Medical Student CV Examples & Writing Guide

Medical student CV template

How to write a medical student CV

A medical student curriculum vitae is required when applying for fellowships, awards, and  residency programs. Often called a medical student resume or a residency CV, your medical student CV is integral for matching with a residency program and allowing you to finally practice medicine.

Follow these tips to write an outstanding medical student CV:

1. Remember that CV stands for ‘curriculum vitae’, or ‘course of life’

Not sure what the benefits are of writing a CV vs resume? A CV provides a more complete overview of your background. By writing a medical student CV, you’ll give residency programs and people writing your letters of recommendation a fuller picture of your accomplishments.

However, your CV is also for you. Creating a master CV that contains all of your experiences will help you to accurately benchmark your achievements over time.

While you don’t want to “pad” your CV, you want to convey how each year of med school is shaping you as a doctor. If you find one area of your CV is lacking, it may be a sign that you need to get more experience to prepare for residency.

2. Make a version of your CV specifically for ERAS

The Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) requires you to fill in your CV information directly on the site rather than uploading a document.

Since ERAS has character limits for each section, create a concise version of your CV from your master version. Choose only relevant experiences for your shortened CV, and describe those experiences succinctly.

While there are space constraints, avoid just listing information. Give your readers context and specifics. For example, rather than just naming an award you received, also add what it was for (“best presentation of clinical research”) and how competitive it was (“out of 300 presenters”).

3. Tailor your CV to the residency type

In ERAS, you should not list the exact same work, research, or volunteer experience when applying to a residency in family medicine as in pathology. Create separate documents for each specialty.

For your CV versions outside of ERAS, you can also use unique headers to highlight your specialty choice. Perhaps you aspire to be an oncologist with a strong teaching component. You may choose to highlight your oncology experience under a special header titled “Medical Education Experience.”

Other potential headers are:

• Leadership Experience
• Public or Community Health Experience
• Entrepreneurship

4. Do not include outdated or personal information on your CV

Generally, you should avoid including experiences or accomplishments from high school or earlier. However, use your judgment for what to include in your CV on a case-by-case basis. If an early experience influenced you to choose a particular field of medicine, it may be worth putting on your CV.

If you want to share personal information pertinent to your study and practice of medicine (e.g. you’re a minority in medicine or have a family member afflicted with a certain disease), do so in your residency personal statement rather than your CV.

However, you should include your interests on your medical student CV, with ERAS even having a designated section. Not only can your interests act as talking points during interviews, they can also showcase your:

• Soft skills
• Dedication
• Personality (what you would be like to work with)

5. Be accurate and don’t exaggerate

While you don’t want to be among the ~10% of graduating medical students who don’t match into a residency, never misrepresent yourself. Inaccuracies in your CV will ultimately harm your application. Expect that you will be asked in an interview about anything that you put on your CV.

To avoid errors, you should:

• Update your CV regularly so you’re prepared to apply for residencies and jobs in the future
• Use numbers to describe your achievements
• Read the definitions carefully in ERAS (for example, ERAS clearly outlines what “advanced” means for language proficiency)