26 yrs non-traditional asking your opinion- expired courses

[Nguyenu]

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I am not sure if I am a non-traditional student or not…I think I am lol

I am 26 years old. I got my BS degree in biology in 2014 and my MS degree in 2017. Dental school has been on my mind for a while, but life happens (I know it sounds lame) and I didn’t have chance to apply right after school. I have more than a year gap now. In the year gap, I worked as a biology research for 9 months and now I work as a dental assistant (to get more hand-on experience in dentistry)

My bright sides:
-Professors/mentors and dentist know me super well and I know they would write me super awesome recommendation letters.
-My GPA is good: general GPA 3.8, science GPA 3.7.
-I volunteered several places (~500 hours)
-I haven’t take DAT yet but it will be in May 2018.

My CONCERN: Expired prerequisite course? Most of my prerequisite courses are more than 6 years old. I called few dental schools today and they said that they have time limit (5-6 years) on required courses. I can retake some classes but I really don’t want to retake all of them because 1/ money 2/I can’t take all of them in short amount of time 3/ I don’t really want to.

If anyone is in similar situation, please feel free to share your experiences and opinions. I really appreciate your shares.

 

[FeralisExtremum]

My pre-reqs were 5+ years old when I applied and it wasn't an issue for most schools.

 

[Glowji]

I too am facing the same issue. I'm interested to know what schools you called and were told prereqs expire within 5+ years. I was honestly going to just try without taking majority of them over... that would be a nightmare!

 

[Nguyenu]

Hi SmileFairy32, . I called few schools in California. USC, Loma Linda and and UCSF have 5-6 yrs time limit and University of Washington as well. I got discouraged so I stop calling lol. But luckily there are schools out there that don't have expiration date for required courses ( UCLA, University of pacific, OHSU). I try to stay on the west coast.
P/S: admission staff at UCSF told me (in the nice way) don't even try to apply if any of my courses expired because they will reject my application right away 🙁

 

[Nguyenu]

My pre-reqs were 5+ years old when I applied and it wasn't an issue for most schools.

Hi Feralis, may I ask what school you applied in the past. Thanks!

 

[MendiT13]

I am not sure if I am a non-traditional student or not…I think I am lol

I am 26 years old. I got my BS degree in biology in 2014 and my MS degree in 2017. Dental school has been on my mind for a while, but life happens (I know it sounds lame) and I didn’t have chance to apply right after school. I have more than a year gap now. In the year gap, I worked as a biology research for 9 months and now I work as a dental assistant (to get more hand-on experience in dentistry)

My bright sides:
-Professors/mentors and dentist know me super well and I know they would write me super awesome recommendation letters.
-My GPA is good: general GPA 3.8, science GPA 3.7.
-I volunteered several places (~500 hours)
-I haven’t take DAT yet but it will be in May 2018.

My CONCERN: Expired prerequisite course? Most of my prerequisite courses are more than 6 years old. I called few dental schools today and they said that they have time limit (5-6 years) on required courses. I can retake some classes but I really don’t want to retake all of them because 1/ money 2/I can’t take all of them in short amount of time 3/ I don’t really want to.

If anyone is in similar situation, please feel free to share your experiences and opinions. I really appreciate your shares.

Research some schools online. There are some that don’t care about the time frame of your classes.
Get the guide to dental school from ADEA.
2017-2018 ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools

 

[SweetMelonPreDent]

My pre-reqs were 5+ years old when I applied and it wasn't an issue for most schools.

same

 

[FeralisExtremum]

Hi Feralis, may I ask what school you applied in the past. Thanks!

I applied to about 15 schools, the ones that I remember were: UCLA, UCSF, USC, UoP, Rutgers, Columbia, Harvard, Penn, UNC, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Case, West Virginia, and Louisville.

admission staff at UCSF told me (in the nice way) don't even try to apply if any of my courses expired because they will reject my application right away 🙁

I got into UCSF so I wouldn't be too concerned about it if your application (in particular your DAT) is strong. All of my coursework was older than yours at the time of application.

 

[mandypr]

I applied this cycle after being out of school for a while (16 years) and did retake all of my pre-reqs. It is really school specific. Some are 10 years and some are 5 years. But what I heard from many schools were that some schools would be moving to 5 years over the next few years so it would be better to apply sooner than later in general. I would definitely go school by school. I applied to schools that has the same basic pre-reqs so I did not overwhelm myself taking classes over again. Good luck!

 

[doc toothache]

My CONCERN: Expired prerequisite course? Most of my prerequisite courses are more than 6 years old. I called few dental schools today and they said that they have time limit (5-6 years) on required courses. I can retake some classes but I really don’t want to retake all of them because 1/ money 2/I can’t take all of them in short amount of time 3/ I don’t really want to.
If anyone is in similar situation, please feel free to share your experiences and opinions. I really appreciate your shares.

You have some serious preconditions.

 

[ncide]

Most schools don't abide by the rule. I started dental school in 2016 and started undergrad in 2009, and had plenty of interviews. It's becoming more common to have a gap year (or 3 in my case), and 26 was the average age of my class.

Just apply.

 

[Nguyenu]

Thank your so much for your responses! I will apply and hopefully get a good DAT scores in May!

 

[Manic324]

I am not sure if I am a non-traditional student or not…I think I am lol

I am 26 years old. I got my BS degree in biology in 2014 and my MS degree in 2017. Dental school has been on my mind for a while, but life happens (I know it sounds lame) and I didn’t have chance to apply right after school. I have more than a year gap now. In the year gap, I worked as a biology research for 9 months and now I work as a dental assistant (to get more hand-on experience in dentistry)

My bright sides:
-Professors/mentors and dentist know me super well and I know they would write me super awesome recommendation letters.
-My GPA is good: general GPA 3.8, science GPA 3.7.
-I volunteered several places (~500 hours)
-I haven’t take DAT yet but it will be in May 2018.

My CONCERN: Expired prerequisite course? Most of my prerequisite courses are more than 6 years old. I called few dental schools today and they said that they have time limit (5-6 years) on required courses. I can retake some classes but I really don’t want to retake all of them because 1/ money 2/I can’t take all of them in short amount of time 3/ I don’t really want to.

If anyone is in similar situation, please feel free to share your experiences and opinions. I really appreciate your shares.

My pre reqs were over 5 years old and not one school I applied to and interviewed at mentioned it, you should be fine if you apply broadly?

 

[ItsaGreatDay]

My pre-reqs were much older... 11-14yrs old, to be precise! The only school I was interested in (for various reasons, which I won't get into here) was MD, and they list on their website that prereqs could be no older than 10yrs; I called and emailed just to doublecheck that, and they said it was absolutely a requirement. I had a 4.0 gpa for undergrad, and it pained me to retake EN101, etc, just to have current classes, but that was the hoop I had to jump through... So I made a 2yr plan to get all the classes in, take DAT, and apply for DS. I am finishing my last 2 prereqs this semester, and start at MD in Aug!

For me, it was totally worth re-taking classes. But since your classes aren't nearly so old, I'd def go with everyone's advice to kill the DAT and apply anyway, unless you REALLY want a school that has a shorter time-limit.