3rd Year Undergraduate

[SeattleWa]

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[Mr. Thirsty]

I am an upcoming Junior who has been highly interested in medicine since freshman year of college, and have been planning to follow the medical school path. However, I began to be interested in dentistry recently. I wanted to know your opinion on my chance at dental school admission considering the fact that I would start shadowing dentists junior year?

-Attend an Ivy League College
-3.95 GPA/ 3.90 Science GPA
-A large amount of volunteer service in the health care and medical realms (not dealing with Dentistry though)
-A large amount of extracurricular in undergraduate research (pertaining to cellular biology, once again not Dentistry)
-Over 200 hours shadowing physicians, but would just be starting to volunteer dentists
-Resident of Washington state, would really like to get into University of Washington Dental School

I am not sure how dental school would look at a candidate that only started considering dentistry and shadowing dentists his junior year of college?

Thank you and I appreciate any feedback

Shadow and do good on the DAT and you will be fine. The switch from medicine to dentistry is good personal statement material, it won't hold you back. Just make sure you like it when you shadow.

 

[SeattleWa]

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[SeattleWa]

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[DoeAdeer]

May I ask why you're making a switch from medicine to dentistry?

 

[TheDentist16]

I am an upcoming Junior who has been highly interested in medicine since freshman year of college, and have been planning to follow the medical school path. However, I began to be interested in dentistry recently. I wanted to know your opinion on my chance at dental school admission considering the fact that I would start shadowing dentists junior year?

-Attend an Ivy League College
-3.95 GPA/ 3.90 Science GPA
-A large amount of volunteer service in the health care and medical realms (not dealing with Dentistry though)
-A large amount of extracurricular in undergraduate research (pertaining to cellular biology, once again not Dentistry)
-Over 200 hours shadowing physicians, but would just be starting to volunteer dentists
-Resident of Washington state, would really like to get into University of Washington Dental School

I am not sure how dental school would look at a candidate that only started considering dentistry and shadowing dentists his junior year of college?

Thank you and I appreciate any feedback

As stated before, make sure you have strong DAT scores and a solid personal statement. You can definitely talk about why you wanted to do dentistry instead of medicine, and the reasons for your switch in career path.

I would also start to shadow dentists as soon as you can. Your research already is good for dental school, as many schools want to increase their research programs by attracting dental applicants who are interested in research. From personal experience, I did research in Organic Chemistry at a pharmaceutical company instead of doing research in dentistry, and it didn't hurt my chances at interviews and such. Any research is considered to be good. However, shadowing dentists will show that you are really interested in dentistry and not just "saying it". Dental schools want applicants who are serious about dentistry, and a good way to prove your genuine interest would be through shadowing a dentist or something related.

I have had friends switch from medicine to dentistry late in their undergraduate careers and they all succeeded in getting into dental schools. There's definitely a strong shot for you too!

 

[SeattleWa]

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[sundaequeen]

I was in the same situation as you. Initially interested in medicine but something always felt missing to me. The summer after my junior year (last summer) I had an internship where I was exposed to both medicine and dentistry and dentistry felt like a much better fit for me (get to work with my hands, much more of a long-term relationship with patients, etc.), so I made the switch. Took my DAT this Jan. and did more shadowing this spring. I'm in the process of applying now and hopefully I'll get in!