Any advice for personal statements/residency apps you wish you knew as M4s?

Start Early. 

No, Earlier.

You know what they say about the worm. I rewrote my personal statement 30 times, and that might be underexaggerating. I procrastinated studying for Step 2 by rewriting it (which I do not recommend), but at least I was productive while hiding from  UWorld.

The hardest part is just starting. If you wait around to be struck by a lightning bolt of literary genius, you’re going to be stuck staring at a blank Google Doc. Instead, word vomit onto the page and clean it up later. Set a timer for 20 minutes and write whatever comes to mind. No filter and no pressure here. Start somewhere, anywhere, and build from there. Rewriting is an important part of the quality writing process. Once you have clay to work with, you're cooking with fire.

Your personal statement does not need to be a masterpiece. It just needs to sound like YOU. Tell your story. Explain your "why." 

As soon as I cut the fluff and made it more digestible, mine got so much better. Clarity over cleverness.

Ask your people to proofread, but not rewrite, your statement. Have as many trusted eyes on it as possible, just to catch grammatical or formatting errors. I wouldn't invite too many people to give content feedback (there is such a thing as too many cooks in the kitchen), but do not underestimate how much one typo can hurt you. There are so many incredible applicants. Don’t get cut for something easily preventable.

As for your activities section, the same advice applies! Be intentional. Think of each entry as a different lens into yourself as a three-dimensional person. If your leadership in a student org is your main story in your personal statement, use your activities section to highlight other pieces of you. Volunteering, clinical experience, research, and hobbies are all fair game here. It’s your chance to show how well-rounded you are, not to repeat the same thing in different words.

Most importantly: do not write what you think they want to hear. The second you try to sound like someone else, it shows. These readers go through hundreds of applications! They can tell when it’s fake. When you lean too hard into what you think sounds good, you end up with a cookie-cutter story that blends into everyone else’s. Don’t do that. Be weird. Be real. Be you.

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So, here’s the recap:

Start earlier than you think you need to.

Don’t be afraid to write badly at first, I promise it’s part of the process.

Proofread like your future depends on it (because it kind of does).

And above all, be authentic.

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You’ve made it this far! Own your story. Be proud of who you are and what you're bringing to the table.

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