need some inspiration from the more experienced!

[Mr.E]

I am attempting to write my admissions essay, and I keep coming up blank I really don't know what to start with, what to include and what order they would prefer the material to be in. I am tempted to treat this essay like any other essay, but I'm not sure if I should. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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[Generallee]

I had a hard time begining my essay as well. I went to essayedge.com to look at some of their samples. Here is a link to sample Dentistry essays. When you get to the site, type in the word "dental" in the search and it should come up with 4 samples that relate to dentistry.

http://www.essayedge.com/medical/essayadvice/samples/

Basically, I asked myself some important questions that I thought would be good to introduce to any admissions committee.

1. How did I become interested in dentistry?
2. Do I have anything that would make me stand out? I.E. I am a dental assistant; I have volunteer work; etc.
3. In the first paragraph, I tried to make it the most interesting. I told a little story of a past experience as a dental assistant.
4. What are some goals? Interests? Is it to own a thriving practice... Or to go into research.... or to go into academia... or to help the community? Let them know some of your short term goals and long term goals.
5. Then, I tried to sell them on why I would be such a great dental student. I thought of everything I could think of on why I would succeed in dental school and dentistry. I tried to convey how I could contribute to any dental school.

I'm not a very good writer, and this was difficult for me too. But, everyone has to do it and boy does it feel good to just get it over with.... By the way, I paid 140.00 for the application service and it helped but wasn't worth the money. But since I don't know anyone to edit my paper, i would do it again. Hope this helps...

Good Luck!

 

[DMD_hopeful]

I am attempting to write my admissions essay, and I keep coming up blank I really don't know what to start with, what to include and what order they would prefer the material to be in. I am tempted to treat this essay like any other essay, but I'm not sure if I should. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Here is a source that I used. Best advice I can give is to write from the heart and to go easy on the BS. Check out some dental books too, they're a great help for the entire admissions process. Also, search the Internet for personal essays, there is sure to be a lot of information out there.

http://www.accepted.com/medical/sampleessays.aspx

Best of luck

 

[reLAXgirl]

I would write about why you are interested in dentistry, relevant experiences that show why you are interested/will be good at it/ etc. It should really be a window to who you are. It is also a time to reference any problems in the past, your strenghts, etc.

 

[Tzips]

I'm not sure you should take this as a guide, but I wrote a very relaxed essay - personal, slightly tongue-in-cheeck, none of the "therefore"s or "thus"es or "forasmuch"es that I would normally use in a "formal" (ie, english) essay - and they seemed to have liked it just fine. But that's just my experience; I'm not sure it should be used as a general guide.

 

[Mr.E]

Once again, I appreciate everyone's input. It's been really helpful. Thanks!

 

[bouncy_ball]

There are also tons of books at Borders/Barnes and Nobles about writing admission essays for professional school. Tons of examples of 'real' essays. Most of them are unreal ("While volunteering as a midwife in Tunisia..." "As an undergraduate researcher at Princeton, I published 10 papers on astrophysics...") but the scope that they cover is a good indication of what you should probably write about.

 

[eddiescott]

I am attempting to write my admissions essay, and I keep coming up blank I really don't know what to start with, what to include and what order they would prefer the material to be in. I am tempted to treat this essay like any other essay, but I'm not sure if I should. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I swear, I may be off base, but I am 30 yrs old and if I was the dental school admission council and someone put examples of "tragedies" of their lives and how members of their families committed suicide or prior drug abuse, etc...... I wouldnt even think about calling them up for an interview.

I mean seriously, with all the thousands of candidates from year to year who would take people like the ones in these "example" essays.

I would recommend this. Write your essay from your heart but be a professional and dont get overly personal. Its just not professional and you have to remember that these schools dont want individuals who are overly emotional and have suicidal family members. I mean come on !!!

Good luck with the essay. Do it on your own without reading others so it will have some originality.

I would think that personal tragedy and low income and items to that effect would get quickly booted....................................

 

[Tzips]

Most of them are unreal ("While volunteering as a midwife in Tunisia..." "As an undergraduate researcher at Princeton, I published 10 papers on astrophysics...")

you only forgot the one about maintaining a 4.0 for 21-credit semester (biochem, biochem lab, histo and lab, micro and lab, immuno... all at once) while simultaneously volunteering 10 hrs/week in an inner-city clinic, spending 10 hrs/wk working in a lab to discover a cure for cancer, and spending every summer in the Peace Corps and saving Nigerian babies...