that interest you. This section illustrates the qualities and passions that make you a unique candidate, whether it be winning a medal🏅in a competitive sport🏃🏀🤺🏇⛷️🏄🏊, training as a ballet dancer, or playing the bagpipes. Try to explain how the skills you gained from this hobby or extracurricular activity will translate into making you a better resident/doctor.

Example : During medical school, I was a member of our local basketball team that won the national championship multiple times. Basketball taught me perseverance and the importance of putting the team’s interest over individual achievement and success. I believe the same principles apply to medicine in that even the most brilliant surgeons or physicians, cannot work on their own; rather, they must work together and combine their individual expertise to achieve optimal outcomes for the patient. I can think of many instances in which I applied this mindset in collaborating with other medical students, nurses, and attending physicians on my clinical rotations in order to provide the best possible care for a patient.

6-Weaknesses and how you address them ❌😳

Sometimes there are obvious red flags on your CV that every program director will notice, such as low STEP scores or multiple attempts on the USMLE exams. It might be a good idea to explain why this happened or how you overcame these hurdles and what you learned in the process. Others disagree with the idea of addressing weaknesses in your personal statement and prefer that you explain them during the interview if you are asked. My personal preference is to explain why the red flag happened if you have a reasonable explanation and story

7-The introduction and the end  

For example, if you were talking how a family member’s medical problem encouraged you to pursue a particular specialty, you might start with a quick introduction talking about this experience, and then end with a line or two referring back to the introduction and stating how it has informed your future career goals. The introduction and conclusion paragraphs are the hardest to write but can also serve to make your personal statement stand out.

8- Why the US?

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If you are an international medical graduate (IMG), you might consider adding a few lines talking about why you chose to train in the US.

Mistakes to avoid when writing a personal statement for residency the application

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1-Starting too late

One of the biggest mistakes that applicants make when writing the personal statement is that they start a week or two before the application deadline. I personally started mine two months before the application deadline. This timeline allowed me to write multiple drafts before sending it to my mentors and residents for review and feedback.

2-Submitting the first or second draft

I recommend that you do multiple revisions before you submit your personal statement. Before I submitted my final personal statement, it had gone through over 20 drafts. This number is just to give you an idea of the lengthy transformation process between the initial draft and the final product. Your personal statement should be the best version of your story summarized in 500-700 words. Your goal is to convince programs to invite you for an interview so they can get to know you better!

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3-Not getting feedback

I highly recommend you have your personal statement reviewed by an individual (or individuals) with experience in personal statement editing. This might include residents or mentors who have edited other applicants’ personal statements in the past, residents who went through this process and know how it works from personal experience, or even professional advisers. Try to seek out people who will provide you with structural edits, if needed, and not just superficial grammatical edits. I helped many students with personal statement editing by suggesting a complete overhaul of their original structure so that their story would shine through more effectively. I am happy to help students with significant editing and re-writing. You can check our website to learn more about our personal statement editing.

Keep in mind that the more you show your personal statement to others, the more revisions you will receive. You do not have to accept every individual’s revisions or suggested changes, but take them into consideration and keep those changes that you think are most effective at conveying your desired message.

4-Using online templates

Stay away from using online templates because you want your personal statement to be as personal as possible. It will definitely take you more time to create your own personal statement, but then again that is why it is called a ‘personal’ statement. You must spend significant time and effort so your personal statement does not look like the hundreds of other applications each program receives. The purpose of the templates in this blog is to provide examples rather than for you to copy these in your own personal statement. This would constitute plagiarism and could get you into serious trouble.

5-Talking about why you got into medical school

If you are applying for residency, focus on why you want to enter a certain specialty rather than why you got into medical school. You are past the medical school experience at this point and you should not take a significant portion of your personal statement talking about what influenced you to choose medicine in the first place. You can definitely discuss that in a couple of sentences, but no more than that. Focus primarily on the specialty to which you are applying.

6-Having it too short or too long

Try to keep your personal statement around 500-700 words and discuss the points that have been mentioned above. Do not make it so short that people cannot understand your story or so long that it becomes boring to read.

7-Lacking structure and flow   

Many students think that the main issue with their personal statement are problems with the English language, whether in regard to grammar or word choice. However, this is an easily fixable problem. The major mistake I find in most personal statements is a lack of flow in the content (jumping from one idea to another) which makes it difficult for the reader to follow. That is why a structural edit of a personal statement takes significantly more time. I recommend you stay away from services that only change a few words here and there to make the language correct. Seek structural edits if needed. It’s definitely good to have a personal statement free of grammatical errors. However, what is most important is having nice flow and structure that makes your story enjoyable to read.

how to write residency personal statement

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about personal statement for residency applicants

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Do I have to write a personal statement for the residency application?

Yes, you must write a personal statement for your ERAS residency application.

When should I start working on my personal statement?

Around 1-2 months before the application deadline.

How long is the personal statement for the residency application? How many words should a personal statement be?

500-700 words.

Can I write multiple personal statements for my ERAS application?

Yes, you can assign different personal statements for different programs and different specialties.

How many personal statements should I write for my ERAS application?

You should write at least one personal statement for your ERAS application. However, you can write as many as you like. You can assign different personal statements for different programs and different specialties. You can only submit one personal statement for each program.

Do you recommend editing your personal statement by non-m edical professionals?

I would not recommend having your personal statement edited by a non-medical professional only, as they often will not understand the nuances of the residency Match process. Having good command of the English language is completely different from having a good sense of structure, flow, and content needed to successfully be accepted into a residency program.

How do I write a strong personal statement? 

Check the parts on what to include in a personal statement and the templates on this blog to help you write an effective personal statement.

Do you offer personal statement editing?

If you need help with personal statement editing, check out our re-write and structural edit services on this website.

Is my personal statement an important part of the application?

Yes, definitely. Your personal statement tells your story and achievements, many of which get lost in your CV. Moreover, some of your interviewers might only have access to your personal statement but not your CV.

How do you write a personal statement for residency application?

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1-Start early

Starting early gives you the time to write multiple drafts and for other people to thoroughly review and provide feedback on your personal statement.

2-Start with bullet points

Write all the ideas and the topics you want to discuss you in your personal statement without necessarily making them into full sentences. At this stage, you are just trying to identify what you would like to include rather than how you are going to narrativize it. After you create your map of ideas, pick the ones that you think would be the most relevant and transform them into compelling text.

3-Start with the first draft

Expand on the points you chose from the previous step. Do not worry if the language is not perfect, because at this point, you are still far away from your final draft. Try to discuss why you are interested in the specialty, why you are unique, why you should be chosen for this spot, and what kind of programs you are looking for. Do your best to craft a memorable introduction and ending.

4-Go onto the second draft

Give it a few days to a week before transitioning to your second draft. This gap will allow the ideas to settle in your mind and for you to focus on those ideas and language choices that best convey the story you are trying to tell.

5-Send your personal statement to others

At this point, you can start sending your personal statement to friends who are experienced with editing and reviewing personal statements. Do not send it to random people you do not know because your personal statement is a confidential document, and it is unlikely that their advice will be of much value to you. If you do not know any people who are experienced with personal statement editing, seek professional guidance. I cannot tell you how many people have reached out to me to fix personal statements that they already paid for because the cheap service they first consulted was bad. You get what you pay for! If you need help with personal statement editing, check our re-write and structural editing service on this website .

After you receive feedback from others, do not accept every revision or suggestion blindly. Make sure that these suggested changes reflect the points you are most hoping to convey in your personal statement. However, if the person offering the advice is experienced in personal statement editing and/or the residency Match process, it is worth incorporating as many of their suggestions as possible.

At this point your personal statement is almost ready, and you can change a few things here and there until you are ready to submit the final version.

The FREE Personal Statement Template

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‘Females can never be surgeons!’ These were the words that resonated in my ears every time I expressed my interest in surgery. My medical school tutors, family, friends, all dissuaded me from pursuing this course. In a patriarchal society like the one I grew up in, women were expected to adhere to restrictive cultural norms. Thankfully, I persevered. Growing up in war-torn Iraq made for a difficult and unusual childhood. War and fighting were the norm, as were constant displacement and unstable living situations. Due to the unrelenting violence that ravaged the country since before I can remember, the emergency room in my medical school hospital, Al Mosul University Hospital, was constantly flooded with trauma patients. The combination of diverse cases and shortage of clinical staff proved the perfect storm for piquing my surgical interests, as I was afforded the opportunity to perform tasks typically reserved for first and second-year residents. Though I quickly rose to the intense demands of working in Al Mosul’s ED, my male colleagues would often remind me that surgery was not an appropriate avenue for women, and that I should instead choose an ‘easier’ specialty that would allow me to focus on raising a family. For me, however, the decision was crystal clear. Surgery was the perfect blend of manual dexterity and methodical decision making. I was not only fascinated by the diversity of surgical cases, but also by the surgeons’ abilities to repair and heal the horrific war injuries. Seeing patients who suffered bomb blasts on the brink of death be stabilized through expert surgical intervention sparked my passion for the incredible restorative power of surgery. The fast pace, required precision, and the exquisite coordination of working as part of a surgical team further cemented my interest. At a local surgical conference, I was fortunate to meet a visiting US surgeon who was in Mosul as part of his mission trip to Iraq. After speaking to him at length about my burgeoning interest in the field, he encouraged me to follow my passion, and even helped me secure several rotations in the US. It was during these rotations that I received my first exposure to the US healthcare system, from its incredible access to technological advancements unheard of in most Iraqi hospitals to its focus on cultivating a diverse and inclusive workforce. Following my rotations, I spent two years as a post-doctoral clinical researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), investigating longitudinal outcomes for trauma patients who sustained debilitating war injuries. My research years were transformational, not only providing me a robust foundation in clinical research, but also giving me a deeper appreciation for the positive impact of holistic care on trauma patients’ lives and wellbeing. As a result of my experiences at BWH, I hope to enroll in a program with equal parts emphasis on surgical and research skills development and that embraces diversity as a core value. Following my residency, I aspire to return to Iraq and continue to treat patients suffering from trauma, conduct research on optimizing outcomes for trauma patients, and educating the next generation of surgeons. As a female growing up in Iraq, I faced many challenges during my quest to secure a residency spot in the US. Despite the discouragement of tutors and family members as well as the daunting prospect of starting a long and difficult journey in a new country, I am steadfast in the pursuit of my professional dreams. I have one goal that I will keep fighting for in the years ahead: an unwavering commitment to make a difference in patients’ lives and empower women in Iraq and around the world to help me make that difference. My message to those women who, like me, are told by those around them that they can never be surgeons: do not be discouraged. Let their words fuel your strength and fight to make the world a better place for yourself and your patients!

