Dental School Timeline Questions

[famousbanker]

Hey guys,

I would like to apply to Dental School in the 2011 cycle, however I have some logistical questions. Specifically, I would like to know the best structure for a few of the prerequisite courses I have left to take.

From the research I have done, all dental schools favor applicants who have taken their courses at a 4 yr. university. This puts career changers at a disadvantage for the obvious reasons that have been bemoaned a thousand times over on this forum.

My approach has been to take as many prerequisite classes from a 4 yr. university as possible. My only criteria is they have to start after 5pm because that is when I get off work. For classes that are not offered from a 4 year after 5pm, I take them at a community college. This has caused many of my prerequisite classes to come from an eclectic group of universities.

Here are the prerequisite classes I have taken thus far:
1) Physics 1 (Tulsa Community College)
2) Chem 2 (independent study from OU),
3) Cell bio (Rogers State(4 yr. univ))
4) Anatomy (Tulsa Community College)
5) Chem 1 (Arkansas State University)

Next Semester I will be taking:

6) Physiology (Rogers State)
7) Microbiology (Rogers State)
8) Physics 2 (Tulsa Community College)
9) Organic 1 (Tulsa Community College)

I graduated 2 1/2 yrs ago. My bachelors was in psychology and my minor was business. I graduated with a 3.65 cum. I am currently working as a branch manager at a bank. I have impressive extracurriculars and leadership experience, however I will spare you a regurgitaiton of my resume on this post. I have all A's in science pre-req so far, so I guess my science GPA is 4.0.

Here are my questions:

a) Should I apply without having 2nd semester organic complete? I realize you can have courses in process, but I also understand that it will make you less competitive. OU also has BioChem as a prereq and before I can take biochem, I need to complete 2 semester of organic, so I have at least two semesters left after I apply before I will have all of my prereqs complete. This will easily be done before matriculation,(since you need to apply a year in advance to be competitive) but I would like to know if not having them done by the time I apply will be a major black mark, since I already have a black mark from taking science prerequisites at community college classes.

b) I generally do pretty well on standardized tests, so if I do well on the DAT, will this help to offset the time I spent in CC classes for science prereqs or do Dental Schools immediately qualify your application differently once they see the CC credit on your transcript.

c) If I were on an evaluation panel, my applications perceived weaknesses would be: 1) mix of universities prerequisites taken(Note* All science prereqs taken within 16 hr semester) 2) Independent Study for Chemistry 2(*This was taken through OU and was graded on 4.0 scale..Tests were
administered by a proctor.) 3) all prerequisites not complete at time of application.

Should I wait and apply in 2012? This just seems silly to wait a year since I will only have 1-2 classes left of prereqs after next semester? If I am going to apply May 2011 is there anything that I can do in between now and then in order to overcome my perceived weaknesses outlined above?

Thank you very much for your feedback. If there is anyone who is directly involved in the admissions/selections process on this forum, I would specifically love to hear your advice.

P.S. I am currently shadowing at a Dentist office to get experience in the field and I am attending a pre-dental simulation course at OU next month. Any advice as it pertains to additional extracurriculars would be much appreciated!...FYI I'm taking sculpting next semester and have played piano for 9 years(heard piano and sculpting may be a good thing..yes?)

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[Dent001]

That's fine if you think your good at standardiZed test. But how you expect to do well in the orgo portion of the dat without even finishing your organic chem sequence?

 

[famousbanker]

That's fine if you think your good at standardiZed test. But how you expect to do well in the orgo portion of the dat without even finishing your organic chem sequence?

I'm glad you asked that. I have been told that you can take the DAT after 1st semester ORG, memorize formulas from Kaplans, and do fine on this portion. This is all hearsay from other posts I have read and a friend of mine who recently took the DAT. Is that unrealistic? Would you advise against doing it this way?

 

[duckdds]

I'm glad you asked that. I have been told that you can take the DAT after 1st semester ORG, memorize formulas from Kaplans, and do fine on this portion. This is all hearsay from other posts I have read and a friend of mine who recently took the DAT. Is that unrealistic? Would you advise against doing it this way?

