How do you start your personal statement?

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Mhines24

Mhines24

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Is there any guidelines they give you to write your personal statement or do you just write whatever you want to write?
 
May I suggest starting with "once upon a time.."?

Jk, anything you want. Tell a story. Create a hook. Hook em real good!
 
"I was absolutely fascinated by teeth the second I was born. I wasn't an ordinary child. While most of my friends dressed up as superheroes for Halloween, I skillfully handcrafted my own tooth fairy costume. My passion for teeth remains unsurpassed ..." Anything that sounds interesting and can lead to why you're interested in dentistry or what you can commit to the field works fine!
 
I started mine with a story.
 
"Dentistry. It was the first word that I spoke since exiting out of my mother's womb. You can say that dentistry is in my genes. I was a child prodigy when it came to my dental development. All of my primary teeth were removed by myself at the young age of 10 as permanent teeth came in. You could say that I'm a genius made for OMFS. I will gun and reach the top of your class and make your school so proud. Accept me already before it's too late. I love dentistry because you help people and I like helping people. I volunteered and I'm a good person. I like working with my hands and being my own boss and running a business"


All jokes aside, you'll be fine as long as you're genuine and can emphasize your strengths as an applicant. I suggest writing out ideas on a piece of paper and making quick rough drafts.
For some reason, making drafts on computer never worked as well as traditional pen & paper.
 
I literally said that the thought of becoming a dentist disgusted me as a child.
 
Hahaha these are all pretty funny
 
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1passbbsSHAVE said:
"I love helping people" "but let me be honest with you guys, I love BMW's too"
Click to expand...

I wonder if anyone ever wrote that in a personal statement.. Maybe they'll get some points for honesty LOL
 
Soleus715 said:
I wonder if anyone ever wrote that in a personal statement.. Maybe they'll get some points for honesty LOL
Click to expand...

someone with flawless with 4.0 and 30 DAT should try it and see if that will have any (-) effect. I will personally award you $10k for entertaining me.
 
1passbbsSHAVE said:
someone with flawless with 4.0 and 30 DAT should try it and see if that will have any (-) effect. I will personally award you $10k for entertaining me.
Click to expand...

"Most people think that they can get away with writing about how humble they are and how they want to better the world by ridding the world of cavities. I choose to approach it differently. While I do embody all those amazing characteristics ADCOMs look for in applicants, I will be one of the few to admit that a nice Audi R8 V10 wouldn't be too bad in my garage. Dentists are out there breaking their backs with sweat on their brows. I think dentists deserve to reward themselves. This whole humbler-than-thou mentality seems fake and I choose be honest with you now and say that I know how to live life."

I wonder if someone will ever try this kind of statement. It's actually a philosophy of someone I saw on SDN a while back.
I can understand this kind of approach but I'll be too much in debt to even think about living in luxury, haha.
 
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"My only 2 choices were either being a dentist or a teddy bear. I'm still deciding......
but in the.......me
meantime I need to make money......
Tourooooooooo......
Written with thought......
Pleaaase except.... me?....
I'm Flufffffy.... and I can help people 2.... But...
Aw leasst I'w being howest.......
- @tooth knockn
 
BioTic said:
"My only 2 choices were either being a dentist or a teddy bear. I'm still deciding......
but in the.......me
meantime I need to make money......
Tourooooooooo......
Written with thought......
Pleaaase except.... me?....
I'm Flufffffy.... and I can help people 2.... But...
Aw leasst I'w being howest.......
- @tooth knockn
Click to expand...

.... wow :wow:
 
Soleus715 said:
.... wow :wow:
Click to expand...
Tooth knockn is the greatest.
tooth knockn looking at that post like...lol
upload_2016-4-23_23-17-3.png
 
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BioTic said:
It's all in good fun. There was actually a thread called "Good morning Tooth knockn" I recommend you look at it. It's pretty funny http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/tooth-knockn.1132463/
Click to expand...

omg... i never knew something like this existed. thank you so much for making my day. 🤣

wait.. you know what I saw something about opening up a clinic and attracting patients with a teddy bear on SDN...
is this where it came from?? LOL. That reference flew way over my head
 
Soleus715 said:
omg... i never knew something like this existed. thank you so much for making my day. 🤣

wait.. you know what I saw something about opening up a clinic and attracting patients with a teddy bear on SDN...
is this where it came from?? LOL. That reference flew way over my head
Click to expand...
lol, yes.
 
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Soleus715 said:
omg... i never knew something like this existed. thank you so much for making my day. 🤣

wait.. you know what I saw something about opening up a clinic and attracting patients with a teddy bear on SDN...
is this where it came from?? LOL. That reference flew way over my head
Click to expand...
you mean this right?
BioTic said:
@tooth knockn and I are opening up our own clinic in a few years. Care to critique our business plan?

So since tooth knockn looks like a T. Bear we are going to attract little kids to the clinic by allowing them to give a tooth knockn a hug before and after their procedure, as well as having the ability to squeeze tooth knockn's fluffy paw or head if in pain. I on the other hand will be practicing dentistry, whereas my partner in crime (tooth knockn) will bring in the patients. Also @Incis0r is welcome to join us if he brings in a set of bollywood movies that are patients can see whilst waiting in the waiting area.

This might be a potential logo to appeal to our audience . Do you think this is a good plan as recent graduates?

View attachment 202434
Click to expand...
 
BioTic said:
In all seriousness be genuine and be yourself OP!
Click to expand...

sorry OP. we went off on a tangent... 🙄

I think peer review is really important for personal statements.
I read over my PS a dozen times and thought it was well done.. and then I started having it reviewed by my peers.
There were so many things I had to change afterwards to make sure I came across the way I intended.
 
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I always enjoy seeing your posts on here because that dog is so cute. There are plenty of sample personal statements online. Obviously don't copy them word for word but it'll give you some good ideas to get started with.
 
"Sup, b*****s?"

That got me into harvard.
 
My first post!
 
I made a story from my disadvantaged background, and wrote about how i couldn't go to see a dentist because I am from a poor country and my family is poor; and I went on to explain how that experience strengthened my desire to become a dentist. Make sure whatever you write has some truth to it because some schools will ask you for details about your PS during interviews. Good luck!
 
Probably not as helpful as you'd like but it's as true as any other advice you'll get. Just start writing. That's all you gotta do. Wrote my PS in one night with no edits. Maybe that's a little extreme for the overly anxious perfectionists on here, but it's doable. My take on the PS is, in order for it to be so amazing that it actually boosts your application from the reject to the interview pile, you'd have to spend way too much time on it. And just spending more time won't magically make you a better writer, so there's no guarantee you're actually improving it any measurable amount. It can hurt you if it's awful (hard to do unless you're a terrible writer), help to an extent if it's perfect, but otherwise, the rest of your app is way more important. Some people have genuinely great stories they can tell and the PS is a good avenue for that, but most of us applicants are pretty generic. Pigeonholing my run-of-the-mill experiences into some bull**** story that's supposed to entice the reader is something I'd never personally feel comfortable doing. I know if I were an adcom I'd roll my eyes to the back of my head every time I had to read a PS like that.
 
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My personal statement went as follows...

"If I asked you, the admissions committee, to accept me to your dental school, will your answer be the same as at is for this question?"

But seriously, a popular one is opening with an event that was most life changing and that ultimately led you to choose dentistry as a career
 
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