Activities that you did in undergrad/wish you had done

[Saadnc]

Thanks in advance to anyone reading this and hopefully giving me some feedback. I know this might be "overthinking", but I just want to get some general ideas of what I should do during my college years to set me up for success.

Currently finished up my senior year in high school, and will be attending UNC as a freshman in about 2 months. I declared my major to be biology, and am perusing dental school. Besides shadowing dentists and volunteering, what did you do during your undergrad that you think made you more competitive for dental school? Or - what did you NOT do during undergrad that you wish you had? What was the hardest part, and what some mistakes you made?
High school was really easy for me - didn't really have to study to do good. I made all A's (all honors+AP courses) until senior year (I spent way too much time partying on the weekends and almost no time studying whatsoever my last year).

Thanks again for helping out in any way.

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[chiralola]

Wow good on you for planning this early ahead.

I wish I had taken my first year more seriously so definitely try to keep as close to a 4.0 as you can. Get involved with your pre-dental society early on. If you are an extrovert, aim to be an officer in your pre-dental society. Get involved with your honors college. Become a TA/tutor for classes like chem so you never forget it when it’s time to take the DAT. don’t know if NC has Mission of Mercy but definitely participate in that or something similar every year.

These are just the first things that came to my mind. Feel free to PM if you have specific questions.

 

[Pablo Sanchez]

Thanks in advance to anyone reading this and hopefully giving me some feedback. I know this might be "overthinking", but I just want to get some general ideas of what I should do during my college years to set me up for success.

Currently finished up my senior year in high school, and will be attending UNC as a freshman in about 2 months. I declared my major to be biology, and am perusing dental school. Besides shadowing dentists and volunteering, what did you do during your undergrad that you think made you more competitive for dental school? Or - what did you NOT do during undergrad that you wish you had? What was the hardest part, and what some mistakes you made?
High school was really easy for me - didn't really have to study to do good. I made all A's (all honors+AP courses) until senior year (I spent way too much time partying on the weekends and almost no time studying whatsoever my last year).

Thanks again for helping out in any way.

It says a lot about you that you are thinking about this now. I have a long list of advice, and would be happy to help. PM me if you'd like!

 

[zToothinator]

Hey! I’m a rising undergrad senior at UNC so feel free to PM if you have any questions about school in general or dental activities. I highly recommend checking out Wake Smiles. It’s over in Raleigh but it’s a low-cost public health clinic (so very similar to Missions of Mercy) but they have dentists coming in every week so you have the chance to help alongside a variety of general dentists and specialists while volunteering in a community service clinic. It’s been a great experience for me getting more hands-on experience with dentistry. I only found out about it last year but wish I heard about it sooner so that I could have started volunteering sooner.

 

[2TH MVR]

Exceptional grades will take care of everything. It's okay to have fun in undergrad as long as the priority is A's. You've got a long haul in front of you. No need to burn yourself out too early. Enjoy undergrad, but get good grades.

Also .... speak to your undergrad health or career adviser. This person should know the exact route to dental school. Also .... they can tell you which DS schools historically accept students from your school. I would contact the admission people from these schools and get as much information as you can. They should be able to tell you what extracurriculars would be beneficial.

LIMIT YOUR DEBT. Plan on getting accepted to a local state DS if available or a cheap DS. Ask about out of state and if in state tuition is available the 2nd year. I had a part time job to go along with scholarships to lessen the debt.

Study hard, but enjoy the journey.
Good luck.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

Not pre-dent (but pre-med, impressive EC's won't be any different). One thing I am super glad I did and is also a lil more impressive looking is I took on a second major in something I am actually passionate about. Find something you enjoy and can give a passionate statement about when ADCOMs ask you what like.

 

[lwergod]

1. plan to take the DAT end of sophomore year. Majority of people still take it in their junior year after finishing pre-reqs, but your life will be 10x's easier if you plan from now to take it before junior year.


2. EC's: aside from volunteering/etc, get involved on your campus in any shape or form.

 

[Saadnc]

Exceptional grades will take care of everything. It's okay to have fun in undergrad as long as the priority is A's. You've got a long haul in front of you. No need to burn yourself out too early. Enjoy undergrad, but get good grades.

Also .... speak to your undergrad health or career adviser. This person should know the exact route to dental school. Also .... they can tell you which DS schools historically accept students from your school. I would contact the admission people from these schools and get as much information as you can. They should be able to tell you what extracurriculars would be beneficial.

LIMIT YOUR DEBT. Plan on getting accepted to a local state DS if available or a cheap DS. Ask about out of state and if in state tuition is available the 2nd year. I had a part time job to go along with scholarships to lessen the debt.

Study hard, but enjoy the journey.
Good luck.

