Include dental exp in med school app?

[zero0]

Hey guys, just wondering if I should put dental volunteering experience (free clinic) in a med school application? It's a fair amount of hours (about 60 total) so I'd like to use it to beef up my app, but I'm not sure if it'll make me come off indecisive. Thoughts?

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[Hospitalized]

Are you pre-dental or pre-medical? Your status says pre-dental but your post says pre-medical.

Anyway, I would put it in your medical school application to just be there. If asked, you could say you had a thought process of thinking you wanted dentistry at one time, but changed and geared your studies towards medicine after that experience. Figure out how to use it to your advantage.

 

[baxt1412]

How much medical volunteering do you have?

Quite honestly I am not so sure it would "beef up" your app as much as you think. Its dental. And while they are doctors, its not the same as a medical doctor. Its a parallel experience, but I don't think it would really help you that much.

 

[Holmwood]

Hey guys, just wondering if I should put dental volunteering experience (free clinic) in a med school application? It's a fair amount of hours (about 60 total) so I'd like to use it to beef up my app, but I'm not sure if it'll make me come off indecisive. Thoughts?

It won't help your application as much as you think... You can't exactly say it furthered your desire to pursue medicine. You can only say "dental wasn't right for me, so allopathic must be right for me" . . . which sounds really awful to people who didn't choose allopathic/osteopathic medicine as a backup.

You need to have relevant allopathic/osteopathic clinical experience at a hospital or hospice. Don't include your dental experience because it is not allopathic or osteopathic. : )

 

[Pacna]

Definitely DO include any experiences which are important to you. If you learned something from spending time in Napal learning how to cut goats' balls off with a flute from 100 yards away, please include that in your application. You should be using your AMCAS essays to tell ADCOMS what you've learned, not just what you've done.

60 hours of volunteering for an organization is perfectly legit to include on an app. I agree with others who say it's not quite as impressive as volunteering in a cath lab, but it's worth including if you feel that you have something to say about it. ADCOMs can smell padding miles away. This won't hurt your app, but it will make them put a big "x" over that paragraph (to never read again).

 

[DenTony11235]

Don't include your dental experience because it is not allopathic or osteopathic. : )

I disagree. A whole lot of what we include as ECs is not necessarily allo/osteo-related. It would however be something you've spent time and effort doing. 60 hours doesn't seem like a whole lot, but let's say you did 5 hrs/week, that's a whole 3 months of doing something.

Just because it's dental-related, doesn't mean you were dead-set on dental school. In my opinion, if it's your only dental related experience, I wouldn't worry about that kind of interpretation at all. You're simply keeping your mind open to all options while enjoying making a contribution through your volunteering, which is a respectable thing to do.

This is just my perspective.


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[Holmwood]

I disagree. A whole lot of what we include as ECs is not necessarily allo/osteo-related. It would however be something you've spent time and effort doing. 60 hours doesn't seem like a whole lot, but let's say you did 5 hrs/week, that's a whole 3 months of doing something.

Just because it's dental-related, doesn't mean you were dead-set on dental school. In my opinion, if it's your only dental related experience, I wouldn't worry about that kind of interpretation at all. You're simply keeping your mind open to all options while enjoying making a contribution through your volunteering, which is a respectable thing to do.

This is just my perspective.


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What I mean to say is, perhaps, that helping out at a dental clinic can't substitute for your allopathic/osteopathic clinical experience.


I do agree, however, if the OP were to structure it as having learned professional communication skills or something about insurance billing from the experience, then it would be okay to include it in the AMCAS. Which is what you're getting at, right?

 

[zero0]

Definitely DO include any experiences which are important to you. If you learned something from spending time in Napal learning how to cut goats' balls off with a flute from 100 yards away, please include that in your application. You should be using your AMCAS essays to tell ADCOMS what you've learned, not just what you've done.

60 hours of volunteering for an organization is perfectly legit to include on an app. I agree with others who say it's not quite as impressive as volunteering in a cath lab, but it's worth including if you feel that you have something to say about it. ADCOMs can smell padding miles away. This won't hurt your app, but it will make them put a big "x" over that paragraph (to never read again).

Interesting point. My gut instinct was to not include anything that might raise questions about my commitment to medicine, but if I gained relevant insight which I can apply to medicine and can articulate that in the interview, that changes things. I definitely learned a lot about treating underserved populations, ethical issues (did about $6000 worth of work on a meth-head who we all knew would just go back to smoking and compromise the work we'd done), OR procedure and sterility (never changed gloves more times in my life), etc.

My medical volunteering hours (about 300) really overshadow my dental hours, so it seems like I don't really have much to lose.

 

[DokterMom]

You were able to work in a medical office setting observing doctor-patient interactions. How is that not useful and/or relevant?

 

[DenTony11235]

What I mean to say is, perhaps, that helping out at a dental clinic can't substitute for your allopathic/osteopathic clinical experience.


I do agree, however, if the OP were to structure it as having learned professional communication skills or something about insurance billing from the experience, then it would be okay to include it in the AMCAS. Which is what you're getting at, right?

Well I just think that anything that might reflect the slightest altruistic motive, I think, would be positive. Also, it shows that he/she isn't a time-waster and likes to try new things.



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[MightBeACylon439]

Here is the thing, its all about how you spin the experience. Were you around patients and learn about how a clinician (whether it be a Dentist/MD/Do) communicates with patients? Did you learn about how the head clinician (dentist in the instance) works interdependently with all the moving parts within the medical office (dental assistants, technicians and even the receptionists).

Relate this to how you would apply it to your desired career as an MD or DO.