Gap Year options

[stsui320]

Hey guys I am taking a year off between now and dental school and was wondering what any of you guys have been doing during your year off. Has anyone applied to dental offices and if so how did you guys go about finding these jobs with minimal dental experience. Also, if anyone has any other advice for their gap year I would love to hear it!

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[cacajuate]

If your GPA is less than 3.6, you should take more classes.

 

[Syntav]

You can get whatever job interests you the most or that has the highest pay, while still being involved in the dental field through shadowing or research. I'm in a similar position but not applying until next cycle, the schools I've spoken with have said that working as a dental assistant over my current job as a Financial Analyst would not improve my chances.

 

[wjc]

You can get whatever job interests you the most or that has the highest pay, while still being involved in the dental field through shadowing or research. I'm in a similar position but not applying until next cycle, the schools I've spoken with have said that working as a dental assistant over my current job as a Financial Analyst would not improve my chances.

Good to know. The difficulty with full time work is having reduced opportunities to shadow and do volunteer work. On the flip side, you never know how long it's going to take to get into dental school, so it doesn't hurt to get a little career experience and the money helps too.

 

[Fondue]

My state school highly recommends dental work experience, if you plan to take a gap year. I know there's a few other state schools that suggest it, as well. I would contact your school to find out how much they weigh that sort of experience.

I applied to dental assist positions straight out of undergrad and got multiple offers with pay starting at $10-12 per hour for no previous experience. You're more than likely to end up working for a corporate chain or large practice run by a group of dentists, where they don't mind training since they need a lot of assistants and have a higher turn-over rate. Craigslist is a good place to start looking for a position that won't require experience. And it never hurts to ask at the places you've shadowed if they're looking for additional help.

Personally, I think as long as you continue to shadow and volunteer, you can take whatever job you want. Especially if you have solid stats. I took a job as a chemist straight out of undergrad, and I don't regret it. BUT I will warn: I was rejected from my state school this cycle. There is probably multiple factors at play for why I was rejected. But I can't help but wonder if I had taken an assistant position, would my odds have been more favorable?

 

[Macabalony]

You can get whatever job interests you the most or that has the highest pay, while still being involved in the dental field through shadowing or research. I'm in a similar position but not applying until next cycle, the schools I've spoken with have said that working as a dental assistant over my current job as a Financial Analyst would not improve my chances.

No way! That is rather surprising.

To answer the above question: If you are able to, get a part time job that you can financially be just fine and use the hours of your day volunteering. If this is not my year to get in, I will add about 1000 hours of clinical shadowing and ideally another 1000+ of volunteer work.

 

[cacajuate]

My state school highly recommends dental work experience, if you plan to take a gap year. I know there's a few other state schools that suggest it, as well. I would contact your school to find out how much they weigh that sort of experience.

I applied to dental assist positions straight out of undergrad and got multiple offers with pay starting at $10-12 per hour for no previous experience. You're more than likely to end up working for a corporate chain or large practice run by a group of dentists, where they don't mind training since they need a lot of assistants and have a higher turn-over rate. Craigslist is a good place to start looking for a position that won't require experience. And it never hurts to ask at the places you've shadowed if they're looking for additional help.

Personally, I think as long as you continue to shadow and volunteer, you can take whatever job you want. Especially if you have solid stats. I took a job as a chemist straight out of undergrad, and I don't regret it. BUT I will warn: I was rejected from my state school this cycle. There is probably multiple factors at play for why I was rejected. But I can't help but wonder if I had taken an assistant position, would my odds have been more favorable?

Was was your GPA and were you taking any classes during that gap year?

 

[pinkster]

I having been working as a research technologist and I think it has been extremely beneficial to my application this cycle. The job is flexible too, so I find plenty of time to shadow at dental offices to remain involved with the field while not actually working in it.

 

[Fondue]

Was was your GPA and were you taking any classes during that gap year?

3.4 overall and science. And I took one class mostly for fun (not biology or chemistry related).

Too be honest, I'm thinking one reason for my in-state rejection is because I didn't have nearly enough shadowing or volunteer hours to account for the gap. Which, for me, was difficult since my job is very, very time consuming (60+ hours during our busy season). A dental assist position would have helped make up for the shadowing. It's something to think about for those who want to work during their gap year(s). But, like I said, I don't regret my decision to take a non-dental related job.