Personal Statement (PS) Tips
- A Personal Statement is not another version of a CV, nor an explanation of previous stages in your career.
- It is PERSONAL. You need to emphasize on your personality, what is peculiar about it (all doctors like treating patients, all doctors can work under stress, etc… ; but not all doctors have a vision and plan to their career)- Avoid all political or religious ideas. ( e.g.: no need to mention Christian persecution in the middle east, nor opinions about Obama or Trump, etc…).
- Avoid emotional statements, exaggerated description, unrealistic events ( e.g.: I kept crying after the death of the patient, I was really touched by such and such…).
- What is known and normal in Egypt, might be totally unknown in USA. ( e.g: almost nobody in USA know Dr.Magdy Yacoub nor Dr.Zewail).
- Try to be culturally sensitive and acquainted with the American culture (avoid all kind of discriminatory statements : race,religion, gender, etc… )
- Mistakes in grammar, structure, and spelling are NOT ALLOWED.
- A Personal Statment should reflect 3 central ideas:
- Why do you like the specialty?
- Why the Program Director should like you?
- Why do you like this particular program?
- In order to answer the first question, you need to focus on your motivations that led you to medical school first and then to the specialty, write them as draft and then summarize them in the PS, use this draft during the interviews.
- If you will mention a case, limit the description to the positive findings and keep it short; the reason for mentioning a case is to get a moral or a reason that pushed you to this specialty.
- The second question: summarize your personal qualification that are peculiar to you and helpful for the specialty.
- Avoid underestimating or overestimating your abilities.
- There should be a SINGLE line of thoughts and ideas for the PS, i.e. a theme that all paragraphs are centered around it.
- If you have a place where you have better chances for getting an interview, make the PS personalized to that place, mention the name of the program and the city and why do you like it.
- Don’t mention plans for fellowship in PS, unless it is personalized to a specific place.
- Preparing a PS could take up to 4-6 weeks, and 2-3 professional people need to constructively revise the PS, which takes another 4-6 weeks
- A PS should also be one page long.