Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Tips for writing a captivating personal statement

Most people are looking for a silver bullet to get into residency. Some rely on scores or on contacts which can help but to me the most important thing is to present a solid application, in which you focus on doing the various aspects very well.  You need to make sure that your LORs are good, your personal statement is captivating and resume is strong. Today, I will share three tips that will hopefully help you write a captivating personal statement.

First, do not make it too long. Put yourself in the shoes of the admission committee. Would you like to read a 3 page personal statement after you have gone through 100 personal statements? I know I wouldn’t want that. Make sure your personal statement is about 1 page long, if theres more to write then about 1.5 pages should be fine as well.

Second, your content should give them an insight into who you are and it should grab them. You want them to read your statement and think “ooo I want him/her.” Your passion for the specialty should shine through. Use personal stories about growing up, or things you have done –NOT a recitation of your resume- to show your connection to the specialty you are applying to.

Third, the little details count. Make sure you spell check your work. Make sure your grammar is correct. Have someone that you know who is good with English/writing proof read your work.

You can find samples of personal statements online or in books. When I was applying I used First Aid for the Match mainly to have sample personal statements to review- I did not use it for anything else.  

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Car Chronicles 2: send me the money

After my experience with the blue Acura, I had to start searching for cars all over again. I went back to my trusted website, craigslist, to find a car. 

As I browsed though Craigslist my friends voice rang in my head “I got duped on craigslist.” He paid 7000$ or so for a car that he saw on craigslist. To hear him tell the story the car looked really nice. Unfortunately for him, it turned out to be one of those send me the money first and I’ll bring you the car kind of scams. He fell for it completely and sent the money. He waited and waited and received no car in return. He reported the guy to the FBI who told him after some digging that the guy lived in Canada, which was out of their jurisdiction. His 7000 $ was puff, completely gone.

I sent out numerous text messages to the numbers on the car ads I liked. A few people replied to my texts saying that I should email a certain email address. To me this was weird. Why would you want to use email when you can just text?? Anyways, I was not going to miss out on a good deal. I would still send out and see what happens. 

I started corresponding with them via email.  In response to my  first email I got “The car is in perfect working condition. The only reason we are selling it is because it gives us bad memories. It was for our daughter’s husband that died. We want to get rid of it because it reminds her of him and makes her sad. Now, the car is in North Dakota but if you send the money and we will send you the car.”

Does this sound familiar? Smh. I replied with something along the lines of “stop with this nonsense. I know this is a scam. Foolishness!”


I got about 5 of these kinds of correspondence from different numbers that I contacted from craigslist. That does not mean all of craigslist’s advertisements are fake. There are legitimate advertisements on there. You just have to keep looking and I did just that. 

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

My Journey to residency!


Attempting to get into residency has been a journey/hard work. 3 years long to be exact. It has been long through no one’s fault except for mine. By failing the Step 2 CS exam, I set myself up for an upward battle. Still with complete confidence and the right strategy I ended up getting a residency position in a hospital and area that I really like. This is my journey.

For my first year, I got no interview during the the regular match period because of something stupid. I sent in my application on february 1st and at that time most programs had finished their interview season. I remember calling my friend and telling him I applied. He only said really, bro!?!? Why did I apply so late? Well I was waiting on my step 2 cs result and I wanted to make sure I passed before spending money. Anyways, I ended up getting one interview during the soap. I messed up that interview by doing something silly, or by not doing something important. Meh. 

Things looked better for my second application season. I got interviews from 3 really good residency programs. Two were in New York and one was in North Carolina. After my interviews, I got favorable responses from two of the programs so I assumed that this was going to be the year for me. Opening up my email I was shocked to see “Sorry you did not match…” I then got 2 interviews in the SOAP, but that did not pan out either. Uggh! To say I was frustrated and saddened by this outcome would be an understatement.

What I saw when I opened up my email in 2016.

Finally for my last application season, I managed to get 5 interviews. I left nothing to chance. I planned out my year from the moment that I did not match. I practiced for my interviews intensely. The programs where I interviewed showed stronger interest than last year. Some programs flat out told me they would rank me during the interview... straight to my face, during the interview. The first time this happened I don’t remember what my response was, I only remember how shocked I was. I felt like I would match last season too but that didn’t happen so I wary of these overtures. It turns out I worried for nothing since I ended up MATCHING!!!! Yay!


Now that this journey is behind me, I can look back and see what I did right and where I went wrong. I have learned that your application season starts from the end of the last match -ie, if you are a repeat applicant- at which time you start planning and working on making yourself the best candidate you can be. Do not leave anything to chance and work hard. Looking through the forums after matching I see people asking questions like “can I match if I do not get any US clinical experience?” This is foolish. Do not be that guy!!! Give it your best shot so you will not look back with regret!


Congratulations everyone that matched! Good luck to all that are applying next season! 


Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Car Chronicles part 1: The Blue Acura TL

I’ll be right down, I texted back.

The owner of the 2006 Acura TL that I saw online was here. I got dressed and went down. On first sight, that car looked nice. Inside it was even better. I fell in love intstantly. The lights on the dashboard, the woodgrain, the leather seats. Maan. I need an acura in my live.

Now, it was time for the test drive. I started driving the car. Instantly I lost some of my passion for the car. The car started veering to the right, the car was riding roughly over potholes. These are easy fixes when you are dealing with regular cars whose parts and the cost of repair cost just a little bit of monty. This is not the case with an acura. It is an expensive car to maintain. I was going to use my money to buy the car and did not want any exorbitant costs after purchasing it.

I told the owner lets call him James. “James I like your car but I want this is what I feel.” I listed all the things I felt driving the car. “I need to have it inspected but in the mean time let me check when my mechanic will be able to inspect it.”

The next day I called him and said we will be having the acura dealership inspect the car. If there is nothing wrong with the car I will buy it. Thirty minutes later he texts me back “listen I sold the car.” 

Isn’t that convenient. I most likely would have gotten a pleasant surprise –a huge repair bill- after purchasing the car.

Dodged bullet 1. Thank goodness

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

How to increase your chances of Matching into a Residency Program

I was asked via pm for advice on how to improve the chances of matching. The person is at the beginning of the whole process, which is the best time to actually start looking at how to start building a solid application for the Residency. 
For your viewing pleasure:
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i just completed my degree and came to USA, i have no USCE so far but trying to apply. and not yet done with steps. i know i'm asking that too early but what should i do to get match in peads.
Its good that you are thinking ahead. Its good to plan ahead. There are many things you have to do. 

1) finish your steps
2) get ecfmg certified
3) get US CE
4) get LORs
5) apply

My advice to you is to focus on the most important step, the first step! Focus entirely on your passing all your steps well. Put 100% of your effort into passing your step exams. Worry about everything else only in between or after you finish passing and doing well in your steps.

The first thing that the program's computer -yes, computer- looks at are your step scores. You will be filtered in or out based on your scores or failures. Therefore even if your scores are not the highest scores you want to make sure that you pass all your exams on the first go. 

Do not underestimate any of the exams. They are very hard so study very well for them. 

Good luck!