Most Important Question

Let’s talk about the most important question when writing your personal statement. I’m Dr. Louise Wen. Essay coach and board certified physician. My daylong interview at one of the Harvard hospitals for anesthesia residency was intimidating. I was from a lesser known state medical school, and it seemed like everyone else was from a big name medical school: Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Columbia. These were super smart, articulate, and nice humans whom I admired and wanted to be friends with. And then one of my interviewers asked: Why should we rank you higher than anyone else? That question is in every single interviewer’s mind. After they interview you, they’re going to go into a room, project your face up on a screen, and decide where you are going to land on their rank order list. Every single line in your personal statement needs to be focused on answering that question. Why should that program choose YOU over everyone else? Work with me.

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