Would anyone be willing to critique my personal statement for ortho residency? Idea/concept in post

[MIIMtodent]

Good afternoon SDN,

I am going through the process of applying for orthodontic residencies and am working on my personal statement. I have already met with the head of our orthodontic department and gone over my CV, he seemed very impressed and encouraging so i know stats wise I am doing okay. However, I also know that the personal statement is really important to show my personality and what makes me tick as a person etc.

Like I said it is still in the works, but basically I want to write about my journey to dental school and what led me to pursue ortho. I had kind of traumatic ortho treatment as a kid that involved periodontal surgeries that were ineffective and had to be redone etc, which really affected my confidence as a teenager but once everything got squared away and completed I was a whole different person and my confidence and self worth increased so much and my happiness level just through the roof just from dental treatment. So that is what led me to pursue ortho in the first place.

I am non-traditional because I applied and was rejected 2x before getting accepted on my 3rd application. I had 4 years off in between graduating undergrad and going to dental school, and during this time every single thing I did was in pursuit of getting into dental school. I worked a year at an ortho office, two years at a general office, and then got a masters degree at a pretty good program which i believe is what ultimately led to my acceptance. I went into dental school not confident at all that ortho would be possible because in my mind, if it took me 3 tries to get in and almost everyone else here got in their first try, how in the world could i possibly be smart enough to have the stats to get me into ortho??

However, with crazy perseverance and feeling that I really needed to prove to my school that they made the right choice in accepting me, I ended up now in the top 10 of my class with lots of leadership positions, community service, research, etc.

My question/concern is, I don't know if all of this is kind of too generic and basic and not exciting enough to stand out. I spoke with faculty in my ortho department that is on the admissions board, and was just casually chatting with her about why i want to do ortho etc and was not even talking about the PS. She unprompted told me that my childhood experience would be a really good thing to write about in my PS, but again I am really nervous that it will be generic and boring and that probably a lot of people write about how braces as a kid gave them confidence. However if I don't write about that I don't really know what else in my life I could write about that would make me stand out as an applicant.

Any advice?? Thank you in advance!!

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[PerioDont]

do you have a draft PS written out already?

 

[MIIMtodent]

do you have a draft PS written out already?

I had one but then in reading some other posts on this forum about length, content, etc i have been working on shortening it a bit and making it more concise and trying to make it a more interesting read!

 

[cmjacks5]

Good afternoon SDN,

I am going through the process of applying for orthodontic residencies and am working on my personal statement. I have already met with the head of our orthodontic department and gone over my CV, he seemed very impressed and encouraging so i know stats wise I am doing okay. However, I also know that the personal statement is really important to show my personality and what makes me tick as a person etc.

Like I said it is still in the works, but basically I want to write about my journey to dental school and what led me to pursue ortho. I had kind of traumatic ortho treatment as a kid that involved periodontal surgeries that were ineffective and had to be redone etc, which really affected my confidence as a teenager but once everything got squared away and completed I was a whole different person and my confidence and self worth increased so much and my happiness level just through the roof just from dental treatment. So that is what led me to pursue ortho in the first place.

I am non-traditional because I applied and was rejected 2x before getting accepted on my 3rd application. I had 4 years off in between graduating undergrad and going to dental school, and during this time every single thing I did was in pursuit of getting into dental school. I worked a year at an ortho office, two years at a general office, and then got a masters degree at a pretty good program which i believe is what ultimately led to my acceptance. I went into dental school not confident at all that ortho would be possible because in my mind, if it took me 3 tries to get in and almost everyone else here got in their first try, how in the world could i possibly be smart enough to have the stats to get me into ortho??

However, with crazy perseverance and feeling that I really needed to prove to my school that they made the right choice in accepting me, I ended up now in the top 10 of my class with lots of leadership positions, community service, research, etc.

My question/concern is, I don't know if all of this is kind of too generic and basic and not exciting enough to stand out. I spoke with faculty in my ortho department that is on the admissions board, and was just casually chatting with her about why i want to do ortho etc and was not even talking about the PS. She unprompted told me that my childhood experience would be a really good thing to write about in my PS, but again I am really nervous that it will be generic and boring and that probably a lot of people write about how braces as a kid gave them confidence. However if I don't write about that I don't really know what else in my life I could write about that would make me stand out as an applicant.

Any advice?? Thank you in advance!!

It seems that you have your “theme” of your personal statement. I like your idea you want to use for your statement as well. I would just limit it to one page and be concise.

 

[MIIMtodent]

It seems that you have your “theme” of your personal statement. I like your idea you want to use for your statement as well. I would just limit it to one page and be concise.

Thank you! I saw other people saying one page was best as well to not lose interest of the reader, so that is what I am aiming for in my cut right now. Thank you for your feedback, I think I will stay on the same path then and keep my fingers crossed.

 

[PerioDont]

My advice for writing residency personal statements

With the application process coming up quickly, I just wanted to share some brief thoughts on writing your personal statements. This is the process I used, and I found it to be very helpful. I had many interviewers comment on how great my PS was. Brain dump daily. This should involve roughly 20...

forums.studentdoctor.net

Here is a post I wrote a while back on writing PS. Hope it’s helpful!

 

[allDAT]

Start writing it all down. Make it long, trim it down. Sometimes you decide to just start over. It’s important to tell a story that is both interesting and highlights your best characteristics. I think with what you’ve outlined here, you’ll be able to write a good one. Don’t be afraid to hire help if you need it. There are services available to help refine your statement and using one is worth the modest expense when you’re at the specialty certificate level in your career because the rewards for gaining acceptance are huge.