Community service

Started by Molar_Bear
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Molar_Bear

Molar_Bear

New Member
7+ Year Member
How many community service hours are applicants recommended to have? I've been putting so much time into my classes, working, and club participation that I only have about 10 hours of community service so far. Should I spend much time trying to bring that number up? I still have two more years of undergrad ahead of me.
 
Probably good to have ~100 at the time you apply to be a competitive applicant. Remember that you should also get a good amount of shadowing hours as well.
 
Be careful...just because people say you need 100 hours, don't go get 10 hours here and 10 hours there. Dental schools like to see commitment in terms of your volunteer hours so try and up those hours in a project/organization you have already spent some time with. I agree that you will need much more than 10 hours but don't go jumping around at a million places 🙂.
 
I agree with @derbear. Find an organization that you can commit minimum hours to over a long period and they will add up without distracting from your studies (ex: Meals on Wheels). Also, medical trips/mission trips look really good on apps! Thats an easy way to spend a week or so and get a bunch of hours.
 
shays said:
I agree with @derbear. Find an organization that you can commit minimum hours to over a long period and they will add up without distracting from your studies (ex: Meals on Wheels). Also, medical trips/mission trips look really good on apps! Thats an easy way to spend a week or so and get a bunch of hours.
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I disagree with Shays that medical mission trips look good on apps. Some medical mission trips look great on an application don't get me wrong, but they're also known for doing lots and lots of illegal things. They'll take pre-dents to other countries and have them extracting patients teeth and doing other forms of dental work, which is still illegal even in the other countries. A girl during one of my interviews said that she extracted teeth on a dental mission trip and the interviewers straight up told her that was illegal and she shouldn't have done that. She didn't end up being accepted either.
 
TourdeTeeth said:
Some medical mission trips look great on an application don't get me wrong, but they're also known for doing lots and lots of illegal things. They'll take pre-dents to other countries and have them extracting patients teeth and doing other forms of dental work, which is still illegal even in the other countries. A girl during one of my interviews said that she extracted teeth on a dental mission trip and the interviewers straight up told her that was illegal and she shouldn't have done that. She didn't end up being accepted either.
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Very true.
 
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