Explore a Winning Medical School & Healthcare Admission Essay
In the high-stakes world of MD, DO, and Healthcare admissions, your personal statement must do more than recount your volunteer hours. It must prove that you possess the resilience, ethical clarity, and clinical empathy required of a future physician. Whether you are navigating the AMCAS, AACOMAS, or TMDSAS cycle, your essay is your interview before the interview.
​
Explore our featured Medical School Essay Sample to see how we help pre-med students transform shadowing experiences and lab research into a narrative that commands the attention of elite AdComs.
​
Read more Medical School & Healthcare Admission Essay Sample here.
Before
I first became interested in dental work at a very early age. Throughout my childhood, my father carried a removable partial denture for one of his maxillary central incisors. Although at that time I was too young to understand how important dentures were to my father, I realized its significance while studying at school. Dentures not only fill in gaps in the mouth and make appearances more pleasant, but also ease the trouble of eating food with a missing tooth. During my youth, my family was incapable of paying for any dental care. Dentists were extremely costly to my family because the system of dental insurance was imperfect when I was a kid. I grew up thinking dental care was a privilege, and I wanted to make it more accessible to poorer areas.
Dental problems have been bothering my family at various times in my life. Around my third grade, one of my dad’s maxillary central incisors had turned dark purple after a motorbike accident. His dentist recommended him to get rid of this dark purple tooth and replace it with a denture. However, the cost was too expensive as his dental insurance did not cover for the surgical fee. My father is not the only one who has suffered from the high cost of dental care and lack of proper knowledge. When I was young all my deciduous teeth were pulled out by myself once I found out they had become loose, which of course has led to the improper alignment of my permanent teeth. My family experiences have taught me a personal lesson on the importance of proper dental care, and I am driven to become a dentist. Although the expense of dental care is still a high cost throughout the nation, I will participate in non-profit organization in local community and provide free dental work to homeless and low-income patients periodically. At least, I am able to offer help to those who has suffered from the oral pain and costly dental care.
In order to understand more about the dental profession, I decided to volunteer in a dental office. Currently, I am qualified to help dental assistants clean the operating room after treatment and deliver dental instruments for the main dentist. As a result of working at the office, I realize that maintaining the cleanness in the operation room is extremely important. I took charge of sanitizing all the regions involved in the treatment, including the operating room, for the next patient once the therapy is finished. I was also able to closely observe how different dentists, including general dentist, orthodontist, and endodontist treat the patients. My close working relationship with the dentists not only has allowed me to appreciate how dentistry is practiced, but has also taught me how to become an effective team member and communicator.
To further improve my communication skills, I have actively sought different volunteering and work experiences in order to expose myself to different people in my community. I have volunteered for 2 years at ***** where I had the opportunity to talk to various patients and their families. I have also been a supermarket cashier, where I improved my customer service skill, and a teacher assistant at after-school programs, which provided me with an opportunity to communicate with kids and comfort them. Through my diverse experience, I have interacted with people from all walks of life. I believe this will be important to my future career as patients of all ages need a dentist who truly understands their needs and their background.
I believe I can be a successful dentist because I am a person with perseverance. I have had to overcome several obstacles before I could graduate with my bachelor’s degree. My native language is Mandarin, so the language barrier is, understandably, a factor that has influenced my study and communication with others. However, I have greatly improved my English during my studies at **** and my previous employments. I accepted part- time jobs to pay for my textbooks and daily expenses while my tuition was covered by financial aids. I have acquired invaluable experiences from these works. I recognize that advanced education would be able to broaden my horizons and assist me in realizing my dream of delivering dental care to the many families like mine who lack the knowledge and means to do so. From volunteering at *****, to my various job experiences and dental shadowing, I truly believe I am prepared to move onto the next stage of my study in order to achieve my ultimate goal.
After
To many people, the field of dentistry involves preventing and relieving tooth decay and periodontal disease. To me, it is very personal. Unfortunately, of all of the healthcare fields, dental care has the greatest disparity in services based on socio- economic status. In developing countries like my native Taiwan, access to dental care is unaffordable to the majority of the population. While even poor countries around the world attempt to provide basic medical care – dentistry is often considered a luxury. I would like to dedicate my professional career to changing this situation.
Interestingly, in the United States, dentistry has trended toward cosmetic dentistry – whether it is whitening your teeth, or creating a perfect smile. This is not true in Taiwan. Dentistry is less about vanity, and more about public health, preventing further oral cavity problems, and enabling people to completing basic life functions like eating. It was not until I was in college that I realized one of my father’s most valuable possessions was a removable partial denture for one of his maxillary central incisors. Dentures are very expensive, and not only fill gaps and improve appearance, but help with chewing.
Part of my passion for this field developed due to the basic fact that my family was incapable of paying for my dental care. Dentists were extremely costly to my family because the system of dental insurance was imperfect and unfair. I grew up thinking dental care was a privilege for wealthy people, and vowed that I would one day make it more accessible to poorer areas of the country.
While I care about dentistry from a public policy perspective, I also am fascinated by the functioning of gums and teeth, and the technical challenges of diagnoses, prevention and treatment. When I was in third grade, my father was involved in a motorbike accident that caused his maxillary central incisors to turn dark purple. I was curious as to why this occurred, and how to ameliorate this problem. My father was fortunate to be able to see a dentist – who offered a simple solution: remove the tooth. Unfortunately, our dental coverage did not cover surgery, and considering an advanced technique like a root canal was out of the question.
While diagnosis and treatment are important, my native country also suffers from a lack of education about proper dental care. When I was young, my deciduous teeth began to become loose. I found it amusing to pull out all of my teeth. While this seemed like an innocent activity performed by a child, it was not until years later that I realized that this created improper alignment of my permanent teeth.
My family experiences have taught me a personal lesson on the importance of proper dental care, and given me the ambition to dedicate my professional career to this field, and in helping others. The cost of dental care is still prohibitively high throughout my country, and I realize that I cannot fix the healthcare delivery system. However, I am confident that I can effectuate change by participating in a non-profit organization in a local community and providing free dental work to homeless and low-income patients periodically. It would allow me to offer help to those who have suffered from oral pain and costly dental care.
To learn more about the dental profession, I volunteered in a dental office. I am qualified to help dental assistants clean the operating room after treatment, and deliver dental instruments for the primary dentist. This experience has taught me the importance of cleanliness and sanitization in the operating room. It also allowed me an opportunity to closely observe how different dentists, including general dentists, orthodontists, and endodontists treat patients. I realized that dentistry is more than simply a science – it also involves teamwork and effective interpersonal skills. To improve my communication skills, I have volunteered for a wide variety of opportunities in my community. I have volunteered for two years at *****, and been a supermarket cashier, as well as a teaching assistant for an after-school program. These diverse experiences allowed me to interact with people of different ages, and socio-economic backgrounds. I have learned that sometimes empathy, not science, is the best way to help clients.
I am confident I can succeed in dentistry school, as I am committed, and diligent. I had to overcome several obstacles both academic and cultural to achieve my bachelor’s degree from the Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology. Since my native language is Mandarin Chinese, I have worked to overcome the language barrier, and greatly improved my English abilities while studying at ****. My part-time jobs did more than pay for my textbooks and daily expenses – it helped me understand American culture and glean more information from my studies.
I recognize that an advanced education in dentistry will do more than broaden my horizons, it will help me realize my dream of providing dental care to families like mine. My volunteer experiences at *****, combined with my “dentist shadowing,” have confirmed my career choice, and given me the ambition to move onto the next stage of my studies.