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• Apply for Psychiatric Residency

Guide to Applying for Psychiatric Residency

Updated July 2024

Congratulations on choosing one of the most exciting fields in medicine. Not only are psychiatrists uniquely trained to consider the patient from a "whole person" perspective, but the field also includes a wide range of practice settings and diverse opportunities for subspecialization.

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In the Roadmap to Psychiatric Residency (.pdf) , you will find:

What Should I Do During Medical School to Prepare For a Career in Psychiatry?

Psychiatry programs are generally holistic in their review of applicants. As such, participation in the following are highly valued - longitudinal and meaningful service, leadership, and scholarly experiences that may demonstrate unique individual attributes and a strong commitment to psychiatry.

Planning for 4th Year

Every school will have specific requirements for 4th year. A good place to start is to understand what these requirements are, how many required/elective courses you need to graduate, and generally when these courses are offered.

How to Choose The Right Program

The preferences of each residency applicant will be different, and everyone will prioritize different aspects of a program when making their rank list. The question of which programs might be right for you is a very individual question, and one that is based on your ultimate career goals and what you are looking for in a program.

How Many Programs to Apply To?

Deciding on the number of applications to submit is a difficult decision with a number of factors involved including geographic location. The number of students applying to psychiatry overall and the applications per student have dramatically increased over the last five years. This has made the application process more complicated both for students and residency training directors.

Letters of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation (LOR) are an important opportunity to communicate your personal attributes, strengths, and abilities to programs. LOR usually include the extent to which the writer knows the applicant, specialty to which you are applying, and particular clinical strengths of the applicant. LOR also frequently highlight personal attributes such as humor or empathy and give an overall level of endorsement. Most Psychiatry programs will require three or four LOR.

Personal Statements

The least structured component of the ERAS application is the personal statement. This is an opportunity for you to inject your personal experiences and thoughts into what is otherwise a very structured application. Most students choose to focus on an experience or series or experiences that ignited or solidified their interest in psychiatry. While there may be many reasons why you are passionate about psychiatry, statements usually are more cohesive and read better if you pick one theme or experience and focus on developing it, rather than jump from one topic to another.

Nuts and Bolts of The Interview Day

In this section, you will be guided through scheduling, travel tips, and interview preparation. This includes suggested areas to discuss with your interviewer, as well as sample questions for residents.

Post-Interview Communication

Consider writing thank you notes to any program which you plan to rank. You may consider sending thank you notes to the individual people you interviewed with, the Program Director and the program coordinators and assistants who helped to schedule your interview. However, make sure to know the guidelines for interview and post-interview communication prior to reaching out.

What Happens If You Do Not Match?

On the third Monday of March, you will learn whether you matched. Students who do not match have the opportunity to participate in the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP) to apply to any unfilled programs.

Special Topics

Within this section, find highlights on faculty advisors, advice for at-risk students, considerations for Osteopathic medical students, and International Medical Graduates (IMGs).

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The Medical School Personal Statement: How To Stand Out

Posted in: Applying to Medical School

Impressive GPAs and MCAT scores, research experience, physician shadowing , and meaningful volunteer work are only one part of a successful medical school application . You may meet all other medical school requirements , yet face rejection.

One thing can help you stand above the rest : A compelling personal statement.

The medical school personal statement is important because it highlights your hard work, your pre-medical school accomplishments, and why you’re a better candidate than everyone else. 

In other words: Who are you, what makes you unique, and why do you deserve a spot in our school?

We’ve helped thousands of prospective medical students increase their odds at acceptance with better personal statements. Now, we’ll show you exactly how to do it. 

Working on your personal statement? Speak with a member of our enrollment team who can walk you through the step-by-step med school application process from start to finish.

Table of contents, what’s in a great med school personal statement.

An excellent medical school personal statement should contain:

• Passion for an area of the healthcare field.
• Storytelling that captures the reader’s attention from the first sentence.
• Emotion and personality to show (not tell) admissions committee members who you are.
• A unique answer to the question, “Why do you want to be a doctor?”

A powerful personal statement shows that you are the kind of candidate who will make an exceptional physician and be a valuable asset to the school during your medical education. Additionally, it helps to distinguish your application from the many other students with similar MCAT scores and GPAs.

A weak personal statement would, in turn, have the opposite effect.

Not only does the personal statement weed out unqualified candidates, but it also serves as a foundation for many interview discussions and questions . 

Admission committee members often only have a few minutes to review an application. Personal statements provide them with the right amount of information. Since it’s possible this is the only part of your application they’ll read, it needs to be perfect .

When writing your personal statement, you’ll also want to note the AAMC core competencies that are expected of all medical professionals. Some, if not all, of these competencies should shine through in your application essay .

The AAMC premed competencies include: 

• Professional competencies:  Factors like communication skills, interpersonal skills, commitment to learning and growth, compassion, dependability, and cultural awareness and humility
• Science competencies:  Understanding of human behaviors and living systems, both of which are best demonstrated in data-driven measures like research, MCAT scores, and science GPA (in other words, not things that necessarily need to be displayed in your personal statement)
• Thinking & Reasoning competencies:  Critical thinking, reasoning, scientific inquiry, and written communication

It’s important to show passion for something specific — a group of underserved people, a type of patient, the benefit of a particular area of medicine, etc. Your passion should be evident, non-generic, and authentic. Ask yourself, “What makes a good doctor?”

It’s crucial to avoid cliches in your personal statement, like claiming you want to become a doctor “to help people.”

Dr. Renee Marinelli, Director of Advising at MedSchoolCoach, warns that certain cliches may not truly represent meaningful experiences that influenced your decision to pursue medicine.

You may have decided to become a doctor from experiencing a kind physician as a child, but that personal experience doesn’t convey genuine passion. Your enthusiasm for medicine doesn’t need to originate from a grand experience or sudden revelation.

Your interest in medicine probably developed gradually, perhaps when you fell in love with psychology during college and volunteered at nursing homes. You don’t need a lifelong dream to demonstrate passion and become an outstanding doctor.

2. Storytelling

A memorable personal statement captures the reader’s attention from the first sentence, which you can do with an interesting personal story or anecdote. Including some creativity, ingenuity, humor, and character.

Immersing the admissions committee in your personal statement allows you to show , not just tell , how your experiences have impacted your journey to medicine.

Don’t repeat the data your admissions committee can read on the rest of your application — SHOW the passions and experiences that have led you to this field using a narrative approach.

Consider the following examples of statements about a student’s volunteer experience at a food pantry:

"“Through my work at the local food pantry, I came to understand the daily battles many individuals face, and it allowed me to develop deeper empathy and compassion.” “When I saw Mr. Jones, a regular at the kitchen, struggling to maneuver his grocery cart through the door, I hustled over to assist him. My heart sunk when I saw he was wearing a new cast after having been assaulted the night prior.”

Which do you think performed better in terms of conveying personal characteristics? Your personal statement is a deep dive into one central theme, not about rehashing all of your experiences. 

3. Emotion & Personality

An engaging personal statement allows your unique personality and real emotions to shine through.

As Dr. Davietta Butty, a Northwestern School of Medicine graduate, avid writer, pediatrician, and MedSchoolCoach advisor, puts it,

“I think the best personal statements are the ones that showcase the applicant’s personality. Remember that this is your story and not anyone else’s, and you get to say it how it makes sense to you.” 

This is why storytelling is such an important part of personal statement writing. Your writing process should involve quite a bit of writing and editing to express emotion in a relatable, appropriate way.

A Note On Writing About Tragedy

One way you can show who you are is by expressing an appropriate level of emotion, particularly about challenging or tragic experiences. (But don’t worry — not everyone has a tragic backstory, and that’s perfectly fine!)

If you are discussing a tragedy, don’t go into an extended explanation of how you feel — show emotion and your personality while sticking to the plot.

Personal tragedies, such as the death of a loved one, can powerfully motivate a personal statement. In a field where life and death constantly clash, experiences with death might appear impressive qualifications; however, approach them cautiously.

Focus on the reasons behind your motivation, rather than the details of the tragedy. Explain how the experience impacted your medical career aspirations, including skill development or perspective changes.

How have you applied these new skills or perspectives? How would they contribute to your success as a medical student?

4. Why You Want To Be a Doctor

Becoming a doctor is no small feat. What journey brought you here?

Writing things like “I want to help people” or “I want to make a difference” won’t set you apart from all the other students applying for medical school .

Knowing who you want to serve, why you want to help them (in story form), and where you’d like to end up will show admissions officers that you are serious about your medical career.

After all, this career doesn’t just involve many years of post-graduate education — you need a significant motivation to see this career through. That’s what admissions committees are looking for!

Read Next: Medical School Interviews: What To Do Before, During & After  

How long is a personal statement for medical school?

Your statement is limited to:

• 5,300 characters (including spaces) on the AMCAS application ( MD programs )
• 5,000 characters on the TMDSAS (Texas MD programs)
• 5,300 characters for AACOMAS ( DO programs )

That’s roughly 500-700 words, or 3 double-spaced pages of text.

We typically suggest our students divide their personal statement into about 5 full paragraphs — an intro, 2-3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Pro tip: Do not type directly into the text box — if something goes wrong, you’ll lose all of your work. Write in another program first, then copy and paste the edited copy into the application text box.

Use a text-only word processing tool (TextEdit on Mac devices or Basic Text Editor on Windows), or type the essay into Microsoft Word or a Google Doc. Just remember to save the file as a *.rtf. This will eliminate formatting issues when you copy and paste the essay into the AMCAS box.

Read Next: How to Successfully Reapply to Medical School and Get a “Yes!”

How To Write a Personal Statement For Medical School

Your personal statement is an opportunity to showcase your passion for medicine and your unique experiences. Be genuine, focused, and concise; your personal statement will leave a lasting impression on medical school admissions committees.

Some questions you may want to consider while writing your personal statement are:

• Why have you selected the field of medicine?
• What motivates you to learn more about medicine?
• What do you want medical schools to know about you that has yet to be disclosed in another application section?

In addition, you may wish to include information such as unique hardships, challenges, or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits. Comment on significant academic record fluctuations not explained elsewhere in your application.

With thousands of students, we’ve developed a nine-step process for how to write a personal statement that’s sure to get noticed. Follow these steps in order to uplevel your personal statement writing.

1. Choose a central theme.

Sticking to one central theme for your personal statement may sound tricky, but sticking with a central theme can give your statement more of a rhythm.

Here are a few examples to use when thinking of a central theme:

• What is an experience that challenged or changed your perspective on medicine?
• Is there a relationship with a mentor or another inspiring individual that has significantly influenced you?
• What was a challenging personal experience that you encountered?
• List unique hardships, challenges, or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits.
• What is your motivation to seek a career in medicine?

2. Choose 2-4 personal qualities to highlight.

Keep this part brief and highlight the strengths that will make you an exceptional doctor.

What sets you apart from others? What makes you unique? What are you particularly proud of about yourself that may not be explained by a good GPA or MCAT score?

Here are a few examples of quality traits great doctors possess:

• Persistence
• Reliability
• Accountability
• Good judgment under pressure
• Excellent communication skills
• Leadership skills

3. Identify 1-2 significant experiences that demonstrate these qualities.

In this section, you should include that these experiences exemplify the qualities above and outline your path to medicine.

The top experiences college admissions seek are research projects , volunteer activities, and mentorship.

Here are a few ways to narrow down what makes an experience significant:

• Which experiences left you feeling transformed (either immediately, or in retrospect)?
• Which experiences genuinely made you feel like you were making a difference or contributing in a meaningful way?
• Which experiences radically shifted your perspectives or priorities?
• Which experiences have truly made you who you are today?

Pro tip: If you’re still in your third year of pre-med and want to participate in more experiential projects that will support your future medical career, check out Global Medical Brigades . We partner with this student-led movement for better global health, and brigades are a transformative way to begin your medical career.

4. Write a compelling introduction.

Your personal statement introduction is the first thing the admissions committee will read. The first paragraph should be a catchy, attention-grabbing hook or story that grabs the reader’s attention and sets up the main point of your essay .

Check out this webinar for more examples of what makes a great introduction.

5. Use storytelling to write the body paragraphs.

Since the goal is to achieve depth rather than breadth (5,000 characters isn’t a lot!), focus on key experiences instead of discussing everything you’ve accomplished. Remember, you’ll have the Work & Activities section to share other relevant experiences.

Use the following five-step formula to elaborate on important experiences in the body paragraphs of your personal statement:

• Discuss why you pursued the experience.
• Mention how you felt during the experience.
• Describe what you accomplished and learned.
• Discuss how your experience affected you and the world around you.
• Describe how the experience influenced your decision to pursue medicine.

The best personal statements tell a story about who you are. “Show, don’t tell,” what you’ve experienced — immerse the reader in your narrative, and you’ll have a higher chance of being accepted to medical school.

6. Create an engaging conclusion.

Your goal is to make the person reading want to meet you and invite you to their school! Your conclusion should:

• Talk about your future plans.
• Define what medicine means to you.
• Reflect on your growth.
• Reiterate how you’d contribute to your school’s community and vision.

7. Use a spellchecker to proofread for basic errors.

Misusing “your” instead of “you’re” or misspelling a few important words can negatively impact how your personal statement is received. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation should be perfect on your personal statement.

Use Grammarly or a similar spellchecker to check for errors before completing your personal statement. You can also use an AI tool like ChatGPT for proofreading, although it’s more likely to make sweeping changes.

8. Edit your draft.

Editing your personal statement a few times over will benefit you in the long run. Give yourself time to write, edit, reread, and re-edit your personal statement before submitting it with your application.

You can use AI technology like ChatGPT for small edits or to help you add in information where you might feel stuck, but don’t rely too much on it.

9. Ask a few trusted people to read your draft.

Have at least one friend, family member, and at least one person who’s a medical professional review your draft. A  professor in your pre-med program would be a great person to review your draft.

Be willing to receive as much feedback as your trusted people are willing to give. Don’t get caught up in obsessing over one statement you really like if all three of your readers suggest cutting it.

If you’d like a professional eye on your personal statement, consider a personal statement editing service. Our editors are medical professionals, often who have reviewed personal statements and applications submitted to admissions committees.

We’d love to help you craft a personal statement that’s sure to stand out.

30 prompts to inspire your personal statement.

Here are 30 prompts to inspire your personal statement: 

• Describe a defining moment in your life that solidified your desire to pursue a career in medicine.
• Discuss a challenging situation you faced and how it shaped your perspective on healthcare.
• Reflect on a time when you made a meaningful impact on someone’s life through your actions or support.
• Explain your motivation for wanting to become a physician and how it has evolved over time.
• Describe a personal quality or skill that will contribute to your success as a medical professional.
• Discuss the importance of empathy and compassion in the medical profession and share a personal experience demonstrating these qualities.
• Reflect on a specific medical case or patient that inspired you and how it influenced your future goals.
• Share a story about an interaction with a mentor or role model who has inspired your path in medicine.
• Describe a time when you overcame adversity or faced a significant challenge in your journey to medical school.
• Explain how your background, culture, or upbringing has influenced your perspective on healthcare.
• Discuss a medical issue or topic you’re passionate about and why it’s important to you.
• Describe your experience working or volunteering in a healthcare setting and the lessons you’ve learned.
• Reflect on a time when you had to adapt or be resilient in a challenging situation.
• Discuss how your interest in research or innovation will contribute to your career as a physician.
• Share a personal experience that has shaped your understanding of the importance of teamwork in healthcare.
• Describe a leadership role you’ve held and how it has prepared you for a career in medicine.
• Discuss the impact of a specific medical discovery or advancement on your decision to pursue medicine.
• Reflect on your experience with a particular patient population or community and how it has influenced your perspective on healthcare.
• Share your thoughts on the role of social responsibility in the medical profession.
• Explain how your experiences with interdisciplinary collaboration have prepared you for a career in medicine.
• Describe a time when you advocated for a patient or their needs.
• Share your experience with a global health issue or project and how it has impacted your perspective on healthcare.
• Discuss your interest in a specific medical specialty and why it appeals to you.
• Reflect on a time when you encountered an ethical dilemma and how you resolved it.
• Describe an experience that demonstrates your commitment to lifelong learning and personal growth.
• Share a story about a time when you had to think critically and problem-solve in a healthcare setting.
• Discuss how your experiences with diverse populations have informed your approach to patient care.
• Describe an experience that highlights your ability to communicate effectively with others in a medical setting.
• Reflect on a time when you demonstrated your commitment to patient-centered care.
• Share your thoughts on the importance of balance and self-care in the medical profession and how you plan to maintain these practices throughout your career.

Avoid These Common Personal Statement Mistakes

Avoid these 5 common mistakes students make when writing their personal statements: 

• Clichés : “I just want to help people,” “from a young age,” “I’ve always wanted to,” and “for as long as I can remember,” are just some of the overused phrases in personal statements. Other clichés we’ve seen often include saying that you’ve wanted to be a doctor for your whole life, using overly dramatic patient anecdotes, or prideful-sounding stories about how you saved a life as a pre-med student. Eliminate clichés from your writing.
• Typos/grammatical errors: We covered this already, but the grammar in your statement should be flawless . It’s hard to catch your own typos, so use grammar checking tools like Grammarly and ask your readers to look for typographical errors or grammar problems, too.
• Name-dropping: At best, naming a prominent member of the medical community in your statement sounds braggadocious and will probably be brushed off. At worst, an adcom reader may think poorly of the person you mention and dismiss you based on the connection. If you do know a well-known and well-respected person in the medical field and worked closely with them, request a letter of recommendation instead.
• Restating your MCAT score or GPA : Every character in your personal statement counts (literally). Don’t restate information already found on your application. If your application essay is being read, an algorithm has already identified your prerequisite scores as being worthy of reviewing the rest of your application.
• Using extensive quotes from other people: This is your chance to show who you are. Quoting a philosopher or trusted advisor in these few precious characters takes away from the impact you can have. A single short quote might be okay if it’s highly relevant to the story you’re telling, but don’t go beyond that.

Should you use ChatGPT to help you write?

ChatGPT is a great AI tool to help you get your personal statement off the ground. However, since this is your personal statement, ChatGPT won’t be able to effectively write transitions or tie your personal statement together.

Only you can effectively convey what being a doctor means to you. Only you carry the experiences in your mind and heart that have compelled you to pursue this competitive profession. Don’t rely on artificial intelligence to fake those experiences — it will show, and not in a good way.

We’ve found that ChatGPT can help speed the processes of ideation , editing, and grammar-checking. If you’re not using it to emulate human experiences but just treating it as a helpful assistant, go for it! 

When should you start writing your personal statement?

Begin writing your personal statement early enough to have months of reflection and editing time before your application cycle begins. We recommend writing your personal statement as the first step when applying to medical school , starting in December or January before applications open.

As you progress, anticipate revising multiple versions of your draft. Spend time reflecting on your life experiences and aspirations.

Dr. Katzen, MedSchoolCoach Master Advisor and previous admissions committee member at GWU, recommends starting your personal statement in December/January if you plan to apply in May/June (you should!). 

This gives you plenty of time to have others review it or to get professional personal statement editing services. It also gives you time to write multiple drafts and be 100% satisfied with your final essay.

Read Next: A Complete Guide to the Residency Match Process

9 Personal Statement Examples That Led To Med School Acceptance

We’ve included some of our favorite medical school personal statement examples below. Each of these was written by a student who was accepted at one or more programs of their choice.

