Preparing Your Medical Student CV for Residency (Examples Included)
/A section-by-section guide to crafting an impressive CV for residency applications
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Part 1: Introduction
Approaching your medical residency applications and imagining the next phase of your medical career can be very exciting. However, the many application components that you need to put together often throw stressful and overwhelming feelings into the mix as well.
Among the many materials you’ll need to compile are your USMLE scores, ERAS letters of recommendation, medical school performance evaluations (MSPEs), residency personal statement, and medical CV. While your CV might at first glance seem like the least significant of all of these components, it actually plays a unique and important role in the application process.
As you begin to think through your overall residency application strategy, it’s a good idea to start the process of application prep by creating, formatting, and polishing your CV. Your CV can serve as a kind of cheat sheet as you work through your application, so by doing it early—even before your fourth year—you ensure you don’t forget your many accomplishments.
What is a medical CV? What is the difference between a CV and a resume?
The words curriculum vitae come from the Latin for “course of life”—a CV aims to give a brief overview of the course of your professional life. A CV is more expansive and detailed than a resume, which should be no longer than a page to a page and a half. A CV, in contrast, can be two to three pages, while remaining clear and concise.
Your medical CV will provide an overview of your education, leadership, publications, volunteering, and the breadth and depth of your professional experience and accomplishments relating to medicine so far. It will help you make a strong argument that you are a top candidate for the residency programs you are applying to.
What is the purpose of a residency CV?
Writing and polishing your CV for residency (also referred to by some as your residency resume) is useful for your own mental preparation as you set out to write your residency personal statement.
You’ll also likely send this residency CV to faculty members and physicians in your target specialty from whom you’re requesting a letter of recommendation. Many medical schools will also ask for your residency CV as supporting material for your MSPE.
Finally, by creating and maintaining your CV very early on, you get a jump on the ideal residency application timeline. Taking on this task sooner rather than later will give you a sense of what gaps or weaknesses you might feasibly address in time to make you the strongest candidate possible for your desired residency.
Particularly if you start working on your CV early, you will likely have different versions of your CV for different purposes. Keep accurate notes regarding what you have updated and when. It can be helpful to note the date of last update in the file name, as well as the purpose of this particular version of your CV. For example: having two clearly named files like Taylor_Residency_CV_20200130 and TaylorSecondYearCV_20180325 will help you find relevant information and send the correct file each time.
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Part 2: Preparing your CV for medical residency
Your CV for medical residency needs to demonstrate your experience and convey the professional totality of who you are in an efficient and easy-to-read format. It should leave the reader—the Director or associate leadership of the residency program to which you are applying—with a favorable impression of your professional and (relevant) personal strengths and accomplishments.
You can use the ERAS online system to generate a CV, but it produces a generic-looking resume without much opportunity for control over formatting. You’ll likely want to create and format your own resume for maximum control over format, and also so you can have it available to send as supporting material for recommendations and MSPEs.
You can find a full-length sample CV for medical residency at the end of this guide. Before that, we’ll talk through each component of that residency CV, analyzing its structure, formatting, and style.
Residency CV structure
Below is one effective structure for a residency CV that you can compile your information under. Keep in mind that anything you mention on your CV is fair game to bring up in your residency interview.
● Contact and personal information, with full legal name (no nicknames).
● Education, going in order from most to least recent. Below is an example education section from our sample CV.
