Personal statement tips and examples

[Faefly]

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Some of the professors who agreed to write me a letter of recommendation said they would like to read my personal statement or a mini personal statement. I haven't written one yet, but since I have some free time right now, I might as well write something.

• I don't know where to start, what to talk about.
• How to speak about hard situation in your life that caused some gap years.
• should I talk about each volunteer and shadowing experiences and what I learned from them.
• how long should it be?
• Any examples that I can read to get an idea?

Any tips are apperciated!

 

[Samin23]

following

 

[#cariology]

Your PS shouldn't just be a list of accomplishments/experiences or a recapitulation of your application. Try your best to answer the questions "Why dentistry? Why me? How did I get here?" It's vague, but choose a few traits, goals, accomplishments, and/or life experiences which best illuminate why you, the applicant, deserve a seat in dental school.

 

[Faefly]

Your PS shouldn't just be a list of accomplishments/experiences or a recapitulation of your application. Try your best to answer the questions "Why dentistry? Why me? How did I get here?" It's vague, but choose a few traits, goals, accomplishments, and/or life experiences which best illuminate why you, the applicant, deserve a seat in dental school.

Thank you for these valuable tips.

 

[Scumbag_Steve]

.

 

[Faefly]

Speaking about what that hard situation in your life that caused you to take your gap years was, explaining how it shaped you as a person, and how it affirmed your desire to enter dentistry are all it takes for a good personal statement.

Thank you so much, this helps a lot!

 

[sugarbug93]

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[sugarbug93]

.

 

[super frank]

There are many examples of strong personal statements on the internet. Start by reading some of those to get a general idea on how to frame your thoughts.

 

[predental21250]

Your PS is your chance to show how you are unique as an individual. Everyone has DAT scores, GPAs, LORs, volunteering, clinical hours, etc...but you alone have lived your own life. What sets you apart? I did my statement by bringing up a unique personal story unrelated to dentistry, tying in why dentistry, and then talking about several volunteer experiences. You need to use your PS to really sell yourself and make yourself interesting so that the schools want to meet you.

If your professors want a PS, you can write something and that doesn't mean it has to be your final product or even a close resemblance to what you will turn in 6 months from now. Just get something down, and make later on you might decide you want to completely scrap it, or improve it.

 

[Dentin Tubules]

Some of the professors who agreed to write me a letter of recommendation said they would like to read my personal statement or a mini personal statement. I haven't written one yet, but since I have some free time right now, I might as well write something.

• I don't know where to start, what to talk about.
• How to speak about hard situation in your life that caused some gap years.
• should I talk about each volunteer and shadowing experiences and what I learned from them.
• how long should it be?
• Any examples that I can read to get an idea?

Any tips are apperciated!

I had the same trouble when I tried to write my first draft so I decided to do a brainstorming web (my classmates laughed at me but it truly helped me organize my thoughts). I started off with the basic who, what, when, where (volunteering and shadowing) and why and I began building the outline for my PS. After the outline was developed, I began to add more details, stories, and hardships to enhance my essay.

Also, I say yes to the third bullet point.

 

[dentalgoal team]

Here are the MAJOR KEYS to a great personal statement

An Introduction (1st paragraph)
The first paragraph of your personal statement should be about how you realized that dentistry was your passion. Describe any particular reasons or specific life event that triggered your passion for dentistry and helped you pick this course. Customize your personal statement exclusively for dentistry and give reasons why certain aspects of your life may have contributed to your decision to apply for dentistry. Financial incentives are rarely accepted as a motive so it is best to leave your monetary expectations out of your statement.

Relevant Work Experience (2nd paragraph)
Describe your work experience, volunteer program or a dental shadowing. It is extremely important to relate what you saw and what you learnt to your understanding of a career in dentistry and also convey how that experience reinforced your desire to become a dentist. This is the major key right here

Extra Curricular Activities (3rd paragraph)
Your 3rd paragraph should be about you outside of your academic scores. This could be anything from drama, sports or performing arts to traveling, playing a musical instrument, volunteer work or awards. You can talk about virtually anything as long as you link it up to how it can contribute to making you a good dentist. A long list of interests and achievements with no link to dentistry will be unlikely to impress the reader enough to want to grant you an interview. A successful personal statement will link interests and achievements to valuable transferable skills for example team leadership, decision-making, patience, communication skills or manual dexterity.

Compelling Conclusion (4rth paragraph)
In this final section, summarize your qualities and reiterate your core reason for wanting to be a dentist and how you would be a valuable student to their school.