I wish you the best of luck with your residency application. Here are some more personal statement samples that can help you draft your own personal statement. More Personal Statement Samples

By    Malke Asaad

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You're probably experiencing a mixture of excitement and anxiety as you begin the application process. That's normal. Once you've applied and been selected by a residency program,…

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How to Write Personal Statement for Residency? [with Examples]

how to write residency personal statement

by Talha Omer, MBA, M.Eng., Harvard & Cornell Grad

In personal statement tips & advice.

A career in medicine is a never-ending feat. If it isn’t the 4-year medical school, it’s the USMLE steps.

Done with your USMLE?

Well, here comes the residency.

There’s always something waiting for you just around the corner when you get into this field.

So, you are done with your medical school and cleared all the USMLE Steps. What now?

Well, now is the time to put pen to paper and convince the program director why you are the best fit for a residency. The academic side of your career is more or less over. You have your transcripts, and you have your USMLE scores, which are all good and dandy. Now, it’s more about why you chose your specialty and why you deserve a shot at an interview.

Confused about where to begin?

This article will cover the main steps of how to write a personal statement for a medical residency, along with an example of a successful residency personal statement.

By the end, you should have a pretty good idea of what you need your statement to look like. So, let’s begin.

In this Article

What is a Residency Personal Statement, and Why is it Important?

What should a personal statement reflect, time to gather ideas, opening: pinning your story to your interest in medicine, main essay: market your qualities and potential, end: tie everything together, sample personal statement and analysis.

As far as the program director, the admissions board, or anyone in charge is concerned, there are  two  “you’s.”

The academic “you” and the real-life “you.”

Your transcripts, degrees, and test scores are sufficient to paint the academic “you’s” picture.

Beyond that, the personal statement takes over.

Your residency essay is a page-long essay that gives a window into who you are. It is a peek into your life to find out why you are fit for a particular specialty. Finally, it tries to justify your choice of specialty by relating it to something profound that happened in your life experience.

Grades and transcripts become meaningless at a certain point because most people would have similar grades. Hence, a personal statement serves as a deal-maker in many instances.

Before diving into the nitty-gritty of structuring your residency personal statement, let’s see what to include and avoid.

Your statement  must  include:

  • The reason why your chosen specialty appeals to you.
  • Skills, attributes, and qualities that will aid you in your residency.
  • What do you hope to achieve in the long run, your plans, etc.?
  • Why you chose the specific residency program, and what makes you a good fit?
  • A brief purview on why you set out to become a doctor. It would help if you had deeper insights to shed light on your professional and personal experiences.

Your personal statement  must not  include:

  • Anything that causes a barrier between your story and the reader, such as abbreviations, jargon, and acronyms. Don’t assume prior knowledge on the part of the reader.
  • Murky and unclear language sounds boring. Avoid generic writing and draw in the reader with detail and nuance.
  • Religious, ethical, racial, and/or political talk. Anything controversial doesn’t belong on your personal statement.
  • Bad grammar, informal/casual language, and poor sentence structure and punctuation.

Blankly staring at your keyboard isn’t going to accomplish much. So instead, we need to get our mind organized.

First, relax and loosen up a little. Then, to break the ice, you will begin by writing the first draft, which will include the following ideas:

  • What attracted you to medicine? Was this an event, an incident, an inspiration, or a specific life experience? What was it, and why did it move you in this direction?
  • What drew you to your chosen specialty? When did you know you wanted to pursue this specialty?
  • What barriers did you have to overcome to reach this stage? What lessons did these challenges teach you?
  • What do you think are your best qualities? When and where have you demonstrated these qualities?
  • Who are some of your role models, and why?
  • What is that one medical cause you care about the most? Why do you care about it?
  • What is your life’s most significant accomplishment?
  • Is there anything you haven’t stated on your resume but is an integral part of who you are?

While you entertain these ideas individually, you must write down as much detail as possible. Better yet, don’t stop correcting grammar or spelling. Instead, jot down whatever comes to mind without breaking the flow. After all, this is what brainstorming means.

Let your mind loose. There will be plenty of opportunities to structure everything later.

How to Structure your Personal Statement?

Now that you have gathered a lot of material, you might be tempted to start writing. First, however, it’s essential that you first understand what goes where.

Nothing is more off-putting than a poorly structured personal statement. But, remember, your personal statement is, in fact, an essay, which is why it should read like one.

A good essay has an opening paragraph that hooks the reader, the main body that adds detail, and a conclusion that leaves the reader satisfied.

Furthermore, it is equally essential that you practice brevity in your writing. The word limit, usually around 600 words, puts a significant constraint on your writing style. Detail can be good, but too much detail will rob you of valuable real estate.

The opening of your essay will set the tone for the rest of the personal statement. Here, it would be best if you began with a personal anecdote.

Remember, the objective here is to hook the reader.

By the end of the first paragraph, you should have established a link between your story and your interest in medicine.

So how to choose your opening anecdote? First, go through your brainstorming notes and check:

  • Do you recall any specific details?
  • Is it something unique to your life?
  • Is there an arc? Room for development?

You must have formed a little shell of a story in your mind by now. A story that only you can tell. A story that sits at the heart of your interest in medicine. Something that set you on this path. This is your anecdote.

Be sure to make it personal, drawing upon real-life people who might have played a part, and include things that shaped your interest in your specialty of choice. The first paragraph is where it’s OK to go into personal detail. The more personal it is, the better the picture you will paint.

So, you have narrated a unique anecdote from your real life. This anecdote indeed conveys a deeper insight into why you chose to pursue medicine.

But what has kept that pursuit alive until now? In other words, your story is incomplete until you insert the personal qualities that make you suitable for the specialty of your choice.

However, there is a difference between outright stating something, such as “I am a very patient person,” and showing why you are a patient person. The latter relies upon storytelling and doesn’t come off as pompous. Just remember that you need to relate your qualities to the setting of your anecdote that you began with. Your entire narrative must look organic. Anything out of place will take away the authenticity.

One thing that looks good on a personal statement is someone’s ability to grow and learn.

If you have an example where a particular event set you back, narrate it. Show how, instead of accepting defeat, you took it as an essential life lesson and learned from it.

The ability to learn from setbacks and the willpower to not be deterred are excellent qualities.

It would be best to end your essay so you can organically bring everything together.

It should leave the selection committee with a picture of who you are and why you are applying.

One thing that you must avoid at all costs is declarative sentences. Writing things like “And that’s why I believe I would make a great anesthesiologist” seems cheesy and too convenient.

Instead, try ending on a call back to where you began the essay. Again, try to connect the start and the end as naturally as possible without forcing a specific outcome.

Here , you can read an example personal statement for residency in internal medicine. Don’t forget to read its analysis too.

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Students who matched because of their great personal statements

Follow my proven formula for writing your medical residency personal statement because it’s easy and it works. How do I know it's effective? Because I’ve personally played a role in hundreds of successful matches .

Table of Contents:

The One Rule for Writing Your Medical Residency Personal Statement

My residency personal statement writing suggestions, the cheeseburger method: the best residency personal statement outline, the introduction, or your residency personal statement’s top bun, the middle, or your personal statement’s meat, veggie patty, or whatever, the conclusion, or your residency personal statement’s bottom bun, the final sentence (or two) of your medical residency personal statement.

Toppings, or the Added Tasty Stuff Like Cheese, Bacon, Ketchup, Etc.

3 Takeaways

Faq: red flags, transitions, revision process, how to ask for help, etc..

This guide is meant to be a one-stop shop for personal statement writing. However, I cover additional tips and tidbits if you're interested in digging deeper. For those, check out:

4 Critical Medical Residency Personal Statement Writing Tips

5 Easy Guidelines for Residency Personal Statement Writing

Signs that says "NO"

No matter what anyone says, there are no hard and fast rules you must adhere to in writing your medical residency personal statement.

Sure, there are suggestions . There are good decisions and bad decisions. For instance, some people would advise you never to use informal writing in your residency personal statement. Readers will see “isn’t” or “I’m” and immediately toss it in the trash!

Nope. Not true. A few readers may grimace. Still, some readers might actually prefer conversational writing. Perhaps your casual tone will be the crucial little thing that nudges the scales in your direction and ultimately opens the door of that coveted dream residency spot.

So, what’s the ONE RULE for writing your ERAS personal statement? It’s that there are no true, set-in-stone, ironclad, must-follow-or-else rules.

Okay, so no rules, but here are the tried-and-true parameters I follow:

1) Your ERAS personal statement length should be between 600 and 800 words.

