Am I The Only One?

[Ething]

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Am i the only one on this forum who does not have several hundred hours of volunteering under his belt? I know some people might be honest about their hours but come on......EVERYONE? I have shadowed about 40 hours (apparently this doesnt even count as volunteering) and part of a volunteer organization that goes to visit patients at a hospital once a week. But thats about it for volunteering.....am I screwed?

 

[litldime]

I don't know about everyone else...but I truly have 100+, if you are worried about hours....start volunteering more...that's the only way they accumulate
gluck
ld
-just b/c you don't have 200 hours doesn't mean you're not a good applicant. But if you think its a problem, do something about it 🙂

 

[Envision]

I don't know about everyone else...but I truly have 100+, if you are worried about hours....start volunteering more...that's the only way they accumulate
gluck
ld
-just b/c you don't have 200 hours doesn't mean you're not a good applicant. But if you think its a problem, do something about it 🙂

good advice 👍. Volunteer work shows adcom a humanitarian side of the applicant. if you don't have any, that doesnt mean you cant get in...but it may not paint the overal picture the adcom would look highly upon. plus giving back to your community is rewarding to. you should try, you might like it. 🙂

 

[SirShagaLot]

shadowing is very funny to me........seriously, i shadowed 4 diff. dentists for about 6-8 hrs each....dentists dont want wannabe's hangin over their shoulder for days and hours on end, and i just dont know enough dentists to get those kinds of 100+ hrs without repeatedly hangin at the same office...no way i would do that to anyone......i know lots of hrs are "great" experience and u prob get to see lots of diff procedures, but its not like u get to perform them.....if u don't have time to learn that stuff while ur in d-school then something is seriously wrong.....the small amount of shadowing i did is enough to last a life time, i know dentistry is the field i wish to pursue, i dont need to stand over more shoulders to figure it out........i know i know, "but it looks good on my app"....yeah thats too bad..i guess its a way too measure your passion to be a dentists but 30 hrs is all i need...and i'm as dead serious about being a dentist as anyone can be...i'lllearn how to be a dentist when i get to school...

 

[in her drawer]

shadowing is very funny to me........seriously, i shadowed 4 diff. dentists for about 6-8 hrs each....dentists dont want wannabe's hangin over their shoulder for days and hours on end

Yeah, I always felt awkward shadowing. It seemed as though the dentists just wanted me to die. 😕

 

[Envision]

I thought we were talkin about volunteer work? as for shadowing, i worked in a free clinic and they had a lot of traffic and very little help (free clinic...no money to hire many dental assistents). thus, volunteers sat in in procedures and participate as much as a dental assitent would...the whole suctioning saliva and passing of instruments. believe it or not, you do learn a lot when you get to aid in different procedures. not to mention, they strictly required 100 hours to complete the program. i guess it just depends on what your "shadowing" entails. as for volunteer work goes, the more you do, the better it is for everyone.

 

[DentalBoarder]

honestly.. i have over 400..... honestly

 

[SirShagaLot]

Yeah, I always felt awkward shadowing. It seemed as though the dentists just wanted me to die. 😕

for applicants like myself, who aren't choosing dentistry bc they couldn't make it in(to) medical school, but have chosen only dentistry and are 110 percent positive that dentistry is truly where they belong, getting tons of shadowing hrs, when it boils down to it, is merely another way to beef up ur app.......how do u get 100's and 100's of hours shadowing anyways, dont u need a job to pay the freakin rent.........it's unfortunate that most schools sometimes seperate applicants like myself from other applicants based on the number of hours we stood around with our thumbs up our asses and watched someone else treat a patient....i could be out makin cash instead of annoying another poor dentist who was too nice to say "no, u can't shadow me for tons of hours, i'm trying to run a bussiness here....this isn't d-school,,its not even close, its just u watching me while u make my patients even more uncomfortable than they already are!"

I know a girl who is a senior in undergraduate and she...this makes me laugh every time i think about it........has applied to medical school, dental school, and optometry school all at the same time....omg u have got to be kidding me...its sad to think that theres always someone like this straight A nerd out there mabye getting accepted to dental school based on good grades and absolutely zero passion when others like myself on sdn who would sacrifice almost anything to get into d-school have to sit on the side lines and try to beef up our apps with subjective credentials like shadowing hours.
how can any school accept this type of applicant....such an injustice..becomeing a dentist not b/c u really had a dream to pursue dentistry but simply b/c there the only ones that didn't turn her down and say "look, this wth is going on here, u can't possibly have this undying passion to become a dentist, an MD, and eye doctor, u have got to be kidding me right, is this some kind of joke".;............but this crap is true, why do u think d-school applications have gone up like 40- 50 % over the last 2 cycles..........what a terrible injustice......it really angers me😡

 

[SirShagaLot]

I thought we were talkin about volunteer work? as for shadowing, i worked in a free clinic and they had a lot of traffic and very little help (free clinic...no money to hire many dental assistents). thus, volunteers sat in in procedures and participate as much as a dental assitent would...the whole suctioning saliva and passing of instruments. believe it or not, you do learn a lot when you get to aid in different procedures. not to mention, they strictly required 100 hours to complete the program. i guess it just depends on what your "shadowing" entails. as for volunteer work goes, the more you do, the better it is for everyone.

yeah that sounds awesome it really does, i would love to do that...but u are fortunate, i dont have a situation like that where i live...that would be awesome though.