Three important points to remember before submitting your personal statement:

1) Do not lie about your achievements or your skills.

2) Do not be arrogant or smug.

3) Get your personal statement edited before submitting it.

 

[SDDDAT]

Some helpful examples from an old thread here: https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/sample-personal-statements.1072929/
Good luck!

 

[Faefly]

Your personal statement is the perfect chance to highlight who you are that wouldn't necessarily be conveyed via listing your extracurriculars on the app. I chose to work backwards by choosing three positive traits about myself that I knew I wanted to emphasize, and that I believed would make me a great dentist. I then built my each of my body paragraphs around that 1 trait, using a story with concrete examples to back it up. The experiences I chose to talk about were only the ones that most significantly steered my decision towards dentistry, or shaped me as a person.

This is an intersting way to talk about yourself, I like it.

A tip about writing about hard experiences - always, always flip the experience into a positive! What did you learn from it? How have you become a better person, or better suited to become a dental student and/or dentist? Although you may have felt like a victim during those years, don't whine/berate/make excuses for yourself, but turn yourself into the hero of the story.

I like this, but yeah part of me think no, I am ok, nothing happened, but part of me says oh but I had a rough life, I should mention it. Now, you made me realize that it's important to talk about the hardship, but I must talk how the hardship changed me to something else or not changed me at all ( in a good way of course)

 

[Faefly]

Your PS is your chance to show how you are unique as an individual. Everyone has DAT scores, GPAs, LORs, volunteering, clinical hours, etc...but you alone have lived your own life. What sets you apart? I did my statement by bringing up a unique personal story unrelated to dentistry, tying in why dentistry, and then talking about several volunteer experiences. You need to use your PS to really sell yourself and make yourself interesting so that the schools want to meet you.

If your professors want a PS, you can write something and that doesn't mean it has to be your final product or even a close resemblance to what you will turn in 6 months from now. Just get something down, and make later on you might decide you want to completely scrap it, or improve it.

I think you are right, I shouldn't make it perfect. I should think of it as a practice for the real thing. I mean I'll write something but it's not necessary the final version.
Thanks

 

[Faefly]

I had the same trouble when I tried to write my first draft so I decided to do a brainstorming web (my classmates laughed at me but it truly helped me organize my thoughts). I started off with the basic who, what, when, where (volunteering and shadowing) and why and I began building the outline for my PS. After the outline was developed, I began to add more details, stories, and hardships to enhance my essay.

Also, I say yes to the third bullet point.

Oh, I never thought about that. I feel that this is a great idea! I'll start brainstorming and see where I'll end. Hopefully, that will motivate me to finish it in one sitting or at least the first draft!

 

[Faefly]

Here are the MAJOR KEYS to a great personal statement

An Introduction (1st paragraph)
The first paragraph of your personal statement should be about how you realized that dentistry was your passion. Describe any particular reasons or specific life event that triggered your passion for dentistry and helped you pick this course. Customize your personal statement exclusively for dentistry and give reasons why certain aspects of your life may have contributed to your decision to apply for dentistry. Financial incentives are rarely accepted as a motive so it is best to leave your monetary expectations out of your statement.

Relevant Work Experience (2nd paragraph)
Describe your work experience, volunteer program or a dental shadowing. It is extremely important to relate what you saw and what you learnt to your understanding of a career in dentistry and also convey how that experience reinforced your desire to become a dentist. This is the major key right here

Extra Curricular Activities (3rd paragraph)
Your 3rd paragraph should be about you outside of your academic scores. This could be anything from drama, sports or performing arts to traveling, playing a musical instrument, volunteer work or awards. You can talk about virtually anything as long as you link it up to how it can contribute to making you a good dentist. A long list of interests and achievements with no link to dentistry will be unlikely to impress the reader enough to want to grant you an interview. A successful personal statement will link interests and achievements to valuable transferable skills for example team leadership, decision-making, patience, communication skills or manual dexterity.

Compelling Conclusion (4rth paragraph)
In this final section, summarize your qualities and reiterate your core reason for wanting to be a dentist and how you would be a valuable student to their school.

Three important points to remember before submitting your personal statement:

1) Do not lie about your achievements or your skills.

2) Do not be arrogant or smug.

3) Get your personal statement edited before submitting it.

Thank you so much for this outline, awesome tips!

 

[Faefly]

Some helpful examples from an old thread here: https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/sample-personal-statements.1072929/
Good luck!

Exactly what I needed, thank you so much. This will help a lot!