2) Don’t capitalize specialties. It’s incorrect.

3) Don’t name the places you’ve worked or the doctors/mentors you’ve worked with. This personal statement is about you, not them.

4) Include a patient story from rotations that relates to your chosen specialty and shows you in action doing things residency programs like.

Really, that’s it. Now let’s learn about my magic CHEESEBURGER method. Yum!

Big delicious cheeseburger

A strong first sentence or two are important, but it’s a mistake to try too hard to grab attention.

Many people will tell you that immediately captivating your reader is critical. It’s not. In fact, so many students attempt to blow minds with their opening sentences that you’ll probably stand out by NOT doing so.

Instead, go for INTERESTING rather than INCREDIBLE. Here are some examples:

Residency personal statement first sentence examples

Just go for a strong first sentence. After that, focus on answering the following two questions:

Why are you becoming a doctor?

Why do you love your chosen specialty?

Remember that this personal statement is not for your medical school application. You’re applying for RESIDENCY here. Thus, touch lightly on the first question and devote more energy to the second. What is it about psychiatry that you enjoy so much? Why are you so fascinated by surgery? Is there an interesting story that pushed you toward family medicine?

Cheeseburger patty - the meat of your residency personal statement

Your patient story is the juicy good stuff in the middle of your ERAS personal statement. This is where you win your readers over by showing yourself in action in the clinical setting.

Unfortunately, for many applicants, this is the most difficult part. You might be wondering to yourself: Do I REALLY need one?

Including a patient story is one of my core guidelines. There are some rare exceptions. However, when a client tells me they’d rather not share one, I do everything I can to convince them otherwise. Why?

First of all, your audience expects a patient story.

More importantly, it’s a great vehicle for selling yourself as a phenomenal prospective resident. Your readers know you’re just a “lowly student,” but they want to see initiative. They want to picture you in action in circumstances similar to those you’ll encounter in residency.

Here’s how to generate an effective patient story:

1) Remember: just as with your opening sentence, you do NOT need to blow your reader away. It isn’t necessary to portray yourself as a physician superhero.

2) Consider your intended specialty. If you’re applying to family medicine, brainstorm a story that shows you building a longer-term relationship. Focus on education and prevention, and/or other similar family medicine “buzz words.” Internal medicine? Teamwork, detail analysis, etc. Surgery? Calmness under pressure, dexterity, leadership, teamwork. You get the idea.

3) Include pertinent details. Details help paint a vivid picture, but too many weigh down the narrative. In choosing your details, think about what each one conveys to the reader about you. For instance, recalling an exact lab value or catching a subtle symptom or bit of prior history says you’re observant. Bringing a patient an extra blanket relates that you’re compassionate and thoughtful. Some attributes are higher on the list for certain specialties but perhaps lower for others, so prioritize details carefully.

4) Keep yourself at center stage. Sure, your attending did some amazing things that inspired you, but this personal statement needs to show how capable YOU are. Many students say they were “in awe” of what another doctor did and use that as the point their story revolves around. This is a huge mistake.

Still can’t think of a good patient story? Rack your memory or look back through your patient logs. Ask your family and friends to remind you of the interesting stories you’ve told them from rotations.

When did you go above and beyond?

What are your most memorable patients?

It’s totally fine if nothing stands out. I said it earlier, but the patient story is where applicants typically struggle the most. That just means it's time to get creative!

But PersonalStatementMan, is it okay to embellish a so-so encounter? What about completely making a story up out of thin air? Do people do that? Do they actually lie?!

YES, they absolutely do. Don’t be afraid to color outside the lines if necessary.

To be very blunt, whether it’s ethical or not, your competition will do anything they can to get ahead of you. This isn’t the time to over-worry about morals.

Bottom bun - the conclusion of the medical residency personal statement

In your conclusion, I recommend briefly answering, in 2-3 sentences at maximum, two questions:

1) What are your aspirations for your medical career after residency?

Readers typically want to see that you’re open-minded. Think about where you were when you began medical school and know that a lot can change in the coming years. Thus, there’s no need to get too specific.

Also, many programs give extra points to applicants they think might stick around after residency. So if you’re absolutely certain about your exact path, and it doesn't involve working for your program, consider sharing that information AFTER you match.

2) What are you looking for in a residency program?

Be brief and general here. You want to come across as humble, that you’re not expecting too much above the basics like a positive workplace, an environment that promotes growth and learning, and good attendings.

I suggest NOT mentioning you want things like research opportunities unless EVERY program you’re applying to offers them.

Additionally, I encourage you NOT to state that you’re looking for a program that promotes resident wellness. Wellness SHOULD of course be a given. I know that’s not always the reality, but like it or not, some readers will view you adding that expectation into your personal statement as a sign you might not be a dream employee/teammate.

Then finally, you will use your conclusion to sum up and reinforce the rest of your medical residency personal statement. How to do this most effectively? Touch back on your introduction. This wraps everything together and creates a satisfying, full-circle reading experience.

You can also sprinkle in a little from your patient story if it fits.

Personal statement transition to conclusion example

The dreaded ending. Don't be intimidated, it's really not that difficult. Just as with everything else, your goal should not be to knock any socks off or blow any minds.

My winning formula for residency personal statement final sentences boils down to a mix of at least two of the following elements:

1) Enthusiasm to start residency

2) A reinforcement of your dedication

3) A reminder about what you offer to your team and patients

This is a lot to include in a single sentence, right? It is, but after writing and revising hundreds upon hundreds of medical residency personal statements, I’ve found this formula to tie the tightest bow.

Be declarative and confident. This is the career you’ve worked so hard for, and you DESERVE this residency position.

Finally, and this is VERY important: The surest way to accomplish a confident ending without sounding arrogant is to mention your team.

Here are some examples:

Personal statement final sentence examples

If you still don’t like how your ending sounds after trying your very hardest, I have a trick for you. It works every time:

Begin a new paragraph and conclude with something like:

“Thank you for your time and consideration.”

Personal statement ending example

Looks pretty good, right?

Ending this way brings finality to your medical residency personal statement. It also implies that you’re respectfully aware of your reader and appreciative of the time they spent going over your application.

Personal Statement Toppings, or the Added Tasty Stuff Like Cheese, Bacon, Ketchup, Etc.

The toppings of your medical residency personal statement

Make your residency personal statement cheeseburger more unique by adding your favorite toppings!

Is there something interesting and different about your path to residency? Did you put yourself through college by working at Old Navy? Were you raised or did you study in a foreign country? Are you particularly proud of your research or volunteer work?

Do you fly airplanes in your free time? Run your own business?

Maybe you play an instrument at a high level, were a collegiate athlete, or have a black belt in karate.

Sharing one or two morsels like these can help you stand out among your competition. However, avoid too much emphasis and always keep in mind that the purpose of your medical residency personal statement is to show what you will bring to your program as a resident.

A common trap some students fall into is reciting their CV experience items to try to prove that they’re qualified.

Firstly, your reader holds that exact information in their hands already. Secondly, listing items from your past makes for very boring writing. You’re telling a story here! Let your other application materials speak for themselves while you make your ERAS personal statement as engaging and readable as possible.

In that spirit, do not include your toppings if they don’t fit naturally. Getting the narrative to flow together takes a lot of work and finesse, but when you get it right, it will place your personal statement among the top 1%. What does that mean? Well, it means your readers will LOVE you and your dream residency will BEG to interview you!*

*Okay you got me. This might be a slight exaggeration.

1) Your residency personal statement's length should be between 600 and 800 words.

2) Don't waste time trying to blow your readers' minds with "incredible" opening or closing sentences. Go for "interesting" instead.

3) A simple, cheeseburger-like outline has been proven over and over to achieve spectacular results: Top bun (introduction), meat (patient story), bottom bun (conclusion). And don't forget to include a few delicious toppings.

Hand waving red flag

I go into more detail about many of these topics in the linked posts, but here are quick answers to some common questions. If you require further clarification and want to set up a meeting to discuss in person, please never hesitate to reach out to me .

Personal Statement FAQ

Hand raised

Do I need different versions of my personal statement for different specialties?

YES. You do not want residency programs thinking that their specialty may not be your first choice.

For an obvious example, a surgeon has a different set of skills than an internist. They excel in different environments, cultivate different knowledge bases, and encounter different types of patients.

Less obvious is that even if you're applying to both family medicine and internal medicine, both primary care specialties, you must write two separate personal statements.

Though similar on the surface, the two fields have subtle (but critical) differences. For example, family medicine is more outpatient focused while internal medicine revolves more around inpatient medicine. FM prioritizes relationships, continuity, and prevention. Yes, these are also important in IM, but IM is more centered in analysis, diagnosis, and teamwork.

The takeaway? You must have separate personal statements for each specialty.

Should I tailor different versions of my personal statement to each program I’m applying to?

Short answer: No, but there are exceptions.

Personalizing versions of your personal statement for each residency program can be cumbersome, confusing, and risky.

I've worked with more than one student who made the fatal mistake of accidentally uploaded the wrong version to the wrong program. Oops! Needless to say, their top choices did not extend interview invitations.

Additionally, I doubt tailoring different versions is very effective. Most students try to lift key phrases from the program's website and saying things like:

"I know I am a great fit for < insert program name > because, like you, my core values are teamwork, results, and patient satisfaction."

And/or they google the geographical area and say something like this:

"When I am not working hard my team and patients, I look forward to hiking the area's plentiful nature trails and exploring < insert nearby city >'s vibrant culinary scene."

Does that seem compelling to you?

