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Writing a Personal Statement

Guide for Medical Students and FMGs

When your entire career is about learning to practice medicine, it’s sometimes hard to believe that your success or failure hinges on something where you’re not trained: writing your personal statement. Even if you are a skilled writer, it can be hard to choose a topic and to write about yourself in a way that resonates with others.

Writing a personal statement to get into a residency or fellowship program does not have to be a painful process. This is the one opportunity you have to sell yourself in your application that is unfettered by cold hard facts and figures. Your personal statement gives you an opportunity to make yourself more real and personal to the program directors who will have to choose you out of the hundreds of residency program applicants.

Here are some concepts to keep in mind when creating your personal statement:

1) The ideal personal statement will give the reader a sense of “you” and will focus on some unique and impressive personal facts that will make you stand out among all of the other physician applicants. It will also convince the residency or fellowship program director of your commitment to your chosen specialty or subspecialty, as well as your ability to succeed as a practicing physician in that specialty.

2) Unlike other fields, it is not necessary to be 100% perfect in your writing style in the medical profession; however, poor grammar and bad spelling will make the program director think that you don’t care enough to put the effort in, and that if you can’t even write a complete sentence well, how can you really be a valuable resident? Good residents and fellows publish and do research, and that requires intelligence that a program director looks for when reviewing personal statements. If you’re a foreign medical graduate and English is not your first language, have someone review your statement who can make sound proofreading and editing advice.

3) When writing your personal statement, it is more important to avoid alienating anyone, even at the expense of not winning someone over. Subsequently, when developing the thesis for your personal statement, be a bit more conservative if you have two choices, especially if you’re using the same statement or a version of the same statement when applying to a number of residency or fellowship programs. It is highly preferable to have a statement that has mass appeal, rather than one that might alienate a majority.

Your thesis statement

When you applied to medical school, everyone told you not to say “I want to be a doctor so I can help people.” It was a cliched response and it’s just as trite now. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to help people - it’s just that this reason is not unique - it’s the same reason for everyone!

Being a doctor is all about helping people. But when developing your thesis statement, try to approach it from a different angle. For example, if you are pursuing a specific specialty, why? What personal story or example do you have that makes you personally want to become that specific type of physician? There is no right or wrong answer, but there are trite answers and unique ones.

Imagery is paramount.

Anecdotes are the best way to demonstrate your rationale in a personal statement. Telling a program director that you like a specialty or that you’re good at a procedure is not nearly as effective as describing past events that have shaped your desire and illustrate those points. For example:

1) Two pounds makes me think of a book, or a cup of coffee, or a package of sugar. But until my sister was born, it never made me think of a person. I can still picture how huge the doctor’s hands looked next to her prematurely born, tiny body. Knowing that those hands bore the responsibility of saving her life and keeping her alive, and watching the physician work tirelessly to keep her healthy during those important first few days, I realized how much I wanted to be a physician and do what he does.

2) My sister was prematurely born, and as a result, I would like to help children like her by training in neonatology.

When used as a hook to start your personal statement, an anecdote can quickly pique the interest of a program director, which will allow you to keep them interested enough to read the entire thing.

How are you unique?

Imagine two people walking down a street at the exact same time. These two people will have experienced their walk in completely different ways. The people they encountered, what they saw when they walked, what they were listening to or doing while they walked, their ultimate destination - these all add up to give them each something completely unique about the same walk! The same applies to medical students and foreign medical graduates. Even if you attended the same school, or came from the same country, or want to go into the same specialty, every applicant will have a unique perspective and unique circumstances that shaped your motivations, personality, and strengths.

One of the biggest weaknesses of personal statements written by physicians is that they are too vague - do not neglect to add detail! Be specific when describing your experiences, education, and background. If you volunteered for an association, how many hours did you work? During your rotations, how many patients did you see? What type of technology or procedures did you get comfortable with?

It’s these types of details that will let you differentiate yourself from every other applicant to the residency program

It will be difficult.

Writing a personal statement that is not boring, trite, or obvious is not easy. Do not brush off your personal statement or take it lightly - program directors around the country consider this to be an invaluable insight into your motivations and your personality. A good personal statement can put your career on the right path. A bad one can give a program director the wrong idea about your ability to practice medicine and be a valuable addition to his/her residency or fellowship program. If you are concerned about your writing efforts and want to make sure that you get into the best program possible, the expert writing staff at The Doctor Job have written and edited hundreds, if not thousands of personal statements. They know what will work and what won’t, and they can make sure that the cornerstone to your ERAS application is a boon, not a liability.