eras personal statement examples pediatrics

Pediatrics Residency Personal Statement Examples

Reviewing pediatrics personal statement examples is a great way to inspire your own in 2024! Your residency personal statement is your chance to stand out to the admission’s teams and emphasize your suitability for the profession, along with any relevant skills and qualities, that you feel will make you an excellent pediatrics resident.

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Article Contents 12 min read

You’re an accomplished MD student with a passion for helping children, so it’s only natural for you to want to pursue a pediatrics residency! In order to be considered for admission, your pediatrics personal statement must not only detail your passion and qualifications as they relate to the field, but give the admission’s committee a good grasp of who you are as a person, why you want to work with children specifically, and why they should consider you to be a resident doctor in the field!

Pediatrics is one of the least competitive residencies currently. While it is still in-demand and a popular choice, pediatrics is a broad field. In pediatrics, you may not only be a primary care physician for a very specific group of people (infants and children under 18), but you may also provide care for pediatric patients suffering from terminal illnesses, acute and chronic conditions, injuries, musculoskeletal issues, neurological issues, and more. There are, of course, areas of specialization for each of these, but many pediatric doctors have the ability and passion to understand and study a broad range of pediatric health problems. Both graduates of MD and DO programs pursue pediatrics. Whether you’re Canadian and applying through CaRMS , or American/International and using ERAS , your pediatrics personal statement is a very important component of your application! 

Read on to view examples of pediatrics personal statements and learn more about how to write a strong and detailed personal statement that concisely highlights your relevant accomplishments personal experience, academic career, professional goals, and professional experience that, when all considered in combination, make you stand out as a candidate for residency.

Before you write and your personal statement for any field of residency, you should first allow yourself ample time to craft a few drafts to ensure you can accurately detail all relevant information in, approximately, 750 words!

This information should include:

Optional: a brief explanation of any gaps or unfavorable grades. "}]">

In just a few paragraphs, your personal statement should thoroughly describe why you’d be a great fit for residency in pediatrics, and provide examples of experiences and accomplishments that back up your statement.

 When crafting your personal statement, it’s advised that you revise it several times, and even read it aloud, to be sure that you don’t get sidetracked or include any irrelevant details, as this can be easy to do when you’ve only got a few paragraphs to tell a very specific story! It’s also imperative that you refrain from reiterating a list of accomplishments that are noted on your residency CV , ERAS experiences section , or additional portions of your application and transcript, as this is not what a personal statement is meant to do. If you choose to utilize a few sentences your personal statement as an opportunity to address poor grades or gaps in your medical school CV , ensure that you do so in a mature and optimistic manner, and provide information about the outcome. Most importantly, keep it brief, and stick to the facts! Overall, your personal statement should only include details that convince the admissions team that you’re a perfect candidate for pediatrics residency.

Example One

“You’re more insightful than most adults!” is what my sixth-grade teacher told me after she overhead me consoling my classmate after she experienced a traumatic event and received little support from her surrounding community. I was always interested in the social and emotional needs of my peers, and many adults in my life dubbed me, "the little therapist" and assumed I'd pursue mental healthcare as a career. But, little did they know that as I grew to be a teen, I became more invested in learning how their problems were addressed and met, and where they stemmed from. While I was in high school, I was president of my local chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) that focused on bettering access to peer-to-peer de-escalation training, and a common theme I noticed among my peers was many had experienced medical trauma, neglect, and inadequate access to health care. I also volunteered with a local crisis hotline through my church, where I would listen to people who were struggling with depression or substance abuse. Many of whom had medical and emotional concerns brushed off as children, and many of whom had never seen a pediatric physician.

When I went to college, I decided to pursue a psychology with the initial intent of becoming a psychotherapist. However, my experiences learning psychology, along with understanding that many traumas stemmed from early experiences, helped me realize that I wanted to help young people take a proactive approach to coping with health issues, traumas and mental illness. And, I firmly believe that a positive interaction with a medical professional at a young age can truly make an impact and lasting impression on a child. As I continued in my undergraduate degree, I completed courses in biology, physics and chemistry in good-standing, and began to develop a passion for medicine.

My experience in my MD program was unforgettable. Going into it, I knew I was focused on helping children develop into healthy adults by providing them with the resources they need while they are still young enough for us to help guide them toward positive change. In my clerkships, I learned how to be a leader and how to work with others in a team setting, and collaborate respectfully with others, even in intense and challenging environments such as the pediatric oncology unit and the emergency department. I learned how to communicate effectively, both verbally and nonverbally, with patients of all ages and backgrounds. In my clerkships, I spent time not only in pediatrics, but in geriatrics as well, which offered me a completely 'opposite' perspective and experience working with an entirely unique group. Geriatrics taught me a lot of about the human condition, aging, and how, even at 90 years old, the inner child still exists, and the experiences of children are not frequently forgotten-- quite the opposite actually-- many elderly patients cling to their childhood memories, and require the same compassion and empathy from their healthcare providers as children do. This experience taught me to be patient, considerate, and genuine with my patients of all ages. I also spent time in emergency medicine and got to interact with children of all ages in the emergency department, as well as adults. However, throughout each experience, being with children was always what I found to be most rewarding.

When my family fell on hard times and moved to North Carolina, my siblings and I grappled with the fear and anxiety of joining a new community. But, we soon realized our new neighborhood was a place where everyone knew everyone, and children ran around outside without supervision. Older kids, like myself, often cared for younger ones. At the time I didn't quite grasp why, and it wasn't until I was older that I realized many parents were young, working several jobs, and falling through the cracks of society in terms of mental and physical health. The idea of having to supervise children all day long seemed so strange to me at first, but, I grew to realize the importance of my help, and the help of other leaders in our community. I began to see the benefits of having such a small community: it was easy to get involved in activities, and there were always people around who wanted to help out with projects and events. The community also provided a support system for families who needed it most, and as a self-declared leader in such a system, I knew from a young age that I wanted to be a helper in life. In my town, there were several families who struggled financially, with their health, and/or emotionally, and they were always grateful for any kind of assistance they could get from their neighbors. They were good people, but being from a medical underserved, disadvantaged community had left them, and their children, without the resources they required to better their health, and improve their futures.

My grandmother was not only my superhero, but, a superhero to many sick children. She had a profound impact on my life in many ways, and I like to think she did for others, too! My grandmother was an RN and worked in the pediatric intensive care unit at the hospital where she lived. When she wasn't working, she would spend much of her time volunteering at the hospital's children's cancer ward. She would take me with her when she went to visit the children there and would often bring me along to deliver meals or other small gifts to them. Her time spent with these children—helping them get better and supporting their families—was always an inspiration to me, even though at the time, I was very involved in the arts and wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life...I myself was still a child. But, I always knew that I’d follow in my grandmother’s footsteps, and, here I am today doing just that in the final year of my MD program, pursuing pediatric residency!

I think this early exposure is what made me gravitate toward pediatrics as a specialty choice; having seen first-hand how important it is to help young people live healthier lives, I knew that this was where I belonged. During my undergraduate degree, I studied both English and Psychology, but took the required prerequisites for medical school and much to my surprise, excelled in science and math. I also shadowed and volunteered at a local hospital in order to gain experience in the medical field. During this time, one of my favorite experiences was shadowing a pediatrician who specialized in caring for children with learning and developmental disabilities. I was amazed by her ability to connect with each child and provide them with the support they needed—even though she didn't always know how to help them herself.

Your pediatrics personal statement is an integral part of your residency application because it is your opportunity to share what makes you a qualified applicant worth consideration! In other words, your personal statement is your chance to highlight what makes you different and special, and what experiences you’ve had that will make you a great candidate for pediatric residency. Your personal statement is mandatory, and if poorly written, you run the risk of having your residency application tossed aside.

Along with having a great personal statement, having a strong CaRMS reference letter, or ERAS letter of recommendation, can increase your likeliness of standing out and can serve as a way to thoroughly detail your experience and skillset that makes you an exceptional candidate. 

However, it’s advised that you secure references and recommendations early to avoid rushing any parts of the process. You should also give yourself ample time to prepare a great personal statement in order to allow the opportunity for necessary revisions and rewrites; quality letters and statements seldom happen overnight!

While pediatrics is decently popular, it isn’t an overly competitive field at this time. MD and DO applicants often apply to pediatric residency!

Your personal statement should include the following:

• A firm statement highlighting why you’re a good fit for residency in pediatrics
• Any brief description of personal ties you have to the field 
• Your professional goals and values as they relate to pediatrics
• Any relevant details about your academic and/or professional achievements as they relate to the field
• Highlight an experience or two (in your MD program, volunteering, clerkship, etc.) that inspired you to pursue pediatrics

It can vary but, in most cases, your personal statement should be 750- 800 words in length!

Follow the structure of an academic essay. As with any academic applications or professional documents, always refrain from using any bold or creative layouts or fonts. Keep it neat, legible, simple, and professional!

If you are only applying to pediatrics, then you will require one personal statement. 

