If you're applying to dental school in the U.S. chances are you'll have to apply through the
AADSAS which is the Associated American Dental School Application Service run by the American
Dental Education Association or ADEA. So today I'd like to go through what makes for a strong
personal statement in the AADSAS application. Much like medical school students and other students
going into similar professional programs you have to write a personal statement essay as part
of your application. So I'll go through some tips and parameters that you should keep in
mind as you're putting this document together. First hi my name is Dr. Sarah Kleeb and I'm
an admissions expert at BeMo. So as with all professional school applications or almost all
professional school applications you have to write a personal statement and the personal statement
in many ways is the heart of your application. You've put together a bunch of quantitative and
numerical data in terms of your scores and your standardized tests and things like that but the
personal statement is where the admissions committee really gets to understand who you
are. There's not a lot of personality in lists of prereqs and GPAs and DAT scores and things like
that and so this is your first real opportunity to reach out and say hey this is who I am as an
applicant not just as someone who has done well academically but here are my values,
here's what I want to bring to the profession of Dentistry. In completing the AADSAS your one
personal statement essay will be circulated to all the schools that you decide to apply to so
it should be a general statement not one tailored to specific schools. A lot of schools will have
secondary applications that they want you to fill out which will usually have some additional essay
type questions or short answer questions, some of them about the specific school or programs,
mission statement, vision, values, etc., and that's where you can start sort of tailoring your
response to that particular school and program but this first one should be more general. It's
about 45, well exactly 4,500 characters long and that includes spaces, punctuation, line breaks, and
things like that so that's around one single spaced page of text to let you know how much
you have to work with. That's not a whole lot to say quite a bit so you really need to go
through drafts and reviews and revisions to get it down to exactly what it needs to be in that
short amount of time. In general it should be an engaging and compelling narrative reflection
on the key question: "why do you want a career in dentistry?" "Why do you want to be a dentist?" And so
you want to take some time to think about the key qualities of the profession itself and the core
competencies expected of incoming dental school students and choose some of these to guide your
reflection. Again you may have to go through a few drafts to get it exactly where it needs to be but
that's actually a good thing. Yes, it takes a lot of work but you don't want this to be something
that you crank out in one evening and send off right away. This needs some time and attention to
be what it needs to be, to be strong and engaging and compelling. So a strong dental school personal
statement is going to do a few key things: number one first and foremost it has to tell a story. This
shouldn't just be a recitation of your CV, of your accomplishments, of your activities, and things like
that. They will get that information in another portion of the application. It's a very extensive,
detailed application so trust me they'll know all of the things that you've done and that's not
the purpose of the personal statement. You want to use descriptive prose, you want to use anecdotes,
you know things that have happened to you or things that you've witnessed, narrative to show
your overall development, professionalization, alignment of values with those of the profession
itself, instead of just telling the reader that you have those values, that you have gone through
professionalization and things like that. We often say "show don't tell" and what that means is don't
just tell them that you had XYZ experience. Show them those experiences and the qualities that
you've developed by using narrative, prose, anecdote, vignette. If during your shadowing you saw a
particular patient interaction that really stuck with you and you really said oh this, this right
here is why I want to go into this profession. Recount that story for them, help them see you
in that position and see you fulfilling that same role of caring, compassion, etc., whatever it
was that stuck with you in that moment. This is one reason that shadowing is so incredibly important
and is pretty much required for dental students is they need to see the daily in and outs of the
profession itself but also get to see that doctor patient experience see how dentists relate with
their patients, connect them with various kinds of you know outlets for care, and how they are
invested in the overall well-being of the patients that they treat. Number two your personal statement
needs to demonstrate why you're a good fit for the profession. Again in some of those secondary
essays you might need to show why you're a good fit for the school or the program based on their
own independent mission or statement of values but you need to speak at the broader sort of general
level of vision, values, and vocation. Vocation here means that this isn't just something that
you want to do as a job this is something that you find meaning and fulfillment in doing and
pursuing. So one way that you can do this is to look through the core competencies outlined by
the ADEA and those are quite easy to find, they're on their website, but just very quickly I can tell
you that the core competencies expected of new dentists who are going into practice so things
that you should be starting to look at and working right now are: critical thinking, professionalism,
communication and interpersonal skills, health promotion, practice management and informatics,
and patient care particularly with regard to assessment diagnosis and treatment planning
and establishment and maintenance of oral health. So you can see this goes far beyond the technical
rigors of the profession, that is covered in practice management informatics in patient
care. A lot of times dentists not only practice their skill and their craft they run their own
practices as well so having some business acumen etc is necessary but those first four
in particular: critical thinking, professionalism, communication and interpersonal skills, and health
promotion, these are you know qualities personal qualities that you need to demonstrate. Now you
don't need to demonstrate every single one of those in a one page, single-spaced, 4,500
character including spaces essay, but you should pick at least one or two of those that you feel
really speak to who you are as a candidate and that you've been able to demonstrate through your
experiences, through your priorities, and through your thinking around this particular profession.
Next your personal statement should be genuine and readable. In terms of readable what I mean is you
should not be trying to fill it up with complex jargon and technical terms thinking that makes
you sound smart. That is not what professionals do. True professionals are able to break down
complex information in a way that is accessible and understandable to non-specialists. That's how
you know you've really hit the level of expert is when you can break those things down in a
way that makes sense to people outside of your own particular field. And in terms of genuine it should
be a real reflection, you should be speaking you know from the heart, from the brain to of course,
but from the heart why this is the path that you have chosen, what's led you to this moment,
and what meaning do you yourself genuinely find in pursuing this profession. You of course want
to be sort of a representation of your very best self in these applications, in these essays, but
it should also be an authentic representation of that best self. So use your own voice, don't try to
bog things down with heavy language and things like that. Simply walk them through who you are
and why you want this career. And then finally and perhaps self-evidently but enough students sort
of forget to do this that it bears repeating. Your personal statement needs to express your desired
contributions to the field of Dentistry so you want to look at who you are now but also who
you want to be as a future professional. What do you want to contribute? What kind of - you
want to be a dentist - what kind of dentist do you want to be for your patients? What kind of person
do you want to be as a dental professional? What are your priorities? Are you interested in research?
What does it mean to you to be a practitioner and someone responsible for patient care? Reflect on
what that patient care means to you? What does it mean to you beyond say the hour so that you'll
have with your patients every few months? What does it mean to be a health care practitioner
who prioritizes the overall well-being of their patients? That is absolutely critical so if you
walk into this particular essay with those things in mind you will put together something that is
compelling and engaging and that narrates your best authentic self and that is what they want
you to do. Again all with that key question in mind: "why are you pursuing" or "why do you want to pursue
a career in dentistry?" So I hope that you enjoyed this video and that it was helpful. If so please do
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As ever, thank you so very much for your time, take good care, and I'll see you next time!