Many students find the idea of putting together their CV or composing a personal statement daunting, and for good reason. The Writing Center can help with grammar, flow, suggestions for eliminating words or text, etc.
Some Basics: How to Request Our Assistance
August–September is the busy season in the Student Success Center’s Writing Center for CV and personal statement submissions. We work with students in person by appointment or through email. Due to their busy schedules, many students prefer submitting their CV/personal statement to the Writing Center via our submission form found here: https://studentsuccess.uams.edu/request-help/writing-support-request/. We will put the submissions in a queue and review them on a first-come/first-served basis. We return the document with the reviewer’s comments for revision. If students prefer one-on-one help, they can call the Writing Center at 686-8536 or email sscwriting@uams.edu to schedule an appointment. We ask that these students send us a copy of their CV/personal statement prior to their appointment in order to save time when they are here.
Additional Resources
In addition to our assistance, several online resources are helpful:
- Medical students applying for residency are required to submit ERAS CVs, which have a preset format. A search of “ERAS CV” online results in several helpful websites, such as RIQ’s “The ERAS CV Matters”: https://www.residencyinterviewquestions.com/2017/05/14/the-eras-cv-matters/.
- For students having to format most CVs for residency applications that are not ERAS, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has a useful guide, “The Curriculum Vitae, Dissected”: https://career.ucsf.edu/sites/career.ucsf.edu/files/PDF/DentistryCVdissected.pdf. Students from all the colleges have found this tool helpful.
- UCSF also produced “Writing Residency Personal Statements”: https://career.ucsf.edu/sites/career.ucsf.edu/files/PDF/Dentistryresidencystatementtips.pdf.
Writing Personal Statements in Narrative Form; Include the Following Points:
- Introduction—brief background including the point in your life in which you determined which specialty appealed most to you.
- Why are you choosing this particular specialty?—specific experience that helped you discover your aptitude and enthusiasm for the specialty.
- What are you looking for in a program?—aspects of the ideal program for you including what you, specifically, want to walk away with when finished.
- Why should a program want you?—qualifications through practical experience as well as your eagerness to learn specific and general aspects of the specialty, e.g. clinical, academic, research, etc.
- Future plans/goals—specific and/or general plans for what you would like to do once you have completed the residency program.
- Conclusion—brief summation of your qualifications and major goal after finishing the program.
The Writing Center can help you by reviewing your CV/personal statement, and feedback from mentors and peers is also invaluable. If you know someone in your chosen specialty or field, be sure to ask for their opinions as well.
Writing Center- Nancy Sessoms 501-686-8536 Tim Muren 501-686-8536
Submitted by Nancy Sessoms