Tackling the Residency Personal Statement

This blog was originally published in August 2023, and updated on July 1st, 2025 by Dr. Dylan Eiger.

Last year, Elite Medical Prep organized a roundtable event on the nuances of residency applications, equipping attendees with essential insights for the year’s application cycle. In the event titled “Mastering the Residency Personal Statement,” hosted by Dr. Eiger and Dr. Zielinski, participants delved into the critical aspects of the residency personal statement. Given its significance in gaining a coveted residency spot, initiating the process early is key to allow for ample revisions, with a recommended submission target of August. You can also see our residency application timeline for all deadlines and milestones!

In this blog post, we have summarized the discussed points in this roundtable for those who prefer written content or wish to complement the recorded session. If you prefer to watch the session, you may do so above at the provided YouTube link. Additionally, other informative residency roundtable discussions and Q&A sessions are available here. 

Navigating the Residency Personal Statement Landscape

• There is no set prompt: The personal statement offers flexibility and you should view it as an open canvas. While this can often be challenging for students who prefer to answer a targeted prompt, think of this as an opportunity to create a highly unique and personalized piece of writing.
• Personal Statement Title: This is a title that only YOU will see, not the programs. This is purely for organization purposes. For example, “Personal Statement for X Program”.
• Extent: Maximum 28,000 characters (roughly 4,000-7,000 words), spanning 7-9 pages.
• Multiple versions permitted: Tailor your personal statement to different specialties if applying to multiple, highlighting relevant strengths.

The Do’s of Crafting a Compelling ERAS Personal Statement

1. Keep it concise: Given the influx of applications, brevity is key to ensuring your statement gets noticed and read thoroughly. Even though you can write 7-9 pages, you should NOT do this. Aim to submit a personal statement that is no longer than 1-1.5 pages, single spaced, using size 12 font.
2. Lead with a strong hook: Similar to the prior point, given the thousands of personal statements that each committee member will read, you need to get their attention fast. Your first sentence should excite the reader and make them want to read more.
3. Highlight unique experiences: Embrace this opportunity to shed light on aspects not covered elsewhere in your application. Avoid commonly used experiences including volunteer work, medical mission trips, personal or family medical problems, or specific patient cases.
4. Give concrete examples: Illustrate your attributes through real-life instances; mere claims hold less impact.
5. Tell a story: Weave your statement around a central theme, ensuring a coherent and engaging flow. It is better to focus on one or two strong points rather than providing a superficial overview of fifteen points.
6. Showcase your individuality: Deviate from the norm and present a distinctive angle of your journey; avoid echoing common and trite sentiments.

 The Don’ts of ERAS Personal Statement Writing

1. Avoid redundancy: Replicating your CV is counterproductive; add value by sharing new insights. Do not forget, they will have a copy of your CV!
2. Don’t ramble: Maintain clarity and precision, sidestepping prolonged tangents. Remember to aim for 1-1.5 pages in total.
3. Be genuine, not appeasing: Don’t just write what you think the reviewers want to hear. Tailor your content to your unique strengths, substantiated by experiences. As your friends, family, and yourself about what makes you, you! This can serve as a starting point for how to generate a genuine and personal essay.
4. Clichés and hyperboles: Strike a balance between bland and over-exaggeration; be relatable and authentic. Grandiose statements that are very general and widely accepted are viewed as hollow.
5. Originality over imitation: Refrain from plagiarism. Don’t start off with someone else’s example and edit from there. Begin anew to maintain authenticity and distinctiveness. It is OK to look at previous personal statements for inspiration, not a starting point.
6. Spare the medical lessons: Your reviewers have been in practice for a long time. They are very knowledgeable. Refrain from presenting them with an interesting or niche medical case, even if it is very exciting to you. Focus on your journey instead.

Embarking on the Writing Process 

Initiating your residency personal statement necessitates action. Your first draft is just a stepping stone. It’s best to just get started! You will go through many drafts and your first one will undoubtedly look very different from your last. While writing, consider the following points:

• How did you developed an interest in medicine?
• Why were you drawn to a certain specialty?
• Your strengths (and your weaknesses) as a physician?
• Why will you be an excellent resident?
• What do you hope to get out of residency?
• Who do you look up to and how have they shaped who you are today?
• Try and describe yourself in three words and use them as the themes of your statement
• Your goals for future practice.
• Unique activities or hobbies and how they relate to medicine
• Your personal/family background (ethnic, racial, socioeconomic)
• Brainstorm a list of stories that illustrate…
  • Your passion for medicine.
  • Your passion for your specialty.
  • Your strengths and weaknesses.
  • Your background and personal identity.
• Build an outline of points to include.