 

[SirShagaLot]

honestly.. i have over 400..... honestly

awesome

 

[skeeter]

I'm just so happy that I was bored out of my mind my freshman year summer and did a lot (400+!) of volunteer work to get a bad break up out of my head. I never knew that being cheated on would help out in the long run.

My suggestion would be to become an EMT or join a volunteer fire company. Great volunteer experience, and something that looks stellar on an application/resume.

 

[prez_al]

I'm just so happy that I was bored out of my mind my freshman year summer and did a lot (400+!) of volunteer work to get a bad break up out of my head. I never knew that being cheated on would help out in the long run.

My suggestion would be to become an EMT or join a volunteer fire company. Great volunteer experience, and something that looks stellar on an application/resume.

I'd say volunteer at a hospital if you can... every week you get 4 hrs after awhile it adds up to a few hundred hours. You'd be surprised at the interesting people you meet as patient interaction is probably the second most important element in being a healthcare provider.

 

[Ething]

I go to the hospital and visit patients every week and it is part of a "volunteer" organization. I have been doing this for several yrs. The only thing is i was never sure if this was "volunteering" or extra curricular.

 

[NewYorker20]

Maybe this sounds stupid...but what is the difference between shadowing and volunteering? In both cases you put your own free time with no pay associated, rite?!

 

[pearlywhite]

Maybe this sounds stupid...but what is the difference between shadowing and volunteering? In both cases you put your own free time with no pay associated, rite?!

I believe there is another thread about this difference (if you want to do a search) but basically shadowing is just watching, while volunteering is doing something. i.e. at a dental office volunteering would be sterilizing, assistanting, filing paperwork etc., while shadowing would be watching the dentist complete a procedure.

 

[NewYorker20]

Thanks pearlywhite...i'll see u at UConn 🙂

 

[4thQtrDreams]

............but this crap is true, why do u think d-school applications have gone up like 40- 50 % over the last 2 cycles..........what a terrible injustice......it really angers me😡

Agree Totally. I wish school could easily see who has taken the mcat/ oat without it being based on applicant honesty.. if you have a good reason for applying to more than one, then be truthfull and explain it on your application..

 

[ecuajedi]

Heres how to get a lot of volunteer hours...join the LDS church and go on a mission. I got two years of volunteer time doing it at 12 hours a day 7 days a week every week of the year for 2 years. Thatll run up the volunteer tab to close to 10,000 hours or so. Plus I was in a third world country in South America and I speak Spanish now. I just had an interview over the weekend at UNC and the first thing they asked me in my interview was...Tell me about you mission.

 

[PickMe]

i didnt have many hours and it wasnt a problem at any school i applied to. i had about 20 shadowing hours and like 40 hospital volunteering hours. however, i did work about 14 hours a week while in undergrad because i needed the money. schools understand that not everyone can afford their time to volunteering rather than working...just make sure you are doing something with your time, whether its a club, a job, or volunteering.

 

[apaul]

Heres how to get a lot of volunteer hours...join the LDS church and go on a mission. I got two years of volunteer time doing it at 12 hours a day 7 days a week every week of the year for 2 years. Thatll run up the volunteer tab to close to 10,000 hours or so. Plus I was in a third world country in South America and I speak Spanish now. I just had an interview over the weekend at UNC and the first thing they asked me in my interview was...Tell me about you mission.

uh, proselyting isnt exactly the type of volunteering adcoms are thinking of, sure youre saving souls and whatnot, but its not really service in the same sense of the word.

 

[cdmOMR]

Would volunteer tutoring count? If so I have like 25 under the belt. If I can find some time Im going to try and squeeze in some volunteering at LUMC.

 

[ecuajedi]

A mission is definitely not all about proselyting. We did so much service all the time including translating for some doctors/dentists that came down to provide free service. And being able to sympathize with people that have needs (whether those needs are spiritual, physical, emotional) is really important once someone becomes a dentist and thats more of what a mission is all about.

 

[apaul]

A mission is definitely not all about proselyting. We did so much service all the time including translating for some doctors/dentists that came down to provide free service. And being able to sympathize with people that have needs (whether those needs are spiritual, physical, emotional) is really important once someone becomes a dentist and thats more of what a mission is all about.