There's a lot of reactions from Ochem II on the DAT, along with spectroscopy. Ochem I will deal with the concepts in the DAT, along with a good handful of mechanisms/reactions. However there's a lot of advanced reactions that you get from ochem II on the DAT. If you are disciplined enough to memorize them all without a teacher explaining to you why/how it works, then I say you can do it.

There are roadmaps available from Kaplan and other books. I never used them, however, they may be useful for you.

 

[famousbanker]

There's a lot of reactions from Ochem II on the DAT, along with spectroscopy. Ochem I will deal with the concepts in the DAT, along with a good handful of mechanisms/reactions. However there's a lot of advanced reactions that you get from ochem II on the DAT. If you are disciplined enough to memorize them all without a teacher explaining to you why/how it works, then I say you can do it.

There are roadmaps available from Kaplan and other books. I never used them, however, they may be useful for you.

Thank you very much, duckdds. Good information. Thank you for posting.

 

[Dent001]

I'm glad you asked that. I have been told that you can take the DAT after 1st semester ORG, memorize formulas from Kaplans, and do fine on this portion. This is all hearsay from other posts I have read and a friend of mine who recently took the DAT. Is that unrealistic? Would you advise against doing it this way?

Ochem is like learning a new language. In ochem 1 you basically learn the basics of making words and understanding vocab. Basically learn to understand the behavior of molecules. this is were a lot of concepts come from.

Ochem 2 is understanding how to apply the concepts you learned in ochem 1. you learn a lot of reactions.

i took ochem 1/2 both in summer 2008. i took the dat may 2010. not gonna lie i forgot A LOT of stuff, but i remembered the foundations of both. i basically had to relearn everything about the reactions. the roadmaps from the dat destroyer defintly helped.

In my opinion, i think it would be a bad idea to take the DAT without finishing your ochem series. your taking ochem 1 in spring and prob taking the dat and apply for dental school in summer. during what time period do you plan on learning the orgo 2 material? its not easy

its your call, just remember you can only take the dat 3 times. if you think you can handle it then try it out. but theres no shame in just waiting to apply in the next cycle. that gives you a whole other year to finish your orgo series and take some upper level bio classes to reinforce your bio knowledge too. plus you'll have ample time to really study for the dat and own it.

the dat is not an easy test, dont take it lightly. i studied like 4 months and did well on my first try. i can honestly say i never want to take it again. it REALLY sucks to have to retake the test, ask any of the ppl who have retook it.

 

[famousbanker]

Ochem is like learning a new language. In ochem 1 you basically learn the basics of making words and understanding vocab. Basically learn to understand the behavior of molecules. this is were a lot of concepts come from.

Ochem 2 is understanding how to apply the concepts you learned in ochem 1. you learn a lot of reactions.

i took ochem 1/2 both in summer 2008. i took the dat may 2010. not gonna lie i forgot A LOT of stuff, but i remembered the foundations of both. i basically had to relearn everything about the reactions. the roadmaps from the dat destroyer defintly helped.

In my opinion, i think it would be a bad idea to take the DAT without finishing your ochem series. your taking ochem 1 in spring and prob taking the dat and apply for dental school in summer. during what time period do you plan on learning the orgo 2 material? its not easy

its your call, just remember you can only take the dat 3 times. if you think you can handle it then try it out. but theres no shame in just waiting to apply in the next cycle. that gives you a whole other year to finish your orgo series and take some upper level bio classes to reinforce your bio knowledge too. plus you'll have ample time to really study for the dat and own it.

the dat is not an easy test, dont take it lightly. i studied like 4 months and did well on my first try. i can honestly say i never want to take it again. it REALLY sucks to have to retake the test, ask any of the ppl who have retook it.

Very good information. Thank you very much for your feedback. Ok here is a follow up question. What if I took Ochem 2 in the summer and took the DAT at the same time? I would then send the application out June or July. What do you think?