Hi everyone, nontraditional applicant here looking for some feedback on my drafts for the OSU essay prompts in AADSAS. I've gotten some notes from one of my alma mater's pre-health advisors, but more is better. One of my primary concerns is the content of the first essay. I worry that it comes off as negative and kind of obvious. Everyone makes sacrifices to join this field, my thinking was just that mine are a bit different from the normal applicant. Let me know what you think!
- What additional information would you like us to know about you? Are there insights we should consider that have not been mentioned previously on your application? (1000 characters)
- After more than a decade in molecular biology research, I’ve made significant sacrifices to become a competitive candidate for dental school. I have continued working full-time at a contract research organization in pharmaceutical development where I remain engaged with evolving regulations and client needs. I dedicated myself to gaining direct experience in dentistry and completing remaining prerequisite coursework. Over the past year, I’ve used nearly all available break time during work hours to shadow, and I’ve scheduled extended sessions using vacation time to accumulate clinical exposure. Evenings have been spent studying physics, anatomy and physiology rather than relaxing. In pursuing this path, I’ve temporarily set aside travel to visit family, cut back on rest, and missed time with friends and my partner. I hope these choices reflect the seriousness of my commitment to dentistry and my ability to balance competing responsibilities while staying focused on long-term goals.
- Describe a community to which you belong and share a way in which you have made a difference in that community. (1000 characters)
- I belong to a community of neurodivergent people who often face challenges beyond academics. Growing up with ADHD, I remember how adults would misread my memory lapses as laziness, or my nervous habits as defiance. These early pains shaped the empathy I have brought to my volunteering with youth through the Sciencenter, Expanding Your Horizons, and tutoring. I strive to offer the understanding and patience I didn’t always receive. In both my current volunteering and my time teaching during grad school, I do my best to support diverse learning styles and build students’ confidence using hands-on demonstrations, visual aids, and movement-based activities because I know that there will be at least a few people silently struggling. I make an effort to recognize moments when a student may be struggling internally and respond with compassion. My goal is to help them feel capable, valued, and encouraged to pursue their curiosity. In doing so, I try to foster a more inclusive and supportive environment for all learners.
- Describe an adverse circumstance you had to overcome. What lessons did you learn from the situation? (1000 characters)
- In the first two years of my PhD, I pursued a project focused on isolating and characterizing proteins involved in an RNA editing process in plant organelles. It was an exciting biochemical plan, but I struggled for over a year to get the purifications and assays to work. My lab lacked experience in this type of work, and it was difficult to find day-to-day mentorship from others. Despite my best efforts, progress was slow and frustrating. After discussing options with my committee, I decided to pivot and expand on a secondary project using in vivo methods of protein expression and interaction analysis. This direction better aligned with the expertise available in my lab, allowing me to learn more efficiently and generate publishable results. The experience taught me the value of flexibility in research, the importance of knowing when to change course, and how to turn setbacks into productive outcomes by playing to the strengths of my working environment.