Now, there are exceptions to this advice, and the biggest one is if you rotated at the program. Adding in a personal sentence or two will remind your readers they know you, just in case they forgot your name or something.

That said, if you choose to tailor your personal statement to different programs, learn from my previous clients' tragedies. Make sure you triple- or quadruple-check that you've attached the correct one in ERAS.

Who actually reads my residency personal statement?

Program directors and attendings are NOT the only people who you will have the chance to impress with your ERAS personal statement.

It depends on the program, but any number of staff members and current residents might also be given access to your application. Choosing new residents is often a group effort!

It's important to keep this in mind when writing your personal statement. For instance, going way out of your way to appeal to a PD might turn off prospective co-residents. Consequently, you want to remain as authentic and honest as possible, knowing you're communicating with a fairly wide audience.

When and how do I ask for help?

Having another set or two of eyes during the writing process can be very helpful.

However, be wary of having too many cooks in the kitchen. Everyone you ask -- your friends, parents, attendings, teachers, janitors -- will have a different opinion they're sure is correct. Too much input quickly devolves into a counterproductive and confusing ball of stress, anguish, and sleepless nights.

Here's what I recommend:

Complete your first draft before asking for help. Then limit your proof readers/feedback givers to just TWO people. ONE reader is even better. Of course, make sure you choose very carefully.

Then, after another draft or two, hire a professional writing service to tighten things up (see below).

It's extremely important you keep in mind that the only opinion that truly counts is yours. If you believe strongly in a certain passage or story that one of your readers criticizes, defend it. I encounter a lot of students who look to others for the correct answers about their personal statements.

Unfortunately "correct answers" don't exist for things that are subjective.

Remember: Just like our ONE RULE that there are no rules, there is no such thing as a "correct" way to present yourself in your personal statement. No matter what you do, some readers will respond well and others not so well.

Should I hire someone to help?

Given my job, you should know my answer to this question: Yes!!

Here's my in-depth discussion about why and how to hire the BEST ERAS personal statement writing service you can find.

How do I address red flags?

Follow the link for my discussion about the two best methods for addressing red flags .

Can I use ChatGPT or another AI?

You can use it to help you write, but DO NOT use it to write your ERAS personal statement for you. More discussion here !

How do I write great transitions? (coming soon)

What is a good revision process (coming soon), how do i know when i’m done is my personal statement good enough (coming soon), i’m still struggling what do i do (coming soon), residency application faq table of contents:, what if my attending asks me to write my own letter of recommendation (coming soon), what are the eras experiences and how do i write them (coming soon).

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4 Critical Medical Residency Personal Statement Writing Tips (Dec 2023)

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Personal Statement

Personal statements may be used to customize the application to a specific program or to different specialties. 

In This Section:

Creating the personal statement, formatting the personal statement, previewing the personal statement, reviewing/editing the personal statement, assigning the personal statement.

You create your own personal statements in the MyERAS portal from the Personal Statements section listed under Documents. 

  • Each personal statement must contain a Personal Statement Title and the Personal Statement Content. The title will be visible only to you to help you correctly assign it to programs, and the content will be visible to both you and the programs it is assigned to. 
  • The personal statement is limited to 28,000 characters, which include letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation marks. 
  • There is not a limit to how many personal statements applicants can create. 
  • Personal statements created outside the MyERAS application should be done in a plain text word processing application such as Notepad (for Windows users) or SimpleText (for Mac users). The statement should reflect your personal perspective and experiences accurately and must be your own work and not the work of another author or the product of artificial intelligence. 
  • Personal statements created in word processing applications not using plain text may contain hidden and invalid formatting. 
  • Note: A number of websites provide examples of personal statements. Do not copy any information from these sites and use it in your personal statements without giving credit to the author. Such use is considered plagiarism. 
  • The ERAS program will investigate any suspected acts of plagiarism. 
  • Any substantiated findings of plagiarism may result in the reporting of such findings to the programs to which you apply now and in subsequent ERAS seasons. 

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When creating a personal statement in the MyERAS application, the following formatting options will be available: 

  • Bold. 
  • Italic. 
  • Underline. 
  • Strikethrough. 
  • Bullets. 
  • Numbering. 
  • Align left. 
  • Center. 
  • Align right. 
  • Increase indent. 
  • Decrease indent. 
  • Insert hyperlink. 

After entering the personal statement title and content, you will have the opportunity to preview your personal statement before saving it. This preview allows you to view your personal statement just as the programs will view it, including the number of pages.  

You are responsible for reviewing your personal statements before assigning them to programs. 

The Preview/Print option under the Actions column will allow you to view and/or print your personal statement. 

Personal statements can be edited at any point during the application season — even when assigned to programs that have been applied to. 

Personal statements that have been edited will be reflected on the programs’ side by an updated status containing the date of the updated version, but programs are not guaranteed to view or review updated versions of personal statements. 

You may designate the assignment of one personal statement for each program. 

  • Personal statements can be assigned to any saved or applied to programs from the Personal Statements page by selecting “Assign” under the Actions column of the intended personal statement. 
  • When assigning by personal statement, programs listed with a disabled checkbox already have the selected personal statement currently assigned. 
  • When assigning by personal statement, you should review any personal statements that are listed under the Assigned Personal Statement column before making selections or changes. 
  • Personal statements can be assigned by program using the Assign option under the Actions column on both the Saved Programs and Programs Applied To pages. 
  • Changes to personal statement assignments can be made throughout the application season, but programs are not guaranteed to view or review newly assigned personal statements. 
  • A personal statement cannot be assigned to programs that are closed. 
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How to Craft an Excellent MD Residency Personal Statement

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Your residency is a critical step on the road to becoming a board-certified physician, and the residency matching process is unsurprisingly competitive. Program directors look for candidates who have demonstrated excellent academic performance, boast a strong academic record as well as great USMLE scores, and are supported by impressive letters of recommendation.

In a pool of well-qualified applicants, practicing physicians point to the personal statement as the perfect opportunity to catch a residency program director’s eye. Read on to learn some of their tips for how to craft a strong residency personal statement.

Physician-approved tips for writing a great residency personal statement

The National Resident Matching Program’s (NRMP) 2021 Program Director Survey indicates that a candidate’s personal statement for residency is among the top five most important criteria program directors consider when reviewing applications.

Many programs begin filtering candidates by USMLE scores, which essentially leaves everyone on a level playing field at that point. You’ll want to craft an eye-catching personal statement to help you stand out in the crowd. Follow these tips for doing just that:

1. Express your individuality

You can demonstrate your academic excellence pretty clearly by offering evidence of a strong medical school performance and a solid USMLE score. But your residency personal statement will offer you the opportunity to give program directors a more complete picture of who you are as an individual.

This essay is a chance to highlight what sets you apart from other applicants, so it’s important to go beyond simply listing your achievements. These items will already be included in your curriculum vitae (CV), so it won’t help admissions committees learn anything new about you.

Medical student working to create a residency personal statement.

It’s also smart to ensure that any of the experiences or extracurricular activities you do write about in your personal statement are true interests of yours. Dr. Natasha Sriraman , pediatrician and St. George’s University (SGU) graduate, notes that review committees can tell when you’re not being genuine.

“Don’t do things because you think it’s going to look good,” she advises. “Do things that you’re passionate about.”

2. Demonstrate your interest in the specialty

By the time you reach residency, you should have a solid idea of the medical specialty you’re looking to pursue. With that in mind, it’s a good idea to write about why you’re drawn to that particular specialty when you’re crafting your residency personal statement.

Be sure to do this in a way that is true to your personal passions rather than providing generic, surface-level motivations. For example, Dr. Sriraman says she’s come across too many candidates applying to pediatrics programs who cite their love of working with children. “We all like kids,” she jokes. “That’s not a reason to go into this field of medicine.”

Instead, she suggests sharing an anecdote from an experience you had that influenced your decision to pursue that area of practice. This could be a recent encounter during clinical rotations, a string of interactions with a particular instructor, or even something that happened prior to your time in medical school. As long as you’re able to make a logical connection, review committees are looking to learn how your experiences thus far will contribute to your success as a physician.

3.Address any potential concerns head-on

It can be uncomfortable to feel like you have any sort of blemish on your CV. But rather than shying away from a bad semester or a mysterious gap in your education, you can use your personal statement as an opportunity to elaborate on what was going on in your life at that time.

Putting academic issues or delays into context can make a big difference. It demonstrates that you possess levels of self-awareness and personal responsibility that can actually be pretty crucial when practicing medicine.

A medical student discusses charts with a doctor

>Furthermore, omitting issues in your personal statement doesn’t mean you can avoid addressing them—if you make it to the next phase of the application process, you can expect these topics to come up in your residency interviews . “While it is important to address this gap within your personal statement, I also advise medical students to practice what they’re going to verbally say when asked about the gap during the interview,” Dr. Sriraman says.

4. Be thoughtful about the structure

The Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) helps streamline the process of applying to residency programs , but the user guide is pretty vague about formatting when it comes to the personal statement for residency. As long as you structure your essay with an introduction, a middle section, and a conclusion, how you choose to arrange your personal statement is really up to you. What’s most important is that you’re able to keep your readers interested.

If you’re unsure of where to begin, apply the same approach you would with a paper in high school or college. Create an outline to help organize your thoughts, building a logical progression of ideas and experiences. While the parameters around the structure of your residency personal statement are loose, it is a common best practice to limit it to one page in length.

5. Don’t forget to edit and proofread

It’s often helpful to employ an iterative process when drafting this essay. Start by getting everything out on paper. Then go back and begin whittling your story down to include only the most important pieces.

