MS3 at USMD, interested in psych. For my personal statement I was going to write about how I was undecided for a long time what speciality to go into, and I even took a year off after my first year because I thought that medicine wasn't for me but ultimately came back, and after experiencing a family member with schizophrenia get the treatment and therapy they needed, it was like night and day for them, this made me settle on psychiatry and gave me the redirection in medicine that I needed. There are no red flags except for maybe the year off, how would reviewers look at that? Is the year off to reassess that big of a deal? During that time I still took some science courses to keep uptodate and did volunteering as well. My step score is average and havent written step 2 yet.
Question about personal statement
- Thread starter crossled
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2011
- Messages
- 1,285
- Reaction score
- 1,167
I mean this in the most sensitive and supportive way possible but don't do this man.
Ironically mental health issues are still a huge stigma in psychiatry residencies! Program directors want hard working cogs that do not get sick and so any potential signs of needing time off is sadly, a red flag in terms of applications.
Just bs stuff about finding passion in psychiatry like every other applicant, and if you get asked about the year off during interviews, say something like you were taking care of a family member or something.
tl;dr hide your own MH/family hx
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2010
- Messages
- 135
- Reaction score
- 69
Just to add a slight alternative perspective/modification on this and agree with @splik. I've heard similar sentiments about speaking about one's personal MH struggles and how this is still (unfortunately) considered a possible red flag, but can't speak to that directly. However, I can speak from personal experience about including information about a family member's struggles with SMI in my PS (and in interviews) and how it impacted my decision to pursue psychiatry. Every piece of feedback I received from mentors, PDs, interviewers, etc was wholly positive and was even told that it had a significant impact on their decision to rank me higher. Our situations do sound a bit different, as this has been ongoing since I was 16 years old, and I have shown a consistent interest in MH and SMI and did not take a year off. All of this to say, if you can write intelligently and thoughtfully about why the experience led you to pursue psych, then I think it couldn't hurt. It's definitely a bit cliche, but if it's true then you should write about it. As for the year off, I wouldn't touch on that in PS for the reasons other posters mentioned
@box8psych @splik @Monocles thanks! Btw I don't have a hx of mental illness I took time off because I was considering whether medicine was right for me, I wanted time away to see if I still felt the need to pursue it because I just grew disillusioned with all of it during M1. But from what you are saying just don't mention this at all?
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2013
- Messages
- 11,671
- Reaction score
- 15,629
Don't bring up weaknessess/red flags unless you can show that it led to some kind of significant improvement you can point to or it's so egregious that it can't be avoided. Either way, there are probably better places to address this than the personal statement. Are you interested in staying in the US after residency? Talking about your goals and where you'd practice or what population you want to serve may be a good addition to your PS. (I'm assuming you're Canadian).
Yes I am Canadian, I am aiming to go back to Canada but I am open to anywhere really. Goal is to do a fellowship in CAP. Thanks for the feedback!
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2013
- Messages
- 2,543
- Reaction score
- 4,264
I would recommend that everyone with gaps in training or remediations or repeat rotations be explained in the PS if it isn't well explained in the MSPE. You don't want to leave any of these up to the imagination of those who are reviewing your application. Our imaginations tend to be worse than reality. When we have hundreds of files to filter, ambiguity is enough to put you in the no pile.
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2008
- Messages
- 6,208
- Reaction score
- 5,675
I’d start over on the PS if it were me. From this limited thread, you plan to reveal a family history of mental illness, and you took time off in medical school to find yourself. I’d immediately read that as code for mental illness. The extra time is already a red flag that will likely reduce your interview odds. I’d spin everything else as positive as possible.
