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While I had always considered it, I didn't decide for sure that I wanted to 100% commit myself to dentistry until the beginning of this fall semester. I've been a bio major al throughout college, and will have all my necessary prereqs for dental school finished after this spring semester. I originally planned to apply for this cycle, but after speaking with my prehealth advisor she thinks I should wait a year to apply since I didn't commit to dentistry until recently. I have a decent GPA of ~3.55, and my GPA has gone up every semester after starting college with a dismal 3.1, just this past semester I got a 3.85 so its evened out a bit. Hopefully the upward trend with be looked favorably upon, but thats not the point of this post. Anyways, I plan to take the DAT this summer, likely to early August. I am told that you can submit your DS application with the DAT scores pending, then have them sent in once you finish that. The reason my prehealth advisor seems to want me to wait a year is because of my lack of clinical/shadowing experience. This winter break I ended up shadowing 2 dentists for a couple of weeks, and it has further solidified my interest in dentistry. Now all I lack are the clinical hours. My prehealth advisor told me that I should wait a year because DS expect you to have at least a years worth of continual clinical experience, which is why until recently I thought I should wait. However, when shadowing my dentist who is about 5 years out of dental school, he said that he had never heard of that requirement and that I should apply as soon as possible. As long as I have a good GPA and DAT scores, thats what they care about most and having shadowed him and the other dentist would be enough, especially if I could get clinical experience in this coming spring semester as well which I plan to do, and should hear back later this week if I got accepted in to for the on-campus dental clinic as a volunteer.
Sorry for the wordy question, but it basically comes down to this. How important is the amount of clinical experience you have? Is one semesters worth of clinical volunteering and a couple of weeks for shadowing two dentists not sufficient? Do I stand to lose anything by applying if I don't get in besides the application fee? Before I was fairly convinced I should wait a year but now that my dentist thinks I could apply now, I am excited about the possibility of being "on time" and not needing to take the year off between undergrad and dental school. What do you guys think?
EDIT: My top choice school is University of Maryland because I am an instate student, it's a great school, and I know the Baltimore area well, if that matters.
EDIT2: By applying "on time" I don't mean the application cycle that is currently happening, I mean the next one. I'm currently a junior, so would be applying for the cycle that begins the summer of 2012. My advisor wants me to wait an additional year, and apply the summer of 2013 after my senior year, which I don't want to do unless I really have to.
Sorry for the wordy question, but it basically comes down to this. How important is the amount of clinical experience you have? Is one semesters worth of clinical volunteering and a couple of weeks for shadowing two dentists not sufficient? Do I stand to lose anything by applying if I don't get in besides the application fee? Before I was fairly convinced I should wait a year but now that my dentist thinks I could apply now, I am excited about the possibility of being "on time" and not needing to take the year off between undergrad and dental school. What do you guys think?
EDIT: My top choice school is University of Maryland because I am an instate student, it's a great school, and I know the Baltimore area well, if that matters.
EDIT2: By applying "on time" I don't mean the application cycle that is currently happening, I mean the next one. I'm currently a junior, so would be applying for the cycle that begins the summer of 2012. My advisor wants me to wait an additional year, and apply the summer of 2013 after my senior year, which I don't want to do unless I really have to.
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