April 03, 2023

Personal Statements for Residency: Avoiding Common Mistakes

29 minutes

Episode 90. ⁠The personal statement is the most important part of your application for many specialties. It is also the part of your application that you uniquely have control over.

The 2021 program director survey cited that in all specialties, the personal statement is more important when selecting who to interview than other factors including 1) volunteer and extracurricular experiences, 2) awards and honors, 3) the prestige of your medical school, and 4) research experience.

The personal statement was even more important than 1) USMLE/COMLEX scores and 2) your school grades for applicants applying to many specialties including child neurology, family medicine, neurosurgery, PM&R, psychiatry, and vascular surgery. Now that Level 1 and Step 1 is pass/fail, many more specialties are likely to join the ranks of these specialties that look more at the personal statement for a more holistic review process.

Top 10 tips:

Tell the story of why you are interested in your specialty and tie this to your experiences and career aspirations

Make sure that if someone you knew read the statement, they would know it was you

Balance showing the best of yourself while also not overselling yourself or inflating your experiences

Catch the readers attention with your first sentence, and state your specialty of choice in the first paragraph

If including a meaningful case, keep it short and stick to why it was significant to you

Demonstrate a passion for the subject matter and the patient population of your intended specialty

Know your audience (the reader is going to be someone already in the specialty you’re applying for)

Comment on the “art” of the specialty and find meaning beyond the more practical outside view of the specialty

Mention interest in a subspecialty if you think it’s helpful to expand upon your interest

Personalize your statement for your top programs

Avoid these 5 mistakes:

Don’t summarize your CV or ERAS application in your statement

Don't explain again why you decided to became a doctor (unless it relates to your specialty directly)

Don’t use your medical school application essay as the first draft of your personal statement

Don't mention the salary or work life balance as the reason why you're interested in your intended specialty

Don't use a template you found online or base your statement on a sample personal statement you found online

View all my editing services for Pre-Med and Medical Students (CV, personal statement, applications): https://www.fiverr.com/firstlinepod

First Line is created and hosted by Aubrey Ann Jackson. Visit First Line’s website where you can view blog posts: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.firstlinepodcast.com⁠

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Content on First Line is for educational and informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please see your primary care physician (DO or MD) for any medical concerns you have. All ideas expressed are individual ideas of the host and do not represent any organizations the host is linked to.

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By Dr. Aubrey Ann Jackson

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