CPE Application Checklist

Do you have everything together? Below is a checklist to help you make sure you submit all necessary items to us. Please remember that we will not review your application until it is complete.

  • Completed application form, including the following information:
    • Life History
    • Spiritual/Meaning-Making Development
    • Work History
    • Helping Incident
    • Impression of CPE and Educational Goals
    • Documentation for immigration eligibility if you are an international student
    • If applying to residency:
        • Include one recent verbatim and final evaluation written by yourself and by your educator from your previous unit(s) of CPE (or your mid-unit evaluation, if unit still in progress). This replaces the “Helping Incident” essay.
        • Write two-page statement of your ethos of caregiving.
        • Write two-page statement of what learning goals you would like to work on in a CPE residency in light of your previous CPE unit(s). This should include a statement of what talents and experience you think you would bring to a residency and how a CPE residency fits into your future plans. This replaces the “Impression of CPE and Educational Goals” statement
  • Students with previous CPE should also include final evaluations (self and educator’s) from previous units and your personal and professional goals
  • $75.00 check made out to the 'BWH Chaplaincy Fund'
  • 3 reference letters (these letters can either come in sealed envelopes with the application or can be emailed from the individuals providing your references). References should be one academic or professional, one denominational, and one personal.

Learn more about Brigham and Women's Hospital


For over a century, a leader in patient care, medical education and research, with expertise in virtually every specialty of medicine and surgery.

About BWH