We believe in the continual development of our students, both professionally and personally. What is your self-development plan?

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Community Answers

A self-development plan is important for anyone, especially an aspiring dental school student. If this university is going to invest in you and your future, they need to know that you have a plan in place for investing in yourself.

Before your dental school interviews, think about how you are working to improve your hard and soft skills to one day become a thriving dentist. Some ideas for self-development that you can consider discussing are listening to an inspiring podcaster, attending personal development workshops, spending time volunteering in a capacity related to your career goals, or reading books associated with success.

"I agree that self-development is crucial for continual growth and achievement as a future dentist. I am committed to investing in myself, and I do this by attending personal development workshops and meeting with my mentor monthly. My mentor was my dentist growing up in my hometown, and she helped inspire me on this path."

Anonymous Answer

"I am in class for English speaking, which is useful for people who speak English as second language. It was fun and motivated because I get to know different type of people with different backgrounds. Also, the more I practice, the more I get better communication skills.

I am reading a book called My Morning Routine. I love this book because it gave me ideas to have effective mornings for success."

Rachelle's Feedback

It's wonderful that you are working so hard to be successful in everything that you set your mind to do! I have offered a slight reword, below. I hope you find this to be helpful practice in addition to your English speaking classes :)

"I am in a class for English speaking, which has been useful as English is my second language. The class is fun and motivating, and it allows me to meet people from different backgrounds. The more I practice my English, the better my communication skills become. For personal development, I am reading a book called My Morning Routine. This book presents great ideas for successful morning routines from accomplished people all around the world."

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Anonymous Answer

"My self-development plan for my gap year is to continue shadowing dental clinics to learn more about the field and especially to improve my communication skills with people of diverse backgrounds. Also, from my love of learning languages, I learned Chinese pronunciations from Chinese songs and I plan to study conversational Chinese with the hope of being able to speak some basic Chinese in the future."

Marcie's Feedback

Awesome! This is a strong answer because you connect your self-development plans with your career aspirations. Excellent! Also, any interviewer will be impressed by your desire to learn new languages.

Anonymous Answer

"My self-development plan is to seek out leadership opportunities that will foster further development of both my intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. The most recent leadership opportunity I sought out was a preceptorship in a physiology lab. Some of my duties include giving weekly clinical application presentations and assisting the teacher's assistant in creating interactive activities for students. Public speaking is a personal weakness of mine, so I decided this would be a great opportunity to work on these skills."

Jaymie's Feedback

Great job! This sounds like a well-thought-out plan.

Anonymous Answer

"I attend conferences and workshops to update on all the latest updates in the field of dentistry and now public health as well. To balance my personal life I meditate and journal. Meditating and journaling for the past two or three years have helped when I am stressed or anxious. It’s a process of internal healing and helps me focus on the present."

Jaymie's Feedback

Excellent job! If there are any specific topics or workshops of interest, share details on these as well.