Apply now or wait?

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dental555

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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.
 
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If you submit now you will be wasting money because of a couple of reasons:

1) Quite a few deadlines have already passed.
2) A lot of seats have been filled and interview spots are more limited... thus you will need exceptionally spectacular stats GPA and DAT wise to have a good chance at landing 1+ interviews.
3) This is a different situation from having your scores 'pending' and submitting your application ahead of time.

Your DAT will be taken in the summer so you can't exactly leave your application in limbo for 6 months. Your application is basically put on HOLD until your DAT scores get there so by the time you get your scores. All of the schools will have a full class by then. Its a totally different story if you plan to take it next month... but even then reasons 1 and 2...

Its not about the clinical experience. Your timeline is just out of wack, no offense.
 
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.

I didnt have the time to read your whole post but I can tell you this that if you apply this late in the cycle there is a high chance you wont get in anywhere where you reallllllyyyyyyy wanna attend. Most schools have 50% to 66% of their classes already full and by the time your app gets processed it will be February or so. You'll just waste time and $$$ and then next year you'll have to explain why you didnt get accepted for 2012. Additionally, if you do get in somewhere but its not your #1 choice and you dont attend, you'll look that much worse in 2013. D-schools dont like to hear that you were accepted somewhere but chose not to attend in order to apply elsewhere.

You're not in a good situation to apply this late. I advice being patient and waiting 5 months and applying for 2013. With your high stats you'll have a 1000 times better shot at any school esp if you submit in June.

Good luck and be patient, pulling the trigger too early might be detrimental and offers no advantage at this point.
 
Just read through your post more carefully...

You plan to take your DAT in August...

Just a FYI, the next application cycle starts on June 1st. So why not just submit your application for the new cycle in June and take your DAT in August and have it pending then... its a much better use of your money.
 
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.

Another bad advice from an adviser. I dont know why they keep telling predent wrong info. You dont have to wait a year to apply. You can apply right now but its kind of late for this cycle and you haven't taken your DAT yet (plus Letter of recommendation, personal statement etc). The deadline already passed for most schools.

If you apply right now, there aren't many schools for you to apply anyway. You arent going to lose anything beside money if you dont get in this cycle. If $2000 ISN'T a big deal to you at all, apply. Otherwise, apply the coming cycle.

About volunteering/shadowing, you should have around 40 hours of shadowing at a General Dentist. The more the better but ~40 hours should be enough.

If I were you, I'd apply next cycle.
 
lol people are really bad at reading. herp derp
 
Oops, I'm sorry that I wasn't clearer. By applying "on time", I actually mean applying for the next cycle, not the current one. So I would applying as early as possible in it because of rolling admission, which I understand starts in June/July of 2012. My advisor is telling me I should wait another year on top of that, and not applying until the summer after my senior year. I am currently a junior, so if I were to be "on time", I would apply after this school year and before my senior year. Hopefully that clears it up. Didn't mean to say I was applying for this currently going cycle.
 
Oops, I'm sorry that I wasn't clearer. By applying "on time", I actually mean applying for the next cycle, not the current one. So I would applying as early as possible in it because of rolling admission, which I understand starts in June/July of 2012. My advisor is telling me I should wait another year on top of that, and not applying until the summer after my senior year. I am currently a junior, so if I were to be "on time", I would apply after this school year and before my senior year. Hopefully that clears it up. Didn't mean to say I was applying for this currently going cycle.

NO, dont wait, dont listen to your advisor.

Apply in JUNE 2012. Take your DAT around May. Thats it.
 
A handful of schools require a certain amount of shadowing hours but the majority don't. No one requires clinical hours or working as an assistant. As long as you've shadowed for 2 weeks, you should be fine. Apply in June of 2012 and do well on your DAT. And go correct your advisors before they spread misinformation to other pre-dents.
 
Some schools only require a few shadowing hours while others encourage you to have about 100- easily attainable by the time you apply this summer. You do not need to wait! Your adviser may have good intentions but doesn't know what they are talking about.
 
Alright, based off of all the advice I've received, I think I won't be waiting, I'll apply for the June 2012 cycle. I'll submit my app ASAP with the DAT pending, which I probably won't be able to study for until the summer, so I'll begin that as soon as school ends around May 18th, and study intensively for 7-8 weeks and take the DAT in mid July. If the DAT scores take 2 weeks or so to go in, my app should be completely done and ready for review late July or early August at the latest, which should be fine I think. Thanks for the advice everyone
 
Alright, based off of all the advice I've received, I think I won't be waiting, I'll apply for the June 2012 cycle. I'll submit my app ASAP with the DAT pending, which I probably won't be able to study for until the summer, so I'll begin that as soon as school ends around May 18th, and study intensively for 7-8 weeks and take the DAT in mid July. If the DAT scores take 2 weeks or so to go in, my app should be completely done and ready for review late July or early August at the latest, which should be fine I think. Thanks for the advice everyone

That sounds like a solid plan. Almost identical to mine actually. I decided to apply in early January 2011, sent in my app in the beginning of June and took the DAT July 12th 2011. It worked for me, it can definitely work for you.
 
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