A personal statement is a one-page narrative of your story, your why, who you are, and what you bring to the residency program. It highlights your achievements, your passions, and your future goals.

Writing my personal statement took a lot of trial and error, revisions, and a lot of help and guidance from friends, residents, and doctors.

These tips help you begin the process and create a story you are proud of.

Questions to Ask Yourself

Writing a personal statement is a time for self-reflection and self-analysis of…

• Who am I?
• Why do I want this specialty?
• What makes me passionate about this specialty?
• What are my future career goals?
• What am I going to offer the residency program?
• What is unique about you that other applicants may or may not have?
• Which patient impacted you? What did you learn from that experience? How did it affect your future patient care?
• Do you have a red flag? What did you learn from that red flag or failure? How did you move forward and persevere?

Take a moment, open a Word document, or grab a piece of paper, and answer the questions above. Start thinking of ideas and thoughts you want to include in your personal statement.

Key Words To Utilize or To Display

Here is a list of keywords or attributes to ensure you include or narrate

• Hard-worker
• Passionate
• Perseverance
• Dedicated
• Resilient
• Confident
• Empathetic
• Motivated
• Leader
• Research

Outline for Personal Statement

Here is a sample outline; everyone’s personal statement is different and unique, and each person chooses to highlight other attributes of themselves.

1. Introduction – a captivating introduction that allows the reader to continue reading your story; it may include why you picked medicine, your background, or a story.
2. Specialty – include why that specialty and a personal patient story that highlights the importance of that specialty.
3. Unique Paragraph – Any clinical experience or background story that may include research, extracurriculars, or hobby that correlates with the specialty. Make yourself memorable in that way.
4. Address any red flags – what did you learn from that experience, and how did you persevere?
5. Conclusion – comment on what you bring to the residency program and what you seek in your future career goals from the resident program.

Lastly, ask for help; ask friends, residents, and doctors to review it. Everyone has a different opinion, but everyone’s input is beneficial to craft the final story. People have different views of you and can highlight additional attributes you may want to include.

My personal statement went through almost ten different versions/revisions because I had so much to write about, and I was trying to include it all on one page. I started my personal statement one day when I was unable to sleep, and I had so many thoughts regarding medicine and my future career that spark began crafting my personal statement; however, it was finalized in September.

My Personal Tips

• Start early! You really want to take advantage of being able to write your narrative and do it well.
• Don’t list everything on your curriculum vitae; instead, find something that influences you in a way that you can passionately write about; remember, your curriculum vitae should have quality over quantity.
• Be descriptive, utilizing vivid words, and create an image in the reader’s head.
• I used Grammarly to ensure it was free of any grammatical and spelling errors.
• Initially, my personal statement was on a Word document, and I would send it to an individual and wait to hear back, then send it to the next. The last week I put it in a Google document for everyone to see the changes simultaneously, and it was the best decision I made. It was a collective work of minute edits that crafted a beautifully written personal statement.; my tip, input it into a Google Document and share it with the ones you trust.

My Examples

• I chose Family Medicine for Preventative Medicine and displayed my passion for Preventive Medicine by promoting healthy lifestyles and habits and promoting fitness in my patients.
• I shared an impactful patient story of primary prevention screening guidelines and how that impacted my patient and their family.

I hope this helps, and if you have any additional tips for writing a personal statement, comment below! I would love to hear it.