Once you’re happy with how you’ve articulated your experiences and aspirations, it’s smart to enlist some outside opinions. Having a trusted mentor, instructor, or classmate read through your personal statement can be helpful, as they’re familiar with the inner workings of the medical field.

A college student discusses their personal statement letter with a mentor

Seek out feedback from people who know you well but also from some who you aren’t as close with. This can help you collect objective opinions based solely on your writing. And be sure to have any strong writers or editors you know proofread your essay because even the smallest errors could make a big statement about your focus or attention to detail. Students at SGU have the advantage of submitting their personal statements to be edited by physicians who are residency mentors.

6. Give yourself enough time

Given how many elements you need to complete for residency applications, you’ll be doing yourself a huge favor by starting your personal statement with plenty of time to spare. Even if you consider yourself a fast writer, it’s smart to be proactive. In fact, it’s often recommended to spend at least two months working on this essay.

“Between taking exams, finishing your applications, and regular life, you want to give yourself two to three months,” Dr. Sriraman specifies. Giving yourself extra time allows you to progress through the multiple phases of writing and editing without feeling rushed.

Start writing your residency success story

You don’t have to be a seasoned creative writer to pen an effective residency personal statement. With some careful planning, thoughtful phrasing, and a thorough review process, you can write an essay that will make program directors take notice.

Your personal statement for residency could end up being the factor that helps you secure a coveted interview invitation. These face-to-face meetings will be the final stage that allows program directors to determine if you’d be a good fit for their residency positions.

Get ready to put your best foot forward in those conversations by reviewing the advice in our article “ Residency Interview Preparation Tips for Medical Students .” 

Ready to start your medical school journey?

Are you considering St. George’s University Medical School? If you need any more convincing, just reach out to some graduates or current students . They’re happy to tell you what their experiences were like.

If you feel like SGU could be the right medical school for you, take the next step. Continue your research by visiting our request information page.

*This article was originally published in 2019. It has since been updated to reflect new information.

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How to Write Residency Personal Statement to Impress

how to write residency personal statement

How to Write a Residency Personal Statement: The Basics

After your hard work in med school, it’s time to secure residency to take your career a notch higher. Residency slots are competitive, and a contender has to dig deep to earn a spot in their preferred program.

As you may already know, a personal statement is crucial in any application, and a good one can make a difference. You might have questions like how long should a medical residency personal statement be. But since you’ve probably already written a personal statement to get into med school, let’s refresh your memory.

Is there a perfect formula to write this application document? There isn’t one, so take some of the pressure off. However, you can write an impactful one by understanding the basics and applying amazing tips for residency personal statement we’ve prepared for you.

What Is Residency Personal Statement

A residency personal statement is an essay where you write about your skills, attainments, and personality to potential residency programs. It serves as a platform to express your interest in a particular vocation, justify why you should join it, and highlight your career aims.

Why is it imperative to master how to write residency personal statement? Most other application documents provide basic information such as grades and proof of basic qualifications. Most students share similar qualifications, so the screening committees often have difficulty determining who’ll be an excellent addition to the course.

It’s where a personal statement comes in; it gives them more information, such as your personality, motivations, values, and experiences. It is basically an in-depth preview of the individual you are, something they cannot determine from a resume.

So, before wondering how long should a residency personal statement be and how to write it, here’s a checklist of what you should incorporate into the paper.

  • Notable moments from your med school journey.
  • Your significant qualities and abilities and how they make you a better medical practitioner.
  • Any work experience or volunteering.
  • Your future aims.
  • People who inspired you, e.g., mentors, family, and professors.
  • Reasons that drew you to this occupational line.
  • Major accomplishments or accolades in your life.
  • Reason for the desire to join that specific training.

Before learning how to write a residency personal statement, you’ll have to take some time to deliberate about all the above and things that have contributed to your wanting to take your chosen career path.

How to Write Personal Statement for Residency: Structure & Outline

An effective way to approach a residency statement is to treat it like you write an essay. It ensures a good structure to make your document easily readable. While diverse approaches exist in this regard, here’s how you can keep it simple and still produce one they’ll enjoy reading.

Open with a Captivating Intro

Your main aim is to draw in the reviewers early on, and you can achieve it with an anecdote. Get them engrossed early on so that they anticipate reading the rest of the piece. You can also make it about your chosen field or present some background info.

Create a Compelling Body

The body segment is where you write all the things we highlighted in the previous checklist. It’s the most comprehensive section, so plan the number of paragraphs you’ll have depending on the required length of residency personal statement. Describe why you joined the specialty and the involvements and aspects which contributed to choosing the field. Also, write about the previous field contribution, internships, volunteer involvements, electives, rotations, and research you participated in.

Close Crisply

As the final section of the personal statement, the conclusion should tie it all together. Highlight what you aim to achieve with the training and what you’ll contribute if selected. Summarize your strengths and future goals or aspirations as a resident.

The Right Length of Residency Personal Statement

Length is often problematic because many residency applicants often want to include everything when write their statements. But there’s no need to make it so lengthy that you lose the reviewers’ attention or too brief that it does not provide adequate information.

So how long should a personal statement be for residency? We recommend aiming between 700 to 900 words. This volume gives you enough room to include the important things and still make it readable. However, read the application requirements before you’ll write and stick to the specified word count if provided.

Special Tips on How to Write a Personal Statement for Residency

You need to be willing to do more to achieve a marvelous residency statement. So, here’re effective ways to go the extra mile and obtain the desired effect.

Make It About You

Keep the main focus on yourself. While others might have contributed to getting where you are, the reviewers are only interested in you. Write with a focus on what you’ve achieved, your interests, and your involvements, and don’t be afraid to go into detail within reason.

Make It Flow

While learning how to write a personal statement for residency is important, crafting a good one will involve some skill. Organize your ideas to achieve a logical flow that makes the document easy to read. Make your paragraphs transition seamlessly.

Be Yourself

Don’t try to impress the reviewers using jargon and fancy terms. Write, expressing your genuine passion and interest in joining that particular program. Also, don’t copy other people’s styles or experiences. It might make it difficult to fulfill the specified word count.

Proofread and Acquire Feedback

After completing the personal statement, proofread it to identify any errors or nonsensical phrases and fix them. Then, solicit feedback from people you trust and who understand how to write personal statement for residency from experience.

Dealing With Red Flags Residency Personal Statement

Every student is different; while some have spotless education records, others might have some red flags. They include things like abandoning a program previously or maybe some gaps in time when one took a break in med school. The admission panel will see these things in your request to join the training and may have some questions. And the personal statement is the place to explain these gaps.

You can roll the dice and hope it won’t affect it much, but it’s better to learn how to create a red flags residency personal statement. Use a few statements to address the red flags, especially for an ERAS application. Don’t make excuses; address them and explain how you’ve matured. Note that red flags don’t mean minor things like getting a poor grade or having poor attendance at some point.

Need Extra Help With Residency Statements? We Are Here 24/7!

Creating a residency statement might not be easy, even if you read dozens of tips on how to write a residency personal statement. Maybe you don’t have enough time to craft a good one, feel it’s too challenging, or don’t believe in your writing skills. And this is where our seasoned admission experts may help! We provide quality and reliable writing assistance, preparing standout personal statements regardless of the program you will apply to.

Contact us today to get an expert to write an impactful residency application document that will make a lasting impression!

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5 Psychiatry Residency Personal Statement Examples

Psychiatry residency personal statement examples

Reviewing psychiatry  residency personal statement examples  is a great way to get inspired when you are starting to  prepare for residency applications  and brainstorming for your own personal statement. It gives you some idea of the kind of structure you are expected to follow and the information you need to provide. This is important because personal statements for psychiatry residency can be especially challenging to draft. Not only do we typically find it difficult to talk about ourselves, but in a residency personal statement, you need to find a perfect balance between highlighting your strengths and not sounding overconfident. 

Furthermore, most students understand how much weight the personal statement carries, whether you're navigating the  ERAS or  CaRMS application, which adds an extra layer of anxiety. This essay is your only chance to speak to the residency directors directly and explain why you deserve a spot in their program in your own words before the residency interview. So, it is imperative that you take the time to write and polish it until it is compelling!

In this blog, we share five psychiatry residency personal statement examples and five proven strategies for writing a stronger personal statement to help you improve your chances of matching to the right program. 

>> Want us to help you get accepted? Schedule a free strategy call here . <<

Article Contents 16 min read

Psychiatry residency personal statement example #1 .

I didn’t know that I wanted to be a psychiatrist until I started seeing a psychiatrist myself. It wasn't one because I saw them doing something and immediately wanted to do the same thing for a living. Rather, they helped me learn to be more introspective, which helped me figure out what kind of doctor I wanted to be. 

I come from a small family of overachievers who rarely stop and smell the roses. My mother is a social worker with 2 PhDs, my father owns a physiotherapy clinic, and my older brother was a professional athlete. Growing up around these hard-working people meant that I had no choice but to pick up the same habit. For as long as I can remember, every member of my family has always been busy. As a result, I always had to find a way to stay busy too. That's how I learned how to play three musical instruments, compete in two different sports, and lead a debate team while keeping up with my AP classes. 

Despite this, my family was close-knit. We always spent holidays together, and once a week, we volunteered at a local homeless shelter. I would watch my dad talk to people and provide them with supplies or tips that they would then come back and tell him had worked wonders for their back pains. I would also watch my mother put a smile and hope in people's eyes with a short conversation. I knew that I wanted to do what they did. Help people in the same way, but I wasn't sure which career path would be best for me.

