Your medical residency Personal Statement has a powerful impact on how programs view you, not only as a professional, but also as a person. You have a lot of material to cover in a very short amount of time– which is why you don’t want to waste precious space on mistakes which may hurt your image in the eyes of program application review committees.

Below is a list of the worst mistakes you can make on your Personal Statement.

• Plagiarism– This may seem obvious, but every once in awhile a residency candidate runs out of time before the Main Residency Match® opens for applications or the Post-Match SOAP®  kicks off, and decides to use words that do not belong to them. Copying and pasting phrases or sentences from the internet is one of the easiest ways to ruin a Personal Statement and possibly get your whole application discounted in the process.

• Negativity– Everyone has challenges and struggles they face on the path to becoming a doctor. You may have gotten sick, lost a family member, failed an exam, or faced financial difficulties. It’s tempting to bring up all of these circumstances in your writing as a reason or excuse for how they affected you (gaps, red flags, etc.), but putting negative sentiments in your Personal Statement shows programs you are not able to face adversity with maturity and adaptability. If you can’t grow and learn from your past, how can they expect you to handle the ups and downs of residency?

• Format Errors– There are some general rules residency candidates should follow with regards to formatting a Personal Statement such as:
  1. The length should be around a page (600-800 words)
  2. Paragraphs should be single spaced with one space between each paragraph
  3. There cannot be any special characters in the text ex. bold, italics, color, or accents

• Grammar Mistakes– Perhaps you didn’t read over your Personal Statement well enough, or you didn’t know about a specific grammar rule, but a mistake in grammar shows sloppy workmanship. As you re-read your Personal Statement, keep an eye out for:
  1. Punctuation (commas, periods, quotes, etc.)
  2. Spelling
  3. Sentence syntax (how the words are arranged)
  4. Redundancy (using the same words or ideas too close together)

• Cliches or over-used language– A cliche is writing and language that has been used so many times it has become more of a joke than a meaningful idea. You have to remember that residency application review committees read thousands of Personal Statements each year and it is up to you to avoid tired or worn out ideas or language. Of course, there are only so many reasons people want to become doctors, but you can make these reasons as unique as you are by adding your own personal stories. For example, it’s ok to say your dream is to be a general surgeon, but you need to validate the thought by adding your own personal story to make the content unique. What happened to you to make you want to be a surgeon?

• Templates– If you are pressed for time or don’t know how to write your Personal Statement, you may be tempted to turn to the internet for guidance. While it’s ok to use samples or templates for inspiration, to strictly follow a template takes away from the overall quality or individuality of your document. The use of a template makes a Personal Statement seem very stiff and awkward. You want a Personal Statement with your unique flair and a nice flow to the writing, not something that looks like you just filled in the blanks. Also, if you know a template was used, there is a good chance programs will figure it out too.  

• Giving other people the credit– It’s one thing to consider someone your inspiration or mentor, but remember this is a Personal Statement. Dedicating a whole paragraph to the professional achievements of your mentor is a waste of space that should be used to talk about your achievements. You can use a mentor figure or favorite professor as an anecdote for your growth as a doctor or a segway, but keep the shout out short.  

• Bad organization– Even the best, most fascinating content in the world can get lost if your Personal Statement is not organized properly. If your ideas are all over the place and there is no discernable organization to your thoughts, your document will lose much of its meaning, and without meaning, your Personal Statement is fairly useless. Avoid rambling and tangents. Stick to a 4 to 6 paragraph essay format with a thesis of your professional goals, body paragraphs for each goal with personal and professional examples, and a conclusion to tie it all together.

• Being generic (no specialty focus)– According to a Program Director survey conducted by NRMP called Results of the 2014 NRMP Program Director Survey, the Personal Statement is one of the top 5 factors used to judge whether or not a residency candidate will be invited for an interview. The Personal Statement is used not only to judge you as a person and professional, but also your dedication to the specialty you are applying to. Each specialty has its own unique set of skills and traits it values. What Surgery residency programs want to see in a candidate is very different from Pediatrics residency programs. Therefore, make sure your writing is specialty specific to demonstrate how fit you are for your chosen field of medicine. One Personal Statement does not fit all.  

It is surprisingly easy to ruin a Personal Statement by being too negative, formatting it incorrectly, using templates, wasting space on the wrong topics, or being too generic. The Personal Statement is too important to rush through and submit to programs without proofreading and checking for the mistakes above. Make sure you re-read your Personal Statement multiple times, and get a fresh set of eyes, like a friend or professional service, to ensure you are not making the mistakes listed above that could cost you an interview.  

