Personal statement frustrations

[DoctreDrey]

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Hi everyone,

I've been working on my PS on and off for over a month and it seems that, no matter how hard I try, it ends up sounding like a typical cookie-cutter PS: describing my childhood/high school briefly and how I was exposed to dentistry early on, then moving onto why i chose healthcare, then onto why i chose dentistry after shadowing and realizing that its a perfect fit for my personality, skills, and interests, then describing my qualifications and experiences that would help make me a great dentist...

I know to "show" rather than just describe but I just feel that the overall progression of my PS is pretty standard. I was wondering if this would hurt my chances? I mean, I feel like my PS effectively demonstrates a confirmed interest and shows what I can offer the field, but... I find it rather..um..unremarkable? but my life has been pretty unremarkable thus far...

 

[Skogar]

have you ever been/studied abroad? have you seen healthcare in poorer countries/parts of the nation? have you seen firsthand through a health clinic or something the dental neglect? tie in some sort of narrative or some sort of experience. keep everything focused though - have a driving point i guess. pick one thing that makes you different and relate it to dentistry.

 

[BearTeeth]

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to have a PS that blends in with the rest, so long as other parts of your application stand out and speak for themselves, like professional experience/shadowing/leadership, and as long as your gpa and DAT are okay.

The best policy is to be honest, then you'll shine through on an interview. Most of us probably got interested in dentistry in similar ways anyway, right?

 

[321931]

Hi everyone,

I've been working on my PS on and off for over a month and it seems that, no matter how hard I try, it ends up sounding like a typical cookie-cutter PS: describing my childhood/high school briefly and how I was exposed to dentistry early on, then moving onto why i chose healthcare, then onto why i chose dentistry after shadowing and realizing that its a perfect fit for my personality, skills, and interests, then describing my qualifications and experiences that would help make me a great dentist...

I know to "show" rather than just describe but I just feel that the overall progression of my PS is pretty standard. I was wondering if this would hurt my chances? I mean, I feel like my PS effectively demonstrates a confirmed interest and shows what I can offer the field, but... I find it rather..um..unremarkable? but my life has been pretty unremarkable thus far...

I think that anything you write will be cookie cutter. Every essay pretty much answers the same question as:Why. Of course throwing in some life experience makes it "sappy", "cliche", "cookie cutter", but ya got to.

I don't think you cannot make it non-cookie cutter, but rather, you can make it a better "story."

 

[CANgnome]

I am having the same issue, with my PS holding my app back. I could have sent it in 2 weeks ago

Hopefully I will be done around monday.

 

[FreeFallin]

Yeah, I had a tough time trying to figure out my PS too. My thing was that I had too much to put in it, so I scaled it back and made it very personal. My career as an RDH is a HUGE part of it, and so on.

 

[komradrobot]

I wouldn't worry about your statement "standing out" there is only so much you can say. Just be honest and make sure it's written WELL. That alone can make you stand out.

Plus, I think that having a really weird, or over the top statement could actually hurt you. It's tough to pull that off.