What is recommended for writing the personal statement as far as flowery vs. straightforward?
I wrote one draft with a little metaphor as to how I found dentistry as a good match for my career goals. I was given opposing advice for the style of the personal statement. I had a couple people tell me I needed to be "cinematic" and give details to set the scene of a specific event or to make sure to use interesting words. I also had a family member who is a professor (nutrition-related, ivy league school, reads graduate applicant personal statements) say to cut out everything flowery (i.e. most adjectives) and make it as simple as possible.
I have seen a couple example personal statements where a situation is described that the applicant clenched someones hand comfortingly as tears rolled down their cheeks due to dental pain etc. etc. but I guess I thought that came off as cheesy and dramatic. At the same time I was honestly surprised by the advice to cut out all of the creative writing and just make it sound like a normal person would write or speak. But I can imagine that when a committee has to read so many essays they may appreciate when applicants just state what they are there to state and don't distract with dramatic descriptions of the scene of an event. You are there to prove why you want to be a dentist, not show off your creative writing skills......right??
Does anyone have insight into whether you should take one approach or the other? Or just somewhere in between?
I wrote one draft with a little metaphor as to how I found dentistry as a good match for my career goals. I was given opposing advice for the style of the personal statement. I had a couple people tell me I needed to be "cinematic" and give details to set the scene of a specific event or to make sure to use interesting words. I also had a family member who is a professor (nutrition-related, ivy league school, reads graduate applicant personal statements) say to cut out everything flowery (i.e. most adjectives) and make it as simple as possible.
I have seen a couple example personal statements where a situation is described that the applicant clenched someones hand comfortingly as tears rolled down their cheeks due to dental pain etc. etc. but I guess I thought that came off as cheesy and dramatic. At the same time I was honestly surprised by the advice to cut out all of the creative writing and just make it sound like a normal person would write or speak. But I can imagine that when a committee has to read so many essays they may appreciate when applicants just state what they are there to state and don't distract with dramatic descriptions of the scene of an event. You are there to prove why you want to be a dentist, not show off your creative writing skills......right??
Does anyone have insight into whether you should take one approach or the other? Or just somewhere in between?