However, most students apply to several programs within their speciality, and many may opt to apply to several specialities as well! Because of this, it’s advised that you prepare a personal statement for each specialty you are applying for.

Aside from following general advice about length, formatting, and details to include and not to include (such as irrelevant details or negative narratives), you should write from the heart! Ensure you are writing a genuine personal statement that is authentically ‘you’ and conveys the appropriate amount of passion in just a few short paragraphs. Share why you are excited to work in pediatrics and give examples of various experiences (or accomplishments) that motivated you to pursue this specific field. If you have personal and/or professional experience in pediatrics, or, a related field, briefly share the details and state why they are important to you.

If you’ve had other experiences, such as shadowing, or clinical rotations, in a field other than pediatrics, you can certainly mention it in your personal statement so long as it’s relevant and ties into your narrative. For example, you may have learned great teamwork and collaboration skills, or developed a passion for working with children, while shadowing a neurologist! If your experience in other fields does not directly relate to your desire to pursue pediatrics, do not include it. Remember, your personal statement is a narrative that describes your suitability for a field, not a list of experiences!

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The Residency Personal Statement (2023/2024): The Insider’s Guide (with Examples)

A physician and former residency program director explains how to write your residency personal statement to match in to your top-choice residency program in 2024.

Read example residency personal statements and suggested outlines..

Introduction

The residency personal statement allows residency program directors and associate directors the chance to get a sense of who you are and your commitment to your chosen specialty. 

As a former program director who understands how residency personal statements are reviewed, what “stands out,” and, most importantly, what will earn you interview invitations, the information below will help you write a residency personal statement to match!

It is imperative to make sure you get the most accurate guidance possible with regards to your residency personal statement content and optimal residency personal statement length (up to 5300 characters with spaces).

Want more personalized suggestions? Sign up for a FREE residency personal statement consultation .

Table of Contents

Goals for Writing Your 2024 Residency Personal Statement

Above all else, your residency personal statement offers the opportunity to show your interest in your chosen specialty when applying to residency to illustrate you are a good fit.

The more details you offer about why you are interested in the specialty and how your med school rotations, accomplishments and experiences have reinforced this interest, the stronger your personal statement will be, the more it will appeal to selection committees and the better you will do in the match process .

I encourage applicants to offer as much “evidence” as possible to “show” rather than “tell” what qualities, characteristics and interests they have. “Telling” a reader, for example, that you are compassionate and hard working means nothing. Instead, you must “show” that you embody these qualities based on your experiences in health care and the patients for whom you have cared.

The residency personal statement also offers the opportunity to write about who you are as a person to convey some details about your background, influences, and interests outside of your given specialty.

The Importance of a Balanced Residency Personal Statement

The key when writing your residency personal statement is to ensure that it is well-balanced so it appeals to a large group of people who might read your ERAS residency application.

However, it is important to understand that every program director and faculty member has his or her own idea of what he would like to read in a personal statement. As an applicant, you must go into this process understanding that you cannot please everyone, or a specific program, and your personal statement should therefore have the broadest appeal possible.

For example, some program directors would rather hear about your personal interests and curiosities and get to know who you are rather than have you focus on the specialty in which you are interested.

At MedEdits, we suggest taking a “middle of the road” approach; include some details about who you are but also focus on the specialty itself. In this way, you will make more traditional reviewers who want to hear about your interest in the specialty happy while also satisfying those who would rather learn about you as a person.

Above all, be authentic and true to yourself when writing your statement. This always leads to the best results! Read on to learn more about how to write a winning personal statement.

About MedEdits

Getting into a residency has never been more competitive. Founded by a former associate program director, the experts at MedEdits will make your residency personal statement shine. We’ve worked with more than 5,000 students and 94% have been matched to one of their top-choice programs.

Need Help With Your Residency Personal Statement?

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Residency Personal Statement Outline & Structure

Residency applicants often do well when given outlines or templates to follow, so, we will offer that, but, it is important to realize that many applicants deviate from these rigid rules. One very typical outline that serves applicants quite well in the residency admissions process is:

• Compose a catchy introduction. Your intro can be related to your interest in the specialty to which you are applying, about a hobby or personal experience, or about your background. Regardless of the topic you choose, you want to tell a story and start with something that will interest your reader and engage him.
• The next two to four paragraphs comprise the body of your personal statement. We encourage applicants to write about any significant experiences they have had related to their desired specialty and/or future goals. This would include information about rotations, electives, and sub internships related to the specialty, volunteer and research experiences and even significant outside interests.
• Finally, you want to conclude your essay. In your conclusion, write about what you seek in a residency program, what you will bring to a residency program, and, if you have any idea of your future career goals, write about those as well. Your conclusion is also where you can tailor a personal statement to a specific geographic area of interest or type of program (rural, urban, community).

Residency Personal Statement Length & Residency Personal Statement Word Limit

Residency Personal Statement Length: Our recommendation is that your residency personal statement be between 4000 – 5300 characters with spaces or up to 900 words in length. 

The allowed ERAS residency personal statement length is 28,000 characters which equates to about five pages!

We have been hearing from more and more applicants that the personal statement should not exceed one page when typed in to the ERAS application . Because of this overwhelming trend, we are supporting this guidance unless you have extenuating circumstances that require your personal statement be longer.

Our recommendation is that your residency personal statement be a maximum of 5300 characters with spaces.

ERAS Residency Personal Statement Checklist

• Ensure your personal statement flows well

The best personal statements are easy to read, don’t make the reader think too much, and make your path and interests seem logical. Rarely does a personal statement have a theme. Also try to have each paragraph transition to the next seamlessly. 

2. Your personal statement should be about you!

Your personal statement should be about you and no one else. Focus on your interests, your accomplishments and your path. This is your opportunity to be forthcoming about your achievements – by writing in detail about what you have done.

3. Be sure your personal statement clearly outlines your interest in the specialty.

Since the reader wants to be convinced of your understanding of, experience in, and curiosity about the specialty to which you are applying, be sure you highlight what you have done to explore your interest as well as your insights and observations about the specialty to show your understanding of it.

4. Make it human.

Again, your personal statement should be about you! The reader wants to know who you are, where you are from, what your interests are and who you are outside of medicine. Therefore, try to include those details about your background that are intriguing or important to you.

5. Express your interest in the specialty.

The reader fundamentally wants to know why you are pursuing the specialty. The more details you offer the more convincing you are about your commitment and your understanding of the specialty. Be sure to include details that might seem obvious. For example, in emergency medicine you must like acute care, but try to include more nuanced details about your interest, too. What do you enjoy about the diagnoses and pathologies involved? What do you value about the actual work you will do? What do you enjoy about the patients for whom you will care? How about the setting in which you will practice?

6. The start and evolution of your interest.

Readers want to know how and when you became interested in your specialty. Was this before medical school? During medical school? What have you done to pursue and nurture your interest in the specialty?

7. What you have done to learn more about the specialty.

You should explain what you have done to pursue your interest. What rotations have you done or have planned? What research, scholarly work or community service activities have you pursued to further your interest?

8. Where you see yourself in the future – if you know!

Without going into too much detail, write about the type of setting in which you see yourself in the future. Do you hope to also participate in research, teaching, public health work or community outreach as a part of your career? What are your future goals? Since many programs typically train a certain type of physician, it is important that your goals are aligned with the programs to which you are applying.

9. What do you bring to the specialty?

You should try to identify what you can bring to the program and the specialty to which you are applying as a whole. For example, are you applying to family medicine and have a distinct interest in public health? Are you applying for internal medicine and do you have demonstrated expertise in information technology and hope to improve electronic medical records? Do you have extensive research or teaching experience, and do you hope to continue to pursue these interests in the future? Have you developed a commitment to global health, and do you hope to continue making contributions abroad? Programs have a societal obligation to select residents who will make valuable contributions in the future, so the more ambitions you have the more desirable a candidate you will be.

10. What type of program you hope to join?

Do you hope to be part of a community or university-based program? What are you seeking in a residency program? Programs are looking for residents who will be the right “fit” so offering an idea of what you are seeking in a program will help them determine if your values and goals mesh with those of the program.

11. Who you are outside of the hospital?

Try to bring in some personal elements about who you are. You can do this in a few ways. If you have any outside interests or accomplishments that complement your interest in your specialty, such as extracurricular work, global work, teaching or volunteer efforts, write about them in detail, and, in doing so, show the reader a different dimension of your personality. Or, consider opening your statement by writing about an experience related to your hobbies or outside interests. Write about this in the form of an introductory vignette. I suggest taking this nontraditional approach only if you are a talented writer and can somehow relate your outside interest to the specialty you are pursuing, however. An interest in the arts can lend itself to dermatology, plastic surgery or ophthalmology, for example. Or, an interest in technology could relate to radiology .

12. Any personal challenges?

Also explain any obstacles you have overcome: Were you the first in your family to graduate from college? Were you an immigrant? Did you have limited financial resources and work through college? Many applicants tend to shy away from the very things that make them impressive because they are afraid of appearing to be looking for sympathy. As long as you explain how you have overcome adversity in a positive or creative way, your experience will be viewed as the tremendous accomplishment that it is. The personal statement should explain any unusual or distinctive aspects of your background.