Many residency candidates have some aspect of their application background that may be perceived as a gap, weakness, or red flag in the eyes of those who review application materials.

Some examples of red flags are:

• Attempts on USMLE exams
• A gap in medical education or professional career
• Low test scores
• Lack of US clinical experience
• Failing a class, or former residency

The presence of these circumstances is an understandable– and often unavoidable, part of life, but it can be hard to find the right time and place to explain to programs what happened. There are a few appropriate places for you to talk about your gaps such as the ERAS Common Application, but this may not feel sufficient. You may feel the need to make your case in your Personal Statement.

While it is not suggested to bring up these weaknesses in your Personal Statement, sometimes it can work in your favor to identify what parts of your application may raise red flags for programs. This way, you can answer any questions programs may have as they review your credentials and soothe any misgivings about your worthiness as a candidate. With the right wording, you can even show programs you are capable of taking a bad situation and turning it into an opportunity for growth, improvement and resilience.

When writing about gaps, there are three rules to keep in mind:

• Keep it brief.

Limit the whole disclosure to 2 or 3 sentences maximum. It’s best not to write any more than you have to. There isn’t a lot of space to work with in your Personal Statement and you don’t want to waste any more than strictly necessary on something that could be perceived as negative.

• Stick to the facts

Keep it honest, but don’t get wrapped up in the emotion of the circumstances. Programs don’t really want a bunch of sad excuses, and you could make your red flag sound worse than it is are by showing your negativity, bitterness or frustration through your writing. Programs want candidates who can face challenges with maturity and strength, and rise above.

• Make it positive.

Show the programs you have grown from your experiences, that your struggles have made you stronger. What did you learn from the experience? Are you a better, stronger, smarter or wiser person?

Being able to clearly address red flags in your application is vital to clearing up any potential misunderstandings programs may have about your credentials, and can also show you are honest and reflective about your past mistakes.

“[A] quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business.”

(The Record Lie)”

― A.A. Milne, If I May

I’m not sure when the shift happened, but at some point it became very popular to use quotes in writing. Suddenly, Gandhi and Confucius were gracing every essay and article. People were using them to sound smarter or grab the reader’s attention– without having to think of anything for themselves. As the epidemic grew, the less powerful quotes became in writing until we reached quotes saturation. Present day, quotes from famous or wise minds have become more detrimental in formal writing than helpful.

This especially goes for residency Personal Statements. Like any essay, a Personal Statement needs a hook or “grabber” to draw in Program Directors and give you the chance to stand out as a candidate. I know it’s tempting to quote someone you feel has a better or funnier grasp of English than you, but here are three reasons why you should not quote a public figure in your Personal Statement.

1. Plagiarism: 

Plagiarism, the bane of every English teacher in existence. Fortunately for them, and unfortunately for you, there are plagiarism checking tools that application review committees can run Personal Statements through to make sure your writing is your own.

Many plagiarism checks will flag any quote, even quotes within quotation marks, and report there is at least one case of plagiarism within your Personal Statement. If a program is less diligent about reading through Personal Statements, that one flag might be enough for them to throw out your Personal Statement altogether, even your whole application.

Don’t put yourself in that position.

2.  Space :

This may seem like a simple reason, but in a document where you need to cover a lot of personal ground in a short amount of time, you need to consider every piece of content you are including. Any Personal Statement should aim to be exactly one page with spaces between each paragraph. This gives you less than 3,000 characters to properly introduce yourself, share your medical life story and leave the program director in awe of what a great candidate you are.

Why would you waste any of that precious space on someone else’s words?

3.  Cliche/Overused Tactic

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among stars!”

– Les Brown

A cliche was an idea that was once original, but has been used so many times it causes readers to roll their eyes when they encounter such a tired idea. There are some quotes you hear or read so often they have lost any emotional power they once had, like the quote above.

With the use of a quote, that eye-rolling effect will be translated to your Personal Statement. You may have wanted to inspire the Program Director reading your Personal Statement, instead your paper has lost validity from the start– which will be hard to gain back.

Keep your paper original and valid, leave the quotes in their books and movies.

Quotes almost always do more harm than good when they are used in your Personal Statement. They might trigger a plagiarism checker, take up valuable space, and are so cliche they make your writing less credible with their very presence.

With all of that said, there is one exception to the “No quotes” rule, personal quotes. A quote from a close family member, friend or even yourself is original and special. If something your grandfather said inspired you to become a doctor, than by all means share it. Just make sure he wasn’t quoting his favorite book first!