Am I lacking EC activities?

[Velma Dinkley]

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I feel like I'm a bit shaky with my extracurriculars and I fear it may leave some unappealing "gaps" in my application. All I have (volunteering, research, employment, and shadowing) is:

Food Bank Volunteer (2 years, 100 hours)
Volunteer at a home for people with mental disabilities (2 years, 75 hours)
Volunteer tutoring underprivileged youth and adults who want a GED (2 years, 40 hours)
Paid Supplemental Instructor at University (Fancy tutor basically) (2 years)
Shadowed 3 different dentists (2 general and 1 specialist) (100 hours)

and zero research.... :/

This is IT.

I guess my real question is, where do I stand with ECs right now? Is it holding me back, neutral, or above average for matriculants? If I am low, where do I improve? I did try a search but ECs are really unique compared to plain GPA and DAT numbers.

 

[Incis0r]

If that is not enough, then I am in serious trouble.

 

[ajj70]

Dental schools want to see a commitment to EC's, just like your undergrad school did. It's not how many, but how much time you put in. If you put in 500 hours to 2 volunteer opportunities, they would be fine with that. They don't want to see that you did a day here, a day there. You are fine.

 

[Sweet_Tooth]

Research is not necessary, ie it will not make or break your application. So don't worry about not having that. If you want to improve your application I would say increase those shadowing hours to at least 200.

 

[sjv]

If that is not enough, then I am in serious trouble.

👍👍

 

[Incis0r]

👍👍

Is that a thumbs up like "I agree with you" or a thumbs up like "Good luck, you're gonna need it?"

 

[sjv]

Is that a thumbs up like "I agree with you" or a thumbs up like "Good luck, you're gonna need it?"

Both. 😉

 

[Incis0r]

Both. 😉

Oh gosh- sjv and his subtext have spoken. Looks like I'm not altruistic enough.
BRB- calling the local food bank...

 

[bitethebullet]

You have plenty of volunteer activities. research is more stressed for premeds, not dent