• Residency Match: How It Works & How To Get Matched

Common ERAS Residency Personal Statement Mistakes

Do not tell your entire life story or write a statement focused on your childhood or undergraduate career. 

Do not write about why you wanted to be a doctor. This is old news. From the reviewers perspective, you already are a doctor!

Do not write a personal statement focused on one hobby or begin with your birth. Some background information might be useful if it offers context to your choices and path, but your residency personal statement should be focused on the present and what you have done to pursue your interest in the specialty to which you are applying.

Do not preach. The reader understands what it means to practice his specialty and does not need you to tell him. Don’t write, for example: Internal medicine requires that a physician be knowledgeable, kind and compassionate. The reader wants to know about you!

Do not put down other specialties. You don’t need to convince anyone of your interest by writing something negative about other specialties. Doing so just makes you look bad. If you switched residencies or interests, you can explain what else you were seeking and what you found in the specialty of your choice that interests you.

Do not embellish. Program directors are pretty good at sniffing out inconsistencies and dishonesty. Always tell the truth and be honest and authentic. 

Do not plagiarize. While this seems obvious to most people, every year people copy personal statements they find online or hire companies that use stock phrases and statement to compose statements for applicants. Don’t do it!

Do not write about sensitive topics. Even if you were in a relationship that ended and resulted in a poor USMLE score , this is not a topic for a personal statement. In general, it is best to avoid discussing relationships, politics, ethical issues and religion.

Do not boast. Any hint of arrogance or self-righteousness may result in getting rejected. There is a fine line between confidence and self promotion. Some people make the mistake of over-selling themselves or writing about all of their fantastic qualities and characteristics. Rarely do readers view such personal statements favorably.

Do not write an overly creative piece. A residency personal statement should be professional. This work is equivalent to a job application. Don’t get too creative; stay focused.

Writing ERAS Residency Personal Statements For Multiple Specialties

An increasing number of applicants are applying to more than one specialty in medicine especially if the first choice specialty is very competitive. If you are applying to more than one specialty, even if there is disciplinary overlap between the two (for example family medicine and pediatrics ), we advise you write a distinct specialty for each. Remember that a physician who practices the specialty you hope to join will most likely be reviewing your statement. He or she will definitely be able to determine if the personal statement illustrates a true understanding of the specialty. If you try to recycle an entire personal statement or parts of a personal statement for two specialties, there is a high likelihood the personal statement will communicate that you aren’t sincerely interested in that specialty or that you don’t really understand what the specialty is about.

Writing About Red Flags in your ERAS Personal Statement

The personal statement is also the place to explain any red flags in your application, such as gaps in time or a leave of absence. When addressing any red flags, explain what happened succinctly. Be honest, don’t make excuses, and don’t dwell on the topic. Whenever possible, write about how you have matured or grown from the adversity or what you may have learned and how this benefits you.

If you have left a program or had a break in your medical education, you will also have the chance to explain this in your ERAS application . You should also write about this topic in your personal statement only if you have more to explain, however. 

If you have failed a Step exam or one course in medical school, this likely isn’t something to address in the personal statement. However, you should be prepared to discuss any failure during an interview. By the same token, it is best not to address one low grade or poor attending evaluation in your statement. 

Have you taken a circuitous path to medicine? If so you might address why you made these choices and what you found so interesting about medicine that was lacking in your former career.

Residency Personal Statement Example

Below are two great examples of residency personal statements that earned the applicants who wrote them numerous interviews and first choice matches. As you will see, these two applicants took very different approaches when writing the personal statement yet wrote equally persuasive and “successful” personal statements.

Residency Personal Statement Example, Analysis, and Outline: The Traditional Approach

The most common approach to the personal statement is what I will call the traditional approach, in which the applicant conveys her interest in the specialty, when that interest began and what she has done to pursue the particular specialty.

Suggested outline:

• Introduction: Catchy Story
• Paragraph 2: Background Information and how Interest Started
• Paragraph 3: Write about what you did to explore your interest
• Paragraph 4: Second paragraph about your experiences related to your specialty
• Conclusion: Wrap it up. Write something about your future goals.

Below is an example of the traditional approach:

I looked into her eyes and saw terror. She knew the life of her unborn baby was in jeopardy. As tears streamed down her face, she looked to the attending physician. In desperation, she pleaded, “Please save our baby.” She and her husband had been trying to conceive for more than two years, and they knew this could be their only chance to have a healthy child. She went into labor at home and because of a horrible snowstorm was not able to reach the hospital for several hours. When she arrived in labor and delivery, she was crowning. But, the baby was having late decelerations. Because of the sweat on my attending’s forehead I knew the situation was serious. Yet we all tried to remain calm and to keep the patient and her husband calm as well. 

I entered medical school with an open mind as everyone suggested. Even as a first year medical student, however, I was fascinated with embryology. I entered my third year still unsure of what I would pursue. I knew I wanted a career that would be challenging and interesting. Because of my background in drawing and painting, I always loved working with my hands. Yet I also enjoyed working with people. Thankfully, my obstetrics and gynecology (ob/gyn) rotation was the first of my third year and I was immediately hooked.

I quickly sought out opportunities for research and became involved in a clinical study investigating the impact of a vegan diet on birth outcomes. I have always had an interest in wellness and nutrition, and this seemed like a perfect fit for me. My research is still in process, but through this experience I have learned how to analyze data, stay objective and critically evaluate the literature. So far, our findings suggest better than normal outcomes for babies born to vegan mothers. This reinforces my goal to educate my patients about the important of diet and nutrition, which I hope to make a part of my future practice. 

Early in my fourth year, I completed an elective rotation at Inner City Medical Center. There I cared for a diverse group of patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings. I realized how much I enjoy labor and delivery, but I also value the operative aspects of ob/gyn. I appreciate the importance of understanding the female anatomy so I can operate with precision.  I also value the diversity of practice in ob/gyn. Whether caring for a woman about to give birth, helping a woman newly diagnosed with breast cancer navigate her treatment options, or caring for a perimenopausal woman who is coping with symptoms of hormone fluctuations, I enjoy caring for patients with knowledge and compassion. The outpatient aspect of ob/gyn brings satisfaction as well. I look forward to building relationships with my patients, helping them to lead the healthiest lives possible. I have also realized how much I want to care for those who lack access to care. The work I have done at Medical School Free Clinic has helped me realize the gaps that exist in access to care and education. As a future practicing ob/gyn, I hope to work in such a setting at least on a part time basis.

On that snowy night, when we realized the baby was having difficulty being born because of shoulder dystocia, a simple maneuver eased the situation. The baby’s first cry brought such joy and relief to everyone in the room and, at that moment, I knew I had to be part of this specialty. I hope to join a program where I will have the clinical exposure that will give me the skills and experience to care for a wide range of patients. I do not yet know if I will subspecialize, and I will seek out mentors and experiences as a resident to make an informed decision. I would be honored to interview at your program and thank you for your consideration.

Why It’s Great

This is a great personal statement because it clearly conveys the applicant’s interest in, and understanding of, obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) and what the applicant has done to pursue that interest. Not only does this applicant have a long-standing interest in OB/GYN, but, she conveys that she has experienced the specialty in different settings and understands the diverse nature of the specialty. She also includes information about her hobbies and interests and writes about her exploration of OB/GYN outside of the clinical arena. An added bonus is that the applicant writes well and uses descriptive language making her statement interesting and fun to read.

Residency Personal Statement Example, Analysis, and Outline: The Outside Interests Approach

Many mentors advise applicants to tell the reader something about them that is unrelated to medicine or the specialty they are pursuing. This is a fine idea, but be sure your personal statement also includes some details about your interest in your specialty if you decide to move in this direction.

Suggested Outline:

• Introduction: Write a Catchy Introduction. Be creative! Think outside the box.
• Paragraph 2:Elaborate on your introduction offering more details
• Paragraph 3: Write about your specialty choice and what appeals to you.
• Paragraph 4: Write more about your explorations in medical school.
• Concluding paragraph(s): Write about your future goals, the type of program you hope to join and consider looping back to your introduction.

Below is an example of the outside interests approach:

The landscape before me was lush and magical. We had been hiking for hours and had found a great spot to set up camp. As I was unloading my backpack and helping to pitch the tent, I saw a scene I knew I had to capture. I quickly grabbed my carefully packed Leica before the magnificent sunset disappeared. Trying to get the perfect exposure, I somehow managed to capture this image so accurately that it reflected the beauty of what was before us high in the mountains of Utah, so far away from the hustle and bustle of New York City where we attended medical school.

Throughout my life, I have pursued my interests and curiosities with focus and creativity. One of those interests is photography. Even as a small child, I wanted my own camera, and I started snapping interesting scenes and images at the age of 6. As I grew older, this hobby took on more significance. I took a college level course in photography as a high school student, worked as a photographer’s assistant and even considered a career in photography. Paralleling my interest, however, was a desire to travel and experience new places, foods, and cultures.