Thank you for the advice. I've already been looking at dental schools and their costs, and I'm trying to plan to hopefully attend the cheapest schools possible. I really don't want to be the next person posting in 4 years with a title of "Dental School is Financial Suicide"

 

[Saadnc]

Worked college summers with children of migrants at a Head Start Program teaching children under age 6 years basic personal skills (brushing teeth, eating healthy meals, basic writing, reading, etc) while their parents worked in the agricultural fields picking crops. Learned Spanish, became translator between physicians and migrant workers, tagged along for their medical appointments, and played with the kids. Priceless

Since you are in NC, learn Spanish...asap. It will open doors. Es verdad.

Wow that's a really cool program, going to definitely check it out. Thanks for sharing your personal experiences.

 

[Saadnc]

1. plan to take the DAT end of sophomore year. Majority of people still take it in their junior year after finishing pre-reqs, but your life will be 10x's easier if you plan from now to take it before junior year.


2. EC's: aside from volunteering/etc, get involved on your campus in any shape or form.

Thanks for the advice. I had always assumed people took the DAT senior year haha

 

[deleted678432]

Have fun. You only go to college once, and the most important thing is that you make an experience out of it. Still make school your priority, but the last thing you want is to be graduated and regret not going out more.

1) take freshman year seriously.

2) space out your studying. It makes it way easier when you don’t have to cram at all.

3) take the DAT after your sophomore spring semester (assuming you finish ochem II at this time)

4) get into shadowing and research EARLY!! It’s tough to get involved with meaningful research when you’re an upperclassman, and spacing out your shadowing looks GREAT.. even if it’s only for 15 hours per semester.

5) try to become a TA/UTA/tutor for a class. I UTA’d and tutored for ochem as I was taking it my sophomore year, and it helped my DAT score TREMENDOUSLY. Plus it looks great on an app.

6) volunteer starting now. Spaced out volunteering is great! UNC has a NC mission of mercy, as well as a SHAC dental clinic at the dental school. If you could volunteer at these for your college years, you’ll look great in the eyes of UNC and every other school you apply to.

7) again.. HAVE FUN. I can’t stress this enough. In undergrad, I completely crushed my expectations of myself and now sit with a great GPA and a great DAT score as I enter the application cycle. I’m happy I studied my butt off, but the only thing I can regret at this point is not having a little more fun here and there. It’s a very tough thing to balance, and you have to keep your priorities straight, but make sure you cut yourself loose here and there because it’s very important!!

Good luck my friend!

 

[Saadnc]

Have fun. You only go to college once, and the most important thing is that you make an experience out of it. Still make school your priority, but the last thing you want is to be graduated and regret not going out more.

1) take freshman year seriously.

2) space out your studying. It makes it way easier when you don’t have to cram at all.

3) take the DAT after your sophomore spring semester (assuming you finish ochem II at this time)

4) get into shadowing and research EARLY!! It’s tough to get involved with meaningful research when you’re an upperclassman, and spacing out your shadowing looks GREAT.. even if it’s only for 15 hours per semester.

5) try to become a TA/UTA/tutor for a class. I UTA’d and tutored for ochem as I was taking it my sophomore year, and it helped my DAT score TREMENDOUSLY. Plus it looks great on an app.

6) volunteer starting now. Spaced out volunteering is great! UNC has a NC mission of mercy, as well as a SHAC dental clinic at the dental school. If you could volunteer at these for your college years, you’ll look great in the eyes of UNC and every other school you apply to.

7) again.. HAVE FUN. I can’t stress this enough. In undergrad, I completely crushed my expectations of myself and now sit with a great GPA and a great DAT score as I enter the application cycle. I’m happy I studied my butt off, but the only thing I can regret at this point is not having a little more fun here and there. It’s a very tough thing to balance, and you have to keep your priorities straight, but make sure you cut yourself loose here and there because it’s very important!!

Good luck my friend!

Thanks for the advice, definitely going to look into volunteering and shadowing as soon as possible.

 

[2jz]

Have a story worth telling once you're done with your undergrad education.

Don't just show up to class and go home. Get involved with clubs you find interesting, volunteer, shadow, consider pursuing a research project, find a mentor, explore your own hobbies, get impressive grades.

