Confession: I am a cookie cooker applicant - How can I stand out?

[distressstudent]

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I have an average gpa (3.5) and just a reasonable DAT score.
I have done research (six months), volunteering at the ER (one summer) , shadowing (one month), and a few other dental related volunteering at my pre-dental club ( six months). I am trying to work on my application and I feel like I don't really stand out. I think I can paint a really passionate story for my personal statement, but I feel like my EC would speak a different story. Thoughts?

 

[aqz]

You should mention how you cook cookies. It's not a very cookie cutter thing to put on your application.

 

[sgv]

research, teach, win a competition?

 

[raptor93]

Isn't everyone a cookie cutter in terms of ECs? We all have shadowing, volunteering community service and some even research.

 

[ChrisM07]

The ER thing is unique and I don't if many dental people have done that (maybe they have?). That would be a good thing to talk about if given the chance. Mention something like it giving you a different perspective on medicine as it relates to overall health and how dentistry is one of these parts to overall health, how its a collaborative field with others, etc, etc. Give them something that would make them want to talk to you in an interview. Sometimes, its about how you discuss your experiences with these things to make them stand out to the reader. Yeah we all have had to have some sort of shadowing, volunteering, other things but what you got out of them and how they impacted you are what makes them different for us.

 

[distressstudent]

Yeah thanks for the advice! For the er thing, I was definitely going into that direction. The transdisplinary thing is definitely something I can talk about at an interview (amongst other things). But I feel like landing an interview will be difficult for me because I haven't done anything " unique". I am just asking myself, "what can I offer to the schools that other applicants can't?". Honestly, I can promise to be a great dentist, and lead a life of trying my best to build a community that I want to see. But at the end of the day, which applicant don't strive for that? So I am trying to think of doing something that would make me interesting enough to interview, but I am drawing a blank. Maybe discovering the reicpie to the best damn cookies in the world would help.

 

[sgv]

Yeah thanks for the advice! For the er thing, I was definitely going into that direction. The transdisplinary thing is definitely something I can talk about at an interview (amongst other things). But I feel like landing an interview will be difficult for me because I haven't done anything " unique". I am just asking myself, "what can I offer to the schools that other applicants can't?". Honestly, I can promise to be a great dentist, and lead a life of trying my best to build a community that I want to see. But at the end of the day, which applicant don't strive for that? So I am trying to think of doing something that would make me interesting enough to interview, but I am drawing a blank. Maybe discovering the reicpie to the best damn cookies in the world would help.

What I did was ask myself this question very early in college. Then I found opportunities (research, volunteering, leadership, etc.) that I knew would be used in my personal statement, secondaries, and application, and then did them all. What year are you?

 

[ChrisM07]

Yeah thanks for the advice! For the er thing, I was definitely going into that direction. The transdisplinary thing is definitely something I can talk about at an interview (amongst other things). But I feel like landing an interview will be difficult for me because I haven't done anything " unique". I am just asking myself, "what can I offer to the schools that other applicants can't?". Honestly, I can promise to be a great dentist, and lead a life of trying my best to build a community that I want to see. But at the end of the day, which applicant don't strive for that? So I am trying to think of doing something that would make me interesting enough to interview, but I am drawing a blank. Maybe discovering the reicpie to the best damn cookies in the world would help.

The part that sets you apart from the rest of the applicants, in my opinion, comes in the personal statement in which you may describe why exactly you are a good fit for dental school. Here, you can explain what sets you apart if you wish. Additionally, there is a section in the application where you put your different EC's and it leaves you a little space (a whopping 175 characters if I remember) that allows you to explain what you did or what you got out of it. I guess my point above was that, yeah, we all have shadowing (for instance). But while someone may write that they simply just stood there and watched, I wrote that I was able to observe the value in doctor-patient interactions and how valuable this is to fostering openness that leads to optimal care (or something along those lines). The WAY that you write your experiences, is what can also set you apart.

But if you are concerned with variety, look around at other things possibly things that are not necessarily dental related. Things that are interesting to you and things that you wouldn't mind spending some of your free time doing. Maybe it's tutoring kids or maybe it's at a soup kitchen. I've found that it's quality over quantity. If you have a few activities that had a lasting impact on you, that may be more important than a million different activities to rack up X amount of hours in which you learned nothing but simply did it to get the requirements met.

 

[distressstudent]

@ sgv]: I am a third year right now, but I am applying this June. I never really thought about focusing on how to stand out when I first entered college. I did many of the things I did, especially the research, because I thought it would be fun and interesting.

@ Chris Yikes. 175 characters is only like two sentences! But yeah I totally get your point. Even when I am volunteering at the same event as my classmates, I can tell that I am experiencing things from a different perspective and gaining something much different. It is just that all the advice I have been getting recently have been "stand out. stand out. stand out!" And so I got pretty worried about my EC. But after taking a breather and thinking about it, I think I am still in a decent spot. I don't think it is necessary to be unique in order to give an interesting perspective on something. At this point, I think I just gotta be more introspective about myself and try to identify what makes me special.