I'm not doubting the fact that you performed service, the standard set by you mission president was probably around 4/week, some weeks were more, some were less. My point (not well expressed) was that you weren't doing service 12 hours a day 7 days a week, proselyting, pday, teaching discussions, traveling takes up the majority of your time. I estimated my total service time to be around 400 hours which is much more realistic than your 10000

 

[SirShagaLot]

the fact of the matter is that we all live in different areas all over the U.S. and are all exposed to a variety of different opportunities...those who live in large urbanized areas def have more opportunities.....i just wish these types of factors could be taken into account.....where i live there is no way i could ever do any assisting or anything, everyone has to be certifiable...and they are all women, i kid u not. I applied to over 10 dental labs over the course of 2 yrs and never got a job...i came really really close one time but then i couldnt lie and i told him i wanted to go to dental school...i never heard from him again.....some people need experience to prepare them for what they will be exposed to in dental school, and some of us do not need it........so accumulating hrs remains simply a way to seperate applicants who are similar on paper.............................does anyone have anymore thoughts on the whole "bookworm having no idea what they want to do so they apply to every medical profession they think of and then steal spots from people who would sacrifice body parts to get into d-school, situation"? wow, i never rant like this, i'm always a one or two sentence guy but this stuff really gets me worked up😡

 

[prez_al]

does anyone have anymore thoughts on the whole "bookworm having no idea what they want to do so they apply to every medical profession they think of and then steal spots from people who would sacrifice body parts to get into d-school, situation"? wow, i never rant like this, i'm always a one or two sentence guy but this stuff really gets me worked up😡

The process has gotten to the point where schools really look at academics more as dental school (like med school) will require students to memorize tons of information in a short amount of time. If you look at predents.com, the majority of users getting interviews at schools have GPAs above 3.7, which are med school numbers (if not above). Passion is one thing, but schools get so many applications and GPA is a simple way for them to eliminate applicants (since DAT scores are similar across the board). It's unfortunate that these "bookworms" (now I feel bad for working my ass off 👎 ) could be taking away your spot; but if these people can pass the interview, obviously the schools think they can be great dentists. Sorry to hear about your rejections, seeing that is probably the source of your frustration.

 

[SirShagaLot]

The process has gotten to the point where schools really look at academics more as dental school (like med school) will require students to memorize tons of information in a short amount of time. If you look at predents.com, the majority of users getting interviews at schools have GPAs above 3.7, which are med school numbers (if not above). Passion is one thing, but schools get so many applications and GPA is a simple way for them to eliminate applicants (since DAT scores are similar across the board). It's unfortunate that these "bookworms" (now I feel bad for working my ass off 👎 ) could be taking away your spot; but if these people can pass the interview, obviously the schools think they can be great dentists. Sorry to hear about your rejections, seeing that is probably the source of your frustration.

well...i haven't been rejected yet, i have one interview....i just know that your right......but there are also people like myself who just screwed off in college but have unlimited potential.....we only need one chance, one opportunity...there are so many of us average applicants that could do just as well or better than other applicants with a higher GPA....drive and passion and commitment and the willingness to do whatever it takes, combined with a very high potential, can be a very powerful thing just sitting there waiting to be challenged.....someday (whether it be this yr or yrs from now) I will prove myself worthy and i hope that when i do get into d-school I am there with more people like myself who have a real compassion for dentistry, not a bunch of medical students who decided medical school was just too much of a challenge for them even though thats what they really wanted to do with their life, such a sad sad situation for them....i would never back down from what i want..no matter how great the challenge, so for all u applicants out there that can relate to what i'm saying here.....hang in there, a true passion cannot be developed, u r born with it....and it's something no one can ever take from u and something that others can never have, regardless of their super great GPA. Best of luck, hope to see u out there some day.

 

[ruth11]

wow shaga, you totally stole the words out of my mouth, GPA is one thing but passion, perseverence/drive and dedication are a whole set of other attributes im willing to say that 60% of those with 3.7's out there are lacking. Not on the academic side, yes they worked their butts off getting those shiny GPA's but i'm pretty sure most won't hold out for more than 2 cycles. I've given it all, laid it all on the table to show adcoms I can handle D'skool...the time, money and tears we go through as non first-cut reapplicants is crazy. Now im not talking about the lowly first time applicant, im talking about people like me and you SHagalot. We've got that fuel in us, we just need a spark to set it on fire and hell we'll explode....just look at YaHE or whoever his name is, he's in an OMFS right now so yes it can be done, I've been told its an uphill battle. case in point I spoke to a admissions dean (name whitheld) just yesterday and he told me at this point in time, a 20AA on the DAT is their minimum just by virtue of how many overqualified applicants they have gotten so far. SHAGA it's up to us to be proactive about our apps and pursue them as much as we can, we have to market ourselves because we can't stand out among a 3.7BCP, we have to let the schools know that we have it in us to make it through and be awesome ACADEMIC dentists...i.e we can handle the work...we just need a chance to tell you how bad we want it....


sorry that was just a mix of thoughts that came to my head up there...it's not too articulate but I just had to rant/vent....

oh and don't let that grad GPA fool you....it does **** to my AADSAS cum...

one step at a time!


good luck all