Medical Residency Application: The Personal Statement

1. Medical Residency Application:The Personal Statement Writing Well to Sell Yourself Elizabeth Lefebvre, McGill University UGME Career Planning Office May 19, 2010

2. What Is a Personal Statement? • Narrative picture of you • “What I’ve done” = residency application + CV • “Who I am” = personal statement • Essential element of your application package • A good one won’t guarantee you a match • A bad one CAN ruin your chances

3. Structure: Overview • MUST have a logical flow • Verify with individual program descriptions or websites any unique required topics and maximum word count • Create generic template, then tailor as necessary

4. Structure: Starting Point Introduction Why this Specialty Why You for this Specialty General Career Goals Why this Institution Conclusion

5. Structure: Introduction • DO • Be concise, interesting, and personal • Employ a brief “story” or vignette from your life • AVOID • Vast generalities about medicine/the specialty • Giving an exhaustive history of your life

6. Structure: Why This Specialty • DO • Provide honest information about your path • Be specific and use brief, concrete examples • AVOID • Generalizing without providing evidence from your personal experience

7. Structure: Why You • DO • Identify your personal strengths • Relate your strengths to your chosen specialty • Provide concrete examples of how your strengths “look” in real life • Draw upon items in your CV, contextualizing their relevance for this program/specialty

8. Structure: Why You • AVOID • Citing traits applicable to all medical students without illustrating from your life/making it personal • Simply listing the items on your CV

9. Structure: Career Goals • DO • Describe: • Your ideal practice setting • How research will fit with your career (if at all) • Indicate subspecialty interests (generally) • What you hope to accomplish • AVOID • Committing yourself to one subspecialty or practice location, etc.

10. Structure: Why This School • DO • Identify several unique points of the program • Explain why these are positive to you • Identify geographical factors (family, recreational/cultural opportunities, etc.) • AVOID • Speaking only to geographic location • Citing common program characteristics

11. Structure: Conclusion • DO • Refer back to your intro if possible • Be concise, interesting, and personal • Express enthusiasm about specialty/program • AVOID • Bland, generic statements that “end” the statement but add little to overall impact

12. Length? Check on CaRMS • www.carms.ca - “Main Residency Match (R-1)” – “Program Information” – “Program Descriptions” • Always watch for max. word length for each program

13. How many versions? • Generally, a basic version with some modifications for each program can be ok, BUT… • Check on CaRMS! Each program may give very specific guidelines about what they want from you.

14. Resources: General • McGill Career Planning Website http://www.medicine.mcgill.ca/careerplan/gettingintoresidency_6d.htm • Resumes & Personal Statements for Health Professionalsby James Tysinger • AMA Website www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-people/member-groups-sections/minority-affairs-consortium/transitioning-residency/writing-your-personal-statement.shtml

15. Resources: Personal • We are happy to review and assist with editing drafts of your personal statement(s) • Send Word documents by e-mail to careeradvisor.med@mcgill.ca • Expect one-week turnaround time at peak periods (October/November)