1. Embracing Diversity: Healing Through Cultural Connections

Student Accepted to Case Western SOM, Washington University SOM, University of Utah SOM, Northwestern University Feinberg SOM

With a flick and a flourish, the tongue depressor vanished, and from behind my ear suddenly appeared a coin. Growing up, my pediatrician often performed magic tricks, making going to the doctors’ feel like literal magic. I believed all healthcare facilities were equally mystifying, especially after experiencing a different type of magic in the organized chaos of the Emergency Department. Although it was no place for a six-year-old, childcare was often a challenge, and while my dad worked extra shifts in nursing school to provide for our family, I would find myself awed by the diligence and warmth of the healthcare providers.

Though I associated the hospital with feelings of comfort and care, it sometimes became a place of fear and uncertainty. One night, my two-year-old brother, Sean, began vomiting and coughing non-stop. My dad was deployed overseas, so my mother and I had no choice but to spend the night at the hospital, watching my brother slowly recover with the help of the healthcare providers. Little did I know, it would not be long before I was in the same place. Months later, I was hospitalized with pneumonia with pleural effusions, and as I struggled to breathe, I was terrified of having fluid sucked out of my chest. But each day physicians comforted me, asking how I was, taking time to reassure me that I was being taken care of, and explaining any questions related to my illness and treatment. Soon, I became excited to speak with the infectious disease doctor and residents, absorbing as much as I could to learn more about different illnesses.

In addition to conventional medical settings, I also came to view the magic of healing through other lenses. Growing up, Native American traditions were an important aspect of my life as my father had been actively involved with native spirituality, connecting back to his Algonquin heritage. We often attended Wi-wanyang-wa-c’i-pi ceremonies or Sun Dances, for healing through prayer and individuals making personal sacrifices for their community. Although I never sun danced myself, I spent hours in inipis, chewing on osha root, finding my own healing through songs. In addition to my father’s heritage, healing came from the curanderismo traditions of Peru, the home of my mother, who came from a long line of healers, which involved herbal remedies and ceremonies in the healing of the mind, body, energy and soul. I can still see my mother preparing mixtures of oils, herbs, and incense while performing healing rituals. The compassion and care she put into healing paralleled the Emergency Department healthcare providers.

Through the influence of these early life experiences, I decided to pursue a career in the health sciences. Shortly after starting college, I entered a difficult time in my life as I struggled with health and personal challenges. I suddenly felt weak and tired most days with aches all over my body. Soon, depression set in. I eventually visited a doctor, and through a series of tests, we discovered I had hypothyroidism. During this time, I also began dealing with an unprocessed childhood trauma. I decided to take time off school, and with thyroid replacement hormones and therapy, I slowly began to recover. But I still had ways to go, and due to financial challenges, I made the difficult decision to continue delaying my education and found work managing a donut shop. Unbeknownst to me, this experience would lead to significant personal growth by working with people from all walks of life and allowing me time for self-reflection. I found myself continuously reflecting on the experiences in the hospital that defined my childhood and the unmatched admiration I had for healthcare workers. With my renewed interest in medicine, I enrolled in classes to get my AEMT license to get more experience in the medical field.

As my health improved, I excelled in my classes, and after craving the connections of working with others, I became a medical assistant. In this position, I met “Marco,” a patient who came from Mexico for treatment. Though I spoke Spanish while growing up, I had little experience as a medical interpreter. However, I took the opportunity to speak with him to learn his story. Afterwards, he became more comfortable, and I helped walk him through the consultation process, interpreting the physician’s words and Marco’s questions. This moment showed me the power of connecting with others in their native language. As a result, I began volunteering at a homeless clinic to continue bridging the language barrier for patients and to help advocate for the Latinx community and those who struggle to find their voice.

My journey to become a doctor has been less direct than planned; however, my personal trials and tribulations have afforded me the opportunity to meet and work with incredible people who have been invaluable to my recovery and personal development. Most importantly, I have seen the value of compassionate and empathetic care. Though I have not recently witnessed any sleight of hand or vanishing acts, what healthcare providers do for patients can only be described as magic. I look forward to bringing my diverse background as a physician and expanding my abilities to help patients in their path to healing.

2. The Calling to Heal From the Battlefield

Student Accepted to Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Harvard Medical School, Yale SOM

I’ll never forget his screams of pain.

It was the first time I had heard a man cry for help, and it shook me to my core. It had been a long night of training in South Korea for me and my fellow Army Rangers. We were reaching the end, heavy with exhaustion, when my friend took the direct impact of an explosive to his leg. The shockwave momentarily rattled my sense of balance. Struggling to see in the dark, I switched on my headlamp. In that instant, all I could focus on was his face. His eyes darted back and forth, sweeping the surroundings for any semblance of help, but all I could do was stand there and watch as our medics treated him.

No amount of training prepared me to see a friend in pain. As I watched the helicopter fly him away, I couldn’t help but think— even though I’d gone through some of the best military training in the world, in that moment, I could do nothing for him. Fortunately, he is okay, but had there been no medic available, the situation could have ended with tragedy. That night, I realized that through a career in medicine, I could be more than just a bystander to suffering— I could be in the position to not only reduce unnecessary pain but to also help those affected by conflict and trauma be restored to the fullness of life.

Upon returning home from this deployment, I shifted my focus to developing my skills in trauma care. I completed various trainings on caring for casualties in a combat environment and preparing non-medic Rangers to provide self-aid or buddy-aid in the absence of a medical provider. In a final scenario-based training lane, I helped lead my team in the treatment and packaging of a trauma patient for evacuation, setting a record time in our company and earning a military medal. This achievement, however, was only the beginning. These trainings and my successes served as a foundation that I built upon to ensure I could provide life-saving care in combat situations.  I continued to hone this skillset over my next two combat deployments as a machine gunner to Afghanistan, where, I was prepared to use these critical abilities to decrease mortality on the battlefield. In medicine, like in the army, the actual practice of one’s craft may be life or death. Therefore, evolving both dependability and proficiency during training is imperative in preparation for that final test, both in war and in medicine.

After leaving the military, confronting injury and trauma continued to be a reality. A year after exiting the service, two Army Ranger leaders whom I knew were critically injured on a mission overseas. One was my former team leader, who was shot in the neck, and the other was caught in an explosion that later resulted in a triple amputation. The relentless efforts of doctors and nurses is the reason why both of these brave men are alive today. Recognizing that without the diligent care of these medical professionals, these men would not have survived, I became ever more dedicated to serving others.

While in college, this dedication pushed me to routinely visit the West Haven VA Hospital to provide a community of support for the older, disabled veterans there. I first began visiting this hospital for my own medical care but witnessing the suffering of the other veterans at the hospital spurred me to return repeatedly not as a patient, but as a friend to my fellow veterans.  As a veteran and student, seeing and hearing about the pain and loss of function experienced by many other veterans reminded me of the importance of advocacy in healthcare: to understand, to care for, and to fight for those who are unable to do so themselves.

I continued to see these effects of conflict while volunteering as a tutor to individuals from the Middle East who were affected by the very war I served in. Alaa lives in Syria and dreams of becoming a surgeon. Together, Alaa and I discussed chemistry, biology, and math. Despite his love of learning and dedication, the instability of his community, which was plagued by violence, often barred him from focusing on his studies and committing to a routine tutoring schedule. Although I’ll never intimately know the reality of growing up in a war-torn country, working with Alaa taught me to keep the bigger picture of healthcare in mind. It reminded me that a career as a physician would provide me with the capability to help those like Alaa who are affected by conflict.

When I reflect on medicine, I draw many parallels to my life in army special operations. The training is intense, the hours are long, and the structure is hierarchical. The mission, above all else, is to provide the best outcome for those around you. On my journey to a career in medicine, I plan to continue to add to what I’ve learned from my experiences so far: humility, empathy, dependability, communication, teamwork, and leading from the front. For over four years I lived by the Ranger Creed, and I plan to imbue the same ethos in serving as a physician— to keep myself mentally alert and morally straight, to shoulder more than my share of whatever task presents itself.  In crossing from the path of a warrior to that of a healer, I hope to continue a life of service to improve the human condition and reduce unnecessary suffering in the world one person at a time.

3. Community-based Health and Empathy: Serving Underserved Communities in Crisis

Student Accepted to Weill Cornell

My path to medicine was first influenced by early adolescent experiences trying to understand my place in society. Though I was not conscious of it at the time, I held a delicate balance between my identity as an Indian-American and an “American-American.”

In a single day, I could be shooting hoops and eating hotdogs at school while spending the evening playing Carrom and enjoying tandoori chicken at a family get-together. When our family moved from New York to California, I had the opportunity to attend a middle school with greater diversity, so I learned Spanish to salve the loss of moving away and assimilate into my new surroundings.

As I partook in related events and cuisine, I built an intermixed friend group and began to understand how culture influences our perception of those around us. While volunteering at senior centers in high school, I noticed a similar pattern to what I sometimes saw at school: seniors socializing in groups of shared ethnicity and culture. Moving from table to table, and therefore language to language, I also observed how each group shared different life experiences and perspectives on what constitutes health and wellness. Many seniors talked about barriers to receiving care or how their care differed from what they had envisioned. Listening to their stories on cultural experiences, healthcare disparities, and care expectations sparked my interest in becoming a physician and providing care for the whole community.

Intrigued by the science behind perception and health, I took electives during my undergraduate years to build a foundation in these domains. In particular, I was amazed by how computational approaches could help model the complexity of the human mind, so I pursued research at Cornell’s Laboratory of Rational Decision-Making. Our team used fMRI analysis to show how the framing of information affects its cognitive processing and perception. Thinking back to my discussions with seniors, I often wondered if more personalized health-related messaging could positively influence their opinions. Through shadowing, I had witnessed physicians engaging in honest and empathetic conversations to deliver medical information and manage patients’ expectations, but how did they navigate delicate conflicts where the patients’ perspectives diverged from their own?

My question was answered when I became a community representative for the Ethics Committee for On Lok PACE, an elderly care program. One memorable case was that of Mr. A.G, a blind 86-year-old man with radiation-induced frontal lobe injury who wanted to return home and cook despite his doctor’s expressed safety concerns. Estranged from family, Mr. A.G. relied on cooking to find fulfillment in his life. Recognizing the conflict between autonomy and beneficence, I joined the physicians in brainstorming and recommending ways he could cook while being supervised. I realized that the role of a physician was to mediate between the medical care plan and the patient’s wishes in order to make a decision that preserves their dignity. As we considered possibilities, the physicians’ genuine concern for the patient’s emotional well-being exemplified the compassion that I want to emulate as a future doctor. Our discussions emphasized the rigor of medicine—the challenge of ambiguity and the importance of working with an individual to serve their needs.

With COVID-19 ravaging our underserved communities, my desire to help others drove me towards community-based health as a contact tracer for my county’s Department of Public Health. My conversations uncovered dozens of heartbreaking stories that revealed how inequities in socioeconomic status and job security left poorer families facing significantly harsher quarantines than their wealthier counterparts. Moreover, many residents expressed fear or mistrust, such as a 7-person family who could not safely isolate in their 1 bedroom/1 bath apartment. I offered to arrange free hotel accommodations but was met with a guarded response from the father: “We’ll be fine. We can maintain the 6 feet.” While initially surprised, I recognized how my government affiliation could lead to a power dynamic that made the family feel uneasy. Thinking how to make myself more approachable, I employed motivational interviewing skills and even simple small talk to build rapport. When we returned to discussing the hotel, he trusted my intentions and accepted the offer. Our bond of mutual trust grew over two weeks of follow-ups, leaving me humbled yet gratified to see his family transition to a safer living situation. As a future physician, I realize I may encounter many first-time or wary patients; and I feel prepared to create a responsive environment that helps them feel comfortable about integrating into our health system.

Through my clinical and non-clinical experiences, I have witnessed the far-reaching impact of physicians, from building lasting connections with patients to being a rock of support during uncertain times. I cannot imagine a career without these dynamics—of improving the health and wellness of patients, families, and society and reducing healthcare disparities. While I know the path ahead is challenging, I am confident that I want to dedicate my life to this profession.

4. Creating a Judgment-Free Zone with The Power of Acceptance in Healthcare

Student Accepted to George Washington SOM and Health Sciences, Drexel University COM

Immigrating into a foreign country without speaking a word of the language is a terrifying task for anyone. My mentee at Computers4kids, Sahil, came to the United States at seventeen and had been struggling to integrate with society due to the language barrier. Although I was born in the United States, I can empathize with the struggle he encounters daily, since both my parents and many members of my family have dealt with the same issues. Often, these barriers exacerbate mundane issues the immigrant population faces as they have difficulty finding people who can understand and care for them. Since I am bilingual in Farsi, when Sahil approached me with his driving instructions manual written in Dari, I thought I could teach him the rules of the road with no issues. I asked him to read the first sentence, but he diverted his gaze and mumbled that he did not know how to read. As I realized he seemed embarrassed by his illiteracy, I placed my hand on his shoulder and assured him that he could learn. I increased my weekly hours at the site to spend an equal amount of time on the rules of the road and on phonetics and reading. Within a few months, he was more comfortable greeting others around the Computers4Kids site and participating in interactive projects. Upon reflection, I appreciate the importance of creating a judgment-free zone that encourages learning and reciprocal care. Once Sahil noticed that I saw him no differently after learning of his illiteracy, he was ready and willing to work on the basics of language and reading, instead of solely memorizing words.

I did not realize how pivotal a judgment-free zone in a medical environment is until I worked at the University of Virginia Emergency Department as a medical scribe. Although I had scribed at a smaller hospital before, I had always strived for a position at a high-volume healthcare center and level one trauma center. Close to the end of a long shift, I walked into the room of a patient with the chief complain of ‘Psychiatric Evaluation’.  A male patient with schizophrenia was hyperventilating and speaking through tears as he described seeing his deceased wife and daughter everywhere he looked. Between short breaths, he mentioned he was going to Florida to attack the person who “murdered his family”. The resident diffused the situation by acknowledging the patient’s feelings and suggesting that he stayed for psychiatric help instead of flying to Florida. Eventually, the patient agreed and was admitted. Seeing the resident create this judgment-free environment was eye opening, as the previously distressed patient was now accepting counseling. The powerful influence of acceptance can lead to valuable insights about patients’ lives, potentially increasing the range of care one can administer.

I decided to transition to primary care in the most recent fall season because I would be able to build a more personal relationship with families in my community. I began working at Union Mill Pediatrics and was finally able to serve the community I grew I up in. I was given the responsibility of acting as the primary contact for a few families with children who have autism. Dr. Maura and I perused the plan of care for one of these children, Ayaan, determined by the Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), to ensure that set therapeutic goals were reasonable and generalizable. When I asked Salwa, Ayaan’s mother, about some of the goals set by her BCBA and the school, she mentioned they would repeat exercises he already knew how to complete. I informed Salwa of her right as a patient to bring up her concerns with Ayaan’s teachers. I was overjoyed when she updated me that she instructed Ayaan’s teacher to continue putting his hearing aid in despite Ayaan’s constant cries. Salwa explained that the tantrums would curb after two days, which proved to be true. Similarly to how I encourages Salwa to advocate for her son, I will advocate for my patients and help them develop confidence to speak about their needs. After finding her voice as the patient’s guardian, Salwa gained the confidence to ask about a support group as she faces difficulties raising Ayaan alone. After some research, I found a few active groups to send her. By proving to Salwa I had her best interests in heart, she opened up to me about her mental health issues, which enabled me to extend the appropriate resources her way.

I have witnessed the potential that physicians have at work to forever change a family’s quality of life by being open-minded and remaining judgment-free. As a physician, I will aim to provide for my community through attentive healthcare and community service. I will advocate for my patients with cultural, language or socioeconomic barriers to healthcare. Building a trusting relationship with my future patients can result in a more productive office visit and enhance my ability to administer holistic care. My goal is for patients to leave their visit with not only a reasonable plan of care, but also a greater appreciation of their health and their rights as patients.

5. The Intersection of Medicine and Creativity

Student Accepted to Hackensack Meridian SOM, Nova Southeastern CoOM/KPCOM

Growing up, I inherited a deep admiration for medicine. From my grandfather’s chilling stories as a forensic psychiatrist assessing mental fitness, to my father’s heroic accounts as a pediatric dentist operating on toddlers with severe tooth decay, I was enamored with the honor of healing. These exposures nurtured my natural curiosity and innate aptitude for the sciences. Yet my mother, who had studied dance and theatre, instilled in me a fervent love of the arts and creative practice. Following in her footsteps, I took up multiple musical instruments, attended a high school for the arts, and earned a degree in art history coupled with a dance minor. Still, my dream was to pursue medicine, and though it seems counterintuitive, my love of art has only facilitated my enduring love of science, reinforcing why pursuing a career as a holistic, health-centered physician is my deepest aspiration.

My affinity for the health sciences began in the dance studio, where I devoted many hours of my adolescence. Dance, insidious in its promotion of grotesque health practices, demanded that I limit my calories to 1,200 a day counting everything from ibuprofen to a stick of gum, and to dance through a severe hamstring tear. My conceptions of health were severely warped until college dance came to my rescue. These new progressive teachers uplifted dancers of all physical and cognitive abilities, distributed scientific journals on effective warm-up techniques, and abandoned conventional dance norms. I was disturbed by all the unlearning I had to do, but eager to reacquaint myself with my body and disseminate new knowledge. Thus, I was honored when dance again presented an opportunity in health, as I was hired to teach dance at my childhood summer camp. Here, I could separate my curriculum from unreasonable physical expectations and interpersonal competition. I found a fierce sense of joy and fulfillment from being an advocate for physical and emotional health, and I knew I wanted to continue helping others heal while also deconstructing my own negative health experiences.

These formative experiences in the arts profoundly supported my intellectual development, allowing me to thrive in science-based settings and ultimately prompting me to seek out colleges with robust research programs. At the University of Michigan, I had the privilege of participating in a campus research lab, undoubtedly resulting in my most valuable college experience. The world of scientific inquiry can be intimidating, but after a year of reading dozens of papers and learning novice lab protocols, I began my own independent investigation of zebrafish retinas. My goal was to uncover the mechanisms of retinal regeneration in fish, thus addressing vision loss. The excitement I felt in utilizing challenging lab techniques, working with animals, witnessing the culmination of my efforts through image analysis, and being a part of such life-altering research was unmatched. What once seemed like magic was now tangible; I was an artist helping craft the solutions to science’s unanswered questions. In the context of my multidisciplinary interests, my research reinforced the creative, humanitarian side of science, and that science was where I felt compelled to take action and build a career.

Art continued to deepen my passion for and understanding of medicine. The revolutionary approaches of my dance teachers modeled the importance of critique as it pertains to health. This was not a new concept to me; my high school art teachers had urged us to challenge institutional weaknesses. It was not until college, however, that I realized how this line of thinking intersects with medicine. Studying art history, I repeatedly encountered artists whose work tackled issues in health. Keith Haring confronted the AIDS crisis when society had turned on the gay population, and Marc Quinn confronted the disease of addiction in his self-portrait sculptures, made entirely of his own frozen blood. Art, I learned, is so often a response to disease, be it physical, mental, or sociological. These artists had been champions of health in light of its stigmas and politics; art thus fostered new intentions, instilling within me an ardent goal of social activism through medicine.

