As part of the
Dentistry application process, you need to write a short essay about yourself on your UCAS form, known as a Personal Statement. The purpose of a Dentistry Personal Statement is to tell the
Dental School that you’re applying to all about yourself and to persuade them that you are a great candidate to study Dentistry.
What Is A Dentistry Personal Statement?
UCAS describes the Personal Statement as an “opportunity to sell yourself to your prospective school, college or training provider”, which in this case would be the Dental Schools you are applying to. You need to show that you have the key qualities to study Dentistry and that you have knowledge of the career.
Your Personal Statement can be up to 4,000 characters, which is around 500 words or 47 lines of size 12 script. As the length is highly restricted you need to be precise and use key unique selling points to get ahead of the competition.
What Should My Dentistry Personal Statement Include?
Your Personal Statement should cover three main areas:
- Motivation – Why do you want to study Dentistry?
- Exploration – What have you done to learn about Dentistry?
- Suitability – What skills do you have that make you a good fit for Dentistry?
How Should I Structure My Dentistry Personal Statement?
Dentistry Personal Statements don’t need to follow a strict structure. However, you need to make sure that your Personal Statement flows and follows a logical framework.
We would suggest using the structure below as a starting point to ensure all the key points are covered.
- Why I want to study Dentistry (motivation)
- Work experience and/or volunteering (exploration)
- Wider reading and study (exploration)
- Extracurricular activities (suitability)
- Conclusion (motivation)
What You Need To Do:
- Keep a reflective diary during work experience to make sure you remember key moments and learning points to use in your Personal Statement.
- Plan your PS structure clearly. The suggested structure above can be used, but you might want to make alterations. Just ensure that it is clear and follows a logical progression.
- Start drafting. Make notes for each of the sections in your structure. It doesn’t matter if your Personal Statement is too long initially, because it can always be edited later on.
- Edit and refine. Begin to fine-tune your draft and make sure that it fits the required writing style and word count for UCAS.
- Get advice. Once you are happy with your Dentistry Personal Statement, get other people to give you feedback. This is so you can make further improvements. It’s always worth asking friends, family and teachers who can look at it objectively!
- Get a professional review. Send your Personal Statement to The Medic Portal for professional feedback. Take this feedback on board and make the required edits.
- Upload and submit on UCAS.
