Residency season is upon us and I thought that it would be a good idea to share my trial and tribulations with you all so that it can help someone in the future during the application process.
The first part of this series will be all of the tasks that I think are important to ideally get done before the application opens up in June of the application cycle. I say ideally because a third-year medical student’s life can get pretty busy, especially with boards and clerkship examinations. So, the more you can get done the more stress-free the application will be.
- Personal statement: It is important to have a good personal statement that speaks on behalf of your accomplishments and also any events that took place during your medical school career that need further explanations. The earlier you get this document done, the more eyes can edit it for you so that the best version will be ready for your application.
- Updated Resume: Although you will be inputting a lot of your activities, publications, and awards I found it SO MUCH easier to basically have all of those components ready to copy over from my resume that I had kept update throughout the year. It saved me time and I knew exactly what I wanted to include in my application without missing anything important.
- Letter of Recommendations: Letter of recommendations are tricky because you want to be respectful of the letter writer’s time and ask for them EARLY; by early I mean right after you have worked with that particular individual so that they can be saved in a letter service site prior to the application cycle. Having your letters will save you a lot of stress and allow you to have a complete application as many programs require 3-4 letters to make your application complete.
I hope that these tips were helpful and I plan to continue updating you all with more advice to follow as I go through the process myself!