Art has contributed to my journey, and while it is not my ultimate goal, I hope to incorporate my artistically based insights into my work in science and medicine as a health and social justice advocate. I am driven to continue exploring these intersections, having compiled an entire portfolio on the connection between dance and science, researched disability in the arts, and pursued my personal interest in LGBTQ+ health advocacy by connecting with and shadowing a variety of gender care physicians. My intention to pursue medicine is personal, fulfilling, and pressing, and I take seriously the responsibility I will have as a physician to be a mogul for change in areas of healthcare that compromise the human experience. Further, my natural inclination towards science and involvement in academic research has instilled in me the confidence and skills necessary to be an effective medical practitioner. With this balanced mindset, I know I will contribute to a more ethical and well-rounded approach to healthcare.

6. Innovation in Medicine and a Quest for Discovery

Student Accepted to Johns Hopkins SOM, Washington University SOM, Hofstra Zucker SOM

As a notoriously picky nine-year-old with a penchant for grilled cheese, I was perplexed when I learned that my younger sister, Rachel, had been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. I felt a sting of betrayal knowing my comfort food was the culprit for Rachel’s terrible stomach aches. Yearning to understand how my favorite food was poisoning my favorite person, I developed an insatiable desire to discover the “why” behind Celiac. As Rachel’s doctor explained her disease, I was both fascinated that a simple protein could cause so much damage and inspired by the doctor’s compassion. He described every detail in a way Rachel would understand, addressed her every concern, and held her hand when she was scared. I wanted to be just like Rachel’s doctor so that I too could use science to decipher medical mysteries while also reassuring my patients that I would be their advocate and help them heal.

My interest in medicine drove me to learn more about what it meant to be a doctor. As a freshman in high school, I arranged a shadow day with Dr. M, a cardiologist. He taught me about echoes, showed me a pacemaker implantation, and in the midst of a cardioversion, even beckoned me over to press the button that discharged the defibrillator. I could not contain my excitement recounting how much I had learned during my first day in a clinical setting. From there, my curiosity skyrocketed and I embarked on a relentless pursuit to explore the spectrum of the medical field. I was moved by the supportive atmosphere of the NICU, struck by the precision involved in ophthalmology, absorbed by the puzzle-like reconstruction of Mohs surgery, and awed by the agility of cardiothoracic surgery. Between high school and college, I shadowed over a dozen physicians, cementing my interest and furthering my passion for a future medical career.

My college classes allowed me to immerse myself further in the study of the human body. Following my fascination with cancer, I secured an internship working on a melanoma immunotherapy clinical trial at the National Institutes of Health. I savored the stimulation, grasping new experimental techniques and developing assays; but my work took on even greater meaning when I learned that my grandfather had been enrolled in an early-stage immunotherapy trial himself while battling mucosal melanoma. Although immunotherapy did not heal my grandfather, I was immensely proud to be advancing the science years later. Through long nights and evolving experiments, I gave the trial its final push through an FDA approval checkpoint; ultimately, my contributions will help more grandparents go into remission. The most fulfilling moments came every Monday when I accompanied the leading physician scientists on their rounds. As I met patients, listened to their stories, and celebrated their improvements, the pulsating blister on my thumbpad from endless pipetting became akin to a medal of honor. Reflecting on these encounters, I wanted to continue driving scientific innovation, but I also wanted a more active and personal impact in the patient’s experience.

My desire to connect with patients brought me to Alliance Medical Ministry, a clinic serving uninsured, disadvantaged communities in North Carolina. I stepped up to lead efforts to organize a community COVID-19 vaccination clinic, communicating personally with every eligible patient and arranging vaccine appointments for over a thousand people across the hardest hit areas of Raleigh. The experience became even more rewarding when I trained to administer vaccines, becoming a stable, anchoring presence from the beginning to the end of the process. One memorable patient, “Amy,” had not seen a doctor in years because of the associated financial burden. When she came to the clinic suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis, she was not even aware of her diabetes diagnosis. While I waited with her for transportation to the ER, she expressed her fears about contracting COVID at the hospital. However, she emphatically dismissed my suggestion about receiving a vaccine. I listened intently to all her concerns. Not only was she worried about the vaccine infecting her with the virus, but also her history of being denied healthcare due to her socioeconomic status had instilled fears that she would not be taken care of should she have an adverse reaction. I took her hand in mine and reassured her of the clinic’s mission to provide care regardless of ability to pay. I further explained everything I knew about how the vaccine worked, its safety and efficacy, and how my body reacted when I received my own injection. I could not help but beam behind my N95 when days later, Amy returned, sat in my chair and confidently rolled up her sleeve for me to give her the protective shot.

I have grown by exploring the multifaceted world of medicine through shadowing, pioneering research to advance patient care at the NIH, and cultivating trusting relationships with patients from the vaccine clinic. As a doctor, my desire to be an innovative thinker and problem solver will fuel my unrelenting quest for discovery throughout a lifetime of learning. Most importantly, I aspire to use my medical knowledge to improve lives and establish meaningful patient partnerships, just as Rachel’s doctor did with her.

7. Transforming Pain into Purpose: Inspiring Change in the Field of Medicine

Student Accepted to UCSF SOM, Harvard Medical School

Countless visits to specialists in hope of relief left me with a slew of inconclusive test results and uncertain diagnoses. “We cannot do anything else for you.” After twelve months of waging a war against my burning back, aching neck and tingling limbs, hearing these words at first felt like a death sentence, but I continued to advocate for myself with medical professionals. A year of combatting pain and dismissal led me to a group of compassionate and innovative physicians at the Stanford Pain Management Center (SPMC). Working alongside a diverse team including pain management specialists and my PCP, I began the long, non-linear process of uncovering the girl that had been buried in the devastating rubble of her body’s pain. From struggling with day-to-day activities like washing my hair and sitting in class to thriving as an avid weightlifter and zealous student over the span of a year, I realized I am passionate about preventing, managing and eliminating chronic illnesses through patient-centered incremental care and medical innovation.

A few days after my pain started, I was relieved to hear that I had most likely just strained some muscles, but after an empty bottle of muscle relaxers, the stings and aches had only intensified. I went on to see 15 specialists throughout California, including neurologists, physiatrists, and rheumatologists. Neurological exams. MRIs. Blood tests. All inconclusive. Time and time again, specialists dismissed my experience due to ambiguous test results and limited time. I spent months trying to convince doctors that I was losing my body; they thought I was losing my mind. Despite these letdowns, I did not stop fighting to regain control of my life. Armed with my medical records and a detailed journal of my symptoms, I continued scheduling appointments with the intention of finding a doctor who would dig deeper in the face of the unknown. Between visits, I researched my symptoms and searched for others with similar experiences. One story on Stanford Medicine’s blog, “Young Woman Overcomes Multiple Misdiagnoses and Gets Her Life Back”, particularly stood out to me and was the catalyst that led me to the SPMC. After bouncing from doctor to doctor, I had finally found a team of physicians who would take the profound toll of my pain on my physical and mental well-being seriously.

Throughout my year-long journey with my care team at the SPMC, I showed up for myself even when it felt like I would lose the war against my body. I confronted daily challenges with fortitude. When lifting my arms to tie my hair into a ponytail felt agonizing, YouTube tutorials trained me to become a braiding expert. Instead of lying in bed all day when my medication to relieve nerve pain left me struggling to stay awake, I explored innovative alternative therapies with my physicians; after I was fed up with the frustration of not knowing the source of my symptoms, I became a research subject in a clinical trial aimed at identifying and characterizing pain generators in patients suffering from “mysterious” chronic pain. At times, it felt like my efforts were only resulting in lost time. However, seeing how patient my care team was with me, offering long-term coordinated support and continually steering me towards a pain-free future, motivated me to grow stronger with every step of the process. Success was not  an immediate victory, but rather a long journey of incremental steps that produced steady, life-saving progress over time. My journey brought me relief as well as clarity with regard to  how I will care for my future patients. I will advocate for them even when complex conditions, inconclusive results and stereotypes discourage them from seeking continued care; work with them to continually adapt and improve an individualized plan tailored to their needs and goals, and engage in pioneering research and medical innovations that can directly benefit them.

Reflecting on the support system that enabled me to overcome the challenges of rehabilitation, I was inspired to help others navigate life with chronic pain in a more equitable and accessible way. Not everyone has the means to work indefinitely with a comprehensive care team, but most do have a smartphone. As a result, I partnered with a team of physicians and physical therapists at the University of California San Francisco to develop a free mobile application that guides individuals dealing with chronic pain through recovery. Based on my own journey, I was able to design the app with an understanding of the mental and physical toll that pain, fear, and loss of motivation take on patients struggling with chronic pain. Having features like an exercise bank with a real-time form checker and an AI-based chatbot to motivate users, address their concerns and connect them to specific health care resources, our application helped 65 of the 100 pilot users experience a significant reduction in pain and improvement in mental health in three months.

My journey has fostered my passion for patient-centered incremental medicine and medical innovation. From barely living to thriving, I have become a trailblazing warrior with the perseverance and resilience needed to pursue these passions and help both the patients I engage with and those around the world.

8. Overcoming Bias, Stigma, and Disparities in Medicine

Student Accepted to University of Florida COM

Growing up as a Black woman, my family’s experiences with racial bias in medicine were central to my perception of doctors. From my grandmother’s forced electric shock therapy in the Jim Crow South that resulted in severe brain damage, to my father’s ignored appendicitis that led to a near-death infection after rupturing, every trip to the doctor came with apprehension. Will these strange men with sharp tools heal me or hurt me? This question repeated in my head as I prepared to undergo my first surgery to remove suspiciously inflamed lymph nodes at age 11. I woke up groggy from anesthesia with a negative cancer diagnosis but a blistering third degree burn. The surgeon had successfully removed the malignant masses but had left the cauterizing iron resting on my neck in the process. Today when I look in the mirror and see the scar, I am reminded of the troubling reality that myths such as black people having thicker skin and less sensitive nerve endings are still pervasive in the medical field. By challenging the systemic disparities in medicine that disadvantage minority populations, I vow to my inner child that I will be a different kind of doctor, a doctor who values the patient as much as the procedure.

My experiences with a variety of communities, minority and majority, stem from growing up in a military household that came with frequent relocations. I was exposed to a wide range of communities from an early age—rural Oregon to tropical Hawaii, industrious Japan to politicized D.C, sunny San Diego and finally to radical Berkeley where I  began my pre-medical education. I chose to view medicine from an anthropological lens while at Cal and supplemented my coursework with community service.  As co-coordinator of UC Berkeley’s chapter of Peer Health Exchange, my 9th grade students were, at first,  mistrusting –even with my Angela Davis-esque afro, I was clearly not from Oakland and not quite old enough to be lecturing them. But it was the Good Samaritan Law lecture, during which students learned they would not face police penalty for calling 911 if a friend was in trouble, that I finally gained their trust. One student shared, “I always worried that I wouldn’t be able to call for help because I’m undocumented.”  Later as a health advocate at UCSF, I encountered the same sentiment from families in the pediatric clinic who worried that accessing healthcare for a sick child might put their immigration or legal status at risk. I learned that to get to the root of barriers to access, trust is invaluable. Navigating marginalized spaces with cultural competency is an asset that I pride myself in.

I carried this foundation into my research and clinical work on HIV, a disease that disproportionately affects Black and Brown communities and is often left untreated by the stigmas surrounding medicine for these communities. As an HIV PreP Navigator at the Oasis clinic, I was on rotation when a thirteen-year-old girl was referred to the clinic after testing positive for HIV. We analyzed her T cell count and viral load, and discovered she fit the AIDs criteria.   In the following weeks, we worked on medication adherence, and as the girl’s CD4 count rose, so did her spirits and mine. Medicine is more than just a diagnosis and prescription—it is active compassionate treatment. It is holding steady when the entire ground seems to shake with the magnitude of an illness. It is being able to look a patient in the eye and truly see them despite the myriad of differences.

The disparities and differences in patient circumstances has been emphasized by the COVID-19 pandemic. Recognizing this disproportionate effect of the virus on minority communities, I worked at a COVID-19 testing facility in one of the most underserved and impoverished communities in the Los Angeles’ area. Assuring patients of the safety of Covid testing measures was a big part of the job. “Have you done it?” They would ask. “What about Tuskegee?”  Being Black, I felt the burden of responsibility that came with these questions. How could I have such faith in medicine knowing the traumatic past? My response was simple, “I believe in the science. I can explain PCR testing to you if you like.” By eradicating some of the mystery surrounding these lab techniques, people felt more comfortable.  The opportunity to serve as a trusted community leader by directly interacting with patients and working on a team with doctors, EMTs, and nurses amid an international crisis reaffirmed my journey into medicine.

Zora Neale Hurston once wrote, “mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to ‘jump at de sun.’ We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.” As an aspiring physician, these words have served as a motivating mantra. To “get off the ground” for me means to become the first medical doctor in a lineage of sharecroppers and farmers. Medicine has been my “sun” for as long as I can remember; its promise to bring light has kept me jumping at every opportunity. Like my grandmother, my father, and so many others, I have experienced disparity in medicine. The scars that mar our bodies are my constant reminder that there is much work to be done. I see medicine as the ability to directly enact that change, one patient at a time.

9. Navigating Personal Struggles to Become a Compassionate Physician

Student Accepted to Touro CoOM, Nova Southeastern CoOM/KPCOM

I fight the heavy sleepiness that comes over me, but before I know it, I am out like a light. Forty-five minutes later, I wake up with a sore throat, watery eyes, and an intensely cold, painful feeling plaguing my entire right leg. Earlier, my parents and I arrived at the Beckman Laser Institute for another treatment of my port-wine stain birthmark. Despite my pleas to not undergo these procedures, my parents still took me twice a year. As I was rolled into the cold, sterile operating room on a gurney, I felt like I was experiencing everything from outside of myself. Despite my doctor’s and nurses’ best efforts to comfort me, I felt my heart racing. Feelings of apprehension and fear of the unknown flooded my senses at the sight of beeping machines and tubes that seemed to go everywhere. As the anesthesiologist began to administer the “sleepy juice,” I felt sad, realizing that my birthmark was a permanent resident on my leg and that I would have to receive this treatment for the rest of my life.

As an adult, I am grateful my parents continued to take me to the laser institute. Starting treatment so early aided in the lightening of my birthmark, which did wonders to improve my self-confidence. However, I suffered daily, feeling like I constantly had to hide something about myself. I kept my secret from everyone except my parents. Despite there being several medical doctors in my family, I knew that any sign of illness or disease would be held against me socially amongst other Egyptians. My secrecy was made even more difficult by the advice of my doctor to avoid certain physical activities, as they could worsen the underlying pathology of the veins in my legs. On his advice, I only wore long pants and would not run with other children during recess and gym class. This all added to the isolation I felt growing up, not knowing anyone with a similar condition to mine. Even as a child, no amount of explaining or encouragement could make me understand the benefit of those painful laser treatments.

What eventually changed my perspective was the team of compassionate doctors and nurses who have been caring for me since I began this journey. I was particularly touched when one of my doctors shared with me that she had also undergone a procedure that she would be performing on me. In that moment, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. Not only was she a specialist in the field, but her empathy for what I would soon go through became a source of instant comfort and ease for me. I knew that what she said was heartfelt, and not simply an attempt to convince me to undergo a procedure. I realized then that one of the reasons I had felt so afraid was because I had been alone in what I was going through.

A few years later, I attended a conference held by the Vascular Birthmark Foundation, where a variety of specialists convened to discuss port-wine stain birthmarks and other related conditions. Once we arrived at the hotel where the conference would take place, I met a woman who had a facial port-wine stain birthmark. As we began sharing stories about our experiences with our condition, we connected over how difficult it had been to receive treatment. We both knew what it felt like to be told that the birthmark was simply a cosmetic issue, and that any form of treatment we received would have no corrective purpose, if it was even considered treatment in the first place. There was a certain sense of freedom that I felt in finally being able to talk about my illness with someone I could trust to understand. Thinking back to the doctor who connected with me over a procedure she had also experienced as a patient, I felt truly called in that moment to pursue my goal of becoming a vascular physician. My goal would be to become a source of comfort and familiarity for patients who struggle as I have, to give them the same relief that I experienced from finally being understood.

Despite the pains I went through, I now realize that the experiences I have had as a patient can help me better understand what it means to be a physician. By being an excellent listener and openly sharing my experiences with receiving treatment, I can foster an honest and safe physician-patient relationship. I believe this approach will not only comfort my patients, but also help them make informed decisions about their treatment. My commitment to this approach has also led me to choose a DO path for my medical career. Having researched the holistic treatment approach that a DO delivers, I realized that being treated by a DO would have done wonders for my self-confidence and overall health as a young patient. The aspects of my port wine stain that were always left untreated were the emotional and social side effects of my condition. As a DO in the dermatology or interventional radiology specialty, I hope to gain the tools to provide empathetic and comprehensive care to my patients that reassures them that they are not alone in their journey to better health.

Want to read a few more great samples? We also broke down the things that make these 3 personal statements excellent and compelling.

Other Resources For Personal Statement Writing

Do you want to learn even more about personal statements? Dive into these great resources!

FREE MEDICAL SCHOOL PERSONAL STATEMENT WEBINARS

Preparing Your Personal Statement For Medical Programs : Hosted by MedSchoolCoach Director of Writing & College Advising, Jennifer Speegle.

Creating the First Draft of Your Medical School Personal Statement : Hosted by MedSchoolCoach advising and writing advisors, Ziggy Yoediono MD and James Fleming.

Where to Begin When Writing Your Personal Statement : Hosted by MedSchoolCoach Associate Director of Writing and College Advising, Jennifer Speegle, Associate Director of Advising, Ziggy Yoediono MD, and Writing Advisor, Carrie Coaplen Ph. D.

The Medical School Personal Statement – What Makes a Great Intro and Why It’s Important : Hosted by Director of Advising, Dr. Renee Marinelli, MD, Master Advisor, Dr. Ziggy Yoediono, MD, and Founder of MedSchoolCoach, Dr. Sahil Mehta, MD.

THE PROSPECTIVE DOCTOR PODCAST

Episode 2 – The Personal Statement

Episode 42 – Writing Your Personal Statement

Episode 76 – How to Tackle the Medical School Personal Statement

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5 Psychiatry Residency Personal Statement Examples

Reviewing psychiatry residency personal statement examples is a great way to get inspired when you are starting to prepare for residency applications . Personal statements for a psychiatry residency can be challenging to draft. Not only do we typically find it difficult to talk about ourselves, but in a residency personal statement, you need to find a perfect balance between highlighting your strengths and not sounding overconfident.

 In this blog, we share five psychiatry residency personal statement examples and five expert tips for writing a stronger personal statement to help you improve your chances of matching to your dream psychiatry program. If you need more guidance, reach out to residency application help services!

>> Want us to help you get accepted? Schedule a free initial consultation here <<

Article Contents 16 min read

Psychiatry residency personal statement example #1 .

I didn’t know that I wanted to be a psychiatrist until I started seeing a psychiatrist myself. It wasn't one because I saw them doing something and immediately wanted to do the same thing for a living. Rather, they helped me learn to be more introspective, which helped me figure out what kind of doctor I wanted to be. 