I have been fortunate to travel all over the world. Rather than stopping in a city or place for a couple of days and seeing the sights, I prefer to immerse myself in my surroundings, eating the food, meeting the people, and staying for as long as I can. My fluency in Spanish and Italian has made it easier to “fit in” naturally. My most recent trip to Costa Rica allowed me to visit sugar cane fields and rain forests. I also volunteered in a clinic that helps the most desperate citizens. Of course, because I never travel without my camera, I also captured the beauty of this country; those pictures can be found on my blog.

Surgery seemed like a natural choice for me. It is a very tactile and visual field that requires patience, attention to detail and creativity—just like photography. The operating room setting is invigorating. I love to be a member of a team, and in surgery team work is an essential part of practice. The ability to deal with anatomical variations also satisfies my creative side; I have always been fond of puzzles, and the field of surgery represents a real-world puzzle to me. I also appreciate the intensity of surgery and believe I have the personality and demeanor for the field. I have always enjoyed solving problems quickly, something the field of surgery requires. My rotations in surgery – in addition to my core surgery rotation I have done trauma and cardiothoracic surgery – have helped me to understand the tremendous opportunities and diversity of the field. I have heard some residents lament that the only reason they went into surgery is to operate. However, I really enjoy seeing patients postoperatively. It is only at that time that a surgeon can really appreciate the impact of his or her work.

Finally, my trip to Honduras with a surgical team from my hospital and medical school made me realize that I can make a great contribution globally in the field of surgery. There we saw patients who had no resources or access to care. The facilities in which we worked were bare-bones. Yet the impact we made was tremendous, given that this was a group of people who otherwise would have no surgical care. In this way, I hope to combine my interests in travel and surgery as a resident, if I have time, and certainly as a practicing physician. My ultimate goal is to use my training to help populations globally and domestically.

To gain the most clinical exposure possible, I hope to train in a busy urban hospital. I believe that such a setting will give me the operative experience I need to be able to navigate many situations in the future. Such a setting will also give me the outpatient experience to understand how to manage patients once the surgery is completed.

I look forward to the day when I can be snapping my camera intraoperatively, documenting what I am doing and seeking to help other surgeons. For some, such pictures may not represent the art of those pictures I take in the wilderness, but for me they reflect the beauty of surgery and the great opportunity to make a lasting impression on another human being’s life.

This is a really intriguing personal statement because the author writes about his outside interests in a compelling way that makes him instinctively likable. He then goes on to explain what he enjoys about surgery and what he has done to pursue that interest. As you can see, this applicant writes less about his specialty (surgery) than the applicant in statement #1 did, but, he still convinces the reader of his understanding of, and commitment to, surgery. In this statement, the reader gains a much broader understanding of who the applicant is as a person and what he likes to do in his free time.

Final Thoughts

Writing your residency personal statement should be about telling your story in your own voice and style. You want to highlight your interest in the specialty for which you are applying while also conveying some ideas about who you are as a person to keep your reader engaged in learning about you as a person.

Residency Personal Statement Consulting Services

MedEdits Medical Admissions offers comprehensive guidance and document review services for residency applicants to every specialty in medicine. With more than twenty years of experience in residency admissions and founded by a former residency admissions officer and physician, MedEdits understands what program directors want to read and can help you decide what aspects of your background to focus on in your residency personal statement to earn the most interviews possible.

Getting into a residency has never been more competitive. Let the experts at MedEdits help you with your ERAS personal statement. We’ve worked with more than 5,000 students and 94% have been matched to one of their top-choice programs.

Sample Residency Personal Statements

Residency Related Articles and Guidance

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• Residency Personal Statement
• How to write a residency interview thank you letter.
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• Medical Residency Timeline & Length
• Medical Residency Salary By Specialty
• How To Master MyERAS, The Medical Residency Interview, and Common Residency Interview Questions
• Master the ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service) & ERAS Timeline
• Residency Letters Of Recommendation (with ERAS Samples)
• Residency Letter of Intent
• How to Write a Residency Letter of Intent
• Residency Love Letters
• Residency Match Success: Lessons Learned

Residency Specialty Articles

• Family Medicine Residency Match: Beat more than 4400 Applications
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The Residency Personal Statement Guide w/Prompts & Examples

Intro- Writing a Great Residency Personal Statement

When you get ready to apply for residency, which could happen as early as your third year of med school, there are really  two main components  to the application process: submitting your application packet to various programs and completing the required interviews for the programs interested in you. But how exactly do you make sure you get that call for an interview? One way is by including an original, memorable residency personal statement as part of your application packet.

Residency Prerequisites

Before we get to the personal statement, though, let’s look at the steps required for you to be eligible for residency.

Step 1: Receive Your Degree

Although you’ll possibly start applying for residency during the fall semester of your third year at medical school, before you can be accepted, you must have your degree. It doesn’t matter if your application looks great and your interview blows the minds of the residency selection committee; if you don’t receive your M.D. or D.O., you won’t be eligible for residency.

Step 2: Pass the Examinations

In the U.S., you’re required to pass an exam before you can become licensed to practice medicine. Traditionally, students have taken the  USMLE  (United States Medical Licensing Examination), but some schools now require you to take the  COMLEX  (Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination) either instead of the USMLE  or  in addition to it.

For Foreign Students

If you’re a foreign student hoping to be placed in a residency within the U.S., there are a few  additional requirements  you’ll have to meet.

These include, but aren’t limited to, being certified by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG), obtaining a legal VISA that gives you the right to work in the United States, procuring additional letters of recommendation from U.S.-based providers and more.

Applying for a Residency

What you’ll need.

As you’re putting together your residency application packet, you’ll be responsible for gathering:

• Your completed application
• Your residency personal statement
• Your letters of recommendation

There are a few other things that must be included in your application packet, but your medical school will handle those items. They include:

• Your complete and sealed transcripts
• A copy of your MSPE (Medical School Performance Evaluation)
• Your licensing exam transcript

Once you’ve gotten your half of the documents ready to submit, your medical school should take care of the rest. It’s important to fill out your application completely and accurately, as every bit of information included in the packet will be verified by multiple agencies.

The ERAS: What It Is and How to Apply

To apply for residency with almost all programs in the United States, you’ll be required to fill out an application through the  Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) . The ERAS was created and is maintained by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

It makes applying for residency much easier because you only have to fill out one application at a centralized location. That application then gets sent to all the different programs you’re interested in becoming a part of during your residency.

If you used the Common App as an undergraduate, you already have an idea of what the ERAS is like. Unlike the Common App, though, there’s one really great thing about the ERAS that many other centralized applications don’t include: the ability to submit multiple personal statements.

Why Submit Multiple Personal Statements

You may be wondering why you’d want to write more than one personal statement when writing one is stressful enough.

The simple answer is that writing multiple personal statements gives you the opportunity to personalize your statements for the specific program to which you’re applying. For example, if you’re applying for a pediatric residency in Brooklyn, you can write your personal statement specifically about why you chose that specialty and that geographic location. Additionally, if you also apply for an internal medicine residency in Washington D.C., you can write a second personal statement outlining your reasons for that choice as well.

ERAS Portal

There are  four main sections  of the ERAS application portal.

Section 1: MyERAS

This is the part of the ERAS that’s your responsibility. Using MyERAS, you’ll complete the centralized application, submit your required documentation and personal statements and select the programs to which you’re applying. When it comes to filling out the ERAS, this is the only section you’ll personally have to complete.

Section 2: DWS

The DWS, or Dean’s Office WorkStation, is where the designated person in your Dean’s office will submit what s/he is required to submit on your behalf. This will include your transcripts and performance evaluations.

Section 3: LoRP

The LoRP is the Letters of Recommendation Portal. You’ll direct people who’ve agreed to provide you with letters of recommendation to this location and have them submit their recommendation letters through the portal.

Section 4: PDWS

The PDWS, short for Program Director’s WorkStation, is where the programs you’ve applied to will receive and review their incoming applications.

Help with the ERAS

In addition to having everything you need for all your prospective programs in one place, another great thing about the ERAS is that the website provides you with  a lot of great resources  to help ensure you get everything done correctly and submitted in a timely manner.

There’s an  Applicant Worksheet  that allows you to see everything the application asks before you even start working on it. There’s also a  User Guide , an  Applicant Checklist , a  FAQ Section  and an  Application Timeline  to keep you on track.

Writing Your Residency Personal Statement

Although each residency personal statement you write should be different depending on the program to which you’re applying, there are some things that’ll remain similar or even the same in each statement, most notably the length and overall format of the statement.

Standard Residency Personal Statement Length

The ERAS allows you to use 28,000 characters (including spaces and punctuation marks) to complete your residency personal statement. This generally translates to about five to seven pages in length.  Don’t  use all 28,000 characters for your statements. That is entirely too long.