Everything changed when I was 19, and I lost my brother to an illness that too many people are secretly battling: depression. My brother committed suicide at the age of 28, we later discovered that he had been depressed for some time. I didn't know how to deal with my anger and grief, so I buried myself in work. As you can imagine, that didn't work for long, and I needed to speak with someone who could give me better coping mechanisms. 

My psychiatrist helped me develop healthier work habits and coping mechanisms. He taught me how to be more psychologically minded and helped me realize that psychiatry combines the two aspects of my parents' professions that I love. As a psychiatrist, you get to use psychotherapy to help people in various ways and you also need to have a solid understanding of the human body and psychopharmaceuticals. 

I was completing my undergraduate at the time, but my interest had been piqued. I started to volunteer in the psychiatric ward at the hospital, and not only did I learn a lot about treating the mentally ill with respect and ensuring that they have autonomy, but it solidified my desire to become a psychiatrist. 

When I got to medical school, my interest grew. I would read the psychiatry textbooks in my spare time, diligently take notes, and excel at every exam. My curious nature would lead me to ask more questions in class. A conversation with one of my professors, Dr. John Doe, even inspired a research project on how depressive symptoms manifest differently in people of color, complicating the diagnosis process. We are currently working on the research project together, and hope to publish our findings soon. 

During my clerkship, a young woman came into the emergency room complaining of shortness of breath. She claimed that she had asthma and we decided to run some tests. I was tasked with monitoring the patient and we started talking. As she opened up to me about her struggles with Asthma, I began suspecting that she was describing a panic attack instead. I brought it up to my resident and attending who then followed up with some additional tests.

As it turns out, the patient had been having panic attacks for most of her teenagers and was not asthmatic at all. The attending sat with her for almost two hours, explaining precisely what a panic attack is, what she can do when she has one, and how therapy can help her identify her triggers and deal with them. 

I remember admiring the attending's patience and professionalism. Beyond that, I remember thinking about all the different ways in which our mental health affects our physical health and how we are just starting to understand those ways.

I hope to join the efforts of those who are helping the people who are already battling mental illness, those supporting the people who are suffering from it but don't know it, and those who are researching to help us understand more about brain chemistry and how our minds work. 

I believe that my sense of curiosity, work ethic, passion for the field, and psychological mindedness will make me a good psychiatrist. Now, I hope that I get a chance to train and learn from some of the best psychiatrists in the county so that one day, I, too, can help someone overcome difficulties and maybe even inspire another young woman to follow in my footsteps. 

"Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it." My high school counselor wrote this quote by Buddha on our whiteboard during my senior year and told us that, lucky for us, she was there to help us with the first part of our work. I remember rolling my eyes and thinking that I didn't need all that because I knew exactly what I wanted to be. I was going to be a neurosurgeon. 

I knew I wanted to be a neurosurgeon since I watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy in which Dr. Sheperd had to figure out how to remove a tumor from someone's spine without paralyzing them. Of course, I now know that although very entertaining, Grey's Anatomy does not have a very accurate portrayal of surgery or medicine. But I remember thinking that it must be amazing to spend your days working on such complicated cases, thinking outside the box to come up with creative solutions to problems that were endangering people's lives.  

I've always loved a good puzzle. It is the reason I enjoy things like sudoku, and all my favorite books revolve around solving mysteries. I simply enjoy that eureka moment, and as silly as it feels now, in high school, I was convinced that neurosurgeons got the best eureka moments. 

My mind first started changing during a conversation with that same high school counselor who informed me that I would make a great psychologist or psychiatrist after asking me a few questions. I was baffled! I asked her why she thought so, and she told me that those fields seemed to align with everything I was telling her I wanted from my future career. Even though I didn’t believe her, I couldn’t help but look into it.

I knew that I wanted to become a doctor because I'd always been fascinated by how the human body, particularly the human brain, works. So, I was more interested in psychiatry than psychology. After doing some research on the internet, I reached out to a psychiatrist in my community and asked to shadow them for a few weeks. As I observed the doctor and later on worked with patients as a volunteer at the XYZ clinic in college, I began to place more value on other aspects of medical care. Specifically, patient interaction. 

I remember one instance where the doctors were having difficulty with a patient. She was 16 years old, seemingly in good health, but she repeatedly showed up at the clinic complaining of migraines, asking for pain medication, and refusing to get examined properly. After a few visits, she was referred to the hospital for further testing, but she never went and simply kept coming back to ask for pain medication. Most of the doctors and staff had pegged her as an addict, but Dr. Diallo instructed me to talk to her and get her information. I took some extra time to talk to her every time she came in, usually documenting her symptoms, and making a bit of small talk. On what must've been the patient's fifth or sixth visit to the clinic that month, she finally opened up to me and explained that she wears glasses, but they are broken, and her family doesn't have the money to fix them or take her to an ophthalmologist. Once we knew what the issue was, we were able to help her get a new pair of glasses.

That was one of many interactions that helped me realize that talking to patients, especially listening to them, is one of the most important aspects of medicine. I wanted to choose a specialty that would allow me to spend time with patients, have that connection and help them with the root issues instead of just managing their symptoms. 

It only took a few days on the psychiatry rotation during my clerkship to realize that it was the only specialty that would allow me to solve problems, find creative ways to help my patients, and interact with them constantly. So, as it turns out, my high school counselor, Mrs. Bloom, was not wrong after all.

Now that I have discovered my work, I am ready to give myself to it with all my heart. 

Use our residency match calculator to assess your match chances and find out if you are a competitive applicant for your chosen specialty. ","label":"Tip:","title":"Tip:"}]" code="tab1" template="BlogArticle">

Psychiatry residency personal statement example #3

Growing up, I seemed to be on the path to success. I was an honor roll student, in the top 10% of my class, an elected student body member, and I was representing my school on the varsity soccer team. I already knew that I wanted to become a doctor, and there was no stopping me. 

However, I was under the false impression that the road to medical school would be easy. What I now realize is that I was accomplishing a lot without much conscious effort on my part. I was raised by parents who believed that hard work, academic excellence, and the pursuit of knowledge were always paramount. If my brother or I came home with a grade below A, my parents would act as if we had failed the assignment or exam. So, getting good grades became almost automatic to me.

I achieved great academic success, but I wasn't actively seeking knowledge or learning the true meaning of hard work at that stage in my life. I never really set any goals and worked towards them. I simply did what I felt would be just enough to make my parents happy.

I was never genuinely challenged until we relocated back to my parent's home country, Ghana, for a few years. While we had visited the country several times in the past, living there and going to school was a completely different experience. For the first time in my life, my performance was less than stellar, and I struggled to find my footing. Doing the bare minimum was no longer enough. It was when I found myself pulling all-nighters just to meet the graduation requirements that I knew that something had to change. 

I eventually realized that the problem was that the amount of effort I was putting in had not changed, despite the more difficult coursework I had to deal with. So, when my parents came back to the US, I took a different path. I'd found a premedical school in ThatTown Barbados that offered a four-year curriculum specifically for premeds. So, I packed up my bags and flew halfway across the world, anxious but eager. I wanted to prove to myself that I could rise to the occasion. I was finally setting my own goals, coming up with plans to reach those goals, and putting in the work. 

The dynamic between the mind and brain was always a topic of conversation around the dinner table in our house while I was growing up. My father is a psychologist, and my mother is a neuropathologist, and as much as they tried not to bring their work home to us, it always found its way into our conversations. I am not sure if their discussions led to my fascination with the human mind or if I asked them so many questions about it because I was already interested in the subject, but I was hooked either way. 

Even though I was a premedical student, no one was surprised when I decided to major in psychology instead of one of the natural sciences in college. I wanted to understand the mind and behavior better and hopefully get some answers to many of the questions that constantly plagued me. I wanted to know why two brains can have such completely different reactions in the face of the same external circumstances. I wanted to understand how and why our internal states transform our outer experiences. 

My degree in psychology was starting to shed some light on the complexity of the human mind. I was learning about the psychopathologies of mental illness and the anatomical and biological basis of psychiatric disorders. The more answers I got, the more questions I seemed to have. My curiosity and affinity for my mother often led me to her lab. We would discuss what I was learning in school as I watched her dissect neurological tissue under a microscope. During one of those many conversations, she reminded me how little we actually know about the brain and the mind and how we have so few resources available to help those struggling with mental illness. 

At the time, I was getting close to finishing my degree, and I had been working for a research facility conducting a clinical trial for a new anxiety medication. My mother's comment stuck with me, and it made me think about some of the experiences that the participants of the trial had been sharing with me. I remember one particular young woman in the trial who had explained to me that she did not know that she had anxiety. She always thought that everyone had headaches, stomach pain, and insomnia when they were stressed. 

When I finally got to medical school, it was with the full intention of becoming a psychiatrist. My years of learning about psychology and working with patients who had been suffering in silence for so long had convinced me that I was on the right path. I believe that as psychiatrists, we have the ability to improve people's quality of life by not only helping them mentally but also alleviating physical pain. 

During my internal medicine rotation in medical school, I was able to help a patient who came in presenting with intractable nausea and vomiting. She was about sixteen years old, and her medical workup was normal; she was admitted for observation because, although we couldn't find a cause, she had already thrown up twice in the space of two hours while being in the hospital. I spent some time speaking with her. She was timid at first, but she eventually opened to me and talked to me about a pretty difficult home situation that she was dealing with. My instincts told me that her problem might be more emotional than physical, so I discussed it with my resident. I was thrilled when I visited her a few days later on the psychiatric floor and found that she had finished all her food and had not thrown up once. 