I come from a small family of overachievers who rarely stop and smell the roses. My mother is a social worker with 2 PhDs, my father owns a physiotherapy clinic, and my older brother was a professional athlete. Growing up around these hard-working people meant that I had no choice but to pick up the same habit. For as long as I can remember, every member of my family has always been busy. As a result, I always had to find a way to stay busy too. That's how I learned how to play three musical instruments, compete in two different sports, and lead a debate team while keeping up with my AP classes. 

Despite this, my family was close-knit. We always spent holidays together, and once a week, we volunteered at a local homeless shelter. I would watch my dad talk to people and provide them with supplies or tips that they would then come back and tell him had worked wonders for their back pains. I would also watch my mother put a smile and hope in people's eyes with a short conversation. I knew that I wanted to do what they did. Help people in the same way, but I wasn't sure which career path would be best for me.

Everything changed when I was 19, and I lost my brother to an illness that too many people are secretly battling: depression. My brother committed suicide at the age of 28, we later discovered that he had been depressed for some time. I didn't know how to deal with my anger and grief, so I buried myself in work. As you can imagine, that didn't work for long, and I needed to speak with someone who could give me better coping mechanisms. 

My psychiatrist helped me develop healthier work habits and coping mechanisms. He taught me how to be more psychologically minded and helped me realize that psychiatry combines the two aspects of my parents' professions that I love. As a psychiatrist, you get to use psychotherapy to help people in various ways and you also need to have a solid understanding of the human body and psychopharmaceuticals. 

I was completing my undergraduate at the time, but my interest had been piqued. I started to volunteer in the psychiatric ward at the hospital, and not only did I learn a lot about treating the mentally ill with respect and ensuring that they have autonomy, but it solidified my desire to become a psychiatrist. 

When I got to medical school, my interest grew. I would read the psychiatry textbooks in my spare time, diligently take notes, and excel at every exam. My curious nature would lead me to ask more questions in class. A conversation with one of my professors, Dr. John Doe, even inspired a research project on how depressive symptoms manifest differently in people of color, complicating the diagnosis process. We are currently working on the research project together, and hope to publish our findings soon. 

During my clerkship, a young woman came into the emergency room complaining of shortness of breath. She claimed that she had asthma and we decided to run some tests. I was tasked with monitoring the patient and we started talking. As she opened up to me about her struggles with Asthma, I began suspecting that she was describing a panic attack instead. I brought it up to my resident and attending who then followed up with some additional tests.

As it turns out, the patient had been having panic attacks for most of her teenagers and was not asthmatic at all. The attending sat with her for almost two hours, explaining precisely what a panic attack is, what she can do when she has one, and how therapy can help her identify her triggers and deal with them. 

I remember admiring the attending's patience and professionalism. Beyond that, I remember thinking about all the different ways in which our mental health affects our physical health and how we are just starting to understand those ways.

I hope to join the efforts of those who are helping the people who are already battling mental illness, those supporting the people who are suffering from it but don't know it, and those who are researching to help us understand more about brain chemistry and how our minds work. 

I believe that my sense of curiosity, work ethic, passion for the field, and psychological mindedness will make me a good psychiatrist. Now, I hope that I get a chance to train and learn from some of the best psychiatrists in the county so that one day, I, too, can help someone overcome difficulties and maybe even inspire another young woman to follow in my footsteps. 

"Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it." My high school counselor wrote this quote by Buddha on our whiteboard during my senior year and told us that, lucky for us, she was there to help us with the first part of our work. I remember rolling my eyes and thinking that I didn't need all that because I knew exactly what I wanted to be. I was going to be a neurosurgeon. 

I knew I wanted to be a neurosurgeon since I watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy in which Dr. Sheperd had to figure out how to remove a tumor from someone's spine without paralyzing them. Of course, I now know that although very entertaining, Grey's Anatomy does not have a very accurate portrayal of surgery or medicine. But I remember thinking that it must be amazing to spend your days working on such complicated cases, thinking outside the box to come up with creative solutions to problems that were endangering people's lives.  

I've always loved a good puzzle. It is the reason I enjoy things like sudoku, and all my favorite books revolve around solving mysteries. I simply enjoy that eureka moment, and as silly as it feels now, in high school, I was convinced that neurosurgeons got the best eureka moments. 

My mind first started changing during a conversation with that same high school counselor who informed me that I would make a great psychologist or psychiatrist after asking me a few questions. I was baffled! I asked her why she thought so, and she told me that those fields seemed to align with everything I was telling her I wanted from my future career. Even though I didn’t believe her, I couldn’t help but look into it.

I knew that I wanted to become a doctor because I'd always been fascinated by how the human body, particularly the human brain, works. So, I was more interested in psychiatry than psychology. After doing some research on the internet, I reached out to a psychiatrist in my community and asked to shadow them for a few weeks. As I observed the doctor and later on worked with patients as a volunteer at the XYZ clinic in college, I began to place more value on other aspects of medical care. Specifically, patient interaction. 

I remember one instance where the doctors were having difficulty with a patient. She was 16 years old, seemingly in good health, but she repeatedly showed up at the clinic complaining of migraines, asking for pain medication, and refusing to get examined properly. After a few visits, she was referred to the hospital for further testing, but she never went and simply kept coming back to ask for pain medication. Most of the doctors and staff had pegged her as an addict, but Dr. Diallo instructed me to talk to her and get her information. I took some extra time to talk to her every time she came in, usually documenting her symptoms, and making a bit of small talk. On what must've been the patient's fifth or sixth visit to the clinic that month, she finally opened up to me and explained that she wears glasses, but they are broken, and her family doesn't have the money to fix them or take her to an ophthalmologist. Once we knew what the issue was, we were able to help her get a new pair of glasses.

That was one of many interactions that helped me realize that talking to patients, especially listening to them, is one of the most important aspects of medicine. I wanted to choose a specialty that would allow me to spend time with patients, have that connection and help them with the root issues instead of just managing their symptoms. 

It only took a few days on the psychiatry rotation during my clerkship to realize that it was the only specialty that would allow me to solve problems, find creative ways to help my patients, and interact with them constantly. So, as it turns out, my high school counselor, Mrs. Bloom, was not wrong after all.

Now that I have discovered my work, I am ready to give myself to it with all my heart. 

Use our residency match calculator to assess your match chances and find out if you are a competitive applicant for your chosen specialty. ","label":"Tip:","title":"Tip:"}]" code="tab1" template="BlogArticle">

Psychiatry residency personal statement example #3

Growing up, I seemed to be on the path to success. I was an honor roll student, in the top 10% of my class, an elected student body member, and I was representing my school on the varsity soccer team. I already knew that I wanted to become a doctor, and there was no stopping me. 

However, I was under the false impression that the road to medical school would be easy. What I now realize is that I was accomplishing a lot without much conscious effort on my part. I was raised by parents who believed that hard work, academic excellence, and the pursuit of knowledge were always paramount. If my brother or I came home with a grade below A, my parents would act as if we had failed the assignment or exam. So, getting good grades became almost automatic to me.

I achieved great academic success, but I wasn't actively seeking knowledge or learning the true meaning of hard work at that stage in my life. I never really set any goals and worked towards them. I simply did what I felt would be just enough to make my parents happy.

I was never genuinely challenged until we relocated back to my parent's home country, Ghana, for a few years. While we had visited the country several times in the past, living there and going to school was a completely different experience. For the first time in my life, my performance was less than stellar, and I struggled to find my footing. Doing the bare minimum was no longer enough. It was when I found myself pulling all-nighters just to meet the graduation requirements that I knew that something had to change. 

I eventually realized that the problem was that the amount of effort I was putting in had not changed, despite the more difficult coursework I had to deal with. So, when my parents came back to the US, I took a different path. I'd found a premedical school in ThatTown Barbados that offered a four-year curriculum specifically for premeds. So, I packed up my bags and flew halfway across the world, anxious but eager. I wanted to prove to myself that I could rise to the occasion. I was finally setting my own goals, coming up with plans to reach those goals, and putting in the work. 

The dynamic between the mind and brain was always a topic of conversation around the dinner table in our house while I was growing up. My father is a psychologist, and my mother is a neuropathologist, and as much as they tried not to bring their work home to us, it always found its way into our conversations. I am not sure if their discussions led to my fascination with the human mind or if I asked them so many questions about it because I was already interested in the subject, but I was hooked either way. 

Even though I was a premedical student, no one was surprised when I decided to major in psychology instead of one of the natural sciences in college. I wanted to understand the mind and behavior better and hopefully get some answers to many of the questions that constantly plagued me. I wanted to know why two brains can have such completely different reactions in the face of the same external circumstances. I wanted to understand how and why our internal states transform our outer experiences. 

My degree in psychology was starting to shed some light on the complexity of the human mind. I was learning about the psychopathologies of mental illness and the anatomical and biological basis of psychiatric disorders. The more answers I got, the more questions I seemed to have. My curiosity and affinity for my mother often led me to her lab. We would discuss what I was learning in school as I watched her dissect neurological tissue under a microscope. During one of those many conversations, she reminded me how little we actually know about the brain and the mind and how we have so few resources available to help those struggling with mental illness. 

At the time, I was getting close to finishing my degree, and I had been working for a research facility conducting a clinical trial for a new anxiety medication. My mother's comment stuck with me, and it made me think about some of the experiences that the participants of the trial had been sharing with me. I remember one particular young woman in the trial who had explained to me that she did not know that she had anxiety. She always thought that everyone had headaches, stomach pain, and insomnia when they were stressed. 

When I finally got to medical school, it was with the full intention of becoming a psychiatrist. My years of learning about psychology and working with patients who had been suffering in silence for so long had convinced me that I was on the right path. I believe that as psychiatrists, we have the ability to improve people's quality of life by not only helping them mentally but also alleviating physical pain. 

During my internal medicine rotation in medical school, I was able to help a patient who came in presenting with intractable nausea and vomiting. She was about sixteen years old, and her medical workup was normal; she was admitted for observation because, although we couldn't find a cause, she had already thrown up twice in the space of two hours while being in the hospital. I spent some time speaking with her. She was timid at first, but she eventually opened to me and talked to me about a pretty difficult home situation that she was dealing with. My instincts told me that her problem might be more emotional than physical, so I discussed it with my resident. I was thrilled when I visited her a few days later on the psychiatric floor and found that she had finished all her food and had not thrown up once. 

Psychiatry allows me to continue learning about the mind and the brain while helping alleviate others' suffering, and that is why it is the perfect specialty for me. I believe that I am a good fit for it because I am not only passionate about it, but I am curious, compassionate, and very willing to learn. I am confident that with training, I can become a great psychiatrist. 

When they called my name on the day of my kindergarten graduation, I jumped out of my chair, ran to the microphone, and proudly proclaimed: "I am going to fix mummy's brain." I had a big smile on my face that slowly disappeared as no one clapped for me the way they had done when my classmates said what they were going to be in the future. It took a few very long seconds, but eventually, my mother started clapping slowly, and a few other people joined in. 

I am not sure what I felt at that moment because I do not remember any of it, but whenever I watch that video, I want to cry in shame and clap for myself a little. I like knowing that I always knew what I wanted to do, but I wish I had known better than to say something like that on a stage in front of my entire neighborhood. My mother's battle with mental illness was not a secret, though. One of my earliest memories is of her being carried away by men in scrubs, kicking, and screaming while my older sister tried to distract me with a doll. She was a paranoid schizophrenic, and I watched her fight her mind for over twenty years before she decided to take her life. 

My mother is the reason I first got curious about the brain and mental illness. As a child, I didn't understand it very well, but she repeatedly told me that she was just a little sick in the brain but that the doctors would fix it. As a teenager, I understood it a little better, and I spent a lot of time researching what it meant to be a schizophrenic. I remember being both fascinated and angry at the complex ways in which our own minds can cause us harm. As an adult in college, I understood that my mother was not the only person struggling with this illness and that many others are also struggling in ways that are very different but also very similar to hers, and I wanted to help. 

Growing up, my sister always made sure that I understood how to treat my mother with respect and dignity, even when she was going through a difficult episode. I spent most of my high school years volunteering in a psychiatric care facility, and I learned similar values there too. One of the doctors I worked with often complimented me on talking to the residents and making them a part of every decision instead of just telling them what to do like many other volunteers assumed they were supposed to do. 

I believe that my years caring for my mom and the residents of the XYZ facility helped me understand that the stigma surrounding mental illness often invites alienation, judgment, and other forms of gross misconduct. To be a good psychiatrist, you need to be more than just competent and knowledgeable in the discipline, but also empathetic and understanding of patients' daily struggles with their illness and society. 

By the time my mother passed away, I was in medical school, and my desire to help her had grown into a love for the field of psychiatry. I especially like the fact that even though we do not fully understand all mental illnesses yet, and we don't have a cure for many of them - we are able to provide some patients with the tools they need to live full, healthy lives using both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies. 

I believe that my compassion, discipline, and passion for the field will allow me to strive in your residency program and eventually join the efforts of the many other psychiatrists who were able to help people like my mom live as long as she did. 

5 tips for writing a compelling psychiatry residency personal statement

Keep in mind that your residency personal statement is one of many application components, so you should use it to provide the residency program directors with additional information about you. For example, you should avoid rehashing the experiences that are listed on your  residency CV . They already have that document as well as your  ERAS experience section . Instead, talk about what you learned from those experiences and how they helped you prepare for psychiatry residency.  "}]">

While psychiatry programs are not among the most competitive residency specialties, they are becoming increasingly popular, so it is best to have a strong, compelling application if you want to match to a good program. 

Quite important. Your personal statement is your chance to tell the residency directors why you’ve decided to pursue your specialty and why you would be good at it in your own words. It also gives them a chance to evaluate your communication skills. So, make sure you take the time to write a strong and detailed personal statement. 

Unless otherwise stated, your residency personal statement should have between 650 to 850 words. 

We recommend giving yourself at least six weeks to work on your statement. That is long enough for you to brainstorm, write, edit and polish your residency personal statement. 

After reading your statement, the residency program director should be convinced that you are not only interested in the psychiatry residency program, but that you are the right candidate for it. So, talk about why you are interested in the specialty, and what qualities make you a good fit for it

Not many International Medical Graduates match psychiatry programs, but do not let that discourage you. If your application is compelling enough, and you’ve managed to get electives and clinical experience as an IMG in the US and Canada , then you can get into a psychiatry residency program. 

You can make your statement stand out by using specific examples to back up any claims you make about yourself, starting it with something catchy like a quote or an anecdote, and letting your personality shine through. Make sure you plan ahead before you start writing and seek help when you need it

Absolutely! Consider working with residency match services or signing up for an application review service for additional help with your residency personal statement. 

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Zen Psychiatry

By Elana Miller, MD

Sample Psychiatry Personal Statement

Here’s the personal statement I used for my psychiatry residency application. This post is a continuation from my blog, How to Apply to Residency in Psychiatry, that details how to schedule your 4th year rotations, requesting letters of recommendations, what to consider when choosing a residency program, how to prepare for your residency interviews, and of course, how to write your own psychiatry personal statement. If you’re in the process of applying to psychiatry residency, check out that post too!

My Psychiatry Personal Statement 

I came to the field of psychiatry circuitously. For almost as long as I wanted to pursue medicine, I thought my future would be in surgery. At an early age, I remember visiting my mother’s laboratory, where she worked as a neuropathologist, and helping her dissect neurological tissue under the microscope. I would sit with her, mesmerized, gently teasing tissue off a monkey spinal cord with the delicate instruments, and imagining a future using similar tools to manipulate tissues and heal illnesses of the body. But while I believed that my future path was in surgery, I naturally gravitated toward the study of the human mind and behavior.

My father is a psychiatrist, and between him and my mother, the dynamic between the mind and brain were always topics of conversation at the dinner table. Partially because of their influence, and largely because of my own inclination and interest, I have always been driven to understand not only the “how” of thought processes and interpersonal interaction, but the “why”. Why do some minds create happiness, and others suffering, in the face of the same external circumstances? How do our internal states transform our external experiences? To what extent are these habits and predispositions fixed, and to what degree can they be reconstructed to improve our relationship with the external world and with ourselves?

When I entered college, instead of focusing on a basic science such as biology or chemistry like many of my pre-med colleagues, I was drawn to the study of psychology. It was here that I first began to investigate the more mysterious aspects of the human mind, and learned the ways the mind and brain can act unpredictably and destructively. I was fascinated by the complex psychopathologies of mental illness and motivated to understand the anatomical and biological basis of psychiatric disorders. I was struck by the realization that often our own mental processes, in trying to alleviate suffering, would instead create it.

When I graduated, I decided to further investigate these ideas in a research context. I joined the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University and delved into the study of the relationship between stress, cortisol levels, APOE genotype and cognitive decline in older adults. I found the subject matter challenging and stimulating, and loved the excitement of discovering something new and contributing to the fund of knowledge available to all clinicians and practitioners. But when I entered medical school, I was drawn back toward the surgical specialties. I appreciated the technical aspects of surgery, the almost artistic nature of the field, and the dedicated, conscientious and disciplined nature of the surgeons. I focused on urology as a subspecialty, and directed the same interest that led me to pursue research at Stanford to a project at the USC/Norris Cancer Center investigating comparative pathological findings in men who underwent prostate biopsy and subsequent radical prostatectomy.

I began my third year surgery rotation excited to finally put into practice what I had studied from a theoretical perspective for so long. But instead of dreaming of spending time in the OR, I would look forward to clinic days, where I could sit across from patients about to have surgery, or recovering from a recent operation, and listen attentively as they told stories of fear, sadness and apprehension. I learned how underlying anxiety or distress could manifest as subtle physical complaints, such as pain or insomnia. I began to appreciate how mental states could influence a patient’s interpretation of his or her illness, and either aggravate or mitigate the suffering the patient felt in the face of the same degree of pain. I learned that by simply being attentive and mindful, I could demonstrate my empathy and concern, and show these patients they were not alone in the process.

Physicians in both surgery and psychiatry share a profoundly intimate role in the patient’s life. As a surgeon plunges into the body to heal with a scalpel, a psychiatrist plunges into the mind to heal with a few well-chosen words, an empathetic nod, or medications that modulate the neurochemistry of the brain. My subsequent third and fourth year psychiatry rotations have confirmed that my passion lies in alleviating suffering through reconstructing the mind, rather than in fixing the mechanics of the body. I look forward to developing the skills to transform both the mind and brain to serve my patients in a meaningful way, and am enthusiastic to combine my interest in clinical practice with my passion for academic research to create a fulfilling career in psychiatry.

Residency & What Happened Next

I ended up doing my residency in psychiatry at UCLA from 2010-2013. In late 2013, I found a passion for exploring and studying integrative medicine, and decided to start a private practice after graduation.

However, on December 17, 2013, I went to the ER for what I thought were minor symptoms — but it turned out to be Stage IV Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. I was diagnosed 6 months before completely my residency program.

You can read what happened next here (don’t worry, it has a good ending).

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Medical School Personal Statement Storytelling Guide [With Examples]

Typical medical school personal statements list qualities and accomplishments in paragraph form and can be boring to read for admissions committee members. But the best personal statements demonstrate qualities through engaging stories. Those stories reveal insights into your personality, as well as interests outside healthcare and medicine (especially those that align with the medical schools you’re applying to ).

Medical school admissions committees want to learn who you uniquely are and why you want to become a medical professional. They also want to know what you are going to contribute to their school and the larger medical field.