INDIANA UNIVERISTY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE anticipated May 2021
DOCTOR OF MEDICINE Indianapolis, Indiana
VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY May 2017
BACHELOR OF ARTS, summa cum laude Valparaiso, Indiana
§ Majors: Chemistry, German
§ Minor: Humanities
§ Christ College Scholar (Interdisciplinary Honors College)
§ International Studies Program, Reutlingen, Germany, Fall 2015
Ensure you note accomplishments such as graduating cum laude or completing a dissertation. If you have a long list of education-related honors, it may be best for readability to move those bullet points under a separate honors section
● Honors and awards, either with most recent honors first, or preferably, in order of what would be most likely to leave a residency Director impressed with your accomplishments. See below for a sample honors and awards section:
HONORS AND AWARDS
§ 2017 Valparaiso University Alumni Association (VUAA) Distinguished Student Award
§ 2017 Valparaiso University Student Affairs Outstanding Leadership and Service Award
§ 2017 Lumina Award, College of Arts and Sciences (academic excellence)
§ Outstanding German Student, 2014–2015, 2015–2016, and 2016–2017
§ Dean’s List, Fall 2013–Spring 2017
§ Phi Beta Kappa
● Work history, listing most recent experience first. Make sure to write clear and concise summaries of your responsibilities and accomplishments for each place you worked at, with exact dates and locations clear. Say clearly what you achieved, and use specifics. Here are some examples of language that work well:
§ Created training module series for a Fortune 500 client using Captivate software under a high-pressure timeline
§ Built coalitions with student groups and university administrators to create a positive inaugural end of year event for UW-Madison aiming to improve campus culture around binge drinking and sexual assault. Fundraised $110,000 from University divisions and private entities, managed $150,000 budget.
When you write about your experience, ask yourself: How did you go above and beyond? What did you do that distinguished yourself beyond carrying out your responsibilities? In answering these questions, it’s important to maintain scrupulous honesty. Do not exaggerate your accomplishments or leave any fact-based inaccuracies or errors in your CV.
● Research background with most recent experience first. Note mentor names with professional titles. See below for an example of how to describe your research experience.
EMERGENCY MEDICINE STUDENTS IN RESEARCH ELECTIVE November 2019
Indiana University Department of Emergency Medicine Indianapolis, IN
§ Worked with Dr. Frances Russell doing chart review and collecting data on a soft tissue study as well as screening for patients in a right heart failure study
HERMAN B. WELLS CENTER FOR RESEARCH INTERN Summer 2016
Indiana University School of Medicine Indianapolis, IN
§ Worked in the pediatric cardiology research group of Dr. R. Mark Payne on a project entitled “Galectin-1 and H-Ras mediate intermediate filament abnormalities in Giant Axonal Neuropathy”
§ Worked to find the mechanism by which mutations in the gene that codes for the protein gigaxonin causes abnormal aggregates of intermediate filaments in Giant Axonal Neuropathy patients
§ Worked with cell cultures and performed Western blots
§ Presented work orally at the end of the program
● Volunteer and leadership experience, taking care to be precise and use accomplishment-oriented language when applicable. Below is an example of accomplishment-oriented language from the volunteer section of our sample residency CV.
§ Led the school’s largest and longest-running community service project providing home and lawn maintenance for elderly and/or disabled homeowners in underserved Indianapolis neighborhoods.
§ Recruited and coordinated over 100 volunteers.
§ Worked with community partners and organizations to plant flowers, remove weeds, and perform outdoor maintenance on 50 homes.
The above language conveys what the experience consisted of, with specifics. The numbers included aren’t numbers for their own sake; they point to specific goals, metrics, and milestones.
● Professional organization memberships, if applicable.
● Publications, presentations, and lectures, with most recent experience first. See below for an example of how to concisely write about a presentation:
PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
2017 NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
§ Oral presentation, Galectin-1 and H-Ras mediate intermediate filament abnormalities in Giant Axonal Neuropathy
● Hobbies and outside interests, if relevant. Playing on a local sports team might be more likely to favorably impress a residency Director than a fondness for video games. Why? Because playing on a community soccer team might signal the ability to socialize and draw support from communities you are part of.
Another way to think about this: List interests that you’d be excited to talk about at your residency interview—these might come up in chit-chat, so don’t say you speak Tagalog fluently if you don’t—or which have a positive impact on your ability to do your job.
For example, in our sample residency CV, our applicant wrote the following under her hobbies and interests section:
Playing the saxophone, funk/brass/jazz music, German language and culture, running half marathons, reading books, listening to NPR podcasts, watching NHL hockey
The reader comes away with the impression of a well-rounded, curious, thoughtful person who has made time for her hobbies along with the rigorous demands of medical school.
Residency CV format
Think professionalism, consistency, and conservatism in all your formatting choices.
