Picture, if you will, a residency admissions committee member beneath a halo of light reading applicant essays in her office at midnight. Caffeine on her breath, crumpled white coat next to her desk chair, she is making steady progress on the never-ending stack of applicant files until she picks up a residency personal statement that begins, “I first became interested in Internal Medicine when Grandma was diagnosed with cancer…” Pulling out her hair by the fistful, she tosses the file into the trash. That cancer may not have killed your grandma, but it just might have killed your application. Read more ›