You have to be considerate of the time of the person reading your statement. S/he likely has thousands of personal statements to read through, and s/he doesn’t want to spend too much time on any one statement. If possible, you should keep your personal statements to about 3,500 to 5,000 characters. This translates to about a page to a page and a half for your statement. That’s a good length that should give you enough room to say everything you need to say without rambling on about non-essential information.

Standard Residency Personal Statement Format

The format of your statements will also be quite similar. You don’t have to worry about choosing your font, font size, or anything like that. With the ERAS, you’ll be using an embedded plain text box to type your personal statement. The only formatting options available to you will be:

• Italics, Bold, Strikethrough and Underline
• Center, Left or Right Alignment
• Bullet Points
• Numbered Lists
• Add Embedded Hyperlink
• Increase or Decrease Indent

Beyond those items, you won’t be able to change anything in the formatting, but your  content  format is important. You should have a short introduction of three to five sentences, several body paragraphs, and a conclusion of about three to six sentences. The information you put into these paragraphs will depend largely on what exactly you’re writing in your personal statement.

Red Flags of Residency Personal Statement to Avoid

There are definitely some things you want to avoid while writing your personal statement for your residency application. Let’s call them the “Don’t List.”

Don’t Use All 28,000 Characters

We’ve already discussed this, but it warrants being said twice. No one wants to read seven pages worth of a personal statement. Absolutely  do not  use all the provided characters for your personal statement.

Don’t Send the Same Statement to Every Program

This is another one that we’ve touched on already, but it, too, is worth repeating. The reasons you’re applying for various programs are bound to be different for each particular program. If you try to write one single personal statement that gets sent to every program, it’s going to end up sounding generic and unauthentic.

Different programs want to know that you chose them for a reason. They want to know what it is about their program that drew your interest. If you don’t give them actual reasons for your interest, they’re going to assume you’re just desperately applying everywhere you can in hopes of getting an acceptance. That doesn’t look good in a prospective residency candidate.

Don’t Spend a Lot of Time Talking About Why You Want to Be a Doctor

By the time you get to the residency portion of your career, you’re already a doctor. Why you decided to become one is kind of a moot point. This is one place where people often get tripped up. Your residency application is  not  a med school application. By this point, you’ve already proven you want to be a doctor by putting in all the work to become one. Why you did it doesn’t matter. You were obviously motivated to succeed. Don’t waste precious characters rehashing your reasons for going into medicine.

Don’t Be Generic

Be specific about why you’ve chosen pediatrics, internal medicine, surgery or whatever program you’ve chosen to pursue in your residency. The person reading your statement doesn’t want to hear that you’ve chosen pediatrics because you “just love babies!” You’re an adult with a medical degree. Use all those years of education and be specific about why you’ve made the choices you’ve made.

Don’t Be Overly Dramatic

You want your personal statement to be interesting and memorable, but you  don’t  want it to sound like the first page of a movie script. You don’t have to set the scene dramatically with overused and cliched stories about “Patient X lying on the bed, blood rushing down his head and barely conscious as I walked up and took his hand, looked into his eyes and told him I would save his life.” Just don’t do this.

Don’t Include Anything Considered Too Controversial

Your personal statement isn’t the place for activism. Don’t get into topics such as pro-life vs. pro-choice or why you think cloning is a sin against God. It’s okay to mention that you’re a regular church member; you don’t have to shy away from religion altogether, but you don’t want to include a strong stance you hold on something that’s known to be polarizing.

The person reading your personal statement might feel just as strongly as you do about an issue, but s/he might be on the other side of that issue. That could get your application discarded quickly.

Don’t Submit Unedited Statements

Never, never, never, never send in your first draft. Don’t ever send in a statement that hasn’t been proofread, edited, and then edited some more. Bring in a second pair of eyes to look it over ( hey! see our personal statement editing packages here ) if you need a fresh perspective, but never send in something that hasn’t been thoroughly edited for grammar, spelling, organization, and content errors.

Don’t Plagiarize!

Last but certainly not least: Don’t plagiarize your personal statement! We can’t overemphasize this point. If you aren’t a strong writer, it’s okay to reach out and have a friend, mentor or former professor help you organize your thoughts and edit the statement at the end, but no matter how much you may be tempted,  do not plagiarize  your personal statement.

First and foremost, you’ll get caught.

There are just way too many plagiarism checkers ( we recommend you use Grammarly plagiarism checker ) on the market today for you to get away with stealing someone else’s work – even if you only take a small part of it. Then, once you’ve been caught, you lose all professional respectability.

If you’ve plagiarized your personal statement, odds are you’ve cheated before now. No one trusts a doctor who cheats, and the person/people who caught you cheating have to wonder if you’re even a good doctor. Perhaps you just cheated your way through med school and really don’t know an obstetrician from an ophthalmologist.

Put simply, just don’t cheat. It isn’t worth it.

Residency Personal Statement Prompts

Although the ERAS doesn’t give you a specific prompt to follow while writing your residency personal statement, there are a few programs that do ask specific questions. If a program does ask a specific question on its website, you should strongly consider that question when writing your personal statement. Try to answer it as honestly and completely as possible.

Most programs don’t provide you with specific prompts, but there are still some questions to ask yourself to help guide your writing.

Below are some of the most commonly asked prompts and questions.

1. What are your professional goals?

This is a commonly covered question in many residency personal statements. Remember, at the residency stage of your career, you’re already a doctor, so this personal statement is no longer why you want to be a doctor; it’s about what you want to do now that you’ve become one.

Don’t be afraid to go into detail here. Talk about both your short-term (during residency and immediately after completing residency) and your long-term goals (15+ years from now).

Do you want to open your own practice? Do you plan to stay within the U.S., or would you prefer to take your expertise elsewhere through Doctors Without Borders or some other organization? What specific skills are you hoping to gain from the residency that’ll help you further your career goals?

2. What types of patients do you enjoy working with?

This question really concerns the specialty you’re interested in pursuing. For example, if you’re interested in working in pediatrics, the obvious answer here would be that you like to work with children. You shouldn’t leave it at that though.

Are there certain types of children you like to work with best? For example, would you prefer to work with special needs children as opposed to healthy children just coming in for check-ups? Perhaps you have a passion for women’s health or simply prefer to work with women.

If this is the case, an OBGYN specialty might make more sense for you. Do you want to work with the elderly? Would you prefer to work in neighborhoods full of predominantly low-income or minority households? If you hope to pursue plastic surgery, are you doing so because you want to work with amputees in order to build them new limbs?

All of these questions can be taken into account when talking about the types of patients with whom you most prefer to work.

3. What contributions can I make to the specialty and the residency program?

Chances are, the program you’re applying to knows why you want to be accepted for a residency position by them, but why should  they  want to accept  you ? When answering this prompt, talk about what makes you a good fit for the specialty you’ve chosen. If you have any particular skills or strengths that would fit well with what you’re hoping to achieve during residency, mention those.

Something else to discuss is anything you’ve done in your history that would prepare you for working with the population you’re likely to encounter in that particular residency spot. If you have an undergraduate degree in psychology, that could be hugely beneficial if your residency serves a large veteran population.

If you grew up in a low-income, first-generation neighborhood or have teaching experience at a Title I school, that could prepare you for working at a hospital in a similar neighborhood.

4. What are your strong points?

This question is really just another way of asking what benefits you’d bring to the residency if you were accepted. Many of the same things you’d write about if answering the above-listed prompt are the same things you’d write about here. You could discuss the characteristics you have that make for a good doctor.

You could also list any strengths you have academically. For instance, if you excelled at one or two particular subjects, it’s a good idea to mention those. Receiving superior performance evaluations is also something worth noting.

Residency Personal Statement Examples

The following are some of the best examples of what to do and what not to do when writing your residency personal statements. Note that these are just examples; don’t use them in your own statements.

Example Personal Statement 1

“During my third year, I rediscovered my reasons for pursing [sic] a career in Pediatrics. […] I enjoy teaching young patients and their parents about their disease and how they can conquer hardships. Also, I am excited about taking care of patients from birth to adulthood. Working with young people is rewarding because of the chance to be involved in a growing relationship with patients as they mature and learn. […] Pediatrics gives me the determination to think through problems, the curiosity to learn, and the energy to stay awake at three in the morning. When you love your patients it becomes easy to work hard for them.”

– Read the rest  here

This is a very well-written personal statement. The writer clearly has a passion for working with children, but she doesn’t just come out and say that with no detail. She talks about the specific things she enjoys about working with children.

Furthermore, she talks about how she believes pediatric medicine to go beyond just treating kids. She talks about “a growing relationship” with the patients she treats and her desire to treat them as they grow and mature into adulthood.

In addition to being a moving example of a personal statement, it also shows that the writer plans to be in the medical field for the long haul. You don’t build relationships and treat patients from infancy into adulthood unless you plan to stick with the career.

This is her way of saying, “I plan to do this for the rest of my life” without having to come out directly and say those words.