Don’t explicitly answer these questions. Rather, weave this information into the story you are telling. 

Writing, Writing, Writing

Once you’ve got some ideas to pull from, it’s time to get started with your actual residency personal statement.

• Start with a great hook. It’s a good idea to start strong and hook the reader in from the start. This can help keep the reader engaged with your story.
  • Avoid using a hook that tells about an interaction with a patient as this is extremely overused. For example, “As I held her cold hands and watched her take her last breath…”. To the lay person, this may be a great hook, but to the residency selection committee, they have read this hook a thousand times.
• Use your space diligently. When you’re just starting off writing, it is easier not to think about this too much. Rather, get started working and allowing the residency personal statement to flow as it will. Your first draft can be a stream of consciousness as you will  go back and make edits to make your writing more efficient and economical.
• Complement aspects of your application. Parts that have already been stated in other parts of your application are good places to cut out later. If you aren’t adding anything new in a section of your statement, it’s unnecessary. It is OK to talk about things on your CV, but you should be including insight that is not found elsewhere in your application.
• Write multiple drafts.
• Change up the content (we recommend writing a “more serious/traditional” essay and a “creative” essay and see which elements you like from each)
• Change up the style.
• Move things around, tie them together differently. Etc.
• Review different versions to see what works best.
• Decide whether or not you will include content specific to a program or geographic area. We recommend keeping this to a minimum. It’s hard to keep track of multiple different final versions. However, if you do choose to write a couple of different final personal statements, make sure you are accounting for the differences throughout your whole personal statement, and not just in one small section. Additionally, be sure to double-check that you are associating your different versions with the correct applications.
  • Overall, we recommend against making a different version for EVERY program you apply to (unless you apply to a very limited number of programs).
  • Rather, it is better to write content specific for only a select few programs, or no programs at all.

Editing Your Residency Personal Statement

It’s very important to have several additional pairs of eyes on your personal statement. Ask multiple people to look over your personal statement and give you notes. The most important thing is to get brutal honesty from your reviewers. It’s important to emphasize this to your readers.

• Swap personal statements with colleagues.
• Ask family members.
• Ask a trusted mentor or professor.
• Ask a residency advisor.
• Ask a current resident.
• Ask colleagues not in medicine. This is more important than you may think. Some of the people reading your residency personal statement may not be from medicine. You want to make sure that your statement is approachable to anyone.
• For non-native speakers: have a native speaker look over your statement. Make sure to convey proficiency in the English language.

The role of Artificial Intelligence in the Personal Statement

Given the role of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), many students have taken advantage of this new tool to aid in all aspects of the residency application process. First and foremost, you should NEVER use AI to write your personal statement. This is a blatant example of plagiarism and every residency program will view this as a red flag for your application. You should assume that every residency program will screen your personal statement through software to screen for plagiarized or AI generated work. 

However, AI can be extremely helpful in many ways.

• Brainstorming: Students often share parts of their CV and AI can help you develop the structure and manner in which you highlight these traits in your personal statement.
• Editing and Revising: Microsoft Word and other text editing programs have software to check spelling and grammar, and AI also has the capability to do this. However, beware! Many AI programs will often change your sentence structure and prose and this can lead parts of your statement to have been inadvertently written by AI.
• Brevity: One of the best uses of AI is shortening your essay. You can often ask AI to read your essay and make suggestions on what words, sentences, or topics you can remove to save space.

Submit Your Work

It’s time to upload your draft to ERAS. Before you submit, be sure to preview how this will look and tweak the formatting. This is crucial as most people will write their document in Microsoft Word and then copy the personal statement into ERAS. During this process, formatting errors can occur so make sure you view the final product in ERAS. If you are using  different personal statements, be cautious and make sure you are associating each document with the correct program.

If you are looking for help with your application, consider a 1-on-1 residency advisor! Schedule your consultation today to learn more about how Elite Medical Prep can help you succeed!