Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

I have nothing to say about myself.

(edited 5 years ago)

I think I want to do dentistry, I’m just panicking because I don’t think I’ll have enough stuff to say about myself.

Currently I have:
Volunteering with young adults with disabilities
Volunteering with a school charity (but this stops in the new school year).
Work experience with QUB but this was with medical researchers (as at the time I was thinking about biomedical sciences).
I got accepted into Nuffield (but I lost it because my placement then couldn’t take me).
Summer school at LJMU (but they don’t do dentistry so I can’t really say anything about it.)
I went to a summer day thing at UCD but it was more focused on medicine.
All i really do with my spare time is go to the gym.
Last summer I had a job but I quit it in October as i found the hours too much with school.

I’ve dentistry work experience planned in september but I feel as if i’m going to need a lot more? :frown:

I’m woeful at music and sports and my GCSEs are only semi-decent because I did Art and it wasted so much of my time (2A*4A4B). I currently do Bio,Chem, Lit and Sociology.

The line limit on your PS will fill quicker than you think!

Remember that a UK PS isn't like American college applications, it's not just about extracurricular stuff. You need to explain why you want to study dentistry and show why you'd be a a good candidate and that you have a passion for the subject area- so don't worry about not having lots of hobbies etc, most unis won't be interested in this.

So a rough structure might be:
-This is why I want to study dentistry.
-This is my dentistry work experience that I have done, what I learned from it, why I enjoyed it.
-This is some other stuff that I have done that makes me a good dentistry candidate e.g. I've volunteered with young adults with disabilities, and this made me realize I want to care for people etc. etc. You don't just state what you've done, you need to talk about it, so you'll have a few sentences about each useful thing. This section could end up being two paragraphs easily. You could also talk about relevant/interesting books/articles you have read in this section.
- Some kind of summary pulling the whole thing together.

You'll hit the line limit way quicker than you think, you really only have room for about 5 paragraphs. As you need to talk about each thing (this is what I did, this is why it made me interested in dentistry, this is a particular skill I've learned from it), you will probably find talking about 2/3 things in addition to your work experience will quickly fill the space you have available.

Hope this reassures you a bit!