Use 12-point size font for body text, 12–14-point size font for headings, and 12–16 point font size for your name. Use easy-to-read professional fonts like Times New Roman, Calibri, or Garamond. Choose margins for readability. Many CVs use 1-inch margins.
White space is your friend. Don’t cram text tightly into your CV; this will make it harder to read. The reader’s eye should fall with ease onto the most recent activity under each section and be able to easily distinguish where each section begins and ends.
Use consistent pagination, formatting, and fonts throughout. Do not use more than two fonts.
Placing dates on the right margin helps to avoid the reader’s emphasis on the date, as opposed to the activity or professional experience at hand (what you want the reader to focus on).
Residency CV style
Your tone should be professional and avoid first-person. Using “I” language or statements softens your storyline and also takes up space.
Your language used should be brief, vivid, and precise. Use active voice—e.g. “Reached 100s of people,” not “100s of people were reached.” Avoid jargon—even while describing research accomplishments. Think of yourself as using the language of a science journalist rather than an author of a paper in JAMA. Similarly, avoid pomposity, or excessive use of acronyms and flowery language.
Don’t waste space on attempts at humble language like “had the opportunity to” or “had the privilege to.”
Don’t waste space with language like “responsible for” or “tasked with.” Just say what you did.
Again, remember to use accomplishment-oriented language when possible. Quantify with metrics and mention notable awards and honors.
Printing and paper
You will likely need to keep both digital and print copies of your CV on hand. For printing, use white, gray, or cream 24-lb paper. Use a laser printer for the best resolution. When sending digital copies, opt for PDF.
Other considerations
What not to put on your CV for medical residency: You don’t need to include your age, sexuality, religion, political affiliation, citizenship status, national origin, social media handle, or high-risk information like your social security number on your CV. If some of these are germane to the narrative in your residency personal statement, include them there.
Avoid errors or exaggerations: Remember that honesty and integrity always matter. You do not want to be in the position of having to explain or defend erroneous information.
Assess what you’ll need to give context on: Be aware of what might need more contextualizing on your CV and keep it in mind for your residency personal statement and interviews. If you had to take time off from school, or if you have a notable gap in work experience, start thinking about how you can frame an explanation for those clearly and positively in your personal statement.
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Part 3: Full-length medical school CV example
KELLY JARVIS
ADDRESS: XXXXXXX • PHONE: XXXX • E-MAIL: XXXXX
EDUCATION
INDIANA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE anticipated May 2021
DOCTOR OF MEDICINE Indianapolis, Indiana
VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY May 2017
BACHELOR OF ARTS, summa cum laude Valparaiso, Indiana
§ Majors: Chemistry, German
§ Minor: Humanities
§ Christ College Scholar (Interdisciplinary Honors College)
§ International Studies Program, Reutlingen, Germany, Fall 2015
HONORS AND AWARDS
§ 2017 Valparaiso University Alumni Association (VUAA) Distinguished Student Award
§ 2017 Valparaiso University Student Affairs Outstanding Leadership and Service Award
§ 2017 Lumina Award, College of Arts and Sciences (academic excellence)
§ Outstanding German Student, 2014–2015, 2015–2016, and 2016–2017
§ Dean’s List, Fall 2013–Spring 2017
§ Phi Beta Kappa
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
EMERGENCY MEDICINE STUDENTS IN RESEARCH ELECTIVE November 2019
Indiana University Department of Emergency Medicine Indianapolis, IN
§ Worked with Dr. Frances Russell doing chart review and collecting data on a soft tissue study as well as screening for patients in a right heart failure study
HERMAN B. WELLS CENTER FOR RESEARCH INTERN Summer 2016
Indiana University School of Medicine Indianapolis, IN
§ Worked in the pediatric cardiology research group of Dr. R. Mark Payne on a project entitled “Galectin-1 and H-Ras mediate intermediate filament abnormalities in Giant Axonal Neuropathy”
§ Worked to find the mechanism by which mutations in the gene that codes for the protein gigaxonin causes abnormal aggregates of intermediate filaments in Giant Axonal Neuropathy patients
§ Worked with cell cultures and performed Western blots