Our in-depth guide will help you explore unique personal topics and stories to capture admission committee members’ attention and help you stand out in a sea of ordinary med school personal statements.

Table of contents

1. brainstorm topics, 2. choose stories that show your character, show, don’t tell, stay on topic, common medical school personal statement mistakes, get an expert’s opinion.

The first step in the personal statement writing process is to decide what stories and facts are most important to reveal and how to weave in your motivation for applying to a school of medicine.

When you’re ready to brainstorm, don’t just sit down to stare at a list of your premed activities like research experiences, volunteering, or shadowing. Instead, compile the fundamental personal experiences and people that helped shape you. These stories will likely translate beyond your personal statement into interviews , so be picky to choose only the most transformative.

When brainstorming your personal statement for medical school, consider these topics:

Significant or formative life experiences: something that changed the course of your life, your outlook on the world, or made you think differently about your future

• Learning to do something that leads you to excel/teach others/make a contribution (e.g., sports, science, foreign language, special skills)
• Being given a second chance
• Connecting with someone who made an impact on you
• Being out of your comfort zone (experiences with people of different backgrounds, travel, moving, doing something for the first time)

Challenging life experiences: something that forced a lesson upon you

• A mistake you made
• An event that was out of your control that nonetheless caused you suffering or loss
• Overcoming an obstacle

People that shaped your life:

• Mentor, family member, friend
• Author, actor, speaker, personal hero

Think about what each element on your list taught you or how it changed your thinking. Answer for yourself why the event or person is important. Then brainstorm how one or two medically related activities can be tied in.

With this strategy, your personal statement will develop around a narrative that is unique to you. It will also communicate to admissions officers who you are and why you want to provide medical care.

To further your thought processes, ask yourself these questions:

• What is distinct or unique about you/your life story?
• What are some specific details about your personality, values, or experiences you can share to help them get a better understanding of who you are?
• In what ways have your experiences contributed to your growth?
• Have you overcome any obstacles or difficult circumstances in your life?
• What valuable personal characteristics (integrity, compassion, diligence, etc.) do you have?
• What soft skills (leadership, teamwork, communication skills, etc.) do you have?

Next, connect those answers to medicine-specific questions:

• How and when did you become interested in medicine?
• What have you learned so far about medicine?
• Why do you want to become a doctor?
• How do you know you want to be a doctor?
• How have your experiences and your understanding of yourself confirmed your desire to do medicine?
• In what ways have you shown that you have the characteristics necessary to succeed in the field of medicine?
• How will your skills translate into being a good doctor?
• Are there any gaps or discrepancies in your academic record that need explaining? This can be an obstacle or difficult circumstance.

Though you don’t want to include the answers to all these questions in your personal statement, knowing the answers to these questions is a good starting point.

You should highlight a few unique experiences, skills, or personal characteristics and make those the focal point of your essay.

Ordinary personal statements focus on the experiences that applicants think will make them seem impressive. The best personal statements focus on the qualities that make applicants truly special.

Instead of choosing their standout qualities — character, personality traits, attitudes — many applicants simply choose experiences they think will help them stand out to admissions committees. Then, they try to force those qualities into the experiences they’ve already chosen.

Why is this an issue? Imagine you have participated in the following extracurricular activities:

• Biochemistry research for 2 years
• Clinical experience shadowing for 3 years
• Math tutor for underserved youth for 2 years
• Trombonist in the high school band and trombone instructor for 3 years
• International medical mission trip volunteer for 3 summers
• Premed organization member for 3 years (vice president for 1 year)

At face value, which of these experiences do you think would make you seem the most impressive to an admissions committee? Given these choices, most students would choose to write about clinical shadowing (2) or medical mission trips (5).

Most students who choose one of those two topics will take a very similar approach, such as starting off the essay describing some interaction with a very ill patient or one with whom they experienced a language barrier.

Typical Applicant Personal Statement Example:

“Mary was well known at our clinic by all of our doctors, nurses, and medical staff. Based on her sharp intellect and cheerful pattern of making our staff feel like we were her best friends, it would be difficult to tell why she frequently visited the hospital. Besides her use of a walker, her Parkinson’s disease diagnosis had not slowed her down much. Throughout my interactions with Mary, I wondered how she maintained such a positive attitude despite her ailments. She seemed to give our staff more joy with her beaming smile than receiving care. I wanted to give her the best care possible, whether through asking our great nurses to check in on her or offering an extra blanket or favorite snack to ensure comfort throughout her stay. However, I was simultaneously frustrated that my ability to help Mary ended there. This lingering lack of fulfillment has served as a great motivator to find ways to do more for patients like her.”

What’s wrong with this example?

Although the above example provides some insights about the applicant’s motivations (“…find ways to do more for patients…”), it is written about a common topic (a realization that came during clinical shadowing) with a typical delivery —  written broadly about interactions with a particular patient.

The best personal statement writers, on the other hand, first think of the personal qualities they want to demonstrate in their essay before choosing a situation or event to write about. Next, they think of an experience that best highlights these qualities, regardless of whether or not it seems most “impressive” at face value. Finally, the best personal statements zero in on a particular event or situation to capture the reader’s attention with a detailed personal story.

By taking this approach, the best personal statement writers are better able to demonstrate their qualities because their story was chosen expressly for that purpose. After all, schools are attracted to particular candidates because of their qualities and not a specific experience they’ve had.

Let’s suppose this same applicant wanted to highlight her community involvement and commitment to serving underprivileged groups. Returning to the list of extracurriculars above, she could choose to write about working as a math tutor (3) or being a trombonist in the school band and trombone instructor (4). By choosing the latter and zooming in on a particular event, this same student could write the following personal statement introduction:

Better Personal Statement Example:

“My palms had never been as sweaty as when I walked on stage with my trombone in front of a 500-plus member audience on June 9th, 2015. Sure, I was pretty good. But I would like to think that being invited to play Curtis Fuller’s “Along Came Betty” at the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame had as much to do with the music skills I had honed over the past decade as it did with training the 8-member band of 10 to 13 year-olds from the inner city to join me on that same stage. I was nervous because this performance was for them; I needed to be at my best.”

Why is this example better than the one before it?

This introduction would likely stand out because it is about an uncommon topic (a musical performance) and seamlessly demonstrates the writer’s community involvement, especially with underserved youth. As a bonus, it captures the reader’s attention in 382 fewer characters.

Typical personal statements could have been written by any applicant. Good personal statements are those that can only be written by a specific applicant. The example of a typical introduction could have been written by any number of medical students who volunteered in a hospital. There simply aren’t enough unique insights and details about the applicant. On the other hand, the second introduction could have only been written by that individual.

So, how do you avoid a dull introductory paragraph? Use the approach above — first, list your unique qualities, then identify situations where you’ve expressed those qualities, and finally, zoom in to tell a detailed story.

Want to improve your chances of acceptance? Get world-class coaching from former admissions committee members for a more compelling personal statement and polished application. Students who work with us double their chances of getting accepted!

You’ve likely heard the adage “Show, don’t tell” enough already. Rarely do we receive practical advice on exactly how to demonstrate our qualities, rather than list them. When you can do this, you provide a more authentic glimpse of who you really are.

If you read the following sentences from two different applicants, which one would you think was more giving?

• Applicant #1: I am a very giving person.
• Applicant #2: I volunteer 4 hours every week to work at the homeless shelter.

You’d probably choose applicant #2, even though they never used the word “giving” in their sentence. As a reader, we extrapolate how giving that applicant is.

Going back to the intro paragraphs above, we can see that the typical one “tells” about the applicant’s qualities, whereas the better paragraph “shows” the applicant’s qualities.

More Medical School Personal Statement Examples :

Typical introductions:

• “I wanted to give the best patient care possible…” (giving)
• “This lingering lack of fulfillment has served as a great motivator to find ways to do more” (motivated)

Better introductions:

• “…the music skills I honed over the past decade…” (dedicated)
• “…training the 8-member band of 10-13 year-olds from the inner city to join me on that same stage.” (giving, empowering)
• “I was nervous because this performance was for them; I needed to be at my best.” (selfless, motivated)

Strive to let your accomplishments, approaches, and insights speak for themselves. Describe your work in an engaging way and let the reader do the complimenting for you.

Some applicants make the mistake of putting the focus on supporting characters, like a parent or patient, making them more compelling than themselves or sharing the limelight. But the best personal statements maintain the focus on the applicant.

Like any great story, your personal statement should highlight a compelling character. But that character, the star of your story, should always be YOU. There is nothing wrong with including another character in your personal statement’s story. But other characters should only be used to demonstrate your qualities, whether through an interaction you had or an insight you gained after.

Returning to our examples above:

In the typical paragraph, Mary and the applicant are co-leads in the story. We don’t even read about the applicant or her insights until the fourth sentence. Mary seems just as impressive as the applicant.

The better paragraph is all about the applicant — her concerns, dedication, and motivations. Even though she mentions the inner-city youth, they serve only to demonstrate the applicant’s qualities.

Your opportunity to impress med school admissions committees with your personal statement is limited to 5,300 characters. Strive to keep the focus nearly entirely on you.

Know ahead of time that your first draft is just that — a first draft. Once you get something on the page, you can start rewriting and revising it into the perfect statement.

Explaining the answer to “Why I want to be a doctor” can be overwhelming. Many applicants end up making the mistake of answering a different question: “What have I done that qualifies me for medical school?” The result is a tedious list of GPAs and MCAT scores that make personal statements read like a resume.

A better approach is not to focus on the question that your essay will answer, but on the personal aspects of your experiences on earth that shaped who you are — a person whose goals and values align with entering the medical profession.

More common mistakes to avoid:

• Not being concise
• Using clichés
• Breaking character limits
• Not using transitions between paragraphs and topics
• Not getting a second opinion or consulting an expert

There are some red flags to keep in mind as well. Admissions experts will not be impressed with:

• Arrogance or narcissism
• Self-deprecation or lack of confidence
• Unexplained gaps in education
• Generalizations
• Poor grammar
• Lack of passion

Read Next: A Guide To Medical Schools That Don’t Require The MCAT

What is the AMCAS personal statement prompt?

The AMCAS personal statement prompt is: Use the space provided to explain why you want to go to medical school.

How many characters are allowed in the medical school personal statement?

You can use up to 5,300 characters in the medical school personal statement sections of the AMCAS and AACOMAS applications . Spaces count as characters. You’ll have roughly 500 words to write.

How long should a personal statement be for medical school?

A personal statement for medical school should be approximately one page. It should be long enough to take a deep look at a transformative experience or concept.

What personal statement topics should I avoid?

There are no specific topics that you should completely avoid in your personal statement outside of openly offensive topics. You may receive advice to steer clear of topics like mental health, having a parent who’s a doctor, or volunteer work. But it’s not these topics themselves that are a problem; how you use these stories and experiences to show your personality and character is what matters.

Your personal statement is one of the few times in the medical school application process where your personality, experiences, and uniqueness can shine through. It’s too important to leave it to guesswork, particularly if you’re reapplying !

Work with experienced Writing Advisors and Physician Advisors to give your personal statement the X factor sure to be noticed by admissions committees. Many of our advisors are former AdComs !

Related posts:

• Why I Picked UC Denver
• Finding the Perfect Research Project
• How to Succeed on Medical School Interview Day
• How to Answer “What is the Biggest Healthcare Problem” During an Interview

Sahil Mehta

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The Ultimate Medical School Personal Statement Guide: (w/ Prompts & Examples)

Writing an effective medical school personal statement.

You may be asking yourself why it’s important to write an effective medical school personal statement. Let’s look at the numbers.

According to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), in the 2019-2020 school year alone,  53,371 people applied to medical school.  Of those 53,371 prospective students, less than 22,000 were accepted. This is an acceptance rate of about 41%.

Getting into medical school is pretty much the gold standard for any college student. People are impressed when you tell them you’ve been accepted into graduate school, and they get really excited for you when they hear you’re working on a doctoral degree.

When you tell someone you’ve been accepted to medical school, though, is when they really become impressed. That’s because not just anyone can make it into med school. It takes someone special who stands out from the crowd.

Numerous doctors, psychiatrists, and researchers will tell you that every generation,  people are getting smarter . This is great for the human race as a whole, but it makes it that much harder for smart students to get into competitive programs.

It’s fine for you to have an exceptional GPA and great MCAT scores ( Read :  What’s a good MCAT score ), but if every other person applying to med school also has those things, it’s not exactly going to set you apart from anyone.

Limited Spots vs. Numerous Applicants

Each year, a limited number of spots open up for prospective medical school students, and every year, an excessive number of students try to win those coveted spots.

Because they understand how competitive this process is, in addition to keeping their grades up and scoring high on the MCAT, these students also intern in prestigious placements and put in hours of volunteer and community service.

Chances are if you’re applying to medical school, you’ve done these things too. So how do you make sure that your application stands out from the thousands of others from equally qualified students?

You have to write an effective, well-written, and memorable medical school personal statement for your admissions essay.

The personal statement is the one place in the entire application packet where you get to tell your story and shine a light on yourself. This is the place where you get to explain exactly why you’re more qualified and/or deserving of a spot in med school than every other applicant.

That’s why writing the perfect med school personal statement is so important.

Medical School Prerequisites

Before you can even apply to medical school, there are  several things  you have to do first. If at the time of reading this article, you’re already in the process of applying for med school, you’ve probably already taken care of most of these things.

Feel free to use this as a checklist to make sure you’ve covered all your bases.

Step 1: Choose the Right Major and Take the Right Classes

Traditionally, students who want to attend medical school major in one of the following subjects:

• Biochemistry
• Biomedical Sciences

Med school students can come from many different majors, though, including English, Sociology, Religion, and other fields.

The downside to coming to med school from one of these majors is that you may have to take a few extra classes to ensure you’ve taken the required courses for med school. For most schools, these include:

• English – 1 year
• Biochemistry – 1 year
• Physics & Physics Lab – 1 year
• Biology & Biology Lab – 1 year
• General Chemistry & Chemistry Lab – 1 year
• Organic Chemistry & Chemistry Lab – 1 year
• Various Upper-Level Science-Related Courses & Electives

Most of the science majors have all of these courses as part of their main curriculum, which is why most students hoping to go to medical school major in those fields.

Step 2: Take the MCAT or Equivalent Standardized Test

If you’re headed to medical school in the United States, you have to take the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test).

Read :  What’s the MCAT?

If you’re going to medical school in the UK, you’ll most likely be required to take the UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test) instead. Other countries have their own versions of this test, but at their core, they’re all very similar.

They’re all standardized exams that test students’ knowledge of various fields. The  majority of questions  focus on the hard sciences, but there are other questions as well.

Some of these include questions about sociology, psychology, and questions to test your critical thinking and analysis skills. Be sure to check out your prospective schools’ required minimum scores for admission.

Step 3: Get Some Experience

During your undergraduate years, you’ll also want to be obtaining  some real-world experience . Get out and do some volunteer work. Look for summer internships that place you inside doctor’s offices, clinics, and hospitals. Job shadow doctors, nurses, surgeons, psychologists, etc.

Get a job in medical research if possible. Do whatever you can do to be able to show the med school admissions teams that you have real, relevant experience in the field of medicine.

The Admissions Process

The process of applying to a medical school in the United States is a little different than the process of applying to a med school in another country.

For example, in many countries outside the United States, you have to apply to each different medical school individually.

In the United States, though, no matter how many schools you plan on applying to, it all starts in one place:  the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) .

If you ever used the Common App to apply for colleges as an undergrad, you’ll have an idea of what it’s like to apply to med school using the AMCAS as a central application starting point.

Applying to medical school through the AMCAS is the first step in a two-step process. This application is your base application that gets sent out to all the medical schools to which you apply.

The AMCAS is a general, standard application. In it, you’ll provide colleges with all the basic information about yourself.

This includes the standard application information, such as your name, contact information, demographic information, education history, resume, transcripts, GPA and MCAT scores, etc.

You’ll then select the medical schools you’d like your application to be sent to, and you’ll be required to write your medical school personal statement.

It can take  up to six weeks  for your AMCAS application to be processed. During this time, the AAMC will be verifying your educational history and your course work.

After this process is complete, you’ll receive a copy of everything the AAMC verified on your application. If you disagree with something, you have ten days after you’ve been notified that your AMCAS has been processed to dispute it.

After that, your AMCAS application packet, along with verified course work and verified GPA, your list of work and/or volunteer experience and extracurricular activities, your MCAT scores, your letters of recommendation, and your medical school personal statement will be sent to each of the schools you expressed interested in attending.

It’s incredibly important that you enter everything exactly right the first time; otherwise, you could experience delays in processing. There are, though, a few sections on the AMCAS in which you’ll need to be especially careful.

Course Work

The coursework section of the AMCAS is extremely detailed. You have to list each course you’ve taken, how many credit hours it was worth, your grade in the course, whether you withdrew from or failed the course, whether you took it as a duplicate course, etc.

This goes all the way back to your freshman year of college. Have your transcript on-hand while taking care of this part of the AMCAS because messing up here is  the number one cause of processing delays .

Work/Activities (Extracurricular Activities)

In  this section , you’ll be able to list any relevant work and/or volunteer/internship experience you have. You’ll also be able to list any awards or honors you’ve received and any extracurricular activities worth mentioning.

There is one catch though. You can only enter a maximum of 15 separate activities. Once you’ve hit the 15 activities, you can’t enter anything else.

For this section, it’s important to note that the quality of the experience is much more important than the “quantity” of experiences you list. If you’re the type of person that was a part of everything and has three pages worth of work, volunteer experience, and extracurricular activities to discuss, you’re going to have to pick the 15 most impressive ones.

Letters of Recommendation

Although you won’t be asked to include any actual  letters of recommendation  on your AMCAS application, you’ll be asked to provide the contact information for the people you have asked to write your letters. Choose your references carefully.

Your Medical School Personal Statement

This is arguably one of the most important parts of your application. This is the section that can make you seem personable and memorable as opposed to just another application in the pile.

For the medical school personal statement on the AMCAS application, you’re allowed 5,300 characters, which is approximately one page.

This may not seem like a lot of room in which to write your story, but when you remember that over 50,000 people sent in almost 900,000 applications last year, you’ll understand why the admissions committee members want you to be brief. Despite the brevity, though, you still have to make this statement count.

Submitting the AMCAS

Once your  AMCAS application packet  has been processed, it -along with your transcripts and letters of recommendation- will be sent to the medical schools you selected on the application. There’s a separate fee for each school, so double-check the cost before submitting to each new school.

These schools will look at your initial application, and then they’ll likely request some secondary information from you. This is the second step of the two-step process. Each school’s application process at this point is different. Some may send you a list of yes or no questions to answer and send back to them.

Others will require you to write a more detailed, in-depth personal statement. These secondary personal statements are your second chance to shine and stand out from the crowd, so don’t take this lightly.

Secondary medical school personal statements are one of the few times in life you really do get a second chance to make a first impression. If you do well here, you’ll likely be called in for an interview.

Now let’s discuss these personal statements in a little more detail.

What is a Personal Statement?

A personal statement is merely a statement – a short essay – that you write about yourself, your life, your story, your experiences, your goals, etc. For the AMCAS application, you’ll have a specific prompt to answer.

For the secondary school-specific applications, you’ll probably have different prompts to which you’ll be asked to respond.

In the rare case, a college asks you to write a second personal statement but doesn’t provide you with a prompt to guide your writing, there are several things you can include.

