You write an essay about yourself in your UCAS personal statement.
All of your universities can view it as part of your UCAS application. Its purpose is to provide admissions tutors with a sense of the applicant.
Your personal statement is composed after a significant portion of the lengthy process of applying to medical school has already occurred. It should thus be jam-packed with your insights and lessons learned.
How is my medicine/dentistry personal statement used?
Selection for interview
Before a student is chosen for an interview, their personal statement might be used to rate them.
Getting to know you
Tutors for admissions want to know why you want to be a doctor and why you believe they should choose you. Since hundreds of applications will be reviewed, the personal statement is a means of making your application stand out.
How is the mark assigned to my personal statement?
The way that medical and dentistry schools grade personal statements will vary. To guarantee that candidates receive fair marks, each school’s markers will employ set standards that closely reflect the fundamental principles of the Medical and Dental Schools Councils. This indicates that the marking criteria are predictable and will often fall into three main categories.
Commitment to the area
Your reasons for studying medicine or dentistry, your perception of the field as a whole, and your professional background will all be examined.
Ability to practice dentistry or medicine
They will examine your leadership abilities, teamwork experience, community involvement, and general interests.
Academic aptitude
Your GCSE achievements, actual and anticipated grades, and academic distinctions will all be examined.
Updated Checklist for Dental School Personal Statement
Here’s the checklist that everyone should use to write their Dentistry Personal Statement:
Introduction:
- Is my opening line strong enough to entice adcoms to continue reading?
- Do the anecdotes I present in my introduction pique the curiosity of the adcom?
Content
- Does my essay have narratives? Are the tales vivid, unforgettable, and noteworthy?
- Do my stories make sense as a whole?
- Are my paragraphs coherent?
- Does my material evoke strong feelings among readers? Do my stories have color?
- Do I share my story of how I became a dentist?
- Is my response to the questions “Why Dentistry?” and “Why is dentistry a meaningful career?” correct?
Shadowing: Do I tell detailed graphic stories of my shadowing experiences?
- Should I only discuss my actions or should I also discuss my lessons learnt and the difference I made in the world?
Research:
- Does someone get interested in my study if I discuss it in my essay? Or does it cause someone to remark, “This is really too much information? I can’t handle it.
- Does it read easily? Is reading about my study enjoyable or fascinating?
- Am I use large terms, cliches, or jargon?
Conclusion:
- Do I have a snappy conclusion? Does it stick in your memory?
- After reading my personal statement, would the reader still remember me in ten minutes, ten hours, or ten days?
- Is there a connection between my conclusion and the previously described stories?
Overall
- Does the reasoning in my tales make sense? Does my essay have a central theme?
- Does every sentence merit inclusion in my personal statement? Or am I only adding unnecessary or trash sentences?
- Is it under the 4500 character limit?
- Have I proofread the grammar?
- Do I seem likeable to others? Is the adcom going to want to interview me?
What to Include in the Checklist for Personal Statement in 2025
Understanding dentistry requires knowledge of a number of different facets, and it’s critical to show that you are aware of them. Try to bring up as many of the following points as you can:
observing empathy, collaboration, leadership, and effective communication. These can be scattered throughout your statement, but you should discuss particular incidents in this area.
Tell the admissions board about a time when team members had to collaborate to provide the best care possible for a patient with complex, interacting diseases, rather than how you “spent three days shadowing a general dentist, and saw the importance of communication between the team.”
Negatives of dentistry
Demonstrating your desire to pursue a profession in dentistry is admirable, but it’s not an easy path. Candidates who have an optimistic view of the future are more likely to quit and are less inclined to consider if it is the right route for them.
Admissions committees are aware of this. Mentioning a drawback of dentistry that you observed, such as the emotional challenges or long hours, and explaining why this hasn’t deterred you is a crucial strategy to stand out from the crowd.
This may be a fantastic approach to move into some of your core principles and demonstrates that you have a realistic knowledge of what a career in dentistry requires. Maybe you have exceptional time management abilities or are very emotionally robust.
What is the goal of a dental school personal statement?
Note: The ADA modified the scale used to publish DAT results starting in March 2025. Three-digit scores between 200 and 600 will now be used to report them. When a DAT score is mentioned in this guide, the corresponding new score is shown in parenthesis. See the ADA’s DAT concordance table for a comprehensive list of old to new scores.
The objective is clear: the higher your DAT score and GPA, the better. Although it may be easy to assume that a candidate with a 22 (460) DAT and 3.8 GPA will be accepted over one with a 20 (420) DAT and 3.6 GPA, the admissions process is not nearly as simple as this, and an admissions committee’s perception of these two candidates is frequently influenced by their personal statements.
What is a personal statement intended to accomplish? The answer is surprisingly straightforward: the purpose of the personal statement is to pique the curiosity of the admissions committee and compel them to see you.
Getting an interview at as many dental schools as you can—or at least at the one you want to attend—is the main objective of your application, and the personal statement is your chance to highlight your distinctive and captivating qualities.
Consider your application as a building project.
Your DAT results and GPA are similar to the blueprints. To support the future home, they must adhere to strict structural and engineering specifications and have a mathematical foundation. There are certain standards and regulations that must be fulfilled for blueprints to satisfy local building codes and be authorized, even if there is undoubtedly variance in the designs of various residences.
