Confused And Curious

[DoctorSaab]

Hello,

I'm just a Freshman in college right now, majoring in Biology. I told my advisor that I'm interested to go into Medicine, or Dentistry. He said that with a major in Bio, I will cover all the pre-med, dental requirements for science. Can you guys tell me what other requirements I need to meet? How much Math shall I take? I am taking Calculus for Business right now.

Another thing, when do I take the MCATs, and the DATs? I have heard that MCATs are harder than the DATs. Honestly, what do you think about the two? What do you recommend me to do to get prepared?

How hard is it to get into a dental school? Oh yeh, once you are in dental school, what is the process... how much longer will I have to study? And, what is the average salary for a dentist?

As you can see, I am very new to this. So any help and support would be appreciated. Thank you very much.

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[Centrum]

Hmmm. So do you want to go to Dental or Medical school? It is either one or the other. Ask your dentist if you can follow him around for a few hours and work on shadowing a few different doctors. You need to get a feel for the profession, to see if it is really what you want to do for the rest of your life.

What are your reasons for wanting to be a doctor?
What are your reasons for wanting to be a dentist?

Do you simply just want to be in the medical field?

You still have a while before the DAT?s; so don't give it too much thought right now. Just work hard at maintaining a good GPA, and really work hard in all of your science classes.

Getting into dental school might not be quite as hard as getting into medical school, but it is still highly competitive. It takes a lot of hard work and persistence, but if it is truly what you want to do then never give up.

Dentists make good money. Make sure to check dentistry and everything involved before diving in though. Good luck.

 

[GTchick]

As for your question about requirements it is pretty much the same for med and dental school. Take a year of calculus, a year of physics, a year of inorganic chem, a year of organic chem, and a year of biology. Also a year of english/composition is good. Some schools have other requirements but it is best to look at their websites for that.

MCATs and DATs are usually taken the end of your junior year of college. DATs can be taken whenever you want and MCATs are only given one day in April and one day in August. A Kaplan book is pretty much all you need to get prepared after taking the prereq classes. I like the DAT because it does not have physics and I hate physics but it is still a hard test and has a perceptual ability section and a math section that the MCAT does not.

Dental school is hard to get into justas med school is. Keep your grades up and be involved with something, shadow, and do some research if you can.

Once in dental school it is 4 years and then you can practice. If you want to specialize add on another 2-3 years and expect it to be extremely competitive to get into a specialty especially endo and ortho right now. You have to be #1 or 2 in your class for those. One of my friend's dad's hires dentist right out of school with a starting salary of $100,000 but I think that is a little high. I would say the average is lower but still very respectable.

You have a lot of time before you have to decide med or dental so just concetrate on getting good grades right now.

~GTChick

 

[UBTom]

To Chiefsaab:

In addition to all the good advice the others gave you, here is something else you want to keep on top of:

Do not wait until the last minute (i.e. right before applying to dental or med school) to ask your instructors for letters of recommendation.

Make sure you ask instructors for LORs at the end of Each Semester while their impression of you and your work are still fresh in their heads. This applies to both the dental and medical school application process.

As far as how difficult it is to get into dental school... There are only 53 dental schools in the U.S., which means they are indeed very competitive. Make sure you keep that GPA well above 3.0. It will make your life easier when you apply.

Good luck.

 

[DoctorSaab]

Well, thank you for the advices. I have a question. What do you mean by getting an LOR every semester? Poor advisor would get tired of writing so many recommendations! And what am I to do with those?

Ok, what kind of clubs or activities shall I join? this first semester, i am not working at all. In fact, I'm not doing anything yet. I'm just getting familiar with the school life. And how much of shadowing shall I do? What are some other impressive things med/dental schools like?

Oh yeh, do any of you have any links where I can see some practice DAT or MCAT questions. I wanna see what they are like.

Oh yeh, are dental school's expensive like the med schools? Cuz I'll need some heavy loans.... I hope they give out loans like madness... ??

Thanks again

 

[UBTom]

You have to ask for letters of recommendations ("LORs") from the professors who taught the classes you took. Most dental and medical schools require you to send in LORs from your college professors when you apply.

So at the end of this fall semester, if you did well in your courses, ask the professors to write LORs for you, and have it sent to your pre-professional advisor to put them in your file. You should ask for LORs at the end of EVERY semester while you are in college.

As far as extracurricular activities go, just do things that shows you have exposure to the field. Do things like volunteer at a hospital or biomedical research if you are applying to medical school. Shadow a dentist, observe oral surgery procedures at a hospital, or do research if you are applying to dental school. But keep in mind that these activities are of peripheral importance and must NOT interfere with your academic performance.

As far as student loans go, the majority of students go through dental and medical school entirely on student loans. If you do it entirely on loans, expect to owe anywhere between $100,000 to $250,000 after you graduate from dental school. Other popular alternatives are health professions scholarships that pay the entire tuition, but will require you to serve in an underpriviledged area or in the military for a number of years after graduation.

Good luck.

 

[DoctorSaab]

Great!

Would you have an example of an "underpriveledged" area?

Thanks.

 

[UBTom]

A good example of serving in an underpriviledged area is the Indian Health Service run by the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government will pay your dental school tuition but you must work on a Native American reservation for like 5 years after you graduate.

HTH!

 

[DoctorSaab]

Do you get a salary? If so, like how much?

P.S. WHAT IS HTH?

 

[UBTom]

Yah, you do get a salary but it's not much... About $35K in your first year.

The main attraction is that they pay the entire tuition bill and you have no loans to give back after you graduate.

The same salary applies to the military health service scholarships too.

HTH = Hope This Helps!

 

[GTchick]

Another underpriveldged area is the state of Georgia. You can't get full scholarships but you can get loans up to a certain amount that are cancelled if you agree to work in GA. I am not sure if you have to go to school in Georgia or not but I am looking into that since I live here and love it here.

I agree with the activities that UBTom suggested but also join something that shows you have outside interest so that you have something interesting to talk about at interviews. I play lacrosse and I love talking about that at interviews because it helps to show I am well-rounded and it has been my favorite activity. Don't forget that college is a time to have fun and to find out who you are on more levels than just academically and professionally.

 

[DoctorSaab]

I wonder how much one can really BS in an interview. I've been told that I'm a great BS'er. Afterall, I'm doing BS in bio. LOL.

Do you think the guys will be fond of cricket? I'm not talking about the bug... im talking about the sport. You know, English sport... lol. Ah... nevermind.

Well I'm long away from an interview... but anyway... WHATS SO BAD ABOUT GEORGIA?

 

[GTchick]

Nothing is bad about Georgia. I said I love it. There are justmore dentist retiring here than there are new ones graduating from school. The south does not have nearly as many dental schools as the north east. Georgia has only one dental school with a class of 57 and a lot of GA is rural and not a big pull for people from outside of the state I guess.