First of all, make sure you list the characteristics you possess that would make you a good fit for the medical field. Then talk about a time you demonstrated these exceptional characteristics.

Some qualities that make for a good physician are:

• Empathy and compassion
• Experience with and appreciation for diversity
• A strict code of ethics and a good moral compass
• A desire to serve and help others
• Good people and communication skills
• Kindness, a strong work ethic, and grace under pressure

It’s important to present these things like you’re telling a really good story. You can’t be dry and boring, or your application is likely going to be lost to the bottom of the pile.

You might also mention why you were attracted to the medical field in the first place and what your goals are after successfully completing medical school.

Talk about your passions and the things you hope to achieve once you’re an established physician.

Also:   Check out the Best Laptop for Medical School Guide here

Medical School Personal Statement Prompts

Prompt 1: the amcas prompt – use the space provided to explain why you want to go to medical school..

Remember, for this particular personal statement, you’re only allowed 5,300 characters to thoroughly answer the prompt. That’s 5,300 characters, not words, and that does include spaces.

That doesn’t give you a ton of space to write about yourself, but regardless of that, you still have to find a way to make an impression with your statement.

In this small amount of space, you have two main goals. The first is to tell the admissions committee who you are outside of all the dry information they’re getting about you in your transcripts and scores.

You’re not just telling them who you are; you’re also telling them what it is about you that makes you deserve a request for a second application. You have to sell yourself to this committee and make them want to know more about you.

Secondly, you have to answer the prompt directly. The question asks why you want to go to medical school. You have to address that.

Otherwise, you’ve ignored the prompt completely, which shows the committee that you’re not great at following instructions and that you probably don’t have a clear idea of why you’re interested in med school.

The personal statement is the humanizing part of the application. You have to make the committee see you as a person with dreams, goals, and a desire to better the world somehow.

If the word count permits, talking about why you became interested in medicine in the first place is a great way to lead into why you’ve chosen medicine and what you plan to do with your degree once you’ve earned it.

You don’t have a lot of room here, so you don’t need to waste words with a long introduction or a humbling portion that talks about a weakness you’re hoping to overcome.

In this personal statement, it’s all about highlighting those strengths unique to you that would make you an excellent doctor.

Prompt 2: What aspect of [this school] appeals most to you?

While answering this question, you can easily showcase your specific interests in the field of medicine while also sticking to the prompt.

For example, if that school is well-known for its obstetrics program, and that’s the field you’re interested in pursuing, you can still use the format we’ve outlined above.

You start by talking about what got you interested in obstetrics in the first place, and then you transition into your plans for the future. Along the way, you talk about how and why that particular school’s obstetrician program is the perfect fit for you.

You can discuss the specific elements of the program you’re particularly excited about learning and address how the program will help you achieve your future career goals.

Prompt 3: Briefly describe a situation where you had to overcome adversity; include lessons learned and how you think it will affect your career as a physician.

This is a great opportunity for you to talk about triumphs in your life. It’s also a question that really allows you to showcase your positive characteristics and attributes.

You take a time in your life when you faced some hardship, and then you dive into talking about exactly how your strengths allowed you to overcome that hardship.

Be sure you explain how that particular situation shaped your morals and your worldview. What about that experience made you the person you are today, and how does that tie in with your goals for your future?

Once you’ve done that, you’ve tied it back into the general prompt and can follow the guidelines outlined above.

Prompt 4: Where do you see yourself in your career 15 to 20 years from now?

Honestly, this prompt is just another way of asking the AMCAS prompt of why you want to go to medical school, only with this one, you’re going to spend a little bit more time talking about your future goals than you do talking about why you became interested in medicine in the first place.

The format for answering this one, though, is just the same as answering the AMCAS prompt.

You’ll start by touching on those characteristics that are likely to make you a successful physician. You can then transition into what, specifically, you plan to do in the medical field and what inspired you to make that choice.

Then you move straight into talking about your after-med-school plans for your future. Be sure to answer the prompt though. Notice that it says “15 to 20 years from now.”

By then, you should be fairly well established and have a decent career. Talk about that point in your career, not the ‘fresh out of med school, first residency’ part of your career.

Standard Medical School Personal Statement Format

Despite the prompt you’re given – or whether you’re given a prompt at all – there is a general format you’ll use when writing your med school personal statement.

When it comes to the AMCAS statement, this format is a little different because you’re encouraged simply to type it up in the text box on the application.

With that in mind, you won’t be able to set margins or choose a font or anything like that. If you want to type your statement up in another window first, do it in something simple and format-free, like Notepad.

Otherwise, you run the risk of your essay not showing up as text in the text box. It may end up looking like gibberish, and you absolutely cannot edit that portion of your application once it’s been processed. It’s best just to type it in the text box and submit.

For the secondary essays and personal statements sent to each individual college, though, you won’t always have to type them in a text box. For these, you’ll use the same basic formatting guidelines, unless otherwise noted in the college’s specific personal statement instructions.

These include:

• Using MLA formatting
• Margins set at one-inch on every side
• 12-point font size (Arial/Times New Roman)
• Uniformly double-spaced
• No extra lines between paragraphs
• Use first-line indentation for new paragraphs

You’ll also use the same general formatting style in setting up the structure of your personal statement. As with most essays, you’ll have an introduction, some body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Again, this is only true of the secondary personal statements you receive from the individual colleges.

For the AMCAS personal statement, you won’t have a lot of room, so you’ll want to use introductory and conclusion sentences rather than paragraphs, leaving room for most of your actual information in the body of the personal statement.

Step 1. Introduction

Your main objective in the introduction is to  catch the reader’s attention  and make him want to keep reading out of interest rather than obligation.

In a general, “tell us about yourself” type of prompt, you’ll pick two or three of the qualities you possess that you feel would be most desirable in a doctor and mention how those three qualities are important facets of your character.

For other types of prompts, you’ll use your introduction to set the tone for your story. Whatever story you’re about to tell to answer the prompt, this paragraph is your lead-in. Set the tone and the stage for what you’re about to say, and let your body paragraphs follow smoothly and seamlessly after.

Step 2. Body Paragraphs

In this section, you’ll tell your story, and it truly does need to be a story. People who work in the admissions offices of medical schools are tasked with reading literally thousands of personal statements each year.

Many of these are full of anecdotes or overused cliches. Others are just horribly boring. It’s important that your story is entertaining, honest, and memorable.

Whatever story you were building up to telling in your introductory paragraph, now’s the time to tell it. There’s an old writer’s adage that says,  “Show; don’t tell.”  That’s what you need to do in your body paragraphs.

You must paint a picture for the reader. Allow him to see the story you’re laying out for him. This way, you’re engaging him in a story, not just talking at him.

Don’t assume this means being lengthy and rambling though. Always stick to the point, and don’t add a lot of unnecessary details.

Whatever the prompt, you also want to use these body paragraphs to work in something that talks about why medicine is your chosen field.

There are five main questions you should answer in the body paragraphs, even if the prompt doesn’t guide you to these questions specifically. They are:

• What was the experience that made you want to become a physician?
• How did you feel during this experience?
• What did you learn from it?
• How did it affect you, your community, and your worldview?
• What about it made you want to pursue medicine?

No matter what the specific prompt is – unless, of course, it’s something crazy like, “What’s your favorite color in the rainbow?” – you should be able to find a natural, organic way to work this into your medical school personal statement.

Step 3. Conclusion

In the conclusion paragraph, you’ll wrap everything up and make it all fit together neatly. This is the point where you change from  ‘show; don’t tell’  to  ‘state it boldly and explicitly.’  

Restate those two or three main qualities you mentioned having. Then briefly, within one or two sentences, talk about your perspective on the event/story you told in your body paragraphs. Finally, once again proclaim your passage for the medical field.

Medical School Personal Statement Cliches to Avoid

We’ve already discussed some of the things you need to do while writing your personal statement for med school. Now let’s discuss some things you definitely should not do.

1. Don’t Rewrite Your Application

First of all, don’t simply repeat your resume and AMCAS application information. The admissions department has already looked through your application.

They already know what courses you’ve taken, what your GPA and MCAT scores look like, and what types of relevant experience you have. Don’t tell them all of that again.

This is your chance to be unique and tell them something they don’t already know about you. Don’t waste words on things they can read in your application packet.

2. Don’t Be a Snob

Highlighting your strengths and accomplishments is perfectly fine in your personal statement. You want to be impressive.

What you don’t want to do is come off as sounding like a pretentious snob who thinks he’s better than everyone else. You have to find the perfect balance between bragging about yourself and beating people over the head with how great you are.

3. Don’t Fill Your Personal Statement with Overused Cliches

Telling a short personal anecdote isn’t necessarily a bad thing; although you should be aware that many other people will start their personal statements in exactly the same way.

If you do use a personal anecdote, though, keep it to one. Don’t use one after the other after the other , and avoid cliches like the plague!

It’s okay to talk about your goals and how you plan to use your career in medicine to better the world, but you can’t just come out and say things like, “I want to make the world a better place.”

Of course, you do. We all want that. Saying it in those bald-face terms, though, just sounds silly. An  article in US News  recently discussed cliche topics to avoid specifically in medical school personal statements.

These included listing the reason you wanted to be a doctor as having anything to do with regular doctor visits as a child, overstating your  “innate passion for medicine,”  beginning a personal statement with a patient anecdote about  “Patient X”  and/or talking about how you saved someone’s life.

Other overused topics that have become a cliche in medical school personal statements are:

• The doctor who saved my life
• “I broke a bone when I was little, and the doctor made me feel better, so I’ve wanted to be a doctor ever since.”
• The desire to cure an incurable disease
• The desire to make a (usually deceased) family member proud
• Generic  “I want to save lives”  statements
• Coming from a long line of doctors

4. Don’t Victimize Yourself

It’s okay to talk about times in your life when you’ve overcome adversity, especially if that’s what the prompt asks, but don’t keep heaping on the bad.

Overcoming adversity is admirable, but discussing every injustice that’s ever been done to you in your life just makes you look like you’re whining and looking for special treatment because your life has been hard.

5. Don’t Talk Like a Thesaurus

If the admissions team has to look up the definition of words you’ve used in your personal statement, it’s ostentatious and derisory. ( See what I did there? Annoying, right? ) The admissions department is looking for quality med school applicants, not wordsmiths.

6. Don’t Write Outside the Character/Word/Page Limit

If you’re given a range of “ between x-y words ” (or characters), fall within that range! Don’t give the admissions department less than they asked you to give them; it makes you seem lazy and uninspired.

On the other hand, don’t give them more than what they’ve asked you to write either. It’s disrespectful. You must recognize that they have thousands of essays to read, and every person who goes over the maximum word or character count is just adding more work to their already busy days. Plus, it shows a lack of editing.

Medical School Personal Statement Examples

Example personal statement 1.

“This realization became clear to me in the mountains of Nepal, but the decision was an evolution that began long ago. Lego building blocks as a child were my first introduction to engineering, then came the integration of mechanics and movement with robotics in high school, and eventually human biomechanics as an engineer in college. With these courses I learned to see the body in a new and amazing way. Engineering enabled me to envision muscles not as simple contractile tissues, but as the motors for the pulleys that move our bones. Biomechanics made bones evolve from static connectors into the dynamic moment-arms of life. This fascination with the human body drives my interest in orthopedics and, coupled with my love of patients and surgery, will provide me with a career of continuous discovery and fulfillment.”

– Read the rest  here

This is a great example of a body paragraph in a personal statement. The writer is giving us a great explanation of why he’s interested in medicine (orthopedics specifically) and letting us know that he’s been cultivating this interest practically his entire life, but he’s doing so without using that tired old cliche, “ I’ve wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember .”

Additionally, the way he writes and his vocabulary show us that he’s intelligent without him ever having to state that fact himself. He gives a glimpse into what his future goals and plans are, and his image of combining his “ interest in orthopedics ” and “ love of patients and surgery ” for “ a career of continuous discovery and fulfillment ” is an excellent mental picture with which to leave us.

We finish reading this and are left with a feeling that this young man is going to do great things in his career, and never once did he have to come out and say it himself.

Our Verdict:  

Example Personal Statement 2

“I was never supposed to become a doctor; that title was meant for my older brother, Jake. My parents held Jake to the highest standard when it came to academics. They did not deem me worthy of being held to the same standard, so I grew up believing I would never be able to outdo him in academics. This notion of intellectual inferiority combined with my childhood success in athletics motivated me to focus on developing as an athlete rather than a student. So why am I applying to medical school and not playing professional baseball? Well, science captivated my attention in 11th grade and hasn’t let go.”

The opening sentence of this personal statement is quite good. It takes the opposite stance of the commonly overused med school cliche’ “ I’ve always wanted to be a doctor .”

Instead, this writer tells us that he was never supposed to be a doctor. That’s an interesting, unique way to start a personal statement. It’s a good hook, and it makes us want to read further to find out what changed.

As we read on, though, we don’t get an immediate explanation. Instead, the writer wastes a ton of words continuing to talk about his brother’s strengths and his own weaknesses.

If this were a novel or even a novella, this would be fine, but in the AMCAS personal statement, you only have 5,300 characters to get to the point. This writer is wasting many precious characters, and even worse, he’s wasting them on talking negatively about himself.

It isn’t until the sixth sentence that we find out what changed, and even then, the explanation is a weak one. This is an example of a writer misunderstanding the “ Show; don’t tell ” adage and using up too much space and time to get to the point.

Our Verdict:

Example Personal Statement 3

“My passion for medicine was planted by my mother’s accident, sculpted by accompanying the elderly woman and transformed by working alongside physicians in underserved communities. I feel humbled that during my journey, many patients have given me their trust to emotionally support them in difficult times. One day I will apply my knowledge and training in medicine to serve as their companion in their most vulnerable time.”

This is an example of a conclusion paragraph that’s well done. The writer restates her main points and reminds us of her passion for medicine, but she does so in a way that doesn’t just have her repeating everything she’s already said.

Instead, she briefly touches on the three main milestones in her journey that she’s already covered in-depth earlier in her statement.

She reminds us that she initially became interested in medicine due to an accident she witnessed with her mother. Then she reminds us of a nice story she told in the middle of her statement about her volunteer experience working with the elderly in the hospital and explains how that encounter shaped the type of doctor she wanted to be.

Then she reminds us of another piece of her essay, where she talked about her work with the poor and homeless and how that work reshaped her goals for medicine.

Finally, she restates some of her best qualities (trustworthy, warm, smart, well-trained) and gives us a vision for her future. This was a perfectly written conclusion to an equally good personal statement.

Example Personal Statement 4

“I was one of those kids who always wanted to be a doctor. I didn’t understand the responsibilities and heartbreaks, the difficult decisions, and the years of study and training that go with the title, but I did understand that the person in the white coat stood for knowledge, professionalism, and compassion.

As a child, visits to the pediatrician were important events. I’d attend to my hair and clothes, and travel to the appointment in anticipation. I loved the interaction with my doctor.

I was hospitalized for several months as a teenager and was inspired by the experience, despite the illness.”

While the overall tone and writing style of this writer isn’t bad, she somehow manages to use  three  of the most overused cliches prospective students are told to avoid when writing their personal statements.

She starts out with the innate desire to be a doctor dating back to childhood. Then she moves into how she had frequent doctor visits and how much she loved her interactions with her pediatrician.

Finally, she uses a third cliche topic by talking about being hospitalized as a teenager and how much that experience shaped her future goals of working in medicine.

While the essay itself isn’t badly written, it also isn’t memorable or remarkable because she’s using the exact same types of stories of thousands of other applicants.

Example Personal Statement 5

“When I was six years old, I lost my father […]. He was in a coma for four days before he passed away. The images of my father — barely alive, barely recognizable, and connected to multiple machines — are among my earliest memories of medicine and hospitals. Too young to understand the complications of his accident and the irreversible brain damage he suffered, I was a child who thought that medicine had failed. I associated medicine with loss. Fortunately, [my family full of physicians] introduced me to another side of health care, and together they inspired me to seek out other experiences in the medical field.”

Although this writer begins in what seems like another cliche story of loss inspiring the desire to be a doctor, the way he changes the narrative and surprises us makes the cliche work for him.

Most prospective students have stories about how a loved one was in the hospital or dying and watching that person struggle inspired them to study medicine and help save other children from having to watch their own loved ones die.

Instead, this writer surprises us by telling us watching his dad die in the hospital gave him a bad taste for medicine. It gave him a negative association between medicine and failure.

This is just different and unique enough that it draws us in and makes us want to read more. If this young man hated medicine so much, why does he want to go to med school?

The desire to find the answer to that one question is enough to hook us and make us want to keep reading. This is a great example of how an introductory paragraph can grab our attention right away.

With nearly 60% of medical school applicants getting rejected every year, it’s extremely important you turn in the best medical school application packet possible.

This means taking all the right courses, maintaining good grades and a stellar GPA, volunteering in meaningful places, and writing a memorable medical school personal statement.

The importance of the personal statement cannot be overstated. It’s the one area in the whole application where you get to make yourself as appealing and as unforgettable as possible, so make sure you invest an appropriate amount of time, effort, and editing into it ( and we have packages just for that here ).

Avoid using overused cliches. Highlight your most impressive strengths. Use proper grammar, formatting, and punctuation. Spell and grammar check everything ( we recommend Grammarly ) and stay within the mandated word/character range.

Most importantly, show the admissions team that you have a passion for medicine and that they won’t be disappointed in the results if they give you a spot at their school.

You already know how great you are. Now it’s time to show them.

Related Reading:

5 Best MCAT Prep Books, According to Med Students

5 Best MCAT Prep Courses, According to Med Students

10 Best Books for Psychology Students Today

The Best Laptop for Medical School in 2022, According to Med Students (Easy Guide)

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So You Want to Be a Psychiatrist

• By Kevin Jubbal, M.D.
• November 1, 2020
• Accompanying Video , Medical Student
• So You Want to Be , Specialty

Welcome to our next installment in So You Want to Be. In this series, we highlight a specific specialty within medicine, such as psychiatry, and help you decide if it’s a good fit for you. If you want to vote in upcoming polls to decide what future specialties we cover, subscribe to the Med School Insiders YouTube channel .

If you’d like to see what being a psychiatrist looks like, check out my personal YouTube channel, Kevin Jubbal, M.D. , where we featured Dr. Petey Kass in A Day in the Life of a Psychiatris t.

So you want to be a psychiatrist. You like the idea of being a shrink, doing talk therapy, and having people all figured out. Let’s debunk the public perception myths of what it means to be a psychiatrist, and give it to you straight. This is the reality of psychiatry.

What is Psychiatry?

Psychiatry is the field of medicine focused on understanding and treating mental health disorders and psychological distress. Psychiatrists use the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual , currently in its fifth iteration (hence the name DSM-V) in assessing a patient’s constellation of symptoms and determining if they exhibit a diagnosable disorder. Psychiatrists can also help patients with other conditions, even if they aren’t classified DSM illnesses – including psychological distress from pain, trauma, difficult relationships, or other high-stress situations.

