2022 Application Cycle Changes

[happyosborne]

Regarding the next cycle for 2022 applications - does anyone have any thoughts about if/how schools will be adjusting their requirements for shadowing and LOR from dentists? There’s plenty of virtual dental shadowing available nowadays however in-person shadowing not so much since COVID-19. Even then, I have read that some schools take limited virtual hours. But perhaps this could change in the upcoming application cycle. That being said, how are we supposed to get LOR from dentists if we aren’t able to shadow them?

I get that one could apply to work as a dentist assistant to fulfill that criteria but some people are still finishing their undergrad/ have other priorities that they can’t drop to get a new job to fulfill shadowing hours/ a dentist LOR.

 

[cplz🦷]

Regarding the next cycle for 2022 applications - does anyone have any thoughts about if/how schools will be adjusting their requirements for shadowing and LOR from dentists? There’s plenty of virtual dental shadowing available nowadays however in-person shadowing not so much since COVID-19. Even then, I have read that some schools take limited virtual hours. But perhaps this could change in the upcoming application cycle. That being said, how are we supposed to get LOR from dentists if we aren’t able to shadow them?

I get that one could apply to work as a dentist assistant to fulfill that criteria but some people are still finishing their undergrad/ have other priorities that they can’t drop to get a new job to fulfill shadowing hours/ a dentist LOR.

Well I think being a dental assistant does not count as shadowing, since shadowing hours cannot be earned through a paid position. As for any changes they make, I doubt they would be significant, seeing as the pandemic should be ramping down by summer’s end and they would expect you to have been shadowing throughout college and prior to the pandemic. Finding a dental office to shadow in rn can be quite difficult, but it’s not impossible. As many people on here will tell you, go out to offices *in person* and ask if you can come in, if they say no ask them if they’d consider it if you got on some sort of testing regimen (2-3 times a week). If that’s still a no-go, ask others and don’t give up, plus with the vaccination rate rapidly increasing and cases going down, offices should start opening up slowly as the summer approaches. I know there were schools that lowered their minimum hours requirements (UMich went from 100 down to 50 I believe), and others expressed that the pandemic would be taken into account when looking over ECs, but I would just try to get as many hours as possible regardless.