Advice for a pre-dental frosh preparing for dental school?

[deleted341012]

Advice for a pre-dental frosh preparing for dental school?

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[ugapharm]

Your GPA is on pace. Try to really get it as high as you can, because freshman year is generally the easiest and it's nice to have some room to fall back on(rather than the other way around where you screw up freshman year and have to spend the next 3 just making yourself competitive.

Get involved in whatever you enjoy, don't do some volunteer organization you hate just to boost a resume.

International students do have a tougher time though. Good luck!

 

[PhoebeAZ]

Your GPA is good, just try to at least keep it there. You definitely want to start getting involved in clubs you like, volunteering (do something you like consistently for a long time, that shows you've really made a commitment), start shadowing now, try doing research at your school if that's something you'd be interested in, apply for any awards or honors your school offers (something unique, not just things you automatically get from good grades, like Dean's List), take on leadership roles, and start getting to know your professors, you're going to need recommendations from them and you want them to know how hard you work in their class.

Sorry that's just a long list but these are the things you put in your application. Here's the general instructions for the AADSAS: http://www.adea.org/dental_educatio...icants/GeneralInstructions/Pages/default.aspx

This page describes every section on the application so you'll know what you need to do to fill it up.

And yes being international means you need to be even more competitive than an American.

Good luck.

 

[doc toothache]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=619685

 

[dentalWorks]

Hey guys,

I'm just a freshman in college but Ive always wanted to be a dentist so right now I am signed up to be a pre-dental student.
This is my first post for SDN so everything is kind of confusing and everybody else seems to know way more than me. I was wondering
if some upperclassmen or graduate students could lend a hand and give me some helpful advice.
For example, I still havent decided my major yet. It's probably going to be biology. Any thoughts? Also, after my first semester, my GPA was a 3.75. Is this good enough? I could have done better but I guess my senioritis from high school still hasnt left me. Also, what extracurricular activities should I start to do now?
If you guys could give me any helpful tips I would greatly appreciate it.
Oh also, I'm an international student, and is that going to hurt my chance of getting into a dental school?

I hope this thread can be of help for all the undergraduate students who are in the similar situation as I am.

Thanks a lot guys and best of luck to you all.

As far as what major you should go into (biology or anything else), please read this thread, it covers this very topic very well.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=781438

As far as GPA goes, generally speaking, a student who maintains a 3.5 overall and science GPA is considered a strong applicant. We can also talk about DAT, but thats another topic that we won't go into for another 2 years

 

[deleted341012]

thanks a lot guys! you guys were a great help! now I at least know where to start and focus on. You can bet that I'll be sure to post more questions haha. Merry christmas!