I'd shadow a general dentist for at least 60 hours and overall predental experience of ~100 hours. NYU and Umich now strongly recommends at least 100 hours. Tufts requires a LOR from a dentist who you shadowed for 60 hours( needs to specifically write how many hours you shadowed/volunteered with him.) Apply to 20+ schools. Make sure your letter of recommendations and personal statements are top notch. Some people don't think personal statements matter much, but I received compliments on my personal statements from many of my interviews. Go find an advisor from your school career center to get help on your personal statement. There also may be some private services you can hire to get help on your application from start to finish. What's done is done with your GPA. Just as someone suggested, try to get that upward trend for your GPA. Do well on your DAT. APPLY EARLY.
I'd also prepare for post-bac/masters application as a backup. Good luck.
There are also a number of us who have volunteered to read and crit personal statements. I've found that a lot of the people in the school's "writing labs" or career centers are generally pretty useless when it comes to polishing up something like a PS. Additionally, I don't really know that a private service for your app is necessary. Just be sure to add anything and everything you can think of, and present it as well as possible. It's all about honest embellishment.
As far as the upward trend goes, I think a LOT depends on how you did this past year. Getting a 4.0 your senior year really won't matter a whole lot if your cGPA dropped because your junior year. ADCOM's likely won't hold your app for reconsideration after academic update if that's the case. Like everyone else has suggested, your best hope now is to do an incredible job on the DAT. I'll also warn you that just taking all your prereq's does not prepare you for the DAT. If you're planning on taking at the end of July then you had best start implementing your preparation plan soon. 9-10 weeks is not bad, but you need to be committed during that time if you hope to score at least 21 across the board.
I would personally apply this cycle but wouldn't expect a whole lot. It seems that people in your situation rarely ever get in their first try, but I'm kind of the opinion that schools almost intentionally reject "so-so" applicants just to see what they do for an additional year...kind of a way to see how bad you want it. But I would still apply for no other reason than to have all your info filled out and saved by AADSAS for the 2015 cycle. It's a lot easier to get your app in the first week when you don't have to worry about re-entering all your course info and shadowing/EC/award info. (but then again, I had ~180 credit hours worth of courses to enter)
🙂
All the same, I think you need to know what to do...so do it. Like I said before, I wouldn't bank on getting any acceptances this cycle, which means you should still be taking a heavy courseload your senior year and doing WELL (3.8+) to show that you are, in fact, committed to matriculating to dental school. If Nov/Dec/Jan comes around and you haven't gotten any interview offers, don't get frustrated. Just stay committed and make sure you don't screw yourself for the 2015 cycle.
BTW autoclavemonkey, congrats on UM. I'll see you there at the end of June.
