Personal Statement Tips
Written by Michael Galibov, DO
Time to get personal. Crafting a personal statement can be a monolithic endeavor. To only have so much space to try and express all of your own unique footprints on the human experience is daunting. If you’re anything like me, you obsess over every single word looking for grammar discrepancies or spelling mistakes - I’m even worried about that right now for this post. To make tackling this task a bit simpler, let’s break it down.
First, what message are you trying to convey? What’s the theme? What’s important to you? I would tend to make the mistake of fluffing up the vocab in an attempt to be the F. Scott Fitzgerald of personal statement writers when the underlying message felt hollow or incomplete. Depending on the intended audience and on your individual situation, a specific personal statement might take on different forms. For residency programs, the key is to showcase yourself in addition to medicine, spinning the yarn on how you landed where you are today.
Each incoming class is more and more impressive, so this is your document to shine. Make it unique. Flip the script for a second and think, what would you want to read? I see plenty of guidance about specific length requirements and frameworks that should be followed definitively but in my opinion, there should be minimal rigidity when it comes to a personal statement. Flow is your friend. If it takes you 1.17 pages to create that flow, it’s worth it and your readers won’t notice.
Have some trusted friends and family look over your personal statement at least 27 times. Seriously though, get eyes on it. Multiple perspectives are a positive thing and can allow you to present your work in a way that maybe you hadn’t thought of before. There is no right answer for who you send it to - who do you trust? Sibling? Significant other? Old third-grade math teacher? Me, a total stranger? So be it! Be ready for constructive criticism and keep in mind that in many ways this is your face sheet. It tells your story. There is some healthy pressure associated with that but that’s a good thing because how it looks is entirely in one person’s hands. Yours.
If the total stranger option above seemed appealing, you can even ask for help using social media. We’re all in this together, after all. Sorry if I made you think about High School Musical.