 

[Life of Pablo]

Here is some general undergrad advice:

Do your absolute best to not have 8 am classes (or even 9 am for that matter). Even though you were able to wake up early for class in high school, it becomes exponentially harder to do so in college, unless of course you’re a morning person. First semester freshmen year you’re going to make a ton of friends (you won’t be friends with 90% of them come senior year) and it’ll be easy to get “lost.” Don’t forget why you went to college, so have fun but not too much fun. Make friends with upperclassmen in your major. They’ve already taken all the classes you’re going to take, so they can let you know what to focus on/how to properly study for the class. If you bring a car to college your freshmen year, you’ll be everyone’s chauffeur, so don’t tell people you have a car. Do research. Dental schools love it even though it’s not required. Don’t get caught doing anything stupid: drinking tickets, cheating etc. Some dental schools require you to submit a “dean’s recommendation form” where they ask the dean of your school to mention anything bad you’ve done while at school. That drinking ticket you got 4 years ago when you were a naive freshmen? Yup they’ll see that. Finally, enjoy college. It goes by way too fast.

 

[Bingwen]

Some of the ECs that I am happy that I did and that I think rounds out my application were: research, Circle K (volunteer org), student government and chemistry club. Each of these helped in their own way but they were all a lot of fun for me. ECs are important but I am not sure any will really make or break you. Find extracurriculars that interest you and ones that you could see holding an officer position in. I think the only org type I would highly recommend is a volunteer organization. A lot of schools like/require volunteering. Most of my club was pre-health and so we had a great time together and rotated officer positions every year so everyone got a shot to put it on their apps.

 

[Saadnc]

my advices/ things I did that im glad that i did: (ignore all grammatical errors pls& thx)

1) socialize. get involved. meet some people. go to some parties- but don't be stupid. develop some social skills. it'll help you for interviews. it'll give you things to talk about. I talked about SEC football with my interviewer at UPitt & not 1 word was about dentistry or teeth

2) get good grades as a freshman. classes are easy to get an A in as a freshman > say upper level classes like histology and immunology. once those upper level classes hit you in the face hard that GPA will start to drop...fast.

3) learn to have good time management early on. prioritize.

4) do something you enjoy and minor in it- that way you can stand out from all the other science major applicants. ex: I minored in art (i grew up drawing and painting from a young age) & focused my minor in ceramics. it helps for PAT and your spatial awareness. also with art there are little things you'll learn that you think it's useless and then you will use those "art tricks" on your PAT. [ but hey, if youre in UNC.. take advantage of all the hiking place North Carolina has to offer]

5) take 8AM classes ONLY AS A FRESHMAN bc you're still used to waking up early from high school. but don't do it as a senior..thats a total nightmare. & then youre wasting your parents money bc youre not gonna go to class

6) the obvious stuff: volunteer, shadow, research, cure cancer, befriend upper class men bc they have notes they can sell to you or like old tests& textbooks, etc.

7) try to see if you can work like part-time at a dental practice, esp ortho bc dental assistants there do so much stuff... like over the summer or something. get a summer dental assistant job like doing sterilization and see if the dental assistants or orthodontists would be nice and also teach you how to take impressions and take x-rays..oh and take record photos...talk to patients in general. really helps in the clinical aspect.

8) sleep. just sleep. nap anytime and anywhere. esp if you want to do art and science..AND have a social/party life. dental school is gonna rob you of your precious beauty rest.

9) umm...personal experience..coach and judge a debate team. i use to be a debaters so i learned how to "present" yourself to the judge. however, as a judge...you know what to look for in a debater in order to know who is better than another. it's kinda like when you interview...you're already in the interviewer's perspective...so you know what to do to make yourself seem very impressive/ likable/ interview well. if that makes any sense.

10) lastly, this is just me. shadow not just dentistry..but also medicine, optometry, pharmacy, etc. i changed my mind about the healthcare professions so many times it probably gave my parents whiplash. tbh a lot of freshmen do. go explore other healthcare profession theres to offer. ex: i did processes of elimination starting from medicine and ended up in dentistry. pretty much, i like certain aspects of surgical medicines and clinical medicine but not both. then optometry where i realized eyes are freaky. etc. you get the point.

i realize that a lot of my advices are targeting interviews, but when you apply you'll learn that getting an interview b/c you have the numbers is only half the battle. the real battle is can you interview/ have social skills/ compassion. thats the key to getting accepted into dental schools. anyway this is long but best of luck! most importantly..HAVE FUN! and don't stress if you get a C or two...or 3 or 4 Bs!

Thanks for the really detailed advice! It's amazing how people who succeeded in undergrad are so willing to share their experiences and tips.

 

[lwergod]

Thanks for the really detailed advice! It's amazing how people who succeeded in undergrad are so willing to share their experiences and tips.

I hear unc has a pretty competitive men's rowing club. You should try that out if you're tall/athletic.

 

[Saadnc]

I hear unc has a pretty competitive men's rowing club. You should try that out if you're tall/athletic.

I would be open to it, I played lacrosse and ran track and field in high school.

 

[lwergod]

I would be open to it, I played lacrosse and ran track and field in high school.

do it, you won't regret it.