How To Write A Personal Statement For Dental School
Dental School is no joke as it helps in training future Dentists who need to solve health issues concerning the teeth. Carefulness, Dedication, Excellence, Honesty, integrity, and Sacrifice are essential qualities a Dentist must possess.
Before entering into dental school a written personal statement is a necessary document and so it needs to be written properly and the first paragraph must catch the reader’s attention.
A personal statement for dental school is a single-page essay of not more than 4500 characters (including spaces, letters, numbers, and carriages) that showcases your personality and also states clearly your reasons for wanting to become a dentist. Because a personal statement for dental school is what would give them the first impression of yourself, you absolutely want to make it great as it helps the school to decide to finally interview or meet you.
This article would show you important guidelines which are necessary for writing a Personal Statement for Dental School.
Guidelines on how to write a personal statement for dental school
Table of Contents
Good cgpa and Dental Admission Test (DAT) result
Most dental school cgpa qualifier is around 3.5 and DAT score of 17/30 and above. This is not absolutely going to define a definite entry into dental school but it is a major booster!
Your Motivation or Turning Point
Explain how an event or a person motivated you to decide you want to study dentistry. This should not be too long, let’s say two to three paragraphs or full of too much grammar. Keep it simple and clear and make sure it is a real story because during interviews questions might be raised from such narratives.
Explain Why You Are an Excellent Candidate for Dental School
State your skills, the qualities you have that a dental school student should possess, voluntary work you have participated in that is dentistry-related, internships you have done and any achievements you acquired and also how having been exposed to various dental instruments has aided your understanding, making you the right candidate for dental school.
Work Experience
describe your work experience, telling the reader places you have worked and especially paid work as the reader would be more interested in a dental-related job you were paid for than volunteer work (you can include the names of these places) or activities relating to dentistry that you have participated in and your contributions.
What You Have Gained or Learned From Your Work Experience
Describe how you have developed better and the knowledge you gained while working in a dental-related job or experience, something like; the joy you derived from helping patients get their teeth working better or how you have learned key dental terminologies. All these would really help you to be considered and eventually admitted.
Show Your Passion!
write in a clear personal manner how passionate you are about getting into dental school and eventually becoming an excellent dentist.
Don’t Be Fake
You might want to impress the reader and write what you think they want to know by using clichés or sounding too perfect. Do not do that, keep it real.
You Can Write About Your Life Activities
You can discuss your daily life activities like; how you go to the gym for physical fitness, activities you love to do with friends and family, and how you take out time to do some positive personal stuffs. Because a personal statement should bring out your personality to the reader, as it helps them access you better.
Accessories
Try and have a wonderful letter of recommendation, if you are in a predental association in school, let the reader know. you joined in dental research or any other reasonable research? Add it.
Good Theme
A personal statement for dental school is a story about your life in relation to dentistry, don’t be boring. You want to engage the reader and keep them paying attention to your write-up till the last line, so you need to be creative, let your story be real and interesting, write in clear and understandable language, avoid bad grammar and ambiguous words and proofread to perfection, yes! Proofread to perfection!
Make a Draft of The Personal Statement First
Writing a draft of your personal statement makes it easier to write the final personal statement as it will enable you to make as many changes as possible, you can correct your mistakes, add new ideas and also revise making you write your real personal statement with a clear mind and faster.
Show a Professional Your Personal Statement
when you are done writing your personal statement, you need to show certain knowledgeable people like a dentist or your mentor for assessment
Get Examples
Although your personal statement is about yourself, you need to get insights on how yours should look from as many examples as possible so as to write in the right form.
Conclusion
Lay more emphasis on your passion for dentistry, why you want to become a dentist, your goal and aspirations in the dentistry field and how you would like to practice dentistry either on your own or at a hospital, and contributions you would love to add to the field of dentistry.
Now that you have gotten the right guidelines on how to write a personal statement for dental school. There are also certain things you should not do when writing your personal statement.
Errors to avoid when writing personal statement for dental school
- Do not be pretentious in your writing
- Avoid repeating what you have already written in your CV
- Do not be obnoxious or pompous in your writing
- Avoid damage control by writing your statement late, you are likely going to make mistakes you won’t have time to correct
- Avoid dwelling on the negatives, stay positive
- Do not try to criticize the dental school system or dentistry profession in any way no matter how mildly you would like to put it.
- Avoid writing a dental school personal statement like any other personal statement, be precise.
- Focus on important things and positive achievements and knowledge gained from experience. Do not lose track and tire the reader.
You can get some nice examples for personal statements for dental school on pinterest