If you’ve ever confused psychiatrists with psychologists, you’re not alone. Psychiatrists are medical doctors, meaning they have their MD or DO, and they’ve completed 4 years of medical school, followed by residency, and sometimes also a fellowship. They can diagnose and treat mental conditions using either medication or non-medication treatments, such as psychotherapy. While psychiatrists can use medications to treat patients’ more severe symptoms, they rely on talk therapy training to help people with more mild symptoms or with problems that wouldn’t necessarily respond to medications. Psychologists, on the other hand, have either Master’s or Ph.D. level training, and while they’re able to diagnose and treat mental illness, they can only use non-medication treatments. Sometimes you’ll see psychiatrists and psychologists working together, with psychologists focusing on therapy, and psychiatrists usually focusing their expertise on medication, although they can do either.

While some think that psychiatrists go into the field because they subconsciously want to fix their own problems, or that they’re highly eclectic and strange, this isn’t quite true. As a psychiatrist, you’ll have to be adept at relating to a wide range of individuals, and that also requires well developed interpersonal skills.

And while it has a useful handbook, psychiatry is much more than just memorizing DSM criteria and slapping on diagnoses to patients. Psychiatrists use the DSM as a guide, but they formulate patients more holistically than that – they’re looking at the psychological, socioeconomic, and physiologic causes of their symptoms as well, not just the symptoms themselves.

There are a few ways to categorize psychiatry.

Clinical vs Research

As a clinical psychiatrist, you’ll be seeing patients, doing therapy, and generating treatment plans.

If practicing inpatient, you’ll see patients admitted to the psychiatric ward or consult service, meaning those treated primarily in other areas of the hospital, but requiring secondary psychiatric care. As a consultant, you’ll educate primary teams on various psychiatric and psychological conditions affecting their patients and provide them with your psychiatric treatment recommendations.

With inpatient, you’re dealing with more severe cases that often require more critical treatment. These patients often have multiple psychiatric conditions and are generally more complicated than those you would see in an outpatient clinic. There’s also a great deal of medicine involved as these patients often have multiple medical issues that either worsen or mimic psychiatric symptoms. For example, certain medical issues like cancer, brain injuries, or COVID can result in delirium or agitation, which can both look like psychosis or depression.

With outpatient, you’ll be primarily combining psychotherapy with medication management for patients with whom you’ll have more longitudinal relationships, as they’ll come to the office multiple times over months or years. With outpatient, you also have more flexibility in managing things beyond traditional psychiatric diagnoses, like sleep, pain, or distress from various stressors.

If you focus on research, you can choose to do more bench or clinical work. With bench research, you often work in a lab and do research at the cellular or molecular level to explore foundational neurobiology that may help explain the brain function of people with psychiatric conditions. With clinical research, you could explore the efficacy of different medications and treatment options in treating specific patient populations or psychiatric conditions. Interventional psychiatry is an exciting new area exploring brain stimulation through transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), ketamine, and deep brain stimulation.

Academic vs Community vs Private Practice

In an academic setting, you can work either primarily inpatient or outpatient, but you’re associated with an academic teaching hospital. This offers less flexibility in your practice but will allow you the opportunity to do research, work with medical students and residents, and pursue academic leadership. You’ll be working at a medical center that is likely pushing to advance the field but will be at the whim of the bureaucracy of the hospital. Your appointment types -meaning appointment length and therapy vs. medication management ratios- will have a limit set by the institution.

In a community setting, you’ll work with hospitals or outpatient clinics run by the county or city public health departments. Patients will primarily be Medicaid or uninsured, meaning you’ll have the opportunity to work with underserved patients and a greater proportion who are severely mentally ill. Dual diagnoses amongst this patient population are not uncommon, meaning a substance use disorder plus a separate mental health diagnosis. For these reasons, this work can be highly rewarding, as this is a population with less access, but it can also be highly frustrating working with a socioeconomically disadvantaged population, as medication and appointment adherence may be problematic, as is access to other resources.

Private practice entails one or more physicians setting up their own shop outside of a larger medical center. They have complete control and autonomy, seeing patients as they choose. This has the greatest amount of flexibility in most domains, including how much they charge, which insurances they take, the balance of therapy versus medication, and visit durations. However, this is running a business, and there are, of course, risks associated with that. In the beginning, you’ll have to do more work to build a patient population, which may mean making less money at first than you would with an established group or medical center.

With psychiatry, you don’t have to choose a single type of practice. You could do academia a few days per week, and some private practice on other days with a smaller psychiatry group.

How to Become a Psychiatrist

After 4 years of medical school, psychiatry residency is 4 years, unless you go into a child psychiatry fellowship, in which case you can skip the final year, making it a 3-year residency. More on fellowships shortly.

As a PGY1 , meaning your first year out from medical school, you’ll do primarily general medicine rotations, like inpatient and outpatient medicine, emergency medicine, neurology, and the like. You’ll spend some time on psychiatry, usually inpatient, from a few months up to half a year, depending on your program.

As a PGY2 , you’re now completely immersed in your psychiatric training, primarily on inpatient and consult psychiatry services, though some programs will offer a small amount of outpatient training during this year.

As a PGY3 , you’ll focus on outpatient psychiatry, rotating in different specialty clinics, each devoted to a specific diagnosis, patient population, or age group. For example, you could attend bipolar clinic or anxiety clinic, or go to child clinic or LGBT clinic.

Your fourth and final year will be highly variable, although most commonly this will be repetitions of rotations you’ve done in previous years. You’ll also have more opportunities for elective and research time to pursue your interests.

Hours in psychiatry residency are pretty relaxed, mostly 8-5 on most rotations, with some overnight and weekend call shifts, the frequency of which is highly dependent on the program, with some programs having none.

In terms of competitiveness, psychiatry is more attainable , with an average Step 1 in the 2020 cycle of 227 and Step 2CK of 241, and a 90% match rate. In the MSI Competitive Index , psychiatry ranks at 18 out of 22 in terms of competitiveness.

Psychiatry has increased in competitiveness in recent years for a few reasons. More medical students are understanding the importance of work/life balance, for which psychiatry has a strong advantage . There are more options within the field than ever, thus attracting a wider variety of individuals, and it’s also becoming a less stigmatized field. Mental health is finally becoming more mainstream, as it should!

Subspecialties within Psychiatry

After completing residency, you can subspecialize further with fellowship. All fellowships are 1 year in duration, except for child psychiatry, which is 2 years.

Child Psychiatry

In child psychiatry, you’ll be working with children and adolescents, most commonly dealing with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, ADHD, and autism. You’ll work closely with their parents as well, thus incorporating a high degree of psycho-education and family counseling.

Child psychiatry is more focused on non-medication based strategies, including therapy and mindfulness practice, compared to other psychiatry subspecialties.

Psychosomatic

Psychosomatic is best suited for those who want to work in the overlap between psych and medicine, specifically with medically hospitalized patients who have psychiatric needs. You’ll manage complicated patients, such as someone with schizophrenia who is also on chemotherapy, finding the best medication for the mental disorder that won’t negatively interact with the chemotherapeutic agent.

Psychosomatic specialists are often embedded in clinics for a particular medicine subspecialty, such as oncology or palliative care, which allows psychiatrists to further subspecialize with patient populations they are most interested in.

Geriatric psychiatry includes working with older adults and learning how to manage psychiatric illness in more medically frail and complicated patients with other comorbidities.

You’ll also be doing life-processing, meaning coping with end of life stressors, such as the death of friends, spouses, and one’s own mortality.

If you’re interested in this field, you’ll have great flexibility in where you work, even in big cities, as there’s a high demand for the specialty with our aging population, but currently low supply.

Forensic psychiatry focuses on the overlap between psych and the law. You’ll evaluate patients in situations related to legal matters, such as insanity evaluations if the defendant pleads insane.

When it comes to legal issues related to psych, these are the experts. For example, you’ll act as an expert witness in court cases and evaluate medical records to assess malpractice.

This isn’t a clinically focused subspecialty. Rather, you’ll be serving as an expert evaluator, but most forensic psychiatrists also do part-time outpatient general psychiatry work as well.

Addiction focuses on substance use disorders and dual diagnoses patients, meaning they have both substance use disorder and a primary psychiatric disorder. You’ll often find yourself working in rehabilitation facilities or outpatient clinics.

Public psychiatrists practice in community or underserved patient populations, doing advocacy work for legislation that affects these communities, op-ed writing for publication, and lobbying. You’ll be working with the most vulnerable patient populations, which can be very satisfying.

Interventional

Interventional psychiatry is not an ACGME-accredited subspecialty, meaning it’s not as official as the rest. This is for those who are interested in psychiatric procedures, like electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for severe depression or transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for OCD and depression treatment. This also includes ketamine assisted therapy or ketamine infusions for depression. Some of your patients will have deep brain stimulation electrodes placed by neurosurgeons, and you’ll manage the patient’s psychiatric care before and after surgery.

What You’ll Love About Psychiatry

Psychiatry is a unique specialty in medicine. It’s the least algorithmic, meaning you’ll never simply follow an algorithm when treating a patient. Rather, you must think deeply and holistically about each of your patients. If 2 patients have the same disorder, you likely won’t be using the same 2 treatment plans.

If you enjoy spending time with patients, psychiatry is hard to beat. It’s one of the few specialties left where you can regularly have 45-60 minute appointments. And most of your patients will need your treatment long-term if you prefer longitudinal relationships and having a deeper connection. You’ll see them develop and improve with time, and being a part of that is satisfying.

Psychiatry offers flexibility in your career — you can work in multiple clinical settings or with multiple patient populations and even have multiple jobs at once. You’re able to tailor your career to meet your goals unlike other specialties, where you generally must take one job in one sitting.

And finally, the quality of life and hours are hard to beat, both during and after residency . It’s pretty much just regular business hours, and overnight emergencies or weekend calls are infrequent.

What You Won’t Love About Psychiatry

Psychiatry is not for everyone. It’s a hands-off specialty, so if you enjoy the physical exam or procedures, you won’t get that with psychiatry, unless of course, you go into interventional psych. It’s also a less concrete specialty dealing with uncertainty. Our understanding of mental illness is still developing, and it can be difficult to know exactly how to help patients. You’ll sometimes try multiple treatment options with little success, and that can be frustrating.

Psychiatrists also often deal with difficult patient populations, such as those with substance use disorders, severe mental illness, or personality disorders that can be challenging to manage.

And in private practice, it can be isolating, although this is less of an issue in other practice settings.

You may come across some anti-psychiatry stigma amongst the general population, due to influences from conspiracy theorists, Scientology, and cruel treatments from decades ago such as lobotomy and shock therapy. Modern-day electroconvulsive therapy is done under anesthesia, is safe, does not involve any convulsions or broken limbs as the patient is on paralytics, and the patient is completely unaware of the seizure. The most common adverse effect is a headache.

Should You Become a Psychiatrist?

How can you decide if psychiatry is for you? If you’re interested in the brain, both in how it works and how it can cause mental illness, and if you enjoy talking with people in-depth and hearing their stories, psychiatry may be for you.

Many medical students enter their psychiatry rotation assuming they won’t like it, but when they give it a chance, they’ll often find it more interesting than they expected!

If you’re the kind of person who wants to help support others through their challenges, no other field goes as deep. You must be comfortable helping people work through emotionally heavy situations while holding space with them as they share upsetting and tragic stories.

If you’re considering psychiatry and neurology, they’re similar but different. Psychiatry is best for those interested in how the mind works and how to treat emotional disorders, requiring comfort with ambiguity, complexity, and holistic formulation. It can be messier.

If you prefer more concrete answers, localizing brain lesions with cut and dry, black and white pathophysiology, neurology may be a better fit.

For anyone who wants to take their medical school or residency application to the next level, Med School Insiders has your back. Thousands of students have used our services and courses, and we have over a 95% success rate for our comprehensive packages. But don’t just take our word for it. Our customers have left hundreds of glowing reviews, and we have an industry-leading 99% satisfaction rating!

Thank you all so much for reading! Much love to you all.

Kevin Jubbal, M.D.

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This Post Has One Comment

I also wanna study psychiatry but our country doesn’t provide such courses…what can i do?

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The Six Personal Statement Types in Psychiatry *rehashing classic post*

• Thread starter splik
• Start date Sep 5, 2018

Professional Cat at Large

• Sep 5, 2018

wolfvgang22

Full member.

How about some examples of if personal statements that would be better received? What would you like to see in a statement? I was fortunate in that I had a lot of social work career experience going into med school and was able to draw on that I my statement (and no, I didn't imply I was amazing or that a patient changed my life). Interviewers said it was good, but I imagine sometimes they were just being polite. There is only so much you can say in one page. Let's face the fact that many students don't have a lot of background in mental health care other than their rotation in med school or personal experiences. I look for red flags, for sure, but mainly I just want to see a good effort and some enthusiasm to learn.  

deleted736562

They should just scrap personal statements and replace them with cover letters that almost every kind of job demands. Let's face it they are a joke, nevermind a bit of a throw back to high school. At the end of the day, the only real way you're going to be able to tell who's a good applicant and who's not is how they actually perform in day to day practice.  

MacDonaldTriad

wolfvgang22 said: How about some examples of if personal statements that would be better received? What would you like to see in a statement? Click to expand...

I don't think my personal statement matched any of the categories. I wrote about how every other medical specialty besides psychiatry sucked. Then I included some philosophy and wrote about Viktor Frankl's Men's Search for Meaning and somehow tied that to psychiatry. For one of my personal statements for medical school, if I remember correctly, the first paragraph was, "Money." I wasn't invited to interview at that school.  

AD04 said: I don't think my personal statement matched any of the categories. I wrote about how every other medical specialty besides psychiatry sucked. Then I included some philosophy and wrote about Viktor Frankl's Men's Search for Meaning and somehow tied that to psychiatry. Click to expand...

Amygdarya said: Right. Because dumping on other specialties is a great way to stand out. Seriously, you want to show why you *want* to do psychiatry, not why it's the only acceptable specialty for someone who likely didn't have realistic expectations about medicine before entering medical school (and, for that matter, doesn't have realistic expectations about psychiatry). Victor Frankl's philosophy - a mix of a yawn and an eyeroll - the man himself deserves a lot of respect, but his philosophy has become such a cliche that your PS easily qualifies as number 4. I know you won't accept this because of my criticism above, but for anyone else reading: don't try to sound smarter/deeper/more sophisticated, it pretty much never works. Being yourself in the residency application process was the best advice I received, landing me in a very good residency that's a great fit for me. Click to expand...

aim-agm said: I'm pretty sure that post was a joke. Click to expand...

MacDonaldTriad said: I'm sure splik would agree; he criticizes these 6 types or categories, but there truly isn't much else out there to say. If you see your essay in these 6, you are in very good company. Click to expand...

Have people read it. Say something about yourself. Stop freaking out because you already got into medical school and presumable did OK. PSs are not the biggest factor unless you blow it. Grades, scores, and schools are more objective. PSs are useful if you have a true special path to getting where you are. Otherwise, you are in the herd. Being in the herd is not a bad thing by the way. Of course that depends on Grades, schools and scores. Not much else comes through the process unless we know your work first hand. Most of you can only do that to a couple of places so don't panic. We are both trying to get the best we can. I have said this multiple times and it will always be true. Best of luck and release the hounds one more time, this never gets old. High stakes for all.  

SquibDell said: Is it worth trying to avoid these 6 types i.e. by trying to write something unique to stand out? Or better to go with something forgettable but safer? Also, how is humour usually received? I can imagine it going both ways depending on the PD... Click to expand...

Unofficial Froopyland Forum Mod.

• Sep 6, 2018

fpsychdoc said: They should just scrap personal statements and replace them with cover letters that almost every kind of job demands. Let's face it they are a joke, nevermind a bit of a throw back to high school. At the end of the day, the only real way you're going to be able to tell who's a good applicant and who's not is how they actually perform in day to day practice. Click to expand...

I don't even want to dig out my PS for residency, I am sure it is cringe worthy.  

Evidence Based

Some of the best advice I ever got about writing my PS was to make it: 1) Sound like myself 2) Something you'll be interested in talking about during interviews, as this and your CV are the easiest conversation topics for interviewers 3) Good enough In all likelihood your PS will be solid as long as you sound like a real person and not like a serial killer. Try to avoid really saccharine tropes and cliches and don't be a jerk. You probably won't be exceptional, but that's fine.  

The seventh category is the "here are various reasons why this makes sense" personal statements. Nothing original, just anecdotes of personal qualities and experiences that make you think this is a job you'll like and be good at. There's nothing wrong with such a PS.  

Queen Tinfoil, types iwth a baby in her lap

I didn't apply for psych, so this is something of a tangent... I wouldn't write why all the specialties suck, but I was told that the best PS will make a decent case for the following, that you are not glamorizing the field, have realistic expectations all around, have some idea of what its greatest challenges for most people practicing it, and why you're a good fit all around for that. If your chosen specialty is quite similar to some other field, you don't have to go out of your way to trash it, there's a subtle way to handle it. Not in your PS, but in your mind, delineate what essential qualities distinguish them. Then subtly find a way in your PS to emphasize how you and that quality/lack of that quality in that field jive with each other. This sort of answers any subconscious/conscious question the reader might have about "why this not that?" Because you've given a reason already. Psych is so different from other fields that I'm not sure exactly how you can do the above relative to other fields. I don't know if that would be a good approach for psych, or how you might write that. It was easier for my own life and specialty choice to write mine as I did. I will go so far as to say my PS stood out quite a bit and was pretty highly praised. N = 24 interviews. I think this is a practical and possibly successful approach, because I think anyone espousing to want to go into a field, anyone looking to bring you in, is wondering "do they have any idea what they're getting into, and are they suited? (will they cope with the suck being a big one there.)" as they read. The end. This is my only thought for how to write an effective PS for residency, period. Otherwise I have no idea how not to fall into one of the above categories, and in my mind, if my PS isn't barf-worthy when others read it, and my mentors reading it find that I've got a realistic view and case for that field, then I'm ahead of the game. I've heard it said that ideally your PS is ready for your LOR writers to view (should this be happening closer to ERAS time, I had docs that wanted to write me LORs that told me to call them when it was time). However, I don't know that you want an un-reviewed one going past them. I would say that it would be ideal to get some mentors that won't be writing you letters, in the field read it and see what they think re: 1) barfy cheese factor 2) do they agree you covered what the field is like, how it sucks, and made them believe you are suited, will excel, and will love it anyway, without being too negative. (obviously don't focus on the negative, just saying it's worth acknowledging realistic positive things about the field AND show that you've at least considered the downsides even if you don't go on for pages about it). The struggle is how to not be in one of the 6 categories as you do this. I've seen different ideas for how to craft a PS elsewhere. Consider those and pick a structure. This is where sounding like yourself, covering my suggestions, drafts, and having multiple reviewers, is going to be your best bet at a somewhat encouraging PS for someone to read, imo. TLDR: thoughts on strategies for PS for any specialty  

Candidate2017

Evidence Based said: In all likelihood your PS will be solid as long as you sound like a real person and not like a serial killer. Click to expand...

DisorderedDoc417

Vanilla PS that is genuine and has no grammatical errors will do. Your PD wants you to be hard working, timely, and a team player. The above examples are hilarious!  

• Sep 7, 2018

A silly comment / personal statement is good for revealing the neurotics and killjoys -- people I would rather not interact with. There are definitely a lot of them in medicine. Anyone can put on a mask for a day and say the right things. Lying through behavior is much more difficult. Anyways, whatever I wrote worked out really well for me and the PDs that I interviewed with were all cool people. Just the other day, I was cracking jokes with my PD. The program I matched with is a good fit for me. And in return, the program got a stellar resident. But if you cannot afford to screen out programs, I guess you have no option but to play it safe.  

