Chronicle Three – Statement of “Purpose”

Number 75- the board flashed. My father and I were in this huge line of dental school applicants for two hours, waiting to be called. All of us had written a common entrance test and each of us had a rank number based on our score. With couple of thousand people waiting in line, each of us had a rank number ranging from “one” to some “thousand” number. I had a nail biting wait with my eyes fixated on the huge electronic board with changing names and numbers on it with each applicant. The applicants ahead of me were choosing the more popular of dental schools. I was hoping to get into the one in my own city. I almost chewed my fingers when my name was called. Looking perplexed at the board, it took me a couple of minutes for me to realize I had some seats left in the school that I wanted! Excited I was!

Well, dental school admissions were a lot different when I stepped into the US. No long lines, no two hour waiting. It was months of planning and days of research to see which school I wanted to get into. This included writing long essays to say ‘why’ I wanted to get into the particular school. It was a kind of exercise that was extremely annoying when I first started. I could not reason out why someone would need to prove that he/she wanted to be a dentist. Even after the excellent NBDE scores and the TOEFL scores, the ‘Statement of Purpose’ clearly determined ‘why’ I wanted to study in that particular school.

After a couple of torn sheets and hours of deep thought, I resigned to the idea that I could not come up with a clear reason for getting into dental school in the US. Then I turned to my trusted resources for help- my husband and the internet. Both seemed to say the same point- “you need a story to tell”. I never really gave a thought of why I wanted to be a dentist in the first place. I knew there was a lot of peer pressure and my interest in the medical field made me choose dentistry. But wasn’t my own dental experience that influenced me deep down? There it was! I had a story to tell.

I had a two page essay after lots of writing, typing and editing. I formatted, read and re-read that paper to make sense a dozen times before printing it out. I followed all that the ‘gurus’ on the internet had posted. My story had a reason of ‘why’ I choose dentistry. It had simple sentences and easy to use words. I put my thesaurus aside when I wrote my essay! I did lots of research about the school I wanted to be in and personalized each school essay. I wrote my real life experiences to show that I was genuinely interested in the program. My good scores, well formatted resume and the SOP all tied up to make a good application packet. I think it did make an impact with the admissions! I had my interview call in two weeks.

Though it’s different in each country, the stories are real and they still impact our lives in many different ways. Many don’t have to say it out loud and some do.

Dr Meenakshi Umapathy is a General Dentist who graduated from India. She moved to the USA and completed her DDS from New York University College of Dentistry. She is currently practicing General Dentistry for Kids in Indiana. She shares her stories about dentistry in India and the US through her narratives at the DentistryUnited every Saturday

Disclaimer : The views expressed in this blog are solely the views of the author and need not reflect the views of DentistryUnited.com . For any clarification you can get in touch with the author directly at the address mentioned above.