Writing a Dental School Personal Statement in the Age of ChatGPT (AI)

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has touched nearly every corner of our lives, whether good or bad. As a general dentist in the Navy and orthodontist, we often work with adolescent patients in high school and young adults who share with us stories of how many students now use AI to write essays for school assignments. The most mind-boggling aspect is how truly easy it is especially since you can ask AI to write the narrative in a specific tone that appears virtually undetectable (e.g. prompting ChatGPT to write an informative essay regarding the Silk Roads at a level or voice congruent with the knowledge of a sophomore high school student). While this had led me to wonder about what it would've been like for myself to have this powerful technology back in high school, I am perhaps even more interested in how this new landscape is changing the application process for pre-dental or other professional school applicants.

After some brainstorming and researching, I believe AI can be beneficial for writing personal statements for the following reasons:

1. Quick idea generation.

   1. I remember spending days myself trying to even brainstorm where to start as I attempted my first draft. AI undoubtedly can help guide someone through brainstorming by asking the user questions such as "describe a time that first sparked your interest in the career."

      
      

2. Speedy rephrasing or synonyms

   1. Sometimes finding the right word for the idea you are trying to convey can be time consuming. With AI, you can get a myriad of suitable words with even sample sentences within seconds that can help reduce redundancies or help explore different meanings.

      
      

3. Grammar and flow checks

   1. You will literally have the best proofreading technology with the click of a button. AI is so smart that it flags convoluted sentences, jargon, or run-on sentences such that it helps you communicate more clearly.

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However, I believe that relying entirely on AI is still not the most optimal approach for the following reasons:

1. Loss of authenticity

   1. With dental school admissions at an all high cost and level of competitiveness for admissions, what will set you apart from another student? If you are relying on an AI system to present your best sense of self, the likely reality is that you may portray yourself as analogous to the next pre-dental student who also used AI.

2. Overgeneralization

   1. After reviewing over hundreds of personal statements in the last six years, a trained eye like ours (or particularly the eyes of the dental school admissions) can easily tell when a personal statement was written with AI. The "em dash" (-), the structure, and the overgeneralization of a prompt like "Generate a dental school personal statement body paragraph that highlights a 40 hour shadowing experience where I saw x, y, z procedures and spoke with patients" are quick tells. I can describe the feeling similar to when you get an Instagram ad that you immediately know is AI, and you feel a sudden lack of authenticity from the creator and thus, feel disengaged with their product or brand.

      
      

3. Missed opportunity for introspection (key for interviews!)

   1. There is only one you. Your passion for pursuing dentistry results from cumulative lived experiences that have taught you lessons and values you wish to actualize in your career and adulthood. Sure, you can have AI draft you a personal statement in adequate English, but when it comes time for your interview, how will you articulate your reason for dentistry authentically in person? In an age where some dental schools are even conducting 1 way KIRA interviews, you have 2 minutes to leave a lasting and personable impression. Individuality and introspection are key factors.

While systems like ChatGPT or Claude can harness large databases and quickly generate information, AI's main flaw in a profession based on service, connection, and individuality such as dentistry is it can not replace experience. Here's an honest truth. Despite temptations to use AI to quickly generate blog posts to keep our page active in a matter of seconds, we take great pride in that every word ever published on The Pre-Dental Guide is self-authored. I still find value in sharing what I've learned in dental school, dental school admissions, the military, and our profession at large by reflection of blog posts.

If you have been staring at a blank google doc wanting to make progress with your personal statement, I welcome you to explore our tried and true approach for each student of identifying their life's theme in pursuing dentistry. In this blog post, you'll even find Wilson and I's own personal statements we submitted that earned admissions to Harvard, UCSF, U Penn, UOP, UCLA, etc. Then, feel free to shoot us an email with any working ideas or drafts and we can help you craft a personal statement that eloquently shares your story.

My final thoughts: I recognize we live in a modern digital time and thus, should be working smarter, not harder. However, along the way, my goal is for all of us to find a way to live as authentically as we can.