• Jan 23, 2019

How can I avoid sounding like I am pitying myself when trying to explain the reason behind a failed USMLE attempt? I’m really trying to make it a story about perseverance vs a story about “woe is me, now the world owes me something!!!” Please share Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile  

Still in California

• Jan 24, 2019

Just be yourself and write why psychiatry and (if you’re a career changer) why now. Give us a page where we get to know you who you are. Extra points for coming across genuine and authentic. If you do that, you’ll have a strong PS in any reader’s eyes. And that’s enough. If you’re gunning for an amazing personal statement, you are rolling the dice because what amazes one person irritates another. And you don’t want to irritate your reader. Example: one person I have been on an admissions committee hates the “no $hit there I was” story used to drive the personal statement. She groans immediately. I’m fine with it if it’s well told but I grind my teeth and have to force myself to keep reading if someone puts quotes in their PS (why oh why do you use precious space to show how clever someone else is?) but it doesn’t phase her at all. Be yourself, be authentic, and tell us why you want to be a psychiatrist or do a psychiatric residency and how you think you’re prepared to do so successfully. We don’t need to laugh or cry. But we’d really prefer to not groan.  

notdeadyet said: Just be yourself and write why psychiatry and (if you’re a career changer) why now. Give us a page where we get to know you who you are. Extra points for coming across genuine and authentic. If you do that, you’ll have a strong PS in any reader’s eyes. And that’s enough. If you’re gunning for an amazing personal statement, you are rolling the dice because what amazes one person irritates another. And you don’t want to irritate your reader. Example: one person I have been on an admissions committee hates the “no $hit there I was” story used to drive the personal statement. She groans immediately. I’m fine with it if it’s well told but I grind my teeth and have to force myself to keep reading if someone puts quotes in their PS (why oh why do you use precious space to show how clever someone else is?) but it doesn’t phase her at all. Be yourself, be authentic, and tell us why you want to be a psychiatrist or do a psychiatric residency and how you think you’re prepared to do so successfully. We don’t need to laugh or cry. But we’d really prefer to not groan. Click to expand...

• Jan 25, 2019

Horners said: I really want to convey a message that I will be the kind of resident who’s a hard worker, the kind that you want on your team on a busy day. But frankly idk how to write that without sounding cocky or fake. Click to expand...

Horners said: I think my story isn’t really necessarily exciting or pulling on the heart strings. (Which worries me bc it’s not very provocative... but maybe that’s a good thing?) I want to convey the message that I’ve matured over the course of medical school and my life experiences. Click to expand...

Horners said: I really just want to drive the message home that I want to be the kind of physician that my colleagues respect and admire for their hard work and value added to the team. Click to expand...

Horners said: What is too long and what is too short for a PS? I know you guys probably read a ton of these all the time. Click to expand...

Personal statement is such a theatrical thing. It sounds almost stupid in my opinion. But life is a stage, right? Let's keep acting  

"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts"  

Ahamis said: Personal statement is such a theatrical thing. It sounds almost stupid in my opinion. But life is a stage, right? Let's keep acting Click to expand...

notdeadyet said: I’m a big proponent of “show don’t tell.” You convey that you’ll be a hard worker by having a history that shows you’re a hard worker. This is what LORs and comments in your Dean’s Letter are for. You can describe experiences that demonstrate you’re a hard worker, but you don’t specify qualities as these should come out in your application. Sure, mention your course of medical school and your life experiences. This is what the application is meant to do. If it happens to excite or pull our heart strings, that’s great, but that’ll be rare for most of us and if you give the impression you’re writing your PS with that intent in mind, it’s pretty much universally a turn off (the PS isn’t meant to be manipulative and most psychiatrists get manipulated quite frequently during their day job and don’t like experiencing it during optional duties like residency selection committees). Your application will excite or pull our hear strings. In your PS, talk about why psychiatry and let the chips fall where they may. Your story may resonate with your readers for reasons you can’t anticipate. But it’s much, much more likely to do so if it’s authentic and genuine. Show don’t tell. Describe experiences that demonstrate these qualities. Your letter writers and dean will let us know if you in fact have these qualities. Click to expand...

Non-medical

I only ever wrote a PS for getting into undergrad, but there was a line I wrote in it that I just have to publish somewhere. I organized a petition to build a sidewalk between a strip mall where kids hung out and the library, in between which there was a dangerous street for walking. We met with the city planner, City Council, wrote newspaper articles, etc. Anyhow, the line I wanted to use was: "I stood up so that others could walk." I loved the banality of it. Made me laugh. My 12th grade English teacher didn't like it so it got cut. As did my desired yearbook picture with half my face cut off and the caption, "Oops I cropped myself."  

ridethecliche

Meep meep meep.

• Jan 26, 2019

notdeadyet said: I think I would speak for the big majority of readers when I say that we like to see it kept to 1 page. I’ve heard people say “but... but... but... I have so much to say.” I respect that, but one of the skills you need as a psychiatrist is to take incredibly complex and lengthy narratives and formulations and condense them concisely into a cohesive and compelling discrete form of text. We like to see that in a PS too. Click to expand...

PS2summerdays

Cali born and raised..

• Jul 28, 2019

Is it terrible to write a "I am so amazing" personal statement, when in fact, you are not so amazing and you just want to talk a little bit about yourself and what makes you a decent fit?  

• Jul 29, 2019

nebuchadnezzarII said: Is it terrible to write a "I am so amazing" personal statement, when in fact, you are not so amazing and you just want to talk a little bit about yourself and what makes you a decent fit? Click to expand...

needadvicebadly

I'll add that I remember reading this thread this time last year. I remember thinking my personal statement topic was one of the six listed and thinking how generic it would be. I put a lot of effort into it, and not to toot my own horn, but I had more than one interviewer tell me it was one of the best personal statements they ever read. Point being don't feel like you need to stray too far from the norm, just let your passions be known and show (don't tell) a good story to the reader.  

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Personal Statement

The personal statement accomplishes a variety of goals:

• It explains why you are choosing a career in medicine.
• It puts a "face" to your application.
• It helps medical schools understand your experiences, interests and values.

What Medical Schools Look For

• Evidence that you understand the realities of medicine.
• Your view on why you have chosen a career in medicine.
• Your life story - How did you get to this point?
• Your values/experiences - Why is medicine a good fit for you?

Common Pitfalls

• Writing only about medicine and not about yourself.
• Not giving yourself enough time to revise multiple drafts.
• Cutting and pasting the statement from a Word document into the application, which introduces formatting errors. Make sure to write statement in a text-only program like Notepad or directly into the essay.
• Not proofing the final draft carefully.
• Not being aware of the tone of essay; coming across as arrogant or entitled to a career in medicine.
• Relying only on your ideas of medicine and not showing how you tested your decision with experiences.
• Writing a personal statement that could apply to any applicant.
• Repeating information that can be found elsewhere in the application.
• Start early. If you procrastinate on a personal statement, you delay the whole application process.
• Overwrite at the beginning of the process. Any extra material can often be used in secondary applications and preparing for interviews.
• Edit the final draft to 5,300 characters (including spaces) for AMCAS statements (usually a page and a half single spaced).
• Personal statement workshops   are held in winter and spring quarters. They are designed to help you begin the writing process.   See our events page   for upcoming workshops.
• Individual advising appointments   are available for preparation and feedback.   Book an appointment to meet with an advisor .
• You can review examples of successful personal statements at the HPA office. They are available for viewing at the reception desk.
• Check out   Essay Workshop 101 on the Student Doctor Network   website for tips and considerations.
• If you need style help,   The Writing Place   can help with grammar and expression (but not with content).

Ethics of Using Artificial Intelligence for Medical Residency Personal Statements

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• Published: 18 September 2024

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National Resident Matching Program, Data Release and Research Committee. Results of the 2021 NRMP Program Director Survey. Washington, DC: National Resident Matching Program; 2021. https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-PD-Survey-Report-for-WWW.pdf . Accessed 31 Aug 2024.

Pak TK, Montelongo Hernandez CE, Do CN. Artificial intelligence in psychiatry: threat or blessing? Acad Psychiatry. 2023;47(6):587–8.

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Association of American Medical Colleges. 2024 MyERAS applicant user guide. Washington, DC: AAMC; 2024. https://students-residents.aamc.org/media/16871/download?attachment . Accessed 31 Aug 2024.

Johnstone RE, Neely G, Sizemore DC. Artificial intelligence software can generate residency application personal statements that program directors find acceptable and difficult to distinguish from applicant compositions. J Clin Anesth. 2023;89:111185.

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Kouam, JS., Pak, T.K. & Montelongo Hernandez, C.E. Ethics of Using Artificial Intelligence for Medical Residency Personal Statements. Acad Psychiatry (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-024-02047-w

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CASPA Personal Statement Examples for Your PA School Application

• September 9, 2024
• Physician Assistant , Pre-PA/PA-CAT

The Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA) personal statement is your opportunity to explain the “why” behind your decision to become a PA. Talking about yourself can be challenging and uncomfortable, but this is your chance to be your own best advocate!

To help you get started, I recommend first checking out our other post, The Do’s and Don’ts of Writing an Impactful PA School Personal Statement which walks you through everything you need to know about how to write your CASPA personal statement.

Now, if you’re still wondering what a CASPA personal statement looks like, you’ve come to the right place! In this post, you’ll find two CASPA personal statement examples. As you read through them, put yourself in the mindset of the review committee. Do you know why this applicant wants to become a PA? Do you get a sense of who they are from what they’ve written? Would you invite them for an interview to learn more about them?

So with your review committee member hat on, take a close look at the following CASPA personal statement examples. We’ll review each, so you can see what they got right and wrong. 

Let’s get started!

CASPA Personal Statement Example #1

(Spoiler alert: Here’s what not to do!)

I would like to become a Physician’s Assistant because I believe it will provide an exciting opportunity to challenge myself further as a clinician. PAs are important members of the healthcare team that are able to expand access to healthcare. PAs work in many specialties and care for patients of different populations. PAs are able to work in both medical and surgical specialties and provide high quality care to patients.

I decided to pursue a Master’s degree in athletic training to combine my love of sports with my interest in medicine upon graduating from college. After completing my degree, I accepted a position at the Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children where I have held positions in both the Department of Therapeutic Services as well as most recently as a physician extender in the Department of Orthopaedics. Over the past too years I have worked alongside of Physician’s Assistants across many specialties. I decided I would like to purse a degree in physician assistant studies to expand my knowledge base, enhance my clinical skills, and take on a more advanced role in the care of patients as a PA in Orthopedic Surgery.

As an athletic trainer, I have developed my skills in the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of sports related injuries and general orthopedic conditions. I plan to become a PA in Orthopedic Surgery after graduation. Orthopedic surgery is an exciting field that utilizes PAs in many ways. I look forward to completing elective rotations in orthopedic surgery. The diverse opportunities within ortho, including the OR, the outpatient clinic, and the inpatient setting, particularly excites me about this speciality. I believe my education and experience has well-prepared me for a career as a Physician’s Assistant.

How did this student do?

The sample above is weak and highlights some of the “don’ts” to avoid when writing your CASPA personal statement. For example, “physician’s assistant” is not the appropriate title and should not be used. The proper title is physician assistant (or physician associate), and it usually isn’t capitalized. Be sure to use physician assistant or PA to demonstrate to the committee that you’re familiar with the proper title of the profession. 

Additionally, there are a couple of missed opportunities with the first paragraph. It’s dedicated to discussing what a PA does, rather than why the applicant wants to become one. Your CASPA personal statement is an opportunity to highlight why you would be a great PA, not to educate the review committee on what a PA does. Focus on you and your attributes rather than the role of PAs.

Additionally, there’s no hook. Your opening paragraph is the chance to get the reader’s attention and encourage them to continue reading. The first paragraph in this example fails to do that, and instead begins with a sentence about why the applicant wants to become a PA, then launches into a generic discussion about what PAs do.

This personal statement also focuses too much on one specialty . A PA education is broad and comprehensive. You want to demonstrate to the committee that you’re excited to learn about various aspects of medicine and that you appreciate the flexibility that comes with being a PA. While you might love orthopedic surgery, you need to show you’ll be interested and engaged throughout the program, not just on your elective rotation! 

Finally, there are grammatical and spelling errors throughout the essay. The personal statement is a chance to demonstrate your ability to communicate effectively and clearly. Always proofread for any errors, and it never hurts to have another set of eyes look over it as well! 

In summary, this wasn’t a very good CASPA personal statement, as it fell short in several important respects. Let’s try again!

CASPA Personal Statement Example #2

As you read this sample, think about what’s improved from example #1!

We often wait for that one, big, impactful moment—that occasion of divine inspiration where the future is clear and everything suddenly makes sense. I never had an “aha” moment when I decided I wanted to become a physician assistant. Instead, while working alongside PAs in my current role, I have had the opportunity to witness the millions of little impacts they have on patients, families, coworkers, and colleagues. Moments in time that often seem like routine parts of their day—moments of knowledge and problem-solving, moments of comfort and compassion, and moments of strength and understanding—that can impact someone’s life forever. It was these moments, added up over time, that inspired me to become a PA. 

And I believe it’s as a PA that I’ll reach my full potential, as it will provide an exciting opportunity to challenge myself further as a clinician. As an athletic trainer in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children for the past two years, I have been able to witness firsthand how PAs are integrated into the healthcare system, and the important role they play in a healthcare team. It was through this work that I realized I would like to pursue a degree in physician assistant studies to expand my knowledge base, enhance my clinical skills, and take on a more advanced role in the care of patients. 

As an athletic trainer, I have been given a great deal of independence in terms of patient care, clinical decision-making, and interactions with other healthcare professionals. I pride myself on my ability to effectively communicate with patients, parents, and other members of the healthcare team. In my work, no two days are ever the same, and I am easily able to adapt to different situations. I believe the clinical skills I’ve acquired as an athletic trainer are critical to the successful care and treatment of patients and are not easily taught in a classroom setting. I developed them through the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of sports injuries and general orthopedic conditions. These conditions often require the attention of an entire medical team, and through coordination of care with other specialties I have been exposed to many other aspects of medicine. I have truly enjoyed being part of a team and gaining exposure to other branches of medicine, and becoming a PA will allow me to further explore other opportunities beyond the areas of sports medicine and orthopedics.

Finally, I also have a passion for clinical research and am interested in continuing to pursue this as a PA. I have collaborated with our physicians on multiple projects, asking clinical questions and developing studies to find answers to them. I believe research provides an avenue to further one’s clinical practice and actively learn more about how to optimize patient care. 

In summary, my education and experience has well-prepared me for a career as a physician assistant. I am excited by the prospect of making my own impacts on the lives of patients, families, coworkers, and colleagues. I believe that becoming a PA will lead me to many “aha” moments, and give me the chance to inspire these moments in others.

Of the two CASPA personal statement examples, this one is much stronger and highlights more of the “do’s” to include when writing yours. It focuses more on the applicant’s strengths, including both experiences and “soft skills,”such as communication and adaptability, rather than what a PA does.

It also includes an interesting opening that honestly explains why this applicant has decided to become a PA. The theme in the opening is then tied back into the closing paragraph, providing a sense of coherence and completion to the narrative. Finally, it uses the proper title of the profession and is free of grammar and spelling errors. This demonstrates attention to detail and professionalism, two qualities that are crucial to success in a PA program!

Main Takeaways: Communicate Your “Why!”

While writing the CASPA personal statement can seem like a daunting task, it provides an opportunity for you to reflect on why you’re applying to PA school. Why are you taking this next step in your education, career, and life? Why are you going to invest the time, energy, and financial resources to pursue this degree? Why will you be great at this? Embrace the chance to communicate your “why” to the committee, and you’re more likely to be accepted! 

I hope you found these CASPA personal statement examples helpful. Good luck with your applications, and reach out to Blueprint if you need any assistance. 💙

🩺 Want to make sure you’re prepped for PA school? Try out our  Pre-PA practice questions  from anatomy and physiology to medical terminology, professional practice, and more!

Or maybe you’re looking for more tips for PA school applications? We’ve got you covered! Check out these other posts on the Blueprint PA blog:

• Understanding PA School Acceptance Rates & Admissions

Questions to Ask PA Programs During PA School Interviews

• How to Write Standout PA School Supplemental Essays

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	PSYCHIATRY PERSONAL STATEMENT
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PSYCHIATRY My interest in the mind and human behavior started long before medical school. Early in high school, a teacher introduced me to the concept of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Intrigued by the idea I wanted to learn more about Maslow’s theories. I discovered the section of the library containing writings not only of Maslow, but of many other psychologists and philosophers. Eagerly, I read and pondered these novel concepts and my existential interests flourished. In college, I continued my study of the human experience as an American Studies major. Through an interdisciplinary study of the history, arts, and literature of America, I explored the elements and events that shaped our national identity. While the social sciences and humanities stimulated me creatively and intellectually, I knew I would be most fulfilled if I could use my knowledge and skills to offer meaningful service to others. Throughout medical school, I have most enjoyed the courses that examine neuroscience and human behavior. I especially liked learning about psychopharmacology and the biological basis of addiction and other disorders. Early lectures about developmental neuroscience impressed upon me the gravity of psychological insults in infancy and childhood. During my basic science training, I had early opportunities to work with psychiatric patients. While developing my interviewing and assessment skills, I quickly realized my affinity for listening to people’s stories and learning about their cultural backgrounds. It was incredibly gratifying to see the transformation of patients impaired by their mental illness who were again functional after receiving appropriate therapy. Also, I enjoyed situations where I was able to help patients develop insight into their emotions and behaviors during the course of their treatment. I found ample opportunities for studying psychopathology throughout my clinical rotations and am intrigued by the idea that the mind strongly contributes to the development, course, and outcome of many medical conditions. Psychiatry challenges me intellectually, allows use of my creativity, and affords me an opportunity to utilize my greatest personal traits. During my pediatrics rotation, I cared for many patients who were admitted for psychiatric concerns. I enjoy addressing the unique psychiatric conditions and social and developmental issues of children and hope pursue a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry. Working with children and families pushes me to be imaginative, adapt my communication skills, and analyze problems from a multidisciplinary perspective. Expanding my understanding of child development and behavior, will give me more insight into my adult patients with relevant trauma or experiences from their early lives. While I envision patient care being the focus of my medical career, I plan to include advocacy and education in my professional activities. Practitioners that care for children are in a unique position to promote programs and activities that further child well being. Abundant opportunities exist to educate the public and the medical community about the realities of mental illness and the need for resources. I see a great need and opportunity for expanding our understanding of the etiology, course, and treatment options for pediatric mental illnesses. I enjoy finding solutions and working to bring about change Eventually, my goal is to be associated with an academic medical center where I might teach, write, and continue to search for answers to many of the questions that still exist in psychiatry. For my residency training, I hope to find a program where biological psychiatry and psychotherapy are both considered meaningful components of psychiatric training and practice. Also, I look forward to exposure to a diverse patient population and to the various subspecialties in psychiatry while at the same time fosters an atmosphere of learning and encourages resident research activities. Finally, I wish to work hard, be intellectually stimulated and challenged, and gain the proficiency I need to become an excellent clinician. I am excited to enter this fascinating profession and hope to make a meaningful contribution to my patients, to my residency program, and to the psychiatric field.