Psychiatry allows me to continue learning about the mind and the brain while helping alleviate others' suffering, and that is why it is the perfect specialty for me. I believe that I am a good fit for it because I am not only passionate about it, but I am curious, compassionate, and very willing to learn. I am confident that with training, I can become a great psychiatrist. 

When they called my name on the day of my kindergarten graduation, I jumped out of my chair, ran to the microphone, and proudly proclaimed: "I am going to fix mummy's brain." I had a big smile on my face that slowly disappeared as no one clapped for me the way they had done when my classmates said what they were going to be in the future. It took a few very long seconds, but eventually, my mother started clapping slowly, and a few other people joined in. 

I am not sure what I felt at that moment because I do not remember any of it, but whenever I watch that video, I want to cry in shame and clap for myself a little. I like knowing that I always knew what I wanted to do, but I wish I had known better than to say something like that on a stage in front of my entire neighborhood. My mother's battle with mental illness was not a secret, though. One of my earliest memories is of her being carried away by men in scrubs, kicking, and screaming while my older sister tried to distract me with a doll. She was a paranoid schizophrenic, and I watched her fight her mind for over twenty years before she decided to take her life. 

My mother is the reason I first got curious about the brain and mental illness. As a child, I didn't understand it very well, but she repeatedly told me that she was just a little sick in the brain but that the doctors would fix it. As a teenager, I understood it a little better, and I spent a lot of time researching what it meant to be a schizophrenic. I remember being both fascinated and angry at the complex ways in which our own minds can cause us harm. As an adult in college, I understood that my mother was not the only person struggling with this illness and that many others are also struggling in ways that are very different but also very similar to hers, and I wanted to help. 

Growing up, my sister always made sure that I understood how to treat my mother with respect and dignity, even when she was going through a difficult episode. I spent most of my high school years volunteering in a psychiatric care facility, and I learned similar values there too. One of the doctors I worked with often complimented me on talking to the residents and making them a part of every decision instead of just telling them what to do like many other volunteers assumed they were supposed to do. 

I believe that my years caring for my mom and the residents of the XYZ facility helped me understand that the stigma surrounding mental illness often invites alienation, judgment, and other forms of gross misconduct. To be a good psychiatrist, you need to be more than just competent and knowledgeable in the discipline, but also empathetic and understanding of patients' daily struggles with their illness and society. 

By the time my mother passed away, I was in medical school, and my desire to help her had grown into a love for the field of psychiatry. I especially like the fact that even though we do not fully understand all mental illnesses yet, and we don't have a cure for many of them - we are able to provide some patients with the tools they need to live full, healthy lives using both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies. 

I believe that my compassion, discipline, and passion for the field will allow me to strive in your residency program and eventually join the efforts of the many other psychiatrists who were able to help people like my mom live as long as she did. 

5 tips for writing a compelling psychiatry residency personal statement

Keep in mind that your residency personal statement is one of many application components, so you should use it to provide the residency program directors with additional information about you. For example, you should avoid rehashing the experiences that are listed on your  residency CV . They already have that document as well as your  ERAS experience section . Instead, talk about what you learned from those experiences and how they helped you prepare for psychiatry residency.  "}]">

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What’s a personal statement for college.

Senior Associate, JPMorgan Chase

how to write residency personal statement

As you complete your college applications, whether it’s through the Common App or by individually applying, you’ll likely come across prompts in the application that ask you to write about yourself. Think of it as an opportunity to introduce yourself to the admissions committees of the schools you’re applying to in a different way than the insights recommendations and your transcript can provide.

Sometimes called an admissions or application essay, a personal statement, or a statement of purpose, what’s typically being asked for is information about your background, experiences, accomplishments, future goals, and any challenges or obstacles you may have had to overcome. Because of that, when it comes to any personal statements you write for college applications, the aim is usually to showcase your personality, interests, and character in a compelling and authentic way.

Keep reading for more information about personal statements, the prompts to expect, and some tips for mastering this part of a college application.

When will you have to write a personal statement during the college application process?

Many college applications require a personal statement of some kind. For applications submitted through the Common App, a personal statement is a required component for nearly all colleges and universities that use the platform. The Common App allows students to write one comprehensive essay that’s sent to all colleges they’re applying to through the system. This means you’ll write just one personal statement, which will be part of every college application you submit through the Common App. Some colleges might ask for additional shorter essays, known as supplemental essays, on top of this, so be prepared for those asks.

Many scholarship applications also require at least one personal statement or essay as part of the application process. Like college applications, scholarship personal statements provide an opportunity for applicants to showcase their qualifications, experiences, and personal motivations. A personal statement for a scholarship application often serves as a way for applicants to demonstrate their merit, express their career and educational goals, and explain how they’d benefit from and contribute to a scholarship program.

How can your personal statement impact your college applications?

Your personal statement can have a significant impact on your college applications in several ways:

  • Demonstrating your character and personality: Your personal statement offers admission committees insight into who you are beyond your grades and test scores. It can showcase your values, motivations, and unique qualities, helping to paint a more comprehensive picture of you as a prospective student.
  • Highlighting your achievements and experiences: It allows you to discuss your academic accomplishments, extracurriculars, and any challenges you’ve overcome. This can demonstrate your potential for success and your ability to contribute to a campus community.
  • Conveying your passion and commitment to a particular school: A personal statement allows you to articulate your academic and career goals and connect them to your reasons for applying to a specific college or program. Admissions committees are looking for students who are genuinely interested in and committed to their educational and personal growth, along with being excited to attend their school.
  • Setting you apart from other applicants: A well-crafted personal statement can help you stand out among applicants with similar academic credentials. It allows you to showcase what makes you unique.
  • Addressing any weaknesses or challenges: If any aspects of your application may raise concerns to the admissions committees, such as a lower grade point average (GPA) in a particular semester, your personal statement can allow you to provide context and explain any extenuating circumstances. This can help mitigate potential red flags in your application.

How do you know what topic to write about in your personal statement?

Over 1,000 U.S. colleges accept the Common App, so many students will be choosing from among the Common App’s seven essay prompts.

Below is the list of essay prompts from 2023-24 Common App :

  • “Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”
  • “The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?”
  • “Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?”
  • “Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?”
  • “Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.”
  • “Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?”
  • “Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.”

Beyond the prompts from the Common App, which many students utilize, some schools may have their own applications with their own prompts or supplementary prompts that they expect students to complete.

For instance, at Yale University , one of the school’s supplementary prompts is: “Tell us about a topic or idea that excites you and is related to one or more academic areas you selected above [on your application].” At Amherst College, one of the supplementary questions is: “In what ways could your unique experiences enhance our understanding of our nation and our world.”

What makes a good personal statement for a college application?

A lot goes into writing a strong personal statement for college applications.

Hafeez Lakhani of educational coaching firm Lakhani Coaching told the New York Times to think of it like this: “Every college is like a dinner table. What will make you the most interesting contributor to that dinner table conversation? What will make you help everyone else have a more interesting experience?”

Lacy Crawford, a former independent college application counselor and author of Early Decision, told USA Today : “These essays should read like smart, interesting 17-year-olds wrote them. A sense of perspective and self-awareness is what’s interesting...I think most students are torn between a pathway dividing a diary entry and a press release. It’s supposed to be a marketing document of the self.”

Here are a few tips to make the most of a personal statement.

  • Tell a story: Use the space to showcase your personality, interests, personal values, life experiences, and even your sense of humor. Don’t just use it to regurgitate your accomplishments, which can be gleaned from your high school transcript and other parts of your application.
  • Consider emphasizing your volunteer work and other community work: Many college admissions offices look for students who are active in their communities, be it volunteering or in different ways. The personal statement is a good place to emphasize how you’re making the world a better place.
  • Emphasize any extra work you’ve done to dive into your field of interest: Be it internships, college-level courses at a community college, or extracurricular activities, anything that shows you’ve done extra work to explore your chosen field of study will help to emphasize your passion. Tie this passion to why you’re particularly excited about attending a particular school, and you may have a winning formula.
  • Make sure you check grammar and spelling: You don’t want to write a great essay and let a few grammatical and spelling errors get in your way. Read and re-read your essay to check for spelling and grammar, and get a few people you trust to help you proofread your work as well.

Final thoughts

A strong personal statement can make a positive impression on admissions officers and contribute to a well-rounded and compelling college application. It allows you to showcase your strengths, demonstrate your potential, and express your genuine interest in the college or program.

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Welcome Our Anesthesiology Matched Residents for 2024-2025

March 15, 2024

We are thrilled to announce the wonderful results of the 2024 Anesthesiology Matches for our Categorical, Advanced, R-spot, Internal Medicine-Anesthesiology, and Pediatrics-Anesthesiology programs. We want to extend our warmest welcome to those who will be joining our program and department. We're excited to see our team grow and evolve with their contributions. Join us in expressing gratitude for everyone involved in the selection process. A big thank you to all!

