Welcome to the 2019-2020 Medical Residency Application and Match Season!

As this year’s season progresses and beyond, we here at Residency Statement will be sharing informational resources, advice, and more to help you better prepare your medical residency Personal Statements as a part of the medical residency application.

A few tips and reminders about medical residency Personal Statements:

1. Always begin your writing process by brainstorming as many personal and professional stories as you can. These can be stories about:

• Interesting case studies
• Day-to-day life in clinical rotations
• Connections with patients
• Good memories of your childhood (relatable to the person you are now)

The more you brainstorm before writing, the easier it will be to write about your personality, skills, and accomplishments.

2. Remember, you will need a specialty specific Personal Statement for each medical specialty you apply to. Using a generic statement, or a statement meant for another specialty only shows a lack of commitment and dedication. This is an extreme red flag and can sink your application.

3. Start drafting your Personal Statement(s) as soon as you can. This gives you plenty of time to brainstorm, outline, write, and revise. Rushed Personal Statements have a high chance of containing content or grammatical errors that will most certainly be spotted by Program Directors.

4. If you know the contents of your Letters of Recommendation, or have an idea of what the writer said about you, reflect their comments within your Personal Statement. That way, what you are saying about yourself in your Personal Statement will be confirmed by your Letters of Recommendation.

For example, if they talk about your ability to listen, you may want to integrate this into your Personal Statement as well.

5. Consider getting professional assistance to look over your Personal Statement or help you write one. With Program Directors’ expectations for the Personal Statement increasing every year, getting a little help is a smart choice.

Just getting started with the residency application process or need a refresher course?

Here are some helpful blog posts from a partner, Residency Experts! Residency Experts provides in-depth editing, feedback, and review for the Written Sections of the MyERAS Application, as well as Personal Statement editing, and complimentary feedback and review for Letters of Recommendation.

• Crafting the Ideal Medical Residency Personal Statement
  https://residencyexperts.com/crafting-the-ideal-medical-residency-personal-statement/
• How to Obtain the Best Residency Letters of Recommendation
  https://residencyexperts.com/letters-recommendation-1/
• Writing Residency Letters of Recommendation – Authorship Guide
  https://residencyexperts.com/lor-authorship-guide/

Additionally, make sure you are targeting your applications by ONLY applying to compatible programs. Visit Match A Resident today to learn more about how Customized Compatibility Lists can help make or break your application efforts.

Finally, here are the official services to be familiar with:

• ECFMG: Advocate and IMG services, your best friend. You will need to be ECFMG certified to start a residency.
• AAMC: Home of ERAS, the main application website
• NRMP: Home of The Match after you have applied to programs.

If you ever have any questions or need clarification about anything we’ve covered, please contact us through:

(Email) support@residencystatement.com

(Phone) (858)-221-8590

We will be happy to answer any questions about Personal Statements or our other services.

Whether you are a re-applicant, or this is your first time applying, best wishes to all residency candidates!