Our Verdict:

Example Personal Statement 2

“I have many attributes to contribute to internal medicine. My experiences as a secondary education school teacher, Special Olympics swim coach, and elected class officer attest to my ability to lead and educate others. I am also analytical and detail-oriented. […] After my first year of medical school, I was awarded a scholarship to conduct research in the field of trauma surgery, an experience which enhanced my problem solving skills. These qualities include a never-ending quest for personal improvement, pride in my work or training, and the ability to focus on several tasks while balancing personal and professional obligations.”

– Read the rest  here

This is another good example, written in response to  prompt number three above . The writer tells about all the things he brings to the team, but he doesn’t focus specifically on medicine.

If you’re applying for residency as this author is, you’ve obviously achieved what you needed to achieve in order to become a doctor. You’ll bring all kinds of medical knowledge to the team. The problem is that every other applicant has also received his or her doctoral degree and also brings medical knowledge to the table.

The writer knows that and goes beyond medicine when talking about his strengths and what he has to offer. He talks about being a teacher and helping with the Special Olympics. This shows that he already has experience working with children – both healthy children and children with special needs.

He brings up being an elected class officer to show he has leadership potential and that he’s well-liked and well-respected by others (otherwise they wouldn’t have elected him). Only after listing all those extra strengths does he bring up med school. This is a very impressive list of accomplishments.

Example Personal Statement 3

“Every finger of the little boy’s hand was adhered to his palm except for the extended third digit. I examined the severe burn injury as the plastic surgery attending discussed how we were going to fix the damage. Several contracture releases, K-wires, and skin grafts later, I excitedly realized he would eventually regain function of his little hand. I didn’t know what I wanted to be at the start of my third year, but after patients and cases like this one, I was energized by learning what I found in no other rotation. […] I have found my place in medicine.”

While this personal statement is well-written grammatically, it breaks rule number five on the “Don’t List.”  Don’t be overly dramatic.  This is supposed to be his personal statement, not the opening scene to  The Resident  on Fox. The writer wastes an entire paragraph – his entire introduction – on a dramatic scene that ends with one single sentence telling us this is why he wants to work as a plastic surgeon.

First of all, an introduction should be more well-rounded and introduce the reader more fully to who you are. It shouldn’t set a scene that thousands of other prospective residents have told some version of already.

Secondly, one has to hope that one single child’s broken hand is not the sole basis for this person’s decision to become a plastic surgeon. I want a doctor who has thought carefully about his/her chosen profession and decided to pursue medicine because of numerous different reasons, not just because he saw a child’s hand being fixed once.

While these types of stories may seem like an easy, interesting way to catch the reader’s attention quickly, they’re best avoided. Trust us when we say that the person reading your personal statement has read  countless  other “war stories” about prospective residents’ experiences in ERs and other situations. As amazing as your story may seem to you, it isn’t likely to impress them.

Example Personal Statement 4

“Then disaster struck. I applied to Medical School and I didn’t get in. I was heartbroken. It never occurred to me that I might not get accepted. I felt completely lost. The only dream I ever had, the one that I had spent so many hours working on, was now dead. A part of me just died. It was one of the few times I ever cried. I know [sic] had to live with a void that could never filled [sic].

Looking back, not getting accepted to Medical School in 1985 was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. It fueled a desire in me to find something else. Fortunately, I found an area where I have become more financially successful than I deserve. […] Years later, I decided to give Medical School one last try. This time I was accepted. The void began to fill. I would like the opportunity to learn more and complete the process.”

This is absolutely, 100% what you should  not  do in your personal statements. If you visit the original statement, you’ll see we only removed about two total lines from this personal statement. That means it was about ten lines long altogether, which translates to about 1,200 characters.

That is  much  too short for a personal statement. You don’t want to use the entire 28,000 characters, but you don’t want to write something less than a page long either. There’s almost no usable information here.

The writer doesn’t mention what specialty she’s hoping to pursue, nor does she mention a single strength that would make her a good candidate for the position. Beyond not mentioning any strengths, though, she highlights her failures!

If there’s something negative on your transcripts or application, it’s fine to touch on it and give a brief explanation for it and how you corrected it, but it certainly shouldn’t make up the bulk of your personal statement.

This one is just bad from beginning to end.

Example Personal Statement 5

“While medical school can teach a student the science behind medicine, I truly believe it’s a doctor’s personality and character that ultimately determines his or her success with patients. One of my greatest qualities […] is my ability to quickly connect with people. At an orientation lecture […] a speaker discussed how […] anesthesiologists are among the best at making great first impressions. […] Patients always seem to fear going to sleep more than [surgery]. Yet, an anesthesiologist may have but just a few moments […] to instill confidence in their patients. […] Since that orientation, I’ve prided myself on mastering how quickly I can earn a patient’s trust. Enjoying the challenge of making a great first impression in the shortest amount of time is among the most important reasons that have guided me into the specialty of anesthesiology.”

Let’s end on a strong note. This is another exceptional example of what your personal statements should look like. This writer has a good grasp of number three on the “Don’t List.”  Don’t waste a lot of time talking about why you want to be a doctor.  

The writer touches on med school by saying, “ While medical school can teach a student the science behind medicine. ” Then she immediately goes beyond school into the real world.

In doing so, she also showcases a very important characteristic she’s developed – putting people at ease – and tells us the specialization she’s chosen. She also explains why her ability to put people at ease is so important for her chosen specialization.

She ends by saying that this skill was challenging for her, but the way it’s written shows that she was not only up for the challenge but legitimately  loved  it.

This whole statement is well-written, well-organized, and covers all the important aspects of what the residency selection committee wants to know about a person.

In Conclusion

The most important things to remember when writing your residency personal statement are, to be honest, authentic, specific, and grammatically correct. You’ve already earned your degree; that alone shows the selection committee that you have what it takes to be a doctor because you already are one.

You just have to show that you have a passion for medicine and that you’ll bring something unique and important to their team. If you can do those things, you should be well on your way to the interview process.

Related Readings:

The Best Laptop for Medical School Guide Here

5 Best MCAT Prep Books, According to Med Students

5 Best MCAT Prep Courses, According to Med Students

The Ultimate Medical School Personal Statement Guide: (w/ Common Prompts & Examples Analyzed by Our Admissions Experts)

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How to Write Your ERAS Personal Statement

Alexandra R., MD

4 Keys to Writing A Compelling Residency Application Personal Statement

There are a variety of mixed opinions about the importance of the ERAS personal statement in the residency application process. Some people think that a personal statement, if it is captivating enough, can be your gateway to obtaining an interview. Others, however, think that a personal statement is simply a formality and that most programs do not take the time to look at it closely. Thus, in the latter scenario, the main goal is to not have your personal statement stand out in a negative way. Regardless of what you have heard and may continue to hear throughout the residency application process, you need to interpret the advice in the context of your particular scenario: decide for yourself how important the ERAS personal statement may be in the setting of your background and experiences as well as how important it may be for the field that you are applying into.

In general, you should start working on your ERAS personal statement early so that you can have multiple rounds of revisions. It is actually completely normal (and a good sign) if you end up having multiple completely different versions! The hardest part is sitting down and starting- just do it! The earlier you start writing, the more time you have to continue re-working and re-thinking your story. Sometimes it’s even good to put it away for a few weeks at a time so that when you look at it again you can have a fresh perspective. Remember, having a great personal statement hook is a key component to writing a compelling statement that residency program directors will actually want to read. The hook is so important, we have actually dedicated an entire post to writing it correctly here. Sometimes it’s even good to put it away for a few weeks at a time so that when you look at it again you can have a fresh perspective.

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Everything You Need to Know About the Transitional (TY)/Preliminary (PY) Residency Programs

Once you feel comfortable with a first draft, consider who you would like to share it with to receive constructive feedback. Ideally, it would be somebody whose opinions you value and who has demonstrated some success of their own accord – either friends who have gone through the application cycle and matched at one of their top 3 ranked programs, or faculty you have developed a relationship with. Often, medical schools also have advisory deans or some advising office, who may provide valuable insight into what residency program directors are looking for. An alternative advising source may even be the career center at your university. Even though career centers advise undergraduates, professional degree students (MD, JD, MS, etc), and even graduate students, their writing advice is broadly applicable to any field and their close attention to detail can be invaluable. Additionally, if you have friends that have applied in previous years, particularly in the same specialty in which you are currently applying, it can be helpful to see if they feel comfortable letting you read their statement – this can give you insight into the many shapes and form the PS may take and can provide helpful tidbits of information they’ve gleaned from the application process itself. You can also ask your advising office / deans for examples of personal statements specific to your specialty. In the event that you exhaust the resources available to you and you still feel uncertain about your statement, we welcome residency applicants to look into our residency matching services at Elite Medical Prep. We offer focused professional personal statement help from students who have successfully matched into some of the most competitive and prestigious residency programs in the world. 

Keep in mind that you do not need to incorporate everyone’s feedback into your personal statement. However, it is helpful to have multiple people’s advice and perspective, thus we encourage you to reach out to more than one person. We took a survey of our EMP tutors and ~60% said they worked with 6+ people, ~30% worked with 3-5 people, and 10% worked with <3 people to edit, read, and provide suggestions.

