Dental Admission Essay - Struggling

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rebecca_chatul_tov

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I have no idea on what to put into my dental school admission essay.

I am a 37 year old active duty army officer with two kids. I am raising my six year old nephew, who is developmentally delayed and receives special education services and my 7 month old son has Downs Syndrome. I take care of my 70 year old mother who lives with me and am putting my husband through college who is now a full-time student. I'm also currently pregnant and have managed to knock out roughly 35 credits of prerequisites in 15 calendar months and have roughly a 3.3 science GPA (Overall is about 3.45)

My pre-medical adviser told me that it was very important for me to write a good admissions essay in my circumstance because it would highlight to an admissions committee that I am able to balance full-time work, school and a family while making somewhat decent grades. That adviser has since moved on and the school hasn't replaced him. I feel really lost trying to figure out what to write in this essay without him to guide me in the right direction.

I don't have the loftiest reasons for attending dental school. Basically after 10 years of pushing paper I have realized that I have worked really hard at a job that makes me miserable. I am tired of dealing with senior officers that have no experience in my field telling me how to do my work. I am fed up with the pettiness, drama, and organizational politics that is all too common in headquarters units in the military, especially with contractors and GS civilians. I have done a lot of soul searching before I decided on a career field that I thought would make me happy. I think that I would enjoy dentistry and that I would be good at it, but more so it is a financially more secure career and I want to make sure that I can take care of my family above all else. Basically boiled down: I want a job that I enjoy, that is not very stressful, and is a profession where I can make a good living. I do care about helping people, but that honestly isn't my main motivation at this point. I love my kids and I would literally do anything to take care of them.

I am not sure how to craft an essay that is going to go over well with an admissions essay and I do not have the several hundred dollars to hire a fancy writing service to help me out. Any advice on how to get started and what direction to go?

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As cliche as this sounds, speak from the heart. Obviously cut down on negatives and focus on positives. There are dental schools out there e.g. ASDOH/MOSDOH, VCU, UMN that like applicants with diverse experiences, achieving for something greater than themselves.

I'm not married and don't have kids (at least I don't think I do), but I've pursued mind-numbing corporate jobs and was a school teacher for a few years, so I can relate to your misery regarding the work aspect.

Have you taken the DAT and shadowed a dentist? a 20 AA on the DAT and 50-100 hours of shadowing will suffice, since your GPA is quite solid, given your life circumstances.

My PS was about my work experiences and connections that I've made that helped me steer toward dentistry. Although if I look back on it, I might have focused way too much on my negative experiences at work, lol.

There are many members on SDN who are likely better than I am when it comes to proofreading essays. You can do it for free and I wouldn't pay someone several hundos to look over your essay. Keep in mind I was in the educational industry and we thrived by selling on empty promises :p However if no one else is willing, feel free to PM me a rough draft and I can help give you direction.
 
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