Thought provoking piece on Personal statement

Sumanta K. Pal shared a post by Shubham Tomar, Postdoctoral Researcher, Vanderbilt University Medical Center on X, adding:

“Thought provoking piece.

Not sure that I agree, however. Life anecdotes unrelated to the call to medicine don’t help me as much as a traditional statement that puts in perspective the clinical and research accomplishments of the candidate.

The CV provides a list of these achievements but I look to the personal statement to convey the true degree of involvement, insight and leadership a candidate had in selected projects of particular importance. It also is an opportunity to highlight adversities that a candidate faced in getting to their current position.”

Quoting Shubham Tomar:

“A great advice on Personal statement from a Program Director. Keep drafting.”

Source: Shubham Tomar/X and Sumanta K. Pal/X

Sumanta (Monty) Pal, MD, is a medical oncologist and an expert in genitourinary cancers at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles. He serves as the Vice Chair of Academic Affairs, Professor and co-director of the Kidney Cancer Program and leads the Kidney and Bladder Cancer Disease Team at City of Hope. He specialises in kidney, bladder, and prostate cancers.