Can LOR originally for med school be used for Dental?

[STACM]

Hi all,

I got my LOR's last year when I was planning on applying for medical school, but I ended up having more interest in dental school which I am now persuing. So my question is, can I still use those LOR's for my dental school application? Or do I have to specifically get new ones where my recommenders reference dentistry?

Thanks!

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[jigabodo]

Hi all,

I got my LOR's last year when I was planning on applying for medical school, but I ended up having more interest in dental school which I am now persuing. So my question is, can I still use those LOR's for my dental school application? Or do I have to specifically get new ones where my recommenders reference dentistry?

Thanks!

As long as it doesn't have anything similar to "dear medical school adcomm" in there, you should be OK.

 

[loved]

As long as it doesn't have anything similar to "dear medical school adcomm" in there, you should be OK.

Ditto. The letter doesn't have to reference dentistry. It should be fine as long as it isn't obvious that the LOR was meant for medical school.

 

[doc3232]

Sounds like a bad idea.

 

[bounty101]

If the letter mentions anything about med school, it will be the end of your application. Only reuse those letters if you're 100% confident in their content.

 

[SugarNaCl]

Sounds like a bad idea.

I agree with doc. This is a BAD idea. First, it looks better if the letters aren't looked at by the applicant. Second, it looks VERY lazy on your part if there is any indication towards medical school... Just does NOT look good AT ALL. There is probably also a benefit if the LOR mentions why you would excell at dentistry... things like excellent dexterity or acute attention to detail are extremely important in the dental field and may vastly improve your letters. I'd ask the professors to redo them. I wouldn't risk it. You appear very indecisive at this point if your decison was this last minute. How do you think that will look to ADCOMs?

 

[STACM]

yea that makes sense

does that also mean its a bad idea to list the tons of volunteering and shadowing I've done at multiple hospitals (ER, burn unit, surgery)? ...or is that ok?

 

[bounty101]

yea that makes sense

does that also mean its a bad idea to list the tons of volunteering and shadowing I've done at multiple hospitals (ER, burn unit, surgery)? ...or is that ok?

Don't leave the volunteering out. There's really no place to put any medical shadowing because only dentistry shadowing should go under "Dentistry Experience".

 

[SugarNaCl]

yea that makes sense

does that also mean its a bad idea to list the tons of volunteering and shadowing I've done at multiple hospitals (ER, burn unit, surgery)? ...or is that ok?

No, absolutely include that stuff. It is good to have a medical background because dentistry is a specific medicine. I volunteered at hospitals, Red Cross Blood Services, started a pre-health fraternity that included medical students, was EMT-B Defibrillation certified, was involved in medical research in grad school, worked as a research assistant at a cancer hospital for 3 yrs after grad school in the Dept. of Medicine (prostate, not oral cancer)then decided to go to dental school. Applied when I was 26 and listed all of that. My interviewers seemed pretty impressed. I would include everything you have done related to med or dent in there short of saying "I wanted to apply to med school until last year." Good luck to you.

 

[MnBr63]

No, absolutely include that stuff. It is good to have a medical background because dentistry is a specific medicine. I volunteered at hospitals, Red Cross Blood Services, started a pre-health fraternity that included medical students, was EMT-B Defibrillation certified, was involved in medical research in grad school, worked as a research assistant at a cancer hospital for 3 yrs after grad school in the Dept. of Medicine (prostate, not oral cancer)then decided to go to dental school. Applied when I was 26 and listed all of that. My interviewers seemed pretty impressed. I would include everything you have done related to med or dent in there short of saying "I wanted to apply to med school until last year." Good luck to you.

Agreed... I did a LOT of shadowing in hospitals and made sure to mention it in my app. Those experiences helped me to solidify my decision to go into dentistry rather than med. I had a basis of comparison when I shadowed at dental offices.

 

[SugarNaCl]

Agreed... I did a LOT of shadowing in hospitals and made sure to mention it in my app. Those experiences helped me to solidify my decision to go into dentistry rather than med. I had a basis of comparison when I shadowed at dental offices.

Excellent point about showing how exposure to medicine helped you to choose dentistry for whatever your reasons may have been.