§ Presented work orally at the end of the program
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION CHEMISTRY REU INTERN Summer 2015
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL
§ Worked in the analytical chemistry department in the research group of Dr. Jonathan Sweedler
§ Worked on a project entitled “Identification of metabolites using capillary electrophoresis-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry” that sought to identify metabolites in neurons of Aplysia californica
§ Worked extensively with a micrOTOF ESI-TOF mass spectrometer and maXis ESI tandem mass spectrometer as well as lab-built capillary electrophoresis equipment
§ Presented research at a poster session at the end of the program
PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
2017 NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
§ Oral presentation, Galectin-1 and H-Ras mediate intermediate filament abnormalities in Giant Axonal Neuropathy
WORK EXPERIENCE
HOSPITAL MEDICAL EDUCATION PROGRAM Summer 2018
Indiana Hospital Association/Indiana State Medical Association Tipton, IN
§ Spent 8 weeks during the summer between first and second year exploring challenges of clinical hospital medicine and community health in a rural community at a critical access hospital
§ Spent time in all areas of clinical medicine at the hospital in addition to working with nursing, case management, hospital administration, community outreach groups, and support staff
GERMAN LANGUAGE PARTNER 8/2014–5/2017
Valparaiso, IN
Paid position tutoring Valparaiso University German students
Assisted with various tasks in Valparaiso’s Language Resource Center
Led weekly supplemental instruction sessions for German 203, 204, and 220 classes
NANNY Summer 2013/14
Barrington, IL
§ Worked as a nanny for the two children of Rev. Dr. Jane Kunzie-Brunner
§ The children are girls that were 3 and 8 years old in 2014. One of the children has been diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder.
§ Supervised the children, cooked simple meals, and drove the children to activities
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES AND SERVICE
American Medical Association-Medical Student Section Fall 2017–present
Indianapolis Campus Representative, 2017–2018 and 2018–2019
VP-Operations, 2018–2019 and 2019–2020
VP-Administration, 2020–2021
§ Attend monthly meetings of Indiana University’s AMA-MSS chapter and vote on behalf of the Indianapolis campus at AMA national meetings and Indiana State Medical Association meetings
§ Advocate for issues pertaining to medical students at the Indiana State House
§ Manage group finances and make arrangements for convention attendance
§ Research health policy issues and coordinate speakers on campus
Spring House Calls Spring 2018–present
Co-Chair, 2018–present
§ Led the school’s largest and longest-running community service project providing home and lawn maintenance for elderly and/or disabled homeowners in underserved neighborhoods in Indianapolis
§ Recruited and coordinated over 100 volunteers
§ Worked with community partners and organizations in underserved neighborhoods to plant flowers, remove weeds, and perform outdoor maintenance on 50 homes
Teacher Learner Advocacy Committee Summer 2018–present
Student Member
§ Part of a group of students, residents, fellows, and faculty members and staff of IUSM appointed to act as advocates in fostering a fair and professional learning environment
§ Appointed by the dean’s office via interview process
§ Assist in conflict resolution concerning issues of abuse, harassment, discrimination, or other behavior detrimental to the learning environment
DysFUNKtion Brass Spring 2018–present
Saxophone Player
§ Play tenor saxophone in an 8-piece funk brass band
§ Perform a mix of covers and original songs that include improvised solos
§ 1-2 paid performances per month at venues throughout Indianapolis area
§ Additionally, perform with the Red Card Regiment band at Indy Eleven home professional soccer games
IUSM Second Year Show Fall 2017–Spring 2019
Writer/Performer
§ Wrote and performed in comedy skits for the second year shows in 2015 and 2016 that helped to build community at IU School of Medicine and provide a humorous outlook on medical student life
IUSM Peer Advisor Program Summer 2018–Summer 2019
Peer Advisor
§ Acted as a second year peer advisor to two incoming first years at Indiana University School of Medicine and assisted with first year orientation
INTERESTS AND HOBBIES
Playing the saxophone, funk/brass/jazz music, German language and culture, running half marathons, reading books, listening to NPR podcasts, watching NHL hockey