And speaking of hard work… It’s time for third year medical students (and graduated IMGs) to get started on a plan for this coming Match season. As of this writing, I have a few Strategy Sessions slots left in April. Advising discussion topics at this time of year should include creating a fourth year schedule, if/where to do away rotations, potential letter writers, crafting an outline for a personal statement, understanding how to write solid ERAS activity descriptors, reviewing an individual’s prospects in a desired field – using data, and producing a timeline for the application process. Also, note that some applicants contact me to discuss their current indecision about what field to pursue, and that’s fine too; those conversations should happen soon.
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Your Residency Application: What Do Program Directors Really Want?
If you were a program director (PD), you’d be trying to avoid two big headaches as you assessed a residency candidate:
1) Will this person be competent and collegial? A PD does not want to get complaints from patients, faculty, or other services about his/her residents.
2) Will this person leave the program prematurely? A PD does not want to scurry around to fill an open call schedule/ residency slot.
As you approach your interviews, consider how you can demonstrate your competence and collegiality, as well as your commitment to the field and the residency program. For the former, ensure you showcase academic successes, extra curricular activities that demonstrate teamwork, and – if asked – hobbies and reading materials that demonstrate your personality. For the latter, highlight research projects in the specialty, sub-internships, and knowledge about the program and city.
Making sure the PD knows you are not going to cause him/her headaches is half the battle.
Your Residency Application: Know Before You Go
I distinctly remember a very strong candidate whom we considered as a potential emergency medicine resident many years ago. Although multiple faculty members raved about the medical student, one of my colleagues pointed out that the applicant made it clear he did not want to move to Boston. “He wants to stay in California. If he’s not interested in us, why are we interested in him?”
Mathematically speaking, this strategy doesn’t make a lot of sense. Programs should rank strong applicants highly no matter what they believe the candidates’ desires are. (After all, the program may be wrong, and there is little disincentive to go for the gold.) But the point is that it’s critical that you don’t give off signals that you are not interested in the program at which you are interviewing. (If you would rather not Match than be at that residency, you shouldn’t be interviewing there – not a tactic I would generally recommend, however.)
Know the program well and be enthusiastic about its strengths. Every program has something to offer, and you’ll need to learn details of those positive qualities if you want to stay in the running for a spot.
Residency Personal Statement: Honors Won’t Make it Write
Several years after writing my own residency personal statement, I found myself reading essays and making admissions decisions as a medical school faculty member. In assessing application essays, I learned firsthand that certain personal statement techniques fly and others don’t. A candidate’s approach can mean the difference between acceptance and rejection at his/her dream institution.
The below are some of the most common and easily-avoidable errors applicants make in crafting their personal statements:
1) Unlike mom, an admissions essay reader doesn’t offer unconditional support for an applicant’s endeavors. Candidates who write a paragraph (or two) about their childhood surgeon Halloween costume have made two fatal flaws: First, the tactic is overused. Second, these stories do not engage the admissions reader nor further an applicant’s candidacy because they are not built on evidence of any distinctive accomplishments.
2) The rule applicants should remember is this: All stuff, no fluff. (No Miss America clichés!) The residency personal statement should be a persuasive document that convinces programs that a candidate is worthy of a spot at their institutions, which means it should include facts about what makes an applicant special – her achievements.
Just like a lawyer does when s/he is trying a case in front of a judge, the residency applicant must persuade with evidence. Saying he is a caring person or wants to make the world a better place is not compelling, and those claims do not distinguish the candidate from the scores of other applicants competing with him. The candidate needs to prove his value and distinctiveness with academic, clinical, research, community service, leadership, international, and teaching achievements. To the admissions reader, applicants are what they do – not what they say.
Every part of the personal statement should be distinctive, highlighting unique qualities through accomplishments. If there is even a phrase in the essay that could have been written by someone else, it should be omitted.
3) I remember a talented residency applicant I advised a few years ago who showcased an award she had won. She listed the name, but didn’t explain what it was. When I asked her, she told me the award was an academic honor given to only the top 1% of students out of several thousand. Had she not rewritten the section, her admissions readers wouldn’t have given her an ounce of credit for that extraordinary accomplishment. What a candidate fails to adequately explain counts against her.
Bottom line: Candidates must ensure their residency personal statements can stand alone and don’t rely on the remainder of the application for clarification.
I hope this year’s applicants will leverage the knowledge I’ve offered above to anticipate a future reader’s objections so that they can strengthen their personal statements and reach their career goals.
Residency Application: ERAS Tips
I’ve been editing a whole heck of a lot of ERAS applications recently, so I thought I’d create a list of tips for those embarking on their descriptors:
1. Include relevant pre-professional accomplishments from college. If you conducted research, for example, list and describe it. Do not include high school achievements unless they were truly unique (worked at the White House, sang on Broadway ;)).
2. While you want to include many strong achievements, you do not want your ERAS to be so long that your reader is tempted to skim it. Be selective.
3. Keep your descriptors to approximately three to seven sentences. Fewer can look lazy and more can look self-indulgent.
4. Use full sentences. It’s a formal application, and you want to make your written materials as readable as possible.
5. Avoid abbreviations. Again, you want to be formal, and abbreviations you think are common might not be familiar to the reader.
6. Make sure you spell out your accomplishments clearly. If your reader doesn’t understand an activity, you will not get “full credit” for what you’ve done. Make no assumptions.
7. Write about yourself and your role – not an organization. For example, don’t use the space to discuss Physicians without Borders. Use it to discuss the specifics of your role at Physicians without Borders.
8. Use numbers to be persuasive. Saying that the conference you organized had 300 participants says it all.
9. Unless your PI won the Nobel, avoid using supervisors’ and/or doctors’ names in your descriptors as they will be meaningless to the majority of your readers.
10. Get help. Do not submit your residency application without having it reviewed. Don’t submit suboptimal materials for a process that is this important and competitive.
Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to
stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital.
She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated
Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more
