SELF-SCREENER FOR PERSONAL STATEMENTS
Awrite Guys ! The moment has come ...you are relieved, smiling and smug because you just wrote that Personal Statement. Now lets put that statement through an acid test see if it can get better :-)
As long as your answers are a loud "YES" for any of these quick self-questions you are on safe waters - the moment you hear yourself say a quiet "No" , we got a problem that needs urgent fixing :-) - ofcourse, depending on how much perfection you desire...
... After all the Personal Statement is your Identity ! So get those lenses and microscopes in your head and start scanning ...
A. "Must Have"s :
A.1 Grammar and spelling check is completely complete
A.2 Your statement is not too long (Spilling up to a few lines more than a single page is fine)
A.3 You included at least one interesting anecdote justifying your love for the specialty you applying for.
A.4 You have not copy-pasted words from samples on the Internet (Modifying those concepts is fine)
A.5 The whole statement is broken into at least three neat paragraphs
A.6 The flow is logical from one paragraph to next
A.7 Relevance of the specialty to your career goals is mentioned
A.8 Includes a paragraph focusing on your strengths , skills & achievements
A.9 Now open that third 'self-critical' eye thats always closed - does your statement really make a statement ? Does it stamp your identity ?
A.10 Your statement is less than 850 words
B. "Better to have"s:
B.1 You have mentioned why you are interested in that specific program (program strengths, specific faculty, research, etc.)
B.2 You have not spent too much time explaining why you entered medical school. Jeeeeez ..did you really say too much about that one ? kiddin....
B.3 Subtitles included for important sections
B.4 There are very few to nil 'negatives' - I mean instead of saying ' I did not find surgery too interesting' you can always say - ' I found surgery less interesting' - kinda prevents a pessimistic air around you
B.5 Some creativity or imagination in your sentences, or research ideas, or anything else in the context...
C. "Good to have"s :
C.1 A relevant, cool quote within context of your PS
C.2 Word count less than 700 words
[This list is ongoing - if you got suggestions leave me a comment and do watch out for updates]
posted by Digitaldoc, MD @ 12:59 PM
8 Comments:
At 11:56 AM, andromeda said...
I would say that you can cut on the biography part of it, but make sure you have down what makes you and the program (and the PD, if you like) a "made-for-each-other" or 'happily-ever-after" story...dont be afraid to over do it...
At 8:41 PM, Anonymous said...
i m confused about the length of the PS... some sites say it should NOT be more than a SINGLE page...
At 9:03 PM, Digitaldoc, MD said...
I feel 1.5 pages is good :-)
At 8:51 PM, Anonymous said...
about the achievements in the personal statement... it is advisable to mention ALL of them? i hv come across PS tips that say not to repeat the ones mentioned in ur C.V. ... do we have to prepare a CV too? isnt it prepared online by ERAS from our records? m confused..help!
At 9:53 PM, Anonymous said...
how should a PS for a univ program differ from that of a community program? where should the difference lie??
At 2:12 PM, Anonymous said...
Do you (digital doc) also do proof read the PS? I had read that earlier on one blog and now I am not sure?
At 5:26 AM, Italian Stallion said...
Do you send out a different PS for each program, or do all programs view the same one? How does that work if you're applying to multiple specialities?
At 5:34 PM, Digitaldoc, MD said...
Answers:
1. Achievements on PS - only the ones in context of the flow of ur experiences that shaped up ur decision for the specilaty u applying for. Dont mention just for the heck of mentioning it...
2. Univ programs - would like more an academic touch, some interest in research in ur career goals and probably about fellowships that u are looking at
3. Yea - u go that right..will do that from next match season though :-)
4. Yeah - u CAN send different PS to diff programs or different specialties. The way it works is - on the online ERAS application site, you are allow to save as many PS as u want...and then when u assign your documents and statements to individual programs while applying, you may choose from any one of those million PS u have created online on ur account ;-)
At 1:49 PM, Anonymous said...
I have flunked my Step 2 cs twice, should I mention that in my ps?? Anyway, the program i apply to will obviously view that i ve failed in my CAF...... please suggest.
Probably better to not open a can of worms ;-)
I'm confuse. Some people said it's better to highlight the fact that we are fmg and unique but some said don't. Which one is right?
if you can put it in the context of your strengths and weave it in your career goals - for example, an FMG who has seen many infectious disease patients can be a good fit for someone looking for fellowships in internal medicine.
I am just getting mine together.. Im at 1650 words....gotta downsize big time!! Keep up the good work digidoc.
Hi DigitalDoc!Hope you are doing fine.I have a couple of questions regarding personal statements.
1. How exactly do I tailor my PS to show my interest in a particular program?Its like, most programs tell similar things in their "about us" section on their respective websites....
2. I read somewhere that generalizations are to be avoided; but also that hobbies should be included (including the section on your blog by someone who had prematched I think). Do I need to include this section at all? And if I do, should I be specific about each of my hobbies, like, say, the type of music that I listen to....I don't want to, its at 1.25 pages already and I fear it might become too long...
Hi Digitaldoc!Need some help with my PS...I've surfed several sites tellin us how to write an impressive PS [no offence ;)] and one thing they all agree on is that the reason provided for becoming a doctor shouldn't be cliche'd, like having doctors as parents etc...as that wouldn't be appreciated....and some of the samples I saw had pretty melodramatic ones like a serious illness in the family etc...don't you think that itself is a cliche?
I didn't have any profound earth-shaking experiences, it really was a matter of looking up to my uncles that influenced my choice of getting into medical college...HELP!!!!
That is fine, mention that and write earnestly about it and how your interest was piqued by the satisfaction your uncles felt about their careers and the nobility of it - you could even mention an anecdote to that effect, which will add to the charm of reading your PS
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