Am I too late??

[KEC029]

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Hi, I'm new here!! I recently decided to be a pre-dental and noticed I am way far behind than other people here. Well can you please guide me to a right direction??😀

I'm a junior at UMCP already but all I have done is volunteer at ER 100hrs and 1yr of research experience <- research wasn't good at all here, prof. is lazy so can't even get a recommendation letter. I'm a bio major so I've took all the courses for DAT I think? gen. bio, gen. chem, ochemI&II? and have 3.6gpa. I really want to go to Maryland.

what should I do now? I was thinking about start shadowing a dentist very soon and another research at FDA for next semester? Do you think I should study for DAT now and take it in Feb? I'm so worried about DAT scheduling, shadowing and LORs. Thank you for your help...

 

[aggie-master]

Study for the DAT over the winter break and try to take it in February.

Start shadowing a dentist as soon as you can find one. You'll want to know one good enough to get a letter of recommendation from him/her by April.

Start talking to professors that remember you and like you and try to get a few letters of recommendation from them. Different schools have different requirements but if I were you I would try to get three from professors.

Go talk to your pre-dental advisor at your school and get any advice that you can from them. I used mine and she was very helpful and pretty good at convincing us to have stuff done early so that we didn't end up turning in our app late. Also, many advisors will write a letter of recommendation for you so this can help your chances of getting in.

The applications go online in May. If you've got all your letters done, all of your shadowing done, and the DAT out of the way, you'll be in good shape once the application opens up. At that point you spend two to four weeks perfecting your personal statement and your app and you turn it in and wait for the interview offers to come in.

 

[in her drawer]

Study for the DAT over the winter break and try to take it in February.

Start shadowing a dentist as soon as you can find one. You'll want to know one good enough to get a letter of recommendation from him/her by April.

Start talking to professors that remember you and like you and try to get a few letters of recommendation from them. Different schools have different requirements but if I were you I would try to get three from professors.

Go talk to your pre-dental advisor at your school and get any advice that you can from them. I used mine and she was very helpful and pretty good at convincing us to have stuff done early so that we didn't end up turning in our app late. Also, many advisors will write a letter of recommendation for you so this can help your chances of getting in.

The applications go online in May. If you've got all your letters done, all of your shadowing done, and the DAT out of the way, you'll be in good shape once the application opens up. At that point you spend two to four weeks perfecting your personal statement and your app and you turn it in and wait for the interview offers to come in.

The DAT doesn't need to be taken in Feb. You can wait the longest on that one (anytime in summer is fine). Also, I'd say the beginning of May is when you want the LORs done. Basically, get all your stuff in for June 1 and then just study away for the DAT.

 

[laelialudisia]

i studied for the dat spring semester, then took it in may. i had EVERYTHING submitted to aadsas by june 1st. aim to get all of the stuff in as soon as the application cycle opens (mid-may). if i were you i would go to aadsas and create a username NOW so that you can see what the application looks like and what you will need to fill in once may rolls around.

go here: http://www.adea.org/
and select AADSAS

the prerequisites for each school are generally listed on the dental schools' websites but the BASIC requirements are:

2 semesters of general bio + labs
2 semesters of general chem + labs
2 semesters of organic chem (some schools let you substitute 1 semester for a semester of biochem) + labs
2 semesters of physics + labs
2 english courses

some schools may have more requirements than these, so you will have to check with each school you are interested in applying to.

 

[KEC029]

thanks everyone!!

 

[KEC029]

when should I ask professors for LORs? Did you guys ask in your fall smemster and ask them, send it directly to aadsas at certain time or did you send it?? and should I give them a copy of my resume and other infos about the dental schools that i'm applying to?

 

[in her drawer]

when should I ask professors for LORs? Did you guys ask in your fall smemster and ask them, send it directly to aadsas at certain time or did you send it?? and should I give them a copy of my resume and other infos about the dental schools that i'm applying to?

I asked my professors around February/March, with a deadline for beginning of May. I gave them a resume, along with a couple of paragraphs on why I wanted to do dentistry. Also, I met with them to talk about anything they wanted to know that wasn't in the aforementioned material.