  • Internal Medicine
  • Pediatrics-Anesthesiology

Tatenda Chakoma

Tatenda Chakoma Stanford University

Nathan Coss

Nathan Coss UC San Francisco

Farhan Lakhani

Farhan Lakhani Medical College of GA

Vamsi Maturi

Vamsi Maturi Texas A&M Health

Biftu Mume

Biftu Mume UC Davis

Brandon Muncan

Brandon Muncan Stony Brook University

NIti Pawar

Niti Pawar UC San Francisco

Anthony Pedersen

Anthony Pederson Albany Medical

Nabeel Rasheed

Nabeel Rasheed University Missouri-Kansas

Eberechukwu Sonoiki

Ebere Sonoiki UC Davis

Samantha Strutner

Samantha Strutner UC Irvine

Emily Suen

Emily Suen Northwestern University

Dustin Tanaka

Dustin Tanaka University of Toronto

Robert Victor

Robert Victor UC Irvine

Fatima Baig

Fatima Baig Chicago Medical School

Shamieh Banihani

Shamieh Banihani UC Riverside

Komal Dani

Komal Dani University Southern California

Abel Edossa

Abel Edossa University of Nevada

Angelica Griggs-Demmin

Angelica Griggs-Demmin Johns Hopkins University

Charissa Iluore

Charissa Iluore University of Pennsylvania

Sarah Jacobs

Sarah Jacobs University of Miami

Kyle Lakatos

Kyle Lakatos UC San Francisco

Joanna Madej

Joanna Madej Robert Wood Johnson

Kimberly Peloza

Kimberly Peloza Columbia University

Ge Ge Julia Ran

Ge Ge "Julia" Ran Chicago Medical School

Aska Sturdevan

Aska Sturdevan UC Davis

Joseph Thomas

Joseph Thomas University of Nevada

Milad Torabi

Milad Torabi Stanford University

Tomoko Wilson

Tomoko Wilson Oregon H&S University

Giovnanni Perottino

Giovanni Perottino Northwestern Universtiy

Katherine Lowe

Katherine Lowe Case Western Reserve

Ryan Gilbert

Ryan Gilbert University of Pittsburgh

Olivia Vukcevich

Olivia Vukcevich UC Riverside

IMAGES

  1. FREE 13+ Sample Personal Statement Templates in PDF

    how to write residency personal statement

  2. Writing A Winning Personal Statement For Residency In 2023

    how to write residency personal statement

  3. Family Medicine Residency Personal Statement: Samples & Help

    how to write residency personal statement

  4. FREE 7+ Personal Statement Residency Samples in PDF

    how to write residency personal statement

  5. Residency Personal Statement (2022/23): An Insider's Guide (with

    how to write residency personal statement

  6. FREE 8+ Sample Residency Personal Statement Templates in PDF

    how to write residency personal statement

VIDEO

  1. Aug 21 2023 Writing an Effective Personal Statement WEBINAR

  2. How to Write a Personal Statement for Graduate School Scribbr 🎓

  3. CFI15: Advice from Dr. Fischer: How can I write the best Personal Statement?

  4. How to write personal statement for UK universities

  5. How To Write A Perfect Personal Statement FAST With This Template

  6. How to write your personal statement for residency- step by step and top mistakes to avoid

COMMENTS

  1. Residency Personal Statement: The Ultimate Guide (Example Included

    Part 3: How to write an amazing residency personal statement Start with an outline. With so many great ideas and a narrative in mind, you might be tempted to start writing your essay now. But an outline will keep your ideas organized and help you write more efficiently. Even if you don't start draft one with an outline and instead just ...

  2. Residency Match: 4 tips for writing a standout personal statement

    A residency application is more than metrics and research. Ideally, a good residency application is well-rounded, and the personal statement is what helps shape it. Read on for these essential tips on how to write a personal statement for residency. Sonja Raaum, MD, is an assistant professor of ...

  3. Residency Personal Statement : An Insider's Guide

    Goals for Writing Your 2024 Residency Personal Statement. Above all else, your residency personal statement offers the opportunity to show your interest in your chosen specialty when applying to residency to illustrate you are a good fit.. The more details you offer about why you are interested in the specialty and how your med school rotations, accomplishments and experiences have reinforced ...

  4. PDF Writing Residency Personal Statements

    5. Common Problems: • Residency statement is a barely updated version of the medical/dentistry school application essay. • At this point in your career, you don't have to justify your interest in medical school or dentistry school. Rather, you have to make a strong case for why you would be a great, fit for the specialty.

  5. Residency Personal Statement: The Ultimate Guide

    The residency application personal statement is an essential part of applying to programs, but it can be intimidating. We get it. It can be challenging to write about yourself and your life experiences within 3,500 characters. We'll cover everything you need to know about writing a powerful statement!

  6. How to Write a Great Residency Personal Statement

    Highlight Your Personal Qualities. When it comes to writing your residency personal statement, it is important to focus on your personal qualities and skills. Show the selectors that you have the skills and qualities to succeed in this residency program you are aiming to enroll in. Explain to them what qualities you have and which skills you ...

  7. How to write the perfect residency personal statement

    Determine your personal statement structure. Now that you know how long the personal statement for your residency application should be, we need to discuss how to develop your essay. First, create an outline with a standard 4-5 paragraph structure. Within that outline, logically organize your content. There are many methods of organization to ...

  8. Residency Personal Statement Writing Tips & Structure

    In your residency personal statement, include your experiences and interests that have driven your ambition to mature as a medical professional. Take time to think about what qualities you'd expect in an exemplary physician. Then, create a list of topics reflecting these qualities from your background. Create a list of ideas of what to write ...

  9. What To Include in a Residency Personal Statement (Plus Example)

    A residency personal statement is a short essay that medical school graduates often write when applying to residency programs. It typically includes personal information, such as achievements, goals and interests. It often highlights personal motivations, experiences, goals and career plans. A residency personal statement is one typed page in ...

  10. How to write a personal statement for residency

    According to the most recent National Resident Matching Program® Program Director Survey, 78% of residency directors reported that the personal statement was a factor in selecting applicants for interview; on a scale from 1 to 5, they scored the importance of the personal statement 3.7 on average.(Class ranking was only 70% and 3.9. Think of how hard you worked during medical school.)

  11. Writing a Personal Statement for Residency Application

    For the moment, forget everything you know about writing histories and physicals. While preparing your personal statement: Avoid abbreviations. Avoid repetitive sentence structure. Avoid using ...

  12. Residency Personal Statement Examples from Matched Residents

    Writing a residency personal statement? Here are the top books for residency applicants: Residency Personal Statement Examples #4: Emergency Medicine. One of the most surprising things that I learned through my emergency medicine (EM) electives is that working in an emergency department is like leading a horse. I grew up on a farm in the [name ...

  13. Ten Steps for Writing an Exceptional Personal Statement

    Writing a personal statement represents a unique opportunity for residency and fellowship applicants to amplify their ERAS application beyond the confines of its objective components. 3 Using this stepwise approach encourages each personal statement to be truly personal and streamlines the process for applicants and reviewers alike. All ...

  14. Residency Personal Statement [Ultimate Guide]

    A residency personal statement is one of the requirements when applying to residency programs. This is a formal letter that you get to write and personalize yourself to further showcase your strengths as an individual and as a potential resident of the specialty you desire to match into.

  15. How to Write a Good Personal Statement for your Residency Application

    The personal statement 📝 is the part of the residency MATCH ® application in which I find the most mistakes. Many applicants do not even realize there are problems in their personal statement because the process of self-evaluation requires significant skill and insight.

  16. Writing a Winning Personal Statement

    How important are personal statements to the residency application process, ... Writing a Winning Personal Statement . Jeanette L. Calli, MS, former program manager for Careers in Medicine, director of match operations at the National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP®)

  17. How to Write Personal Statement for Residency? [with Examples]

    The academic "you" and the real-life "you.". Your transcripts, degrees, and test scores are sufficient to paint the academic "you's" picture. Beyond that, the personal statement takes over. Your residency essay is a page-long essay that gives a window into who you are. It is a peek into your life to find out why you are fit for a ...

  18. How to Write a Residency Personal Statement (Jan 2024)

    It is, but after writing and revising hundreds upon hundreds of medical residency personal statements, I've found this formula to tie the tightest bow. Be declarative and confident. This is the career you've worked so hard for, and you DESERVE this residency position.

  19. Personal Statement

    The personal statement is limited to 28,000 characters, which include letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation marks. There is not a limit to how many personal statements applicants can create. Personal statements created outside the MyERAS application should be done in a plain text word processing application such as Notepad (for Windows ...

  20. MDs Insight on Writing a Great Residency Personal Statement

    Create an outline to help organize your thoughts, building a logical progression of ideas and experiences. While the parameters around the structure of your residency personal statement are loose, it is a common best practice to limit it to one page in length. 5. Don't forget to edit and proofread.

  21. How to Write Residency Personal Statement: Best Tips & Hacks

    How to Write Personal Statement for Residency: Structure & Outline. An effective way to approach a residency statement is to treat it like you write an essay. It ensures a good structure to make your document easily readable. While diverse approaches exist in this regard, here's how you can keep it simple and still produce one they'll enjoy ...

  22. 5 Psychiatry Residency Personal Statement Examples

    Psychiatry residency personal statement example #2. "Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it." My high school counselor wrote this quote by Buddha on our whiteboard during my senior year and told us that, lucky for us, she was there to help us with the first part of our work.

  23. Residency Personal Statement (2022/23): An Insider's Guide (with

    Goals for Writing Your 2022/2023 Residencies Personal Statement. Above whole else, their residency personal announcement offers this occasion to show your fascinate in your chosen specialty when applying to residency in beschreiben yours live a good fit.. The more details you offer about why you are interested int an specialty the how respective med go rotations, accomplishments plus ...

  24. What's A Personal Statement For College?

    Because of that, when it comes to any personal statements you write for college applications, the aim is usually to showcase your personality, interests, and character in a compelling and authentic way. Keep reading for more information about personal statements, the prompts to expect, and some tips for mastering this part of a college application.

  25. Welcome 2024-2025 Matched Residents

    March 15, 2024. We are thrilled to announce the wonderful results of the 2024 Anesthesiology Matches for our Categorical, Advanced, R-spot, Internal Medicine-Anesthesiology, and Pediatrics-Anesthesiology programs.