Required Courses

[G.A.'s Finest]

Hi everyone. I'm new to SDN. I'm a Canadian student who is looking to enter a US dental school in the future. I have seen posts here and there regarding the following topics, but perhaps somebody can confirm/address the following for me?

- I have heard that OAC (grade 13 over here) english will fulfill the 1 year english requirement. Is this true for all US schools?

- American schools require 1 year orgo and general chem, both with lab components. Are these rules set in stone, or could I, for example, replace 1/2 a year of general chem lab with an upper year biochem lab? The problem is that there is only a 1/2 credit intro general chem lab offered where I am...if the answer is that the case may differ from school to school, has anyone had any past experiences where they have accepted such a substitution?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Noroozi]

About OAC English, I called AADSAS and they were clueless as to what OAC was. The person I spoke to said only university level courses count towards course work, and that AP courses from high school have to be transferred to a university before they can count. I'm not sure if OAC are considered the same as AP courses.

 

[Sprgrover]

Hi everyone. I'm new to SDN. I'm a Canadian student who is looking to enter a US dental school in the future. I have seen posts here and there regarding the following topics, but perhaps somebody can confirm/address the following for me?

- I have heard that OAC (grade 13 over here) english will fulfill the 1 year english requirement. Is this true for all US schools?

- American schools require 1 year orgo and general chem, both with lab components. Are these rules set in stone, or could I, for example, replace 1/2 a year of general chem lab with an upper year biochem lab? The problem is that there is only a 1/2 credit intro general chem lab offered where I am...if the answer is that the case may differ from school to school, has anyone had any past experiences where they have accepted such a substitution?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

First off, welcome to SDN! Now, onto your questions:

If you have cumulatively taken at least one year of college level English courses, including composition, that will generally fulfill your requirement. For example, I took English 102 (it's a composition course at most universities here) and then jumped into upper division literature and literary theory classes and that was fine with all of the dental schools I applied to.

In regards to your chemistry requirements, they are pretty much set in stone and are straight forward. You do have to take a full year of general chemistry lecture and its associated lab. Taking a lab in another chemistry course to fulfill this requirement might not sit well with some adcoms. For organic you do have to have a full year of lecture although most US dental schools only require one semester of organic lab.

I hope this helps clear some issues up for you, and best of luck!

 

[Noroozi]

About OAC English, I called AADSAS and they were clueless as to what OAC was. The person I spoke to said only university level courses count towards course work, and that AP courses from high school have to be transferred to a university before they can count. I'm not sure if OAC are considered the same as AP courses.

I just wanted to add that on an individual basis some schools do consider OAC English to fulfill 1/2 of the 1 year English requirement. However what I was interested in doing is having AADSAS include OAC English in my course work for all schools.

 

[G.A.'s Finest]

Thanks for the welcome. Besides contacting each school individually, is there any way I can find out more information regarding applications?

Noroozi- was that a definitive answer you got regarding OAC? The reason I brought it up in the first place was because I searched back to an old post where somebody mentioned that OAC Eng fulfilled their 1 year requirement.

 

[Noroozi]

Thanks for the welcome. Besides contacting each school individually, is there any way I can find out more information regarding applications?

Noroozi- was that a definitive answer you got regarding OAC? The reason I brought it up in the first place was because I searched back to an old post where somebody mentioned that OAC Eng fulfilled their 1 year requirement.

I've only seen schools who state OAC English as fulfilling 1/2 of the 1 year requirement, and not the full 1 year. Only a couple of the schools I've looked into mention OAC at all but I don't have a list. I still included OAC English as part of my course work though and I'm hoping AADSAS will consider the credit as part of my GPA. I submitted last week so I don't know their answer yet. The guys that answer their phone really don't know anything.