Lastly, once you have your personal statement finalized, please make sure you know what it is about. More than 85% of our tutors surveyed had an interview question about something specifically relating to their personal statement that was not anywhere else on their application. Be ready to talk about whatever stories you included—use the personal statement as an opportunity to help you shine and be remembered in a positive way!

We surveyed our tutors about advise they received about their own personal statements and collected feedback points from ERAS personal statements they have reviewed to see what feedback you should remember:

1) Don’t make your ERAS personal statement too long:

• The structure of the personal statement should be about 4 paragraphs.
• You do not want it to be more than one page single-spaced (standard font like arial or times new roman, size 12).
• If your personal statement is too long, it is even more likely for programs to not read it completely.

2) Don’t make your ERAS personal statement weird or controversial:

• “It’s okay to make your personal statement ‘vanilla’. You don’t want it to be a red flag /too creative that it strikes readers the wrong way.”
• “It’s far more likely that your personal statement will be entirely forgettable than that stand out, and that’s OK. Better to have a relatively bland, but acceptable PS and otherwise stellar application than to have a stellar application tainted by a PS that went too far in trying to be too interesting or original, or having something you write strike a reader the wrong way.”
• “Never write about something that could possibly make you cry if brought up.”
• “ Unless you feel very strongly about certain political beliefs or controversial topics (i.e. abortion) and would not want to be at a program where anyone felt otherwise, it’s probably better to avoid writing about anything polarizing in your statement.”
• “Your personal statement should be neither personal nor a statement”… basically, you aren’t necessarily going to stand out with your personal statement, you just want it to support the rest of your application, and it doesn’t need to be groundbreaking.”

3) Highlight what uniquely draws you to that particular specialty:

• “Remember that everyone reading your statement has gone into the field you have chosen and they know why it is awesome – so avoid singing general praises of a field – it needs to be PERSONAL!”
• “Tie everything into why you chose that particular specialty.”

4) Make your statement easy to read by telling a short and concise story about yourself:

• “That was way too long and formulaic. Cut to the chase but also paint a story rather than tell one.
• “Tell a unique story that gives insight to who you are as a person.”
• “Think about the purpose of your personal statement in the context of all the other components of your application: this is mainly useful as more of a personality gauge – ie who are you and what makes you tick?”
• “After reading your personal statement, the reader should come away with the feeling that they really want to meet you – not that you just summarized your ERAS in paragraph form. This is your opportunity to convey what is intangible on ERAS and in your letters – so use it as such!”
• “Even though your life is not coherent, you should present a coherent narrative – and make it brief! Not more than 500 words.”
• “Build a story around an interesting fact or experience.”
• “Show, don’t tell” – Try to use anecdotes as much as possible

Good Luck!!!

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Alexandra earned her Neuroscience degree from the University of Michigan, graduating with Summa Cum Laude recognition in 2014. She continued her education at the University…

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Tips for Writing Your Personal Statement‍

Writing an amazing residency personal statement on your ERAS application is about telling your story in your own voice. It’s about telling the reader something about you that cannot be gathered from other parts of the application.

The personal statement is a longer discussion of yourself, motivation, and experiences. It is also an important element of your application as 67% of residency programs cite personal statements as a factor in selecting students to interview. We’ve put together some tips to help you below.

“Do’s” of writing personal statements :

🗸   DO tell a story about yourself or share a unique situation. You are showing the reader your narrative about why you are a great candidate for residency.

🗸   DO make it human. Approach the statement as an opportunity to process life experiences and articulate the arc of your journey.

🗸   DO be specific. Clearly outline your interest in the specialty, and use concrete examples where able.

🗸   DO be candid and honest.

🗸   DO pay attention to grammar and writing style.

🗸   DO keep the statement to one page.

🗸   DO get an early start. We recommend to begin writing your personal statement during the summer between your third and fourth years of medical school to allow ample time for revisions and reviews. Be prepared to do many drafts.

🗸   DO include personal challenges you have overcome in your medical education journey so far.

🗸   DO get feedback. Have multiple people read your statement including faculty in your field.

What to avoid :

✖   DON’T tell the reader what an emergency physician does; he or she already knows this.

✖   DON’T belittle another person or specialty.

✖   DON’T overestimate your personal statement. The benefit gained from even an outstanding personal statement is still marginal compared with other aspects of your application which carry more weight.

✖   DON’T underestimate your personal statement. A poorly written or error-filled personal statement can drag down your candidacy.

✖   DON’T just focus on activities that the admissions committee can learn about from your application. Use this opportunity to give NEW information that is not available anywhere else.

Questions to Consider When Writing

Crafting a strong personal statement begins with self-reflection. Before you even begin writing, lay the groundwork for your statement by asking yourself the following questions:

Why are you choosing emergency medicine? If you want to help people, why don’t you want to be a social worker or a teacher (for example)? What interests, concerns, or values drive you in your studies, work, and career choice?

Think back to volunteer, shadowing, global health, research, work, and coursework experiences. What has been defining? Are there any moments that stick out? What did you learn about yourself or your future profession? How did you change after that experience?

What do you want the residency program to know about you as a person, a student, and a future colleague? What makes you a good fit for the profession and the profession a good fit for you?

What makes you unique from other applicants?

Additional Resources

Most universities and colleges also have writing centers that may be able to help you focus your ideas into a theme or read and give feedback on your personal statement.

*This resource is intended to serve as inspiration and a compass to guide your own writing. All personal statements or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author.

Writing a Personal Statement for Residency Application

Personal statements are an essential, required part of applying to residency. Residency programs screen thousands of applications every cycle and read many hundreds of these statements in the process. You should aim to write an interesting statement that showcases your personality as well as your achievements. Perhaps most importantly, you will need to skillfully articulate the reasons for your interest in family medicine and the particular program you're applying to.

How to Write a Great Personal Statement

A great personal statement sets itself apart from a good personal statement in several ways.

• First, it includes a level of specificity that shows your motivations and interests are authentic. For example, when conveying why you want to match into family medicine, show awareness of the exciting developments in the specialty, or describe your experience with or knowledge of topics like population health management, care coordination, and the social determinants of health.
• Feel free to highlight items in your CV if they help remind your reader of the experiences you’ve had that prepared you for the position. This is your opportunity to expand upon activities that are just listed in the CV but deserve to be described so your reader can appreciate the breadth and depth of your involvement in them. It should not be another comprehensive list of your activities, but rather should refer to activities that are listed in detail on the CV.
• The personal statement is also an appropriate place to address anything that may be ambiguous on your CV. In particular, you should address any nontraditional path you’ve taken through medical school, such as time off or an altered curricular journey. It is better to address these than to leave a program wondering. If you write about academic or personal challenges that you faced during medical school, make a positive impression by focusing on what you've learned from those experiences and how they brought you to where you are now. 

You may choose to relate significant personal experiences, but do so only if they are relevant to your candidacy for the position.

Sharpen Your Writing Skills 

The importance of good writing in a personal statement cannot be overemphasized. Unfortunately, not only are good writing skills allowed to deteriorate during medical school, but in some sense, they also are deliberately undermined in the interest of learning to write concise histories and physicals. For the moment, forget everything you know about writing histories and physicals. While preparing your personal statement:

• Avoid abbreviations.
• Avoid repetitive sentence structure.
• Avoid using jargon. If there is a shorter, simpler, less pretentious way of putting it, use it.
• Don't assume your reader knows the acronyms you use. As a courtesy, spell everything out.
• Use a dictionary and spell check. 
• Use a thesaurus. Variety in the written language can add interest, but don't get carried away.
• Write in complete sentences.

If you need a crash course in good writing, read  The Elements of Style ,  Fourth Edition  by Strunk and White. If you have friends or relatives with writing or editing skills, enlist their help. Student organizations at your school may host personal statement clinics, or your school may offer review services. Many student, medical, and specialty societies, local and national, may offer personal statement reviews or workshops.

Even if you're a great writer and feel confident about your application, you should ask trusted advisors, mentors, and friends to critique your personal statement (and your CV! ). They can help you make your statement as flawless as possible by giving you feedback about areas that might have been unclear or things that should be added.

Don't cross the line

Your personal statement should remain an original composition, even as you seek input and advice. Retain your voice as you refine your writing and don't ever plagiarize. Be aware of other ethical lines you shouldn't cross as well, for example, don't use vague references that would allow for the reader to misinterpret the nature of your experience, and don't take full credit for a project if others worked on it with you.

Copyright © 2024 American Academy of Family Physicians. All Rights Reserved.

ERAS® Tools and Worksheets for Residency Applicants

New section.

Guides and worksheets to help residency applicants complete their MyERAS® application.

The 2024 MyERAS Applicant User Guide provides information about all sections of the 2024 application for residency and fellowship applicants.

FAQs will be updated throughout the 2024 ERAS® season (June 7, 2023 to May 31, 2024).

Review a timeline for applying for residency positions using the ERAS® system for the 2025 application season.

ERAS® application fees are based on the number of programs applied to per specialty. The MyERAS® portal automatically calculates your fees, and you can pay online using Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover.

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A Guide to ERAS Supplemental Applications for 2023 Match Cycle

Posted in: Residency

Table of Contents

• What is the Supplemental ERAS Application?

What are the sections of the Supplemental ERAS Application?

Which specialties require the supplemental eras application, what is the deadline for the supplemental eras application, the past experiences section, geographic preference section, what is preference/program signaling (ps), how do i decide where to assign my signals, should i signal my home institution in the supplemental eras application, should i signal away rotations, what is the supplemental eras application.

Starting in 2021, the The Electronic Residency Application Service® (ERAS®) began offering a supplemental application designed to help students share more about themselves. This was also designed to assist program directors in finding applicants that fit their programs’ setting and mission. This is especially important given that in January 2022, USMLE Step 1 went Pass/Fail, which put a new spin on residency applications. Previously, program directors were able to rely on Step 1 as a screening mechanism, but without it, they were left with one less tool to use. The ERAS Supplemental Application is an adjunct tool for program directors to choose applicants.

The supplemental ERAS application is broken into three sections. We’ll cover all three sections here in this guide with links below.

• The Geographic Preference Section
• The Preference Signaling Section

RELATED READ: The Complete Guide to the Residency Match Process, Including the ERAS Personal Statement and Activities

It started with just two, but has slowly become more and more. We anticipate there maybe even more in 2024. The following specialties will participate in the ERAS supplemental application process for the 2022-23 application cycle. The table below breaks down the specialties, along with which parts of the Supplemental ERAS application they participate in. Keep in mind,

For the 2023 cycle, the deadline to submit was Friday September 16th 2022. While this deadline was present, keep in mind that the actual ERAS can’t be reviewed by residency programs until September 28th. The rationale for the Supplemental Application to be due earlier is unclear, but those are the rules that ERAS put in place!

Drawing upon a similar trend with the most meaningful experiences section of the AMCAS application , the ERAS now has a past experiences section where you can showcase up to 5 of your most 5 most important and meaningful experiences. There is also an additional essay where you can share another impactful experience that demonstrates a challenge or a hardship you faced on your journey to medicine.

The character limits of the past experiences section is only 300 characters, so you do not have a lot of space here!

You need to fill in the following information for each of the  5 meaningful experiences :

The Position title

The Organization name

Your Start and end dates

The Frequency of participation  (This is always tricky, because some experiences may be daily for just a period of time. Just use your best judgement)

Setting  (rural vs urban). Rural is defined as population of ≤2500 while urban is defined as population of ≥50,000

Experience type : explains what type of experience you had. The following categories are included:

• Education/training (includes clinical training such as clerkships, away rotations, sub-internships, structured observerships, etc.)
• Military service
• Professional organization (includes societies, associations, etc., at the local, regional, national, or international levels)
• Other extracurricular activity, club, hobby (includes sports, music, theater, student government, etc.)
• Teaching/mentoring (includes paid teaching positions such as high school teacher as well as teaching assistant, tutor)
• Volunteer/service/advocacy (includes unpaid experiences, service, advocacy)
• Work (includes paid clinical, nonclinical

  Primary focus area . The following categories are included:

• Basic science
• Clinical/translational science
• Community involvement/outreach
• Customer service
• Health care administration
• Improving access to health care
• Medical education
• Music/athletics/art
• Promoting wellness
• Public health
• Quality improvement
• Social justice/advocacy

  Key characteristic : This should demonstrate the most important characteristic you got out of this experience. The following characteristics are included:

• Communication
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Cultural Humility and Awareness
• Empathy and Compassion
• Ethical Responsibility
• Ingenuity and Innovation
• Reliability and Dependability
• Resilience and Adaptability
• Self-Reflection and Improvement
• Teamwork and Leadership

You are only allowed to pick one experience type, one primary focus area, and one key characteristic for each of the 5 experiences.

Description  of the experience (maximum 300 characters including spaces): Explain why this experience is meaningful and how it influenced you. Do NOT describe what you did in the experience as this is already mentioned in your CV.

The other impactful experiences section asks the following question:

“Please describe any challenges or hardships that influenced your journey to residency. This could include experiences related to family background, financial background, community setting, educational experiences, and/or general life experiences.”

Here, applicants have the opportunity to share any challenges they faced throughout their medical journey. Programs do not expect all applicants to complete this question as not everyone faced such a challenge or hardship. But if you faced one, it is highly recommended that you include it here. There is a character limit of 750 characters including spaces. We recommend not going overboard here. If you don’t have a truly impactful statement to write, it’s best to skip out here.

ERAS has decided to break up the residency locations into the following geographic sections:

• Pacific West: AK, CA, HI, OR, WA
• Mountain West: AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, UT, WY
• West North Central: IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD
• East North Central: IL, IN, MI, OH, WI
• West South Central: AR, LA, OK, TX
• East South Central: AL, KY, MS, TN
• South Atlantic: DC, DE, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, VA, WV
• Middle Atlantic: NJ, NY, PA
• New England: CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT

As a residency applicant, you get to choose up to three of these nine sections. Then, with just 300 characters, you can explain each of your preferences. For example, you might illuminate ties you have to the region, such as family or ancestry in the location. Your geographic preference will only be shared with programs in that geographic area.

Rural vs. Urban Signaling

Unlike the geographical signaling that only programs within a region would see, all programs can view the urban/rural descriptions.

What should you include in the past experiences section of the supplemental ERAS?

It’s totally up to you as the applicant what you’d like to include here, but you probably want to consider including research experience in the speciality you are applying into. This is important because program directors will often look to applicants research as a way to gauge interest in a speciality, as well as future potential in the field.

PS allows an applicant to send a limited number of “signals” to residency programs that they are genuinely interested in at the time of the initial residency application. These signals help programs identify genuinely interested applicants early in the application review process, providing an opportunity for a more holistic review of applicants most interested in their program.

There is a real history to program signaling. In fact, there are even academic papers that are written about it. An editorial in the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine Dec 2021 written by Alexis Pelletier-Bui et al states:

Preference signaling is a concept rooted in game theory and developed in labor economics to address the challenge of employers not being able to perform a detailed analysis of all potential applicants and aiding them with identifying high-yield employee prospects. Preference signaling allows applicants to assign virtual “tokens” to their most desired employers, providing applicants the opportunity to communicate their interest, and employers the ability to focus their attention on these most “serious” applicants.

PS is new to the residency application process, therefore there is a paucity of data available on how to best assign signals. Most advice provided in this document is based on consensus and not in evidence. The data we do have is from other specialties and best practices may differ by specialty. We do have some information on how advisors advised applicants to use their signals, and how applicants decided to utilize their signals via the ERAS SuppApp in the 2021-2022 residency application cycle, reflected in the table below, referenced from the CodeEM Applicant/Advisor Supplemental Guide 

How Advisors Advised and Applicants Utilized Signals in the 2021-2022 ERAS

Because signals will be assigned in concert with ERAS submission, it is strongly recommended that applicants spend some time researching programs and reflecting on what their priorities are in a prospective training program as they are putting together their initial application. There will be more opportunity to learn and reflect in depth on programs during the interview and ranking phase of the process, but having an understanding of some basic program information and the characteristics of applicants that have been accepted in the past can go a long way to helping applicants select the programs they plan to signal. There will not be a post-interview round of signals.

Let’s consider some examples. It is likely to be low yield to use a signal if your USMLE/COMLEX scores are well below a program’s cut off for consideration or if you only have a COMLEX score and a program does not consider COMLEX scores in lieu of USMLE. If you are an IMG and a program denotes US grads only, does not sponsor visas, or has no track record of matching IMGs, using a signal with that program is likely to be low yield. Make sure to consider statistics and probabilities, realizing that the yield of your signal will be lower in these situations compared to utilizing your signals at programs with applicant/resident characteristics that may match more closely with your own

Conversely, it is not wise to use a signal on a program where you are already likely to be offered an interview, such as a home institution (although the AAMC has slightly differing advice on this, see below).

This is a question that is asked a lot. In general, signaling home institutions should not be needed because they should know you as the applicant. This is especially true if you know the program well. Most program directors will tell you this, but you should check individually with your PD to see if they want you to signal (hint, if you meet with them in person, that’s basically signaling that you are interested in their residency program).

Similar to a home institution, you probably already have a great chance of getting an interview at a place you participated in an away rotation for. For this reason, we don’t necessarily recommend signaling those programs. Instead, it maybe best to save your signal for programs where you aren’t quite as well know. That said, the AAMC has published a table where they suggest signaling home and away institutions, however our suggestion at MedSchoolCoach is to show your face with the program director instead and express your interest in person, rather than just via the ERAS.

Sahil Mehta MD

Founder, medschoolcoach.

Dr. Mehta is a Harvard trained interventional radiologist and one of the foremost experts on medical school admissions in the country. He is a nationally known expert in prostate artery embolization. He has personally overseen and guided hundreds of applicants into and through medical school, as well as developed tools and training for MedSchoolCoach